Written by: George Mann & Cavan Scott

Artist: Alessandro Vitti & Ivan Rodriguez with Tazio Bettin
Colours: Nicola Righi with Enrica Erin Angiolini
Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
Publisher: Titan
Releases: 6 July

On Karn, a member of the Sisterhood unearths something impossible. On prehistoric Earth, a shopping trip for Alice and the Eleventh Doctor goes a bit wrong. In the 24th Century, a shopping trip for the Tenth Doctor, Gabby and Cindy goes very wrong. And on 2006 Earth, Jackie Tyler is rescued from a Cyberman controlled London by the Ninth Doctor.

Four Doctors. Four time periods. One threat.

But how did the Cybermen do so much so fast? And can anything be done to stop them?

As first issues go this is about as good as it gets. Mann and Scott have a rock solid handle on all four Doctors’s personalities and they manage to work some good light and shade into them. Twelve and Nine come out best, with Nine’s section combining apocalyptic action and gentle, slightly gallows-esque humour to great effect. Twelve, appropriately, is the one you remember though and the one the issue is framed by. The others are reacting, Twelve has a plan and is maybe a full step ahead. Although as the final scene shows, that isn’t nearly enough…

The art is great throughout, and Vitti, Rodriguez and Bettin all manage the near impossible task of good likenesses that don’t feel stiff or like caricatures. The bright, friendly colour work by Righi and Angiolini works very well too, especially in the very different bookend scenes. Finally, Starkings and Betancourt do typically excellent work on lettering.

If there’s a problem here it’s with the format. Crossovers always struggle to give every character stuff to do and that’s the case here. Ten and Eleven do very little other than react to situations. Likewise they and Nine all exist in this issue largely to set up the scale of the story. That won’t always be the case but, for now, the format doesn’t do them as many favors as it should. That will no doubt change when the Doctors meet up and this issue does a great job of setting up a massive story with massive stakes. Confident, pacy, fun and just getting started. If it’s this good now, then buckle up. You and all four Doctors are in for quite a ride.