Doctor Who: Supremacy of the Cybermen

by George Mann, Cavan Scott, Ivan Rodriguez (Illustrations)

Exiled from Gallifrey at the very end of Time, Rassilon, fallen leader of the Time Lords, has been captured by the last of the Cybermen. Now the Cybermen have access to time travel. With it, every defeat is now a victory. Every foe is now dead -- or Cyberised.
The Legions march across time and space, leaving devastation and converted civilisations in their wake, their numbers growing with every world that falls. Evolving. Upgrading. Reconfiguring. All seems lost. Forever.
Can the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors - each battling the Cybermen alone, on a different temporal front - undo the damage that has been wrought on the universe, before they are converted themselves? Or is this how the universe dies? Not in fire, but in cold, unfeeling metal...

Genres: Doctor Who, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Media Tie In, Time Travel

128 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2017

About the author

George Mann is an author and editor, primarily in genre fiction. He was born in Darlington, County Durham in 1978.
A former editor of Outland, Mann is the author of The Human Abstract, and more recently The Affinity Bridge and The Osiris Ritual in his Newbury and Hobbes detective series, set in an alternate Britain, and Ghosts of Manhattan, set in the same universe some decades later.
He wrote the Time Hunter novella "The Severed Man", and co-wrote the series finale, Child of Time.
He has also written numerous short stories, plus Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes audiobooks for Big Finish Productions. He has edited a number of anthologies including The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, The Solaris Book of New Fantasy and a retrospective collection of Sexton Blake stories, Sexton Blake, Detective, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this comic by sheer chance and since it contained 4 Doctor I was somewhat curious especially if these tales are not scripted well enough it becomes somewhat of a mess.
The good news is that is remains fairly comprehensible and does contain more than just the 4 advertised Doctors.

The basic story is that after the Doctor banished the Timelord Rassilon from Gallifrey and he harbours some bad feelings and finds a way to ensure his return as President of the Timelords. He does give a certain species namely the Cybermen the means to alter time and thus create their image throughout time and the whole of the Universe. And of course it is up to the Doctors to save time and the universe.
Will they be able to is the question and the tale told by this collection.

A must read for Whovians (Doctor Who fans called themselves that). An enjoyable read.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't been overly pleased with most of the offerings from Titan in their line of Doctor Who comics. It's not that they are bad, but they are not really good either. I suppose I just feel: Meh. That being said this one was a lot of fun. I'm always a sucker for multiple Doctor adventures and this one features the four Doctors since the series was rebooted. My problem is the dialogue still seems rather forced and unnatural and the art wasn't really great. Most of the characters didn't really look like themselves, and while I'm more than willing to accept artistic liscense and individual interpretation, I can not accept it when I have trouble identifying Captain Jack from the Ninth Doctor. Maybe I'm just being picky.
Anyway, this was fun and very frenetically paced - so it's a very quick read when you've got the whole thing in one binding (which I didn't). Definitely something for Whovians.

[Michael Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

As big fan-pleasing crossovers go, Supremacy of the Cybermen is certainly big, fan-pleasing and boy does it cross over: Big Finish audio dramas, Radio Times comic strips, even an unmade straight-to-video movie from 1993. In a single frame it manages to reference four different stories from four different incarnations of the show (I'll keep how a secret for the fanboys). Writers George Mann and Cavan Scott certainly sell the idea the Cybermen are invading all of time and space.



In order to contain all those references, the story itself has to be pretty wide and loose. There are so many different characters to juggle that even across five issues there's only enough time to set up the threat to each and then diffuse it. Rassilon's plot to "regenerate the universe" is the sort of vague cosmic threat Russell T Davies used to let down each TV season with, and seems to be introduced purely as an instrument for its own defeat.



Still. It's big and it's silly, and it made me smile. Titan, like many other comic publishers, is wearing down the impact of its crossover events by giving us one every summer, but on its own merits Supremacy of the Cybermen is harmless if inconsequential fun.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. Love seeing all the doctors together, but it felt more like forcing cameos that focusing on plot.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's the premise: Rassilon unites with the cybermen to take over the universe across all time. It's a good foundation for a cross-Doctor adventure, because they can all face the same foe without actually physically crossing over.

However, there's also not a lot of depth to the adventure. It's five issues of fighting cybermen, and those fights are all pretty limited and tightly constrained, due to the need to jump constantly from plot line to plot line. Oh, there's some great continuity and great touchbacks, exactly the sort of thing you want in an anniversary story of this sort. There's Sontarians and Silurarians, not just cybermen. And, some terrific companions. So, this is still fun, just not something with any deep insights.

The best part of the comic may actually be the one-page looks at the eras one One through War.

[Ashley Beery · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like the artwork for this arc was not that great. 9 and Jack were hard to distinguish from. Rose and Jackie were too. 10 looked horrid. The storyline seemed rushed. Granted I understand the Cyberman are all about control and taking over the worlds..but still, it just seemed to POOF happen. Then at the end just throwing in the other doctors, I would have liked a bit more back story and a bit more detail to the artwork.

Updated review:
I had forgotten I had even read this book...amazon never showed me I had bought it. The worst part is, if I forgot I read it, that reminds me horrible it really was.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book. It explores a really interesting idea of the cyberman combing with timelord technology far better than the most recent season of Doctor Who did. impressively it also uses a number of often forgotten cybermen concepts like the cyber king and the cybermats which are really interesting to see. Also, the dialogue is incredible, each doctor's signature style of talking is perfectly replicated, and more than that each of the ways they would individually deal with the same impending cybertronian threat. For instance, matt smith tries to mentally combat the cybermen by restoring emotion to them, a nice reference to a nightmare in silver. I really like how Eccleston resorts to a bomb quite quickly as it demonstrates how fresh that rage is and how much it consumes him. I like how Tennent as a man with no second chances takes over a cyber king in pure rage that really works. I like how Capaldi has learnt from all of their experiences and from them finds a way to destroy them because of that. thats a really great way of portraying the weakness of cybermen that they cannot evolve and in attempting to make all of time uniform they merely provide the doctor with numerous attempts to stop them. All of this demonstrates a clear love for doctor who and builds off pre-established lore in such interesting ways. That being said this does have some problems in particular the art despite being really good for the most part fails to accurately portray the doctors, in particular, Capaldi And Smith, by making their facial designs too big but I understand that this is very difficult to do regardless. I also think rassolon is a bit underused and I understand that might be because he is so one note in Hell Bent but that works because he is meant to contrast with the complexity of the doctor to portray how foolish he is that he ever believed he had any measure of control over gallifrey and in this he is meant to have broken all the rules of the time lords be driven so far into despair that he would believe he could control the cyberman and I think we needed to see more of that. And that leads to my main problem with this book is that it doesn't really explore any of the interesting concepts attached to the cyber men for instance the benefits and drawbacks of removing emotionality and now seeing that executed on such a grand scale this would have been the perfect way to explore that but it doesn't do that or not in a way that was visible to me. Don't get me wrong this is still an amazing book that is incredibly well written and drawn and still explores each doctors reaction to this horrible situation which reveals a lot of interesting things about their individual characters i just wish it pushed its ideas with the Cybermen further.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Across time and space, the Cybermen are rising. With a new ally at their side, they set out to destroy the universe and remake it in their image - and only the latest four incarnations of the Doctor can stop it!

Let's get the good out of the way, since there's not as much. The overall plot is clever, with a neat little ending. There are lots and lots of continuity nods to Classic and NuWho alike, and not just Cybermen related stuff either. The dialogue's pretty clever, and the way the writers highlight the difference between Doctors Nine through Twelve is well done.

And now for the bad. The only story of any consequence is the Twelfth. The other three Doctors are fighting losing battles from the get-go, and their stories don't really do anything to inform what the Twelfth does to help rectify the situation. Because each Doctor gets five or so pages per issue, it feels like everything is happening at a glacial pace, with barely any movement in each story before the final issue rushes it all through to the conclusion, which wraps up in like 3 pages and doesn't have much room to breathe. Pacing problems abound. The artwork's kind of all over the shop since there's a different artist per Doctor, so there are sometimes three or four per issue, and none of them are particularly noteworthy.

I prefer this to the previous Four Doctors event, but only by a small margin. The Doctors never actually meet, so they can't bicker with one another, but that shouldn't be the positive that it is.

[Alec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun journey, the Cybermen here are used simply for what they were designed for originally: the fear of being emotionless, of simply existing without the best aspects of ourselves. It is fun to come back to this, but I frankly also quite like when the Cybermen are used to make a different statement, like in Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel twoparter from the show. Still, they are imposing in this story, and seeing one of the Doctor's oldest foes start the story having almost finished their ultimate victory is interesting. Also very interesting and cool to see the Doctor's grand schemes fail three times over, only to win with Rassilon's help. I think it does miss that kind of X-factor that makes a story truly fantastic, and I don't like that we only get to see the effects of the Cybermen's attacks on time via the lens of 9,10,11, and 12. Especially seeing the great images of them converting K9 and threatening 4, 2 as a cyber-planner, having destroyed the Daleks on Skaro. The final addition comic of one page per old doctor is a very fun way to end, but with vision like that it's a bit disappointing to see them only be relegated to one off character moments. Very enjoyable and great Cybermen fun anyways though, absolutely worth reading if you like Doctor Who comics.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

DOCTOR WHO Event 2016.
Doctor Who: Supremacy of the Cybermen

#1
Four Doctors trying to figure out how every stage of history is suddenly under the 'conversion" of the Cybermen

"Take me to your leader." - 12th Doctor
.
#2
"The fabric of reality is collapsing..."
"... Doctor, you are the champion of time. You've seen conflict like no other. You will lead us to victory." - Sontarans
.
#3
“She’s over NINE HUNDRED years old. She survived the TIME WAR. She’s faced sown Armadas, traversed other universes .. and Rose, you should have SEEN her on the Kessel run.
She was FANTASTIC.”

"We were too LATE. Rassilon has done something to the Eye of Harmony. All our TARDISES are dead, completely drained of power."
.
#4
"Cybernization as airborne virus. Invisible. Deadly. It's FANTASTIC."
.
"I became a warrior to fight in your war, Rassilon. I need you to become a DOCTOR to fight in mine. Help me heal the universe."

“Yes, yes, very impressive. I see you’ve redecorated. I don’t like it.”
.
#5


..
..

[James Lawner · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re expecting this to be a crossover with the 9th, 10th, 11th & 12th Doctors, then you’ll be sorely disappointed (although, I blame the cover for giving that impression). That being said, this was a pretty good comic book event, but my goodness was the artwork awful! The 9th and 11th Doctor sections looked off-model, the 10th Doctor section was fine, but not always great, and the 12th Doctor section was the worst of them all! Usually these Doctor Who comics would trace over stills from the show to illustrate the characters, but this was just very amateurish (I’ve seen webcomics with better artwork). One thing that was interesting about this event was that there wasn’t a lot of continuity baggage with the other Doctor Who comics, but the 10th and 11th Doctor’s companions from their respective comic titles are featured here, and if you aren’t familiar with them, you might get a little confused, but it’s not a big deal anyway (I’ve only read the first volume of the 10th Doctor series, so I have some familiarity with the character, Gabby Gonzales, but not with Cindy Wu). What really surprised me was this took place AFTER Series 9 of the Doctor Who TV show, but I’m not sure if it’s gonna bother some people because they kinda some explain things along the way, and with how this ended, it’s not gonna have big ramifications on the show. If there’s one thing to criticise, it’s that the supporting characters are there for the story, and if you aren’t familiar with the new companions, then they’ll probably not matter much to you. This event was quite action-packed, so don’t expect downtime or slower moments, which made this for a rather quick read.

Overall, better than other Doctor Who comics I’ve read (although, I feel like I keep saying this with almost every Doctor Who comic I’ve read), but the artwork and the false promise of a multi-Doctor crossover let me down (I kept waiting for them to team-up, but it never happened!). One weird thing about the collected edition is that the event teasers were put at the end of the book instead of the beginning, which kinda killed the vibe when the story ended and there were these one-page teasers featuring different Doctors dealing with the Cybermen.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

So it's a crossover event, but none of the storylines actually cross over - instead they're all dealing with different ramifications of the same event (the cybermen allying with Rassilan) in different times and places, and each with their own methods. It's a novel concept (Dark Horse did something similar with Star Wars Vector, but that had some characters in common), that works okay but never quite pulled it together for me. It features all four of the Doctor Who 2.0 era, and actually manages to reference just about every regeneration in passing. The storylines don't get particularly deep, though, as it is casting the story net so wide. It has some good moments, and I like how the normal 'Doctor prevails' moments get a bit subverted, only to build into a larger climax. The artwork is pretty strong throughout, if perhaps a bit too busy in some cases. Overall, a nice if not particularly stand-out addition to the Doctor Who comic canon.

[Jamieson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Titan Comics' second big multi-doctor crossover and features the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors. That said, it's primarily a Twelfth Doctor story and a sequel to the Series 9 finale Heaven Sent. When the Doctor exiled Rassilon in Heaven Sent, the ex-Time Lord President ended up encountering the Cybermen who used him to gain access to Gallifrey in order to create a new universe where the Cybermen reign supreme. The Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors are caught up in the echoes of the main Twelfth Doctor plot. It's a good comic with mostly decent art that does the Cyberman invasion of Gallifrey and Cyber-lords plot from Series 12's Timeless Children three years eariler and without all the extra lore-shattering baggage. A good comic that worth the read.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

They really did Rassilon dirty. First the new series, then this comic rolling with that idea. The wisest and noblest of the Time Lord lot, once in the past, the only one to figure out some great fundamental truths and enlighten himself a little bit more, resurrected and turned into a villain and then some sad old bloke, and then - here - both. Imagine if they brought Buddha to life and he immediately began to conquer Earth and try to make himself immortal or something. Just terrible.

Not much of a story even that considered. Another great cosmic hiccup, where everything almost goes to hell but then in the end nothing of consequence sticks. The worst sort.

[MrColdStream · Rating 4 out of 5]

Supremacy of the Cybermen is a fun, fast-paced, and ambitious crossover that celebrates the Cybermen’s legacy while incorporating elements of Doctor Who's ongoing TV continuity. The multi-Doctor structure is refreshing, the scale of the Cyber threat is well executed, and the action is engaging. However, the story stumbles in its final act, relying on overpowered resolutions and an unsatisfying reset button that undercuts the stakes. A worthy anniversary special, but one that could have stuck the landing much better.

Full review at https://tardis.guide/reviews/story-su...

[Kribu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun enough in a fairly undemanding way, this was a quick read, although Eleven's storyline in particular was promising but eventually underwhelming. I must say I didn't really love the art; the Cybermen were about the only characters properly drawn and recognisable.

(Well, I suppose Eleven looked .. Eleven-ish, enough. I needed dialogue to recognise Ten though, couldn't really tell Rose and Jackie or Jack and Nine apart, and my poor Twelve looked ... not really very attractive. To put it kindly.)

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing era-arching story, nice general art, SHOCKINGLY poor visual depictions of both Doctors and companions. They look nothing like the actors who play them, which makes it difficult to hear them talk in their voices. Such a bizarre occurrence, especially when other Titan Who comics have great likenesses of established characters. The rendition of the Fourth Doctor is horrifying!

A good read brought down by the awful visual representations of the Doctors and companions. Not being able to get over how badly these characters are drawn here brings this down a star.

[Seth Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great multi-Doctor event, pitting him against one of his oldest enemies: the Cybermen. Watch the ninth Doctor face an Earth where the cybermen have turned the conversion process into an airborne disease, while the Tenth Doctor leads a Sontaran force against the unstoppable Cyber-legions. Eleventh Doctor finds pre-historic Silurians have been converted, all while the Twelfth Doctor gets to the root of the problem on Gallifrey.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siguiendo los eventos que cierran la serie 9 de Doctor Who, la miniserie servida por Titan para celebrar los 50 años de los cybermen conecta a cuatro encarnaciones del personaje en una aventura que respeta los trazos de la serie televisiva. Cameos y guiños aparte, los guionistas George Mann y Cavan Scott elaboran una historia sin sorpresas, con un remate acorde a la franquicia y que -por lo mismo-apunta más a whovians por sobre el lector casual

[Steven Shinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was actually a really good way to celebrate 50 years of the Cybermen. I was expecting another multi-Doctor crossover, even though this was soon after Four Doctors. But I was pleasantly surprised that this went the Star Wars: Vector approach, having an event crossing through different eras and affecting the Doctors without having them meet up with each other. I thought it was executed pretty well, and I dug a lot of the artwork.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining Doctor Who story, although not a multi-Doctor story in the traditional sense. Lots of neat variations on Cybermen throughout, with probably the most ambitious Cyber-plan yet seen in Who lore. Plus we get to see what happened to Rassilon after "Hell Bent". The only weakness is that the characterizations are a bit light. The ending may be a bit of a cop-out, but it couldn't really end any another way after all that. (B+)

[Colin Oaten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent crossover event featuring, at times, every Doctor up to Capaldis 12th but primarily 9,10,11 and 12 in a crosstime adventure featuring the Timelords and the invasion of time by the Cybermen. Written by George Mann , who always has an excellent grasp of genre material, as seen by his work on Doctor Who and Judge Dredd.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, this was not good. The art was so appalling that I had no idea that the 10th Doctor was on the page until someone addressed him. The other characters didn’t fare so well, either. Perhaps the story was okay but…I’m really not sure. The art distracted me too much.

Side note - I liked seeing the other Doctors at the end. Those flashes were kind of cool.

[Craig Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh man, is this good. Five issues of tasty treat.

Cybermen, Sontarons, Silurians, CyberSilurians, Four Doctors, Rose, Captain Jack, Gallifrey, Rassilon etc etc the list just goes on and on. So much packed into a few pages, constant action and dinosaurs. Did I mention the dinosaurs?

[Talia Franks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was I think the most interesting multi-Doctor story I ever read. Also the fact that this was written in 2017 makes the series 12 finale of Doctor Who that premiered in 2020 and was filmed in 2019 feel like someone recycled ideas. 👀 [eyes emoji]

[Gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good multi-Doctor story featuring the Cybermen. We had some new companions who didn't really get much time to leave an impression, which is understandable when there was so much going on. After reading this, I really wish we had a Nine/Jackie story (looking at you, Big Finish).

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doctor's fight with the cybermen reaches to his past personas.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting story, but i was a little bummed as I read some spoilers (not quite up to date with the tv series yet)

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightfully bonkers.