Cybermen in the Comics Part 3

Mixed blessings for the Cybermen in the 1980s and 1990s, including many cameo appearances. Can their fortunes be revived in the 2000s?

THE GLORIOUS DEAD

The TARDIS takes the Doctor, Izzy and Kroton to Paradost, a museum world. However, Cardinal Morningstar and his followers are planning to revive the fortunes of the Church of the Glorious Dead, and launch an attack on Paradost. When the Doctor vanishes, Izzy and Kroton are left to fend for themselves. However, Morningstar is revealed to be a slave of the Master, seeking to control the heart of the omniversal spectrum. Its keeper is dying and has chosen the Doctor and the Master as potential replacements. But first they must fight...

ARTIST: Martin Geraghty, Roger Langridge, Robin Smith (inks)
WRITER: Scott Gray
ISSUE: 287-296.
COVER DATES: 9th Feb 2000, 3rd Mar 2000, 5th Apr 2000, 3rd May 2000, 31st May 2000, 28th Jun 2000, 26th Jul 2000, 23rd Aug 2000, 20th Sept 2000, 18th Oct 2000.
REPRINTS: Reprinted in black and white as part of Doctor Who The Glorious Dead, published by Panini in October 2006 as a ‘graphic novel’. The cover for this publication is shown below.

Kroton eventually finds peace as he becomes the new keeper of the heart of the omniversal spectrum. This strip ties up many plot strands that have threaded through the Eighth Doctor’s stories and, in Kroton’s story, stretch all the way back to Throwback: The Soul of a Cyberman.

THE FLOOD

The Doctor and Destrii land in Camden Market in the early 21st Century. However, people are suffering violent and uncharacteristic attacks of emotion. The Doctor is soon captured by the Cybermen - the most advanced he has ever encountered - and taken aboard their mothership, where he learns that they have been using Camden Market as a testing ground for a biological agent that affects the emotional centres of the brain. They plan to drive the human race mad until they accept the offer of Cyber-conversion.

The Doctor makes a deal with the Cybermen to save the people of Earth, but it will involve his death and regeneration by exposure to the time vortex...

ARTIST: Martin Geraghty. David A. Roach (inks).
WRITER: Scott Gray.
ISSUE: 346-353.
COVER DATES: 18th Aug 2004, 15th Sep 2004, 13th Oct 2004, 10th Nov 2004, 8th Dec 2004, 5th Jan 2005, 2nd Feb 2005, 2nd March 2005.

REPRINTS: Reprinted in colour as part of Doctor Who The Flood, published by Panini in May 2007 as a ‘graphic novel’. The cover for this publication is shown below.

This was the final Eighth Doctor comic strip and showed a highly advanced species of Cybermen who had travelled from the future.

No Future in England’s Dreaming


	Another cameo for a Cyberman, this time as an exhibit in a science fiction-themed cafe. *ARTIST:* Shane Oakley. WRITER: Alan Moore (plot), Leah Moore (script), John Reppion (script). ISSUE: 1 PUBLICATION DATE: Oct 2006 (trade paperback) Before you rush out to buy this, please be aware that this is the only frame the Cyberman appears in and he plays no part in the story whatsoever.

DRONES OF DOOM


	The Doctor attempts to wipe out a Cyber-conversion factory. *ARTIST:* Lee Sullivan, Alan Craddock (inks) WRITER: Steve Cole ISSUE: 9-11 The new-style Cybermen make their comic strip debut in Doctor Who Battles in Time, the cover for which can be seen below...

AS THE WORMHOLE TURNS






	The Cybermen put in a brief cameo (three frames, to be precise) as the Futurama crew get up to their usual antics. *ARTIST:* Mike Kazaleh (pencils), Andrew Pepoy (inks), Nathan Hamill (colours), Karen Bates (letters) WRITER: Ian Boothby ISSUE: 31 (UK issue 48)

	With so many adventures behind them, and a whole new audience now firmly hooked on the menace of the Cybermen, we are sure it can only be a matter of time before the comic strips see the return, once again, of the cybernetic monsters. And when they do, we’ll be sure to update this article... With thanks to Roger Smith and all at The Doctor’s TalbotSamba for images and information.