After a universe-spanning journey, Doctor Tomorrow must face his greatest foe yet: himself in Doctor Tomorrow #5! Will the combined forces of the Valiant Universe be enough to avert total annihilation After the epic conclusion, will there be a tomorrow?

I still don’t really know what day it is anymore, and as such, I have been falling way behind in my comics reading. Other than the Valiant books, which I will typically review here, I’m lucky if I remember to read the books I pick up. Y’see because I work Wednesdays at my LCS, I’m getting my books regularly… I’m just not reading them. Perhaps because of this, I was taken entirely by surprise when I found the advance review copy of Doctor Tomorrow #5 in my inbox.

The concluding chapter to the series has the Bart Simms we saw in the first issue return from the future after twenty years (and a lot of training) to confront the man who “killed” him when he was a kid; an alternate future version of himself called Doctor Tomorrow – believe it or not this actually makes a lot of sense if you’ve read the first four books, and it’s easy enough to tell the different because of the difference in costuming and the burnt face of Doctor Tomorrow.

But with the comic serving as the finale, and after we saw a classic montage in the form of Doctor Tomorrow #4, the final confrontation between Bart Simms and Doctor Tomorrow is as much a story about confronting your own demons as it is saving the world. As such, there are a lot of scenes within the book that feel oddly truncated; Alejandro Arbona has a lot interesting scenes within the book that need to be there, but the transitions felt a little forced. It’s not that Doctor Tomorrow #5 needed to be issues five and six, but maybe had Arbona been given another six pages or so the book would have a better flow to it. As it is, you get the meat of the story, but it feels like you’re missing some of the peas and carrots – you know those parts of a roast that you don’t look forward to but miss nonetheless if they’re not there?

That’s how the final chapter left me feeling. I wouldn’t cut anything from the book (other than the ads to give Arbona more space), but there’s just something missing from the initial read through to take you from one moment to the next. A shame, because a lot of what you get is really good; Bart vs Doctor Tomorrow is less a classic hero/villain smack down than you would expect, and more of a cerebral confrontation on Bart’s side. It serves to highlight the difference between the two men, and works well as a backdrop to the following scenes with Bart questioning who he is and who he will be now that he’s aged twenty years in thirty seconds.

Artist Jim Towe is joined again by colourist Diego Rodriguez, and the pair remain consistent for the finale. There’s a distinct style to the book that evokes a certain nostalgic feel for those of us of an age to have been glued to the television on Saturday mornings as kids, and it lends the book a youthful exuberance that carries the stories energy from the first to the final page. There were moments where it was harder to tell what was occurring on the page, but that had more to do with the review copy water mark than anything the artists had consciously done.

Doctor Tomorrow #5 brings this story to a close whilst also establishing a baseline for future stories with these characters – something that most miniseries from Valiant have been doing over the last year or two. On it’s own merits, though, the series was an interesting take on the traditional superhero/sidekick dynamic, and will be one that Valiant should mark firmly in the Win column. It may not have been as action packed as Bloodshot or as deep as Rai, but Doctor Tomorrow is just plain fun, and you really can’t go wrong with a good comic that’s entertaining.

Story: Alejandro Arbona Art: Jim Towe
Colors: Diego Rodriguez Letters: Clayton Cowles
Story: 8.3 Art: 8.2 Overall: 8.3 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: comiXology – Kindle – Zeus Comics

The true origin of Doctor Tomorrow is finally revealed in Doctor Tomorrow #4! Can Bart Simms ready himself in time to rescue the Universe from complete annihilation?

Despite comics coming back to shops with more regularity, Valiant hasn’t resumed their full pre-lockdown schedule just yet. I’m not honestly sure how many comics the company is publishing every month now. I’ve read far fewer Valiant books since publishing has resumed than I was expecting.

Doctor Tomorrow is Valiant’s first all-ages book set within the publisher’s continuity. After last issue’s apparent death of the young Bart Simms at the hands of the older Bart Simms (who had recently killed the slightly older Bart Simms… it sounds confusing when I write it like that, but it’s actually not), we discover pretty quickly what happened to the young hero in what amounts to a comic’s worth of a training montage.

Young Bart Simms travelled to slightly older Bart Simms time and ends up spending what appears to be several years training and learning how to defeat… himself.

Believe it or not, it’s a comic that works. And it works very well. We get some more exposition on the villain Hadrian. A touching relationship develops between two characters. It has echoes of Marty and the Doc from Back To The Future. It also adds enough to the mix so that the relationship doesn’t feel stale and too familiar. Doctor Tomorrow #3 was crammed with as many characters as writer Alejandro Arbona and artist Jim Towe could squeeze in. Doctor Tomorrow #4 is a much more personal affair. The issue gives readers a breather but also acts to set up the final act . It does so in such a way that new readers can jump into the miniseries on part four of five. I’d highly recommend the entire thing so far.

The more personal nature of this book, the relationships built upon, and the montage sequence itself does elevate it significantly over the previous issue. Arbona’s script allows Towe and colorist Diego Rodriguez to explore the world within the art; there may not be the sprawling space vistas from X-O Manowar, but the down to earth nature of the story lends itself very well to an art style that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Saturday morning cartoon (and no, that is far from a bad thing).

Jim Towe’s art seems to fall more toward what you’d consider an “all-ages style”, and he’s been pretty consistent throughout the series quality-wise. I’ve said before that the art reminds me of a Saturday morning cartoon in all the right ways, and I stand by that. This is a comic that has the ability to evoke a strong nostalgic feeling in people of a certain age despite this being a new character. After the dip of the third issue, Doctor Tomorrow comes roaring back for the finale that will likely add a new twist to a battle we’ve already seen several times in the series so far, and I fully expect to be launched into that fight almost immediately as Doctor Tomorrow #5 opens up.

Join me, won’t you?

Story: Alejandro Arbona Art: Jim Towe
Colors: Diego Rodriguez Letters: Clayton Cowles
Story: 8.4 Art: 8.1 Overall: 8.25 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: comiXology – Kindle – Zeus Comics