By Rob McCow

What’s the story called?

The Iron Legion

The Collector

The Iron Legion has appeared in numerous formats over the years. From its explosive debut in Doctor Who Weekly 1-8 (1979), it turned up again in a 1980 Summer Special, it appeared in "COLOR" for the US Doctor Who Marvel Premiere 57-58 (1980), and a "full-colour" version appeared in the Doctor Who Summer Special Classic 1985. For twenty years after that, however, there was an Iron Legion drought until Panini Books reissued it in The Iron Legion Graphic Novel 2004 by Panini Books.

Writer – Mills / Wagner

Art – Dave Gibbons

Editor – Dez Skinn

The Doctor is alone when we first meet his comic book incarnation. The first potential companion, The ‘THEY’RE COMING!!!’ Shopkeeper Mr. J Grubb falls at the first hurdle by dying three pages in. Although the comic strip would have its share of unusual companions, Mr J Grubb was sadly not to be one of them. It might not be so great a loss; apart from having a good stock of jelly babies, he wouldn’t have had much to offer as a companion.

In the alternative Rome, the Doctor makes friends with Morris the Gladiator, who has a cybernetic face and ‘souped-up’ bionic arm circuits. Morris is a strong but noble gladiator who keeps escaping from the slave galley and getting recaptured, hence his injuries. He has one of the classic speech impediments for a comic character of limited intelligence, missing out all the pronouns and conjunctives. This is commonly known as ‘The Grimlock’.

"Pooh! Gods not frighten Morris. They just statues!"

"Morris get UGLY wiv der overseer!"

"Rust in peace! Hurr hurr, Morris make the Joke!"

The Doctor also comes across an ancient librarian robot named Vesuvius, who has an oil-powered torch light on top of his head. A sort of cross between C-3P0 and Tic-Toc from Return To Oz, Vesuvius is blessed with a stutter and the inability to turn his own valve, which he’s worried will result in a ‘Gusher’. The Doctor kindly turns his valve for him and re-ignites the flame. And it doesn’t come across at all rude in the comic.

An English village is razed to the ground by robot Roman soldiers from another dimension, who wield laser guns and tanks. Already, this is a very cool comic strip! The Doctor arrives to stock up on jelly babies and follows the Roman soldiers back to their dimension, where The Roman Empire Never Fell. The Empire stretches across the galaxy, ruled by spoilt kid Emperor Adolphus and managed by the Eagle-helmeted General Ironicus. The Doctor finds himself thrown into the Gladiatorial games before escaping from slavery on the Air Galleon with bionic ex-Gladiator, Wolfman. Sorry, Morris. In their flight they come across the librarian Vesuvius, who leads them to the lair of the demonic Malevilus, the true gods of the Roman Empire, led by Magog. They escape but on the way, Morris is mortally wounded.

Using the genetically engineered Bestiarius soldiers to assault the Temple Of The Gods, the Doctor heads for a showdown with Magog who is masquerading as the Emperor’s Mother, Juno. He reveals the true face via camera to the people of Rome, who start a revolution against their gods, but Magog overcomes the Doctor and drags him back to show her the secrets of the TARDIS. The Doctor tricks Magog and traps her in a spare dimension. He says goodbye to his friends and Vesuvius is appointed to look after the child Emperor.

This was originally intended to be a TV story, submitted by Pat Mills and John Wagner, who penned the script. You can just imagine the 1970’s production team reading about the opening set in an English village and thinking ‘we could do this!’ before getting to the part about legions of robot Roman warriors from another dimension. ‘Could we do it with stock footage from I, Claudius, Philip?’

The Doctor is straight out of Horns of Nimon with his witty asides and jelly baby obsession, although here it’s kept under control in the serious scenes. There’s a moment in the Gladiatorial ring where he defeats a monster by telling it a joke, which is spot on Doctor Who. The lack of TV companions makes the whole run of the Tom Baker comic strip completely impossible to place, although it would feel most at home between seasons 16 and 17, perhaps if K-9 and Romana were lost in the depths of the TARDIS for a few months.

Tom seems so much happier on his own, even in comic book form. He can make friends at the drop of a scarf and say goodbye to them just as quickly. At the end of the adventure, Tom says he’s off to Benidorm for sun, sea and a bit of óle, but as he stands in the TARDIS door giving advice on how to run the galaxy, you can tell he’s itching to get to the next adventure.

Gibbons is an outstanding comic book artist, who went on to what some people call greater things. His talent is clearly on display in these comic strips. From the awesome Ectoslime to the Doctor’s face turning into a skull, there’s a visually arresting image on almost every page. It helps that the story is so wild, with lots of aliens, robots and demons. The smaller moments are impressive too, for example when Mr. Grubb is shot, the bullet wounds are covered up with exploding baked bean cans. It’s a gruesome moment, but this kind of detail keeps it from getting too grim and keeps the focus on the adventure aspects of the story.

Frequently with these fourth Doctor stories, at least one part will end with a close up on the Doctor’s face while he says something portentous in capitals. This time he bellows in wide-eyed horror that ‘I’VE DISCOVERED THE HORRIFYING SECRET OF THE GALACTIC ROMAN EMPIRE!’

As Vesuvius might say, it’s going to be a gusher! Although it’s not the best of the Tom Baker era comic strips, it’s a very strong opening story. The vastness of the Roman setting gives it a truly epic feel, which is countered by the humour and strangeness of the ideas. The plot moves along breathlessly, but it does feel that some elements of the story are got rid of too quickly. The genetically modified Bestiarius assault the Temple of The Gods, but their attack is entirely in the background. And the death of General Ironicus occurs in a slightly cluttered panel, making it easy for a hasty reader to overlook. Not that I’d do such a thing, of course!

Then again, the Iron Legion is so densely packed that it becomes well worth re-reading. I only recently noticed that the air galley slave ship bears a small ‘FERARRI’ logo and there are dozens of bizarre aliens in the Circus Maximus scenes.

This story could have felt like a cliché. The idea of an alternative future where Rome never fell is something they did in Star Trek for certain. But personally I don’t think it’s been too over-used in general culture. I can think of some books where it turns up, but films and television since the sixties have tended to ignore the idea. In any case, the Roman elements are kept as a backdrop so that the wealth of periphery ideas such as Magog and The Ectoslime are highlighted.

Nostalgia plays a part in the enjoyment of these strips, but they tower over the comic book shenanigans of the previous comics, as well as a lot of what was to come in the future. The Iron Legion is undoubtedly a hotch-potch of a story, skipping from one escapade to another, but it can get away with it because of the wealth of ideas and iconic imagery. In that respect, it showcases what comic strips should be all about.

Magog returns in the 7^th Doctor adventure, Mark Of Mandragora.

The Doctor is wearing his brown jacket, according to the colour version of this story. Its pretty clear which jacket its supposed to be even in black and white.

The Ectoslime adorns the cover of the 1985 Special Classic, in a new piece of art by Dave Gibbons. This was part of a series of Marvel Summer Specials, including reprints of Transformers, Star Wars, A-Team, He-Man and Spiderman comic strips.

I owned that Transformers reprint. It makes me nostalgic and fuzzy inside seeing it again. Though reading it again would probably make me cross and bored!

Throughout the early Tom Baker strips, the Doctor is trying to get to Benidorm for a holiday.