Look, it's the Marvel 1985 Summer Special Classic, one of Duncan's oldest Doctor Who books from 30 years ago!
There are two stories inside it, of which the main feature is The Iron Legion (or, to give it its full title, Stan Lee presents: Doctor Who and the Iron Legion). Colin Baker was the Doctor on TV at this time, but here the Doctor looks like Tom Baker. This is a great cover picture, and depicts a scene from later in the story.
It starts with robots and tanks attacking mannys, seemingly just for the lols.
The Doctor is in a shop but the manny there says "They're coming!" very dramatically before a robot comes in.
The robot shoots the manny right in the beans, removing any possibility of doubt that they are the baddys. The Doctor escapes from that robot and we the readers are introduced to General Ironicus, who is in charge of the robots but will later turn out to only be a henchrobot of the main baddys.
His design is very striking with his birdy head, making him a memorable character. The Doctor escapes from more robots back to the TARDIS and he pilots it to where the robots have come from.
The Doctor is mistaken for Caesar and is then immediately captured by General Ironicus.
The Doctor has seen enough to work out what is going on, but he is in trouble and will have to escape first before he can do anything about it.
The Doctor is thrown into the arena to face the Ectoslime, which is a huge and scary monster and is not supposed to be cute at all, even though it is a bit cute with a derpy face. This is the scene from the cover and is very dramatic, although it is not a moment that is vital to the plot.
The Doctor avoids being nomed by the Ectoslime using his brains in a properly Doctorish manner, which makes General Ironicus even more grumpy. Instead of killing the Doctor some other way, he makes the Doctor be "a slave in the Imperial Air Galley!"
This story was already pretty good, with an epic sense of scale, properly evil baddys, and a quick pace meaning lots happens on every page, but now it gets even better as the Doctor begins to make friends - first with Morris, who is another slave with a distinctive look and way of speaking, allowing him to develop a characterisation very quickly.
Lots happens on this page, from the Doctor and Morris becoming friends to the Doctor seeing a clue as to what is going on. As he says, "I've discovered the horrifying secret of the Galactic Roman Empire!" but that is held back from us readers to keep us in suspense for now.
Morris and the Doctor escape from the galley and are chased by "alien guards" but they get away and then meet another friendly character, the old robot Vesuvius. Vesuvius is, if anything, even more distinctive in look and speech than Morris, but part of his distinctive speech pattern - a stutter - is a deliberate attempt to evoke Claudius from I Claudius.
Because Vesuvius is called Vesuvius it is a bit more subtle than if he was called something that sounded a lot like Claudius, just as the Emperor is not called Caligula but instead "Adolphus", a name which manages to bring in a completely different kind of baddy.
Vesuvius takes the Doctor and Morris to the temple of the gods, where the Doctor's suspicions are confirmed.
The design of the Malevilus is impressively evil-looking, and their evil is confirmed as they nom the mannys that General Ironicus has captured for them.
This is a very scary bit. I am glad that cats aren't noms; not even Malevilus noms, because Cats Aren't Noms. The Doctor, Morris and Vesuvius escape and are chased by alien guards and the Malevilus for five pages - an exciting chase sequence that Jon Pertwee's Doctor would be proud of.
Morris gets a gun and shoots some of their pursuers, but just when they think they have managed to escape again...
... they are shot and Morris is injured! (Note the clever way that exposition is interwoven with action in the first few panels of that page.)
Morris goes
This is an emotional scene, but the action doesn't pause for long. Before the end of the page the Doctor and Vesuvius have discovered "the hall of the Bestarius -- the Beast Men!" and the Doctor has a plan to get them to help him.
Setting the Bestiarus loose, the Doctor heads for a final confrontation with General Ironicus and Magog, leader of the Malevilus...
Magog is established as the real main baddy of this story - she kills Ironicus off because her organisation does not tolerate failure. I really like the stylised way Ironicus's death is drawn to be horrible without being graphic.
There is a much more scary bit to follow...
...as Magog transforms to her true form, taking four panels to do so. This is also depicted really well for maximum scariness. Any scarier and I will have to call in Scary Cat to help me finish this review.
This bit reminds me of the powers of Sutekh from Pyramids of Mars. But Magog has made a mistake as the Doctor uses the T.V. camera to make Magog appear on television, causing the citizens of Rome to revolt against the Iron Legion and the Malevilus.
Magog is going to nom the Doctor but, like General Ironicus earlier in the story, wants the secrets of the TARDIS first. The Doctor turns Magog's greed against her and tricks her into activating the deus ex machina ending.
"Good job! Every TARDIS carries a spare dimension as standard equipment!"
"Good job" indeed. By far the biggest weakness of The Iron Legion is the way this resolution comes out of nowhere and the ending is very rushed in comparison to the earlier sections of the story.
The other Malevilus are destroyed while trying to escape from the Bestiarus
AND -- THE TERROR OF THE MALEVILUS IS FINALLY OVER!Vesuvius is made the new Emperor by the citizens (because of course he is; he's Claudius as I already mentioned) and the Doctor leaves. The end.
The ending does feel rushed, with Magog and the Malevilus, the Emperor and the Iron Legion all taken care of in less than a page-and-a-half. But that doesn't matter so much because what came before was so good, in storytelling techniques, characterisation and in the art. This is a classic Doctor Who story in every important sense of the word.
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