The Blood of Azrael (comic story)

The Blood of Azrael
Doctor:	Eleventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Clara
Featuring:	Amy, Horatio, Annabel, Patrick, Matildus
Main enemy:	Danny Fisher
Main setting:	Cornucopia
Key crew
Publisher:	Panini Comics
Editor:	Tom Spilsbury, Peter Ware
Writer:	Scott Gray
Artist:	Mike Collins
Inker:	David A Roach
Colourist:	James Offredi
Letterer:	Roger Langridge
Release details
Number of parts:	5
Printed in:	DWM 470-DWM 474
Release date:	6 February - 29 May 2014
Reprinted in:	The Blood of Azrael
Format:	Comic
DWM comic stories
← Previous	Pay the Piper
Next →	The Crystal Throne

The Blood of Azrael was the last regular Eleventh Doctor DWM comic strip from the magazine and featured the return of several characters from his run.

Plot

Part One: The Blood of Azrael

In a flashback, a young Danny Fisher and his dad are attacked by a lizard creature that speaks in an alien language. Danny is then brought back to reality in their base in Cornucopia by Annabel Lake speaking to him. Patrick Lake enters and talks to them about the aftermath of the Obsidian Mainframe Incident and how it is important not to reveal that Earth or humans were involved. He is then interrupted by a TV broadcast showing Amy Johnson being interviewed about the upcoming Lifesong Carnival to celebrate Cornucopia's history. Patrick suspects the Doctor's involvement, as Amy Johnson is recorded as having died in 1941. He sends Annabel and Danny undercover to interview Amy about her rescue. However, she is out flying and while doing so is hijacked by Brothers Progg and Hanka that have been hired to eliminate her. She is rescued by Horatio Lynk. They realise they are both linked by their meetings with the Doctor.

Meanwhile, in Cornucopia's airport, the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald, after losing the TARDIS, are travelling through customs. The Doctor is a state of depression at losing his beloved time machine. At the front a girl, Keli, is being harassed by security guards for not having the necessary papers to enter Cornucopia. She is distraught and pops a pill into her mouth. The Doctor and Clara look at what's going on. Keli begins to scream and holds her hand up to the world. It bears a strange triangular symbol. She dissolves while the Doctor and Clara look on in horror.

Part Two: The Architect of Despair

On Cornucopia, all the species and people are preparing for the Lifesong Carnival. Meanwhile, Amy and Clara are talking about what happened to them at the airport and Keli. The Doctor is still depressed and walks out. Clara tells Amy about the situation.

At the same time, Annabel and Danny are spying on the Doctor and they realise that they caused the Doctor to lose his TARDIS. Lynk calls Amy and tells her he's found Progg and Hanka, dead. Clara drags the Doctor to a clinic where they meet Lynk and other children and aliens. Lynk is revealed to be helping them and the Doctor helps cure a young kid, who hugs him and tells him he's a good doctor.

Suddenly the Doctor springs back to his old self and runs out. Lynk takes them all to the Renath Archive, an old library in the heart of Cornucopia, where they meet Albert, a blind alien and Matildus Galathea, the librarian. The Doctor shows her the symbol on Keli's hand. She takes several guesses at what it is before coming to a stern conclusion. It is the mark of Azrael...

Matildus tells the Doctor, Clara, Amy and Lynk, the story of Azrael:

"He was the first Necrotist, a man who inspired a black stream of madness that flows through the universe to this day. A Necrotist is an artist who believes that murder is the only true form of creativity: that life must be stolen in order for art to blossom. Where a Necrotist walks, tragedy follows. Azrael was a genius who came from a world where death had been conquered, where immortality was fact. His brilliance turned his people's science against him. They perished in a flood of measureless agony. It was his first "statement". Many more soon followed. Some said his face was so terrible that to merely look upon it would summon death. Others claimed it was so beautiful it would drive the beholder mad. Whatever the truth, Azrael chose to wear a mask carved from the skull of the last Magellan Emperor. His supposed masterpiece was the Wasting Wall, a structure built out of the bodies of an entire species- a monument to genocide. If it ever truly existed it has been lost to myth. But history records in harrowing detail a slaughter that spanned three centuries and countless worlds. Azrael lived and died ten thousand years ago. When he was finally captured, he stood calmly upon his execution block and spoke four words, "Death is my ally." He was the Sculptor of Grief. The Poet of Corruption. The Architect of Despair."

After the story has been told, they hear a scream. Horatio and Amy set off in search of Albert. They find him, crystallised. He shatters in front of them. Clara and the Doctor follow. They then find the TARDIS. The Doctor is overjoyed. But then the door opens and Azrael steps out. He tells the Doctor that time belongs to him and that he should take solace in the fact that the universe is now his canvas before the TARDIS dematerialises...

Part Three: The Mercy

The part opens with more information about the aliens and various lifeforms performing in the Carnival, including a girl wearing the cloak of her fore-mothers, a drummer who will be providing a beat for his son and daughter to dance along to and a girl who will be describing a sonnet in the night air, through the use of sigils.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Horatio Lynk are working on an Artron energy detector, to find the TARDIS, which has been stolen by Azrael, a Necrotist. Clara and Emily are flying overhead, providing a sensor sweep of Cornucopia for the Detector to scan. However, the Detector doesn't show up any traces of Energy, prompting the Doctor to destroy the machine in a fit of rage. He calms down though and admits he will need help to fight someone like Azrael.

We cut to Cornucopia Trading Standards, where Ms Ghost alias Annabel Lake or Madame Strul, is receiving trading reports from a coworker, Derek. She walks into her office, where she finds the Doctor sitting in her chair. She immediately pulls a gun on him, questioning him as to why he is here. The Doctor admits he hasn't told anyone about Wonderland, but he's here because he knows he's been under surveillance by them and he needs their help finding his TARDIS and stopping Azrael. Ghost refuses to help, until Londi, the taxi driver from the Obsidian Mainframe and actually Danny Fisher, an agent of Wonderland, in disguise, chooses an inappropriate time to walk in. The Doctor recognises him and flies into a rage at him, describing in detail his deductions of their plan to hack the Mainframe, the biggest market in the galaxy, for information on the bidders. Danny removes his disguise as does Annabel and the Doctor finally convinces her to help by telling her she owes him.

Meanwhile, in the centre of Cornucopia, Clara and Amy are joined by a guy named Vansa, who has the same triangular tattoo symbol that Keli had, on his hand. He tells them he is here to meet someone very special, who is here in Cornucopia and decides to bring them along.

At Wonderland HQ in Cornucopia, the Doctor is ushered in by Danny and Annabel, masked, to be greeted by Patrick Lake, who decides to help the Doctor find Azrael. Annabel uses The Doctor's sonic screwdriver that she took in Prague when she first met him. They look through all the bids on the TARDIS and the Doctor quickly discovers Azrael's winning bid came from the Halion Nebula, "sixty billion miles of space dust... and one Azrael." Patrick is able to open a portal to the Nebula and the Doctor yells "Geronimo!" as he, Danny and Annabel run through the portal, with Patrick muttering that they'll be back.

At a warehouse in Cornucopia, Clara and Amy discover hundreds of aliens have gathered there and they all have one thing in common. They are fans of Azrael who have come together to die and become part of a masterpiece. The usher releases the Mercy from a box. The Mercy turns out to be a wave of red energy that incinerates all the aliens. Clara and Amy run for the door. Clara makes it to the other side, but Amy is trapped. She leans against the door and comforts Clara, before the incinerating red beam engulfs her, killing her. Clara cries and sinks down against the door, sobbing.

Part Four: The Wasting Wall

As the Lifesong Carnival begins, the Doctor, Annabel and Danny emerge from the portal to a dusty white landscape. The Doctor identifies their location as one of the universe's darkest myths: The Wasting Wall. It was built when Azrael came upon a world of peaceful giants and murdered them, fusing their bodies into one giant structure. Annabel picks up tech signals, and the three start to search for Azrael.

At the warehouse, Amy has in fact survived, to Clara's relief. She looks at Azrael's victims, and comments on how happy they were. They have been turned into statues that seem to be made of blood.

The Doctor and company find a scientist at work. The Doctor talks to him and discovers that he had been operating the Mercy for Azrael. Annabel threatens him, but he refuses to divulge his master's location. He instead kills himself in order to become a part of the Wasting Wall. Annabel tries to use the technology to track the data feed back to Azrael, but the Doctor realises that it has been booby trapped. He grabs her and tries to run, but they are both sent flying when it explodes.

Horatio scans the corpses, and explains to Clara and Amy that the Mercy is a bio-reactive liquid that consumes genetic material and converts it into homogeneous plasma, resulting in the blood statues. However, he is unable to answer why it didn't kill Amy.

Annabel wakes the Doctor up and informs him that Danny is probably buried in the debris. She shows him the TARDIS, coated in the Mercy and primed for takeoff. Azrael appears behind them and is instantly attacked by Annabel, but he destroys her sun before she can hit him. The Doctor tries to talk him out of killing her, and they are both restrained by him. He uses his psychic wand to destroy both of their sonic screwdrivers, then removes his mask, revealing his true identity to be Danny Fisher. He prepares to activate the Mercy.

Part Five: Our Last Goodbye

Danny explains his motives to the Doctor and Annabel: As a boy, he was attacked by a monster. Despite the monster begging for help, he killed it with a spade and felt that he had found his purpose. He eventually joined UNIT and was present at the Sontaran assault at the ATMOS factory, having the highest kill-count. He was then head-hunted by MI6, and Patrick Lake and Hugo Wilding recruited him to Wonderland. He spent months in the Obsidian Mainframe, where he found out about Azrael and stole his mask during an auction. Azrael had poured his memories and skills into the mask, and when Danny put it on he gained access to them.

Now, Danny plans to use the Mercy-coated TARDIS to destroy all alien life on Cornucopia. He taunts the Doctor and tries to keep Annabel on his side by saying that Patrick will be fine as the Mercy has been programmed to spare anyone with human DNA. Annabel eventually agrees, and snaps at the Doctor that she lost her mother because he failed, and that if she went along with Danny's plan she would save many more mothers. However, at the first opportunity she attacks Danny and frees the Doctor, telling him to stop the TARDIS. Danny fights back and overpowers her, but she kills him with the psychic wand.

The TARDIS then takes off with the Doctor in tow. Although the Mercy is causing him great pain, he tries to convince his ship not to go along with Danny and to save Cornucopia. As it appears over the city, the Doctor falls and is caught by Horatio, Clara and Amy. The TARDIS destroys the Mercy, and the Doctor comments that they "talked it over".

Later, the Doctor and Annabel watch the Lifesong Carnival from above the city. Annabel assures the Doctor that she doesn't really blame him for her mother's death, and that she knows he did his best for her. She tells him that she plans to stay on Cornucopia and keep watch for the monsters, but she'll be looking a lot more carefully now. The Doctor wishes her luck and gives her a spare sonic screwdriver to replace the one that was destroyed by Danny.

The Doctor then rejoins Clara, Horatio and Amy. He gives Horatio a "debit card" so that he can help the hospital get all the medicine it needs. The four then take to the streets and celebrate the carnival with the people of Cornucopia.

Characters

• Eleventh Doctor
• Clara Oswald
• Annabel Lake
• Danny Fisher
• Amy Johnson
• Horatio Lynk
• Patrick Lake
• Progg
• Hanka
• Matildus Galathea
• Albert
• Keeby
• Keli
• Vansa
• Usher
• Scientist
• Fasina O'Trokk
• Grendo Gasta
• Pedro Brightwater
• Doctor
• Hula
• Hula's mother
• Rendy
• Derek
• Danny Fisher's father
• Kalona Zu
• Kalona Zu's mother
• Five Flying Flakinis
• Tala Pandesi
• Kivan Bost
• Kivan Bost's children
• Pola Sesha
• Azrael
• Hugo Wilding

Worldbuilding

• Danny supports the Arsenal football team, and was particularly annoyed when they lost 2-nil to Chelsea Football Club.
• As a child, the Doctor was told bedtime stories of the Necrotist Azrael.

Notes

• This was the final Doctor Who Magazine comic story to feature the Eleventh Doctor. The last words spoken by the Eleventh Doctor in his comic book tenure are, "This night's for dancing!!!"

Continuity

• Patrick congratulates Danny and Annabel for their work in placing spyders in the Obsidian Mainframe. (COMIC: Pay the Piper)
• Cornucopia is still recovering from the Tribe of Gum's attack, (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone) with some even suggesting returning to their previous crime based economy. (COMIC: The Cornucopia Caper)
• Amy talks about moving to Cornucopia with the help of the Doctor and Clara, though does not mention their names. (COMIC: A Wing and a Prayer)
• Horatio remembers how he tried to romance Amy Pond when he first met the Doctor. (COMIC: The Cornucopia Caper)
• The Doctor is still reeling from losing his TARDIS at an auction. (COMIC: Pay the Piper)
• Clara remembers how she and the TARDIS didn't get along at first. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten, Hide, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS)
• Clara tells Amy that she has become a teacher, just as she had lied about when they first met in the Iraq deserts. (COMIC: A Wing and a Prayer)
• Annabel still has the sonic screwdriver (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone) that was retrieved from 1989 Prague. (COMIC: The Broken Man)
• The Doctor, Annabel and Danny travel to the Wasting Wall, the namesake of Susini, the Necrotist whom the Eighth Doctor fought in 1941 Mexico. (COMIC: The Way of All Flesh)
• Danny took part in UNIT's battle against the Sontarans at the ATMOS factory. (TV: The Poison Sky)
• Heather Lake's sacrifice is brought up by Danny to convince Annabel of the Doctor's incapability to save everyone. (COMIC: The Broken Man)

External links

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