The concept of characters becoming trapped in a book is hardly an original one. Indeed, it’s not even original to the mythos of Doctor Who. The Second Doctor once traveled into The Land of Fiction in the TARDIS, meeting the likes of Lemuel Gulliver and Rapunzel, while fighting Medusa and the Minotaur. And The Tenth Doctor once dealt with an alien who was able to trap people inside of a young girl’s drawings in Fear Her.

Despite this, Robbie Morrison is able to spin a truly original tale with The Fourth Wall – a story which starts with the reader being warned not to continue any further or turn the page (in a tribute to the classic childrens’ book The Monster At The End Of This Book) and expands into an epic adventure in which The Doctor and the reader, from within the confines of a comic book, must save the universe from an unexpected enemy.

Rachael Stott ably illustrates all of this madness with her usual level of skill. Stott’s style is perfectly suited toward the fine balance between cartoonish physics and serious action that Morrison’s scripts require. And she’s no mean caricaturist, crafting fair likenesses of both Peter Capaldi’s doctor and Jenna Coleman’s Clara Oswald. The colors by Marcio Menys are well chosen and the lettering by Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt of Comicraft proves crisp and clear.

If you’ve never watched Doctor Who before, this issue is a wonderful introduction to the universe. Conversely, if you’re a Doctor Who fan who has never read a comic book, this is a good issue to start with, being about the love of the medium and a good story. And this is a good story.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor: Year Two #5 goes on sale on May 11, 2015.