The Cybermen comic strip which featured in one page instalments over a number of issues of DWM in the mid 90s was written by Alan Barnes and drawn by Adrian Salmon. It reflects the 60s Dalek strip in that in presents a history for the Cybermen on Mondas, much as the Dalek strip told us of their beginnings on Skaro. I was always under the impression that The Cybermen suggested that the Silurians were ancestors of the Cybermen. How the memory cheats. The strip actually shows that Mondas also had its own Silurian civilisation and that the arrival of the moon also saw the movement of Mondas out of our solar system leading the Mondasian Silurians to put themselves into hibernation in much the same way as the Earth Silurians. Prior to this, the Mondasian Silurians had begun to cybernetically enhance their ape servants. When the Silurians retreated from the cataclysm, these apes eventually became Cybermen (or at least, that’s what I think happens). Consequently, there seem to be Cybermen (the Silurians’ servants, or descendants of the Silurians’ servants; it isn’t clear) and other humans living side by side on Mondas.

My misapprehension about the basic plotline of the strip has led me to place it prior to Spare Parts, but having now read it, it seems that this placing is erroneous. 

The Cybermen presents an alternative timeline view of the beginnings of the Mondasion Cybermen with a sprinkling of Silurians and Sea Devils for good measure. This cannot really tie in with Spare Parts (another Cyberman origin story), especially as there seem to be two origins for the Cybermen given in the strip: the original cybernetic ape slaves and the cyberised human Korving in the final strip (which is set thousands of years later). It also suggests a reason for the very different looking Cybermen from later Cybermen stories such as The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Invasion.

Clearly much of this story does occur in a period of time which could be considered prehistoric (in terms of Earth history); the original Cybermen claim Mondas after the disappearance of the Silurians but the time frame actually takes it far further into the future, probably to the 20th Century (depending on how long it takes for the second-generation Cybermen to become established prior to the events of The Tenth Planet). The settings are often jungle-like with huge ancient cities (much like the alternate prehistoric Earth that The Boy that Time Forgot is set in). Technology, however, is far in advance of Earth’s at this time (although possibly more akin to Silurian technology rather than human).

I don’t particularly like the strip, to be honest. The artwork, at least in the initial instalments, is striking (and better when it becomes colourised) but the storyline is almost impossible to follow. It is very unclear exactly what we are being told (as my rather confused summary above should indicate) and I’m not sure that it works as an origin tale for the Cybermen – at least, not as well as Spare Parts does. In reflecting the 60s Dalek strips it is fairly successful (they didn’t always make a whole lot of sense themselves) but did seem to have stronger plotlines (or at least ones which weren’t wrapped up in three A4 pages).

In conclusion, I’m treating The Cybermen as an alternate timeline of Mondas and therefore not part of the History of our Universe.