The Tenth Doctor: Revolutions of Terror

Two fun and exciting Doctor Who adventures. I enjoyed the concepts of both stories, and the pacing was excellent. ( )

Unlike IDW, which usually just published an ongoing featuring the current Doctor and TARDIS team, Titan publishes multiple ongoings, plus miniseries, featuring the current Doctor and past ones. It all launched with this, Revolutions of Terror, featuring the tenth Doctor and a new companion, the American would-be art student Gabby Gonzalez. This collection contains two stories; the first, "Revolutions of Terror," is a very effective pastiche of a Russell T Davies new-companion episode (e.g., "Rose," "Smith and Jones"), telling the story of alien parasites in New York City on the Day of the Dead from the perspective of Gabby and her family. Nick Abadzis's writing is decent, but the real star is Elena Casagrande's artwork, which really brings the whole family and their environment and the Doctor and the monsters to life. This was a fun, nostalgic tie-in: you won't be bowled over by this, but if you enjoyed Doctor Who from 2005 to 2009, you'll probably like this take on it. I found the rules of the parasites overly fiddly (I think Russell himself could have handled it more elegantly), but otherwise, it was on point.

The second story, "The Arts in Space," was less effective. Clearly also pastiching an RTD genre, the throw-the-companion-into-the-crazy-future one (e.g., "The End of the World," "Gridlock"), but I got lost amidst all the stuff about block transfer computation, and the actions of the villain didn't ring true emotionally. I did really love the bits drawn to look like Gabby's own drawings, as she writes about her journeys to her friend Cindy. But otherwise, I struggled with this one. It's just two issues compared to "Revolutions"'s four, so maybe Abadzis's stories need more time to breathe.

Elena Casagrande used to do a lot of fill-in work on IDW's Star Trek titles, often hired to imitate the work of David Messina, so I was really gratified to see her get to soar in her own style here.

Titan Doctor Who: Next in sequence »

Muy bien! No tenía muchas expectativas más allá de que había ojeado el cómic y me gustaba la ilustración, pero es que es como ver dos capítulos del décimo doctor. Buenas historias y Gabby es un personaje interesante. A la espera de más! ( )

The Tenth Doctor comics explores adventures that take place after he tragically mindwipes Donna (I'm still not over that), and reluctantly begins traveling with a new companion, Gabby Gonzalez. And what a wonderful companion she is! Gabby is a young Mexican-American woman living in Brooklyn and working in her family's restaurant and laundromat, but dreaming of becoming an artist and going on adventures. She's utterly charming and clever, and well characterized for a character original to the comics.

This volume contains two adventures. The Doctor and Gabby meet when the Pranavores, a psychic lifeform that exists in a symbiotic relationship with intelligent lifeforms and feeds off their positive energy, come under attack. Their assailants are the Cerabavores, scientifically modified Pranavores who hunt the Pranavores by causing the humans they're associated with to have horrific visions. Gabby's quick wits and cheerful spirit help the Doctor defeat the Cerabavores and he invites her on a one-time trip on the TARDIS.

Because Gabby is an artist, he takes her to see an art gallery on a magnificently strange planet and meet an artist named Zhe who uses her mind to create block transfer sculptures. Of course, Zhe is in trouble, trapped in stasis while two malevolent apprentices she created attack the Doctor and Gabby. The story is illustrated with fun house visuals accompanied by Gabby's sketchbook where she tells the story through sketches and notes to her friend. It's a wonderful visual story best suited to the comic book art form.

This is a great start to the Tenth Doctor comics series and of course, Gabby is invited back for further travels so there's more to look forward to in upcoming comics. ( )

Decent read. ( )