COMIC REVIEW: DOCTOR WHO – THE TENTH DOCTOR #1 / AUTHOR: NICK ABADZIS / ARTIST: ELENA CASAGRANDE, ARIANNA FLORIAN / PUBLISHER: TITAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
If each story in Titan’s new Doctor Who comic range is equivalent to a TV episode, this first one is the 20 minutes that probably should have been left on the cutting room floor.
Consider how introducing a new companion was done in Rose. We see her waking up; going to work; meeting her boyfriend, and all of this is completed within a quick montage. The backstory comes out gradually over the course of subsequent episodes but we have basically all we need to know by the end of the first episode. This first issue of the new Tenth Doctor storyline, on the other hand, is all setup. We meet his new companion, Gabriella Gonzalez and get to know her and her extensive family in excruciating detail. So much so in fact, that it is difficult to care too much about them as you just want to see the Doctor (who in any case, doesn’t appear much in this issue).
At least he’s drawn quite well when you do see him though, which is more than we can say about 11’s character model (more on that in our review of that comic). This is true of the artwork in general, which is pretty consistently nice (apart from one or two moments that are giggle-inducing when they’re presumably supposed to be serious).
The mini-comic at the end of the issue isn’t as good as the one in the Eleventh Doctor’s comic though, especially when you consider that the other comic has two as opposed to this one. This has only a single comic which serves as little more than an advertisement for the little vinyl figures Titan are doing. This is a bit shameless but harmless enough, and at least it’s an inventive way to do it.
The problem with this comic; is that when reading it, one gets the feeling that it could have been cut down by half its length and it wouldn’t have lost much. When that’s the state of affairs, something’s gone wrong.
