Wibbley wobbely, timey wimey fun!
Creative Staff:
Story: Nick Abadzis
Art: Elena Casagrande
Color: Arianna Florean
Letterer: Comicraft
What They Say:
The Tenth Doctor thought he was done with new companions after Donna’s tragic exit – but that was before he met Gabriella ‘Gabby’ Gonzalez during an incursion of psychic parasites in Brooklyn, New York!
Stuck running her father’s Laundromat, Gabby always dreamed of horizons beyond Sunset Park – whether that was going to college, making it as an artist, or just escaping her life for a while.
Now she’s traveling the cosmos as the Doctor’s latest companion – and life couldn’t be more exciting!
Battling invisible creatures on the Day of the Dead, uncovering a galactic conspiracy in the universe’s most famous art gallery… the only downside is the constant threat of death!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After losing his best mate, Donna, the Doctor flies solo again. Of course, no matter how far he travels in time and space, he always comes back to his favorite second home: Earth. A disturbance in the psychic sphere draws him to New York on Dia de los Muertos. He encounters psychic invaders that manifest people’s worst fears, but more importantly he meets Gabriella “Gabby” Gonzalez—a bright, talented, artistic young woman feeling stifled by her family. The two save the world, and as a “thank you” the Doctor takes her on one trip, fearing that if she were to become a companion, some terrible fate would befall her. Of course, as we all know, it’s never just one trip with the Doctor.
Nick Abadzis does a great job of capturing David Tennant and the general feel of his episodes. I read this work right after I read the Doctor Who, The Eleventh Doctor, After Life trade and something that struck me was how slow the story was paced. This is not a bad thing in any way. I only point it out because it helps differentiate this trade from the other Doctor Who titles out there right now. Much like the Tenth Doctor, this story takes its time and doesn’t go running off halfcocked.
What makes this series work, though, is Gabby. While she shares many of the same qualities as Rose, Martha, and Donna—intelligence, courage, compassion, and a way of looking at the world from an odd angle—what sets Gabby apart in this case is her artistic temperament, which Abadzis and Casagrande use to great effect in the second half of the trade. The Doctor takes her to an art gallery on a different planet in the future, and almost half the issue is told from Gabby’s point of view in a letter to her friend, Cindy. Being an artist, Gabby draws all over her letter in a style that reminds me a little bit of Pixar. That style plus the roughness of her drawings (many guide lines are still visible) give us a glimpse into not just this particular adventure, but how Gabby perceives the world. I also love this because it’s not something you could do in television (at least not as easily). It plays to the medium, providing an interesting, different, and fun way of experiencing the story while at the same time revealing quite a bit about Gabby’s personality. My only complaint is that the font style for Gabby’s notes and interior monologue was a bit difficult to read at times. The letters were a bit too squished together and some of the letters were not readily recognizable.
In Summary:
Although Tom Baker was my first Doctor, David Tennant is whom I consider my Doctor, so I was very happy to experience more adventures with his character. While the pacing is a bit slow compared to the other Who titles out there, the comic does a fine job of capturing Tennant’s Doctor and his adventures. At the moment there doesn’t appear to be an overarching storyline, and this reads more episodic than serial, but that’s okay. As long as the Doctor and Gabby are zipping around and getting into adventures, then I’m happy.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Titan Comics
Release Date: March 25th, 2015
MSRP: $19.99
