Too many Cindys.
Creative Staff:
Story: Nick Abadzis
Art: Giorgia Sposito
Colors: Arianna Florean
Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
Ancient China and the Red Jade General have more tricky surprises for the Doctor, Gabby and Noobis as they go up against hundreds of Cindy clones! But will they be able to find their friend – the original?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Hot on the trail of a fake, red TARDIS and their kidnapped friend Cindy Wu, the Doctor, Gabby, and Anubis land in ancient China. They discover a huge walled city ruled by a despot calling himself the Red Jade General and go to investigate. Thanks to a clever diversion by the Doctor and the locals, Gabby manages to sneak past the walls and into the city. There she finds Cindy. And Cindy. And Cindy. And Cindy. And Cindy. Clone after clone of her best friend, all identified by batch numbers, and all serving the Red Jade Emperor.
Gabby lets the Doctor in, and he goes off to do what he does best—talk. Most of this issue revolves around talking, but thankfully it’s not the decompressed style of dialogue that’s so popular these days. Each line, each sentence serves a purpose and drives the story forward, and it’s a credit to both Nick Abadzis and Giorgia Sposito that they keep the comic both visually and textually engaging throughout.
The comic functions on two different levels. On one level it concerns itself with the adventure of the Doctor, Gabby, Cindy, and Anubis, but on a second level, it concerns itself with a meditation on the meaning and nature of truth. For those of you that missed the last issue, the Doctor meets Wu Wei, an old man who seemingly knows the Time Lord. He helps the Doctor, but he also narrates the adventure to his son Li, and this is where the comic gets confusing. As I said in my previous review, this arc seems to be both telling the story after it happened while telling it as it happens. It was a bit confusing in the last issue, but I rolled with it, thinking that it would be explained in this issue.
Well, that didn’t really happen. As I said before, the entire issue is narrated by Wu Wei as he tells the story to his son. It’s quite enjoyable to read and it does fit the story, but it is confusing at the end. At the end of the comic, Li says, “There was the metaphorical dragon that caused flood, but this story didn’t really have a dragon in it” to which Wu Wei replies, “My son…we were in the story. As the Xian is guardian to this whole world, and many others…so are we to this land.” The final panel shows Wei and Li sitting on the porch of their house. A dragon rises from each of their backs, one black, one white, seeming to imply that there were dragons in the story, Wei and Li, and they were real dragons and not metaphorical.
It’s an interesting revelation, but it’s unclear what it adds to the story. Also, if Wei and Li were there, then why is Wei telling this story to Li? Why does Li not remember it? Is this a story of something that will happen in the future that Wei knows about? Honestly, I could come up with questions and hypothetical explanations all day, but at some point that just becomes shouting in the wind.
Despite the confusing ending, this was a very enjoyable story. The group dynamic between the Doctor, Gabby, Cindy, and Anubis (although he didn’t get much panel time) is great fun, and it was great to see the Doctor in China (he tends to keep his visits to the west for some reason). Giorgia Sposito and Arianna Florean bring it all nicely to life by drawing heavily on the style and color palette of old Chinese art, giving this storyline a distinct visual identity and a sense of playfulness that I quite enjoyed.
In Summary:
Although it ended on a confusing note, Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor #3.4 delivered the goods. The characters are charming, the story compelling, and the writing and art playful in just the right ways. Dr. Josh gives this a…
Grade: B+
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Titan Comics
Release Date: 19 April 2017
MSRP: $3.99
