Titan Comics 2014
Written by Nick Abadzis
Illustrated by Rachael Stott & Leonardo Romero
Coloured by Hi-Fi
Erik, Hans and Cleo – members of the Cult of the Black Pyramid – thought they were summoning their gods to Earth. Instead, they’ve caught the attention of the Seeker, an ominous entity searching for the Key: a mysterious force which appears to have merged with Dorothy Bell! Intent on rebuilding NYC to its maximum potential, and seeing the creative spirit in Gabby, Dorothy has taken her new friend on a high-flying adventure around the city. Now, the Seeker has captured the Doctor, Cindy, and the Black Pyramid trio! With Dorothy and Gabby in hiding, Cindy is beginning to wish she’d listened to her friend’s warning about the dangers of traveling with the Doctor…
I’m a huge fan of Nick, his imagination and his ability to bring the adventures of the Tenth Doctor to life for us here. This story is fantastic as it fully unfolds and that Onyx piece proves to not be a vessel for a civilization long thought gone and has come to Earth not to give anything to those who still worship them but to collect a remnant of its past. That idea is great but that the object in question has bonded with Dorothy and involving the Doctor, Gabby and her friend Cindy are caught up in this alongside a cult just pushes this all over the edge and makes decidedly Doctor material.
I’m also a huge fan of this interior artwork I don’t know what their special technique is here but it has elements almost of pointillism that really make a dramatic effect on the characters and the linework here. Then there’s the attention to detail in each character and as much detail in the backgrounds making this seem more cinematic in nature and continues to fuel that this really is a Doctor style spectacle. Plus of course there’s the likeness we get to David Tennant that really is what longtime fans of his run as the Doctor can’t get enough of.
What kind of surprised me the most is Cindy and her involvement in this adventure. She has remained remarkably cool under these circumstances and seems to have taken everything Gabby said that she thought was some kind of odd excuse to not spend time with her and accepted it wholeheartedly and is comfortable right in the thick of things. Seeing her interact with Cleo was fantastic! The characterization here is so good that you can almost forget these folks don’t exist and it’s all make believe.
So when revealing that the people Cleo has been working with are the Cult of the Black Pyramid suddenly we get to see that perhaps popular culture wasn’t so far off base when it coes to explaining the Egyptian Gods. After all Stargate kind of nailed it in theory and that reference is here as well. Oh and the tiny reveal about the Ancient Chinese Gods now screams for and adventure down the road by Nick! Also I would love to see a crossover with the Doctor and Stargate’s original crew now with the Osirans.
Titan, Nick and Rachael manage to really capture the imagination, awe and wonder that come with the Doctor’s adventures perfectly. That this issue isn’t the last in the arc is great news because seriously it’s stories like this one that combine so many myths, legends and speculation that engage readers the most.
The Tenth Doctor’s can’t last forever (or can they?) so you need to be reading this and seeing what it means for it to be a company like Titan where it’s never been done better!