City of the Damned

"Do not smile. Do not laugh. Do not cry. Do not care. Abandon hope."

Writers: Pat Mills & John Wagner 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: December 1979 - January 1980

Printed in: DWM 9-16

Featuring: Fourth Doctor

Synopsis 

The Fourth Doctor arrives on Zom, in the city of Zombus and discovers that the city is almost completely devoid of emotions. Soon seen as the Great Emoter, the Doctor must stop the Barabara from destroying everything in the city's sights...

Verdict 

City of the Damned was a very good comic strip and continued my reading of The Iron Legion graphic novel fantastically. Initially, and if you'd ask me before even reading one, I wasn't at all keen on one part of the comic being just four or five pages long as I think that's incredibly short but when the stories span over eight parts, that length format actually works hugely in the story's favour because it makes things very pacy which is something I'm a big fan of here. Now this story wasn't quite as good as its predecessor but I really liked that the pacing of both have been similar. The cliffhangers seem to pop up out of nowhere and it often seems that as soon as you've started the next part, it's ending already! The comic really does go by rather quick considering it is eight parts long. I have been intrigued to learn that both this and the very first Doctor Who Magazine comic strip were rejected for television stories. I honestly couldn't see either working on the TV but in the comic strips they are allowed to blossom like many of the Lost Story audios have been allowed to by Big Finish. It's still very interesting to see the Fourth Doctor travelling alone and that must mean the comic adventures are set somewhere close to The Deadly Assassin. I thought the characterisation of the Doctor was superb and it really was terrific to see how good the writers' capturing of Tom Baker's likeness was. It was brilliant and it made the scenes with the Doctor that much more enjoyable. I've been surprised that the two stories thus far haven't been affected by the lack of companion as in stories where the Doctor is on his lonesome, it really can be missing a companion on times. But this hasn't been the case so far and again that is a very good sign. The city of Zombus was a good setting and I thought the artwork that accompanied it portrayed the city in quite a dark light and as I was reading I could see that was exactly the way to go. A city without emotion is unfathomable really and it just doesn't at all seem viable! I must admit I was surprised that the Cybermen didn't make a return in this comic strip but once it was clear that they wouldn't be coming back, I was even more shocked that they didn't even get a mention! A story all about emotion being bad for you and the word 'Cyberman' doesn't even appear. I highly doubt that has happened twice. The Moderators acted as good villains and I liked how committed they were to not having emotion. Due to the Brains Trust though, it didn't seem like they had a lot of choice in the matter. They were committed to living in harmony and if you were being eaten to death by a stampede of Barabara then you were supposed to just stand there and feel nothing, as well as doing nothing. I thought the rebel ZEPO group were very good and I liked how they were all named after an emotion. The Angry brothers was a hilariously ingenuous move and I also liked the inclusion of Nervous, Deceitful and Humble. The splinter group that was committed to hate, led by Big Hate, was also good and I liked how they took the action against the Moderators by unleashing the Barabara. The Doctor giving the city's people their emotion back was a good resolution and I liked the way in which it came. Overall, a very good comic strip!

Rating: 8/10