Arena of Fear Part 2

"It's a wonder you've survived this arena at all."

Writer: Nick Abadzis  

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 25th August 2016

Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Gabby, Cindy, Captain Jack

Synopsis 

DEATH MATCH Part 2! It's the Doctor and Gabby versus Captain Jack, Cleo and Cindy, with the mysterious Mr. Ebonite pulling the strings! Forced to race each other for an extraterrestrial artefact, friendships are put to the test in the most surprising of ways – and the TARDIS team changes forever!

Verdict 

Arena of Fear concluded in excellent style and brought to a close the story already started in Medicine Man. It could also be argued that Cindy, Cleo and the Magic Sketchbook is where the story begins but with the gap between those characters appearing, I would say that's a lead in whilst the previously named story was part of the same adventure. I did reread the previous four issues which was a little time consuming but it was very helpful as it has been longer than usual between my readings of Doctor Who Comic. Things did get quite crowded with a lot of familiar characters but it was good to see everybody come together to defeat the mysterious Mister Ebonite. I think he's a fantastic character and I just love how enigmatic he is and the aura that follows him really is good. I get the feeling we might be seeing him again which is something I'm absolutely not opposed to. For me though, this part of the story was all about Cindy and after some strong outings in recent stories she officially joined the Tenth Doctor and Gabby as companion. That pairing has been the best thing to come out of Doctor Who Comic in my opinion and I think it's a little risky to add Cindy but she already has a history with both characters so I'm looking forward to seeing how she reacts to travelling in the TARDIS. I must admit I was expecting a little more from Captain Jack's return and I'm actually quite disappointed that he didn't take up his role as companion once again. I thought he might at least travel until the end of the second year of stories but instead it looks like he's going to set up another Earth defence team alongside Cleo and Erik. I don't think it will be quite as successful as Torchwood but I'm pretty sure the Doctor, Gabby and Cindy will be visiting again. Jack displaying his inability to die was good and I loved the graphic of everyone's reaction to that which can be seen above. Gabby's turn from being manipulated by Ebonite to her normal self was good and I loved how The Singer Not the Song was referenced to bring Gabby back around to normality. The Doctor was very happy to see his companion back, especially after the recent memory loss. Jack seemed to fix that by dying and helped trigger everyone else's memories whilst the Doctor worked out that they had actually shrunk. That's why Ebonite looked like a giant. Munmeth was excellent once again and I was quite impressed with how easily he grasped some of the modern concepts considering he was a Neanderthal. His relationship with Effrid was wonderful to see. The rest of Effrid's crew were quite minor characters in this part which was fine and scar was needed really with a crowded character involvement. There was a lot of action and pace which was good and I loved how Cindy was narrating. Everything was new to her and she now understood why Gabby was risking everything for the Doctor. She had come to find him and that's exactly what she did. She was now in the big blue box. Cindy was now a companion. Overall, a terrific comic strip that concluded the last two titled stories. That's what the rating counts for.

Rating: 9/10