Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth

"This is the tale of three newcomers."

Writer: Nick Abadzis
Format: Comic Strip
Released: March-April
Printed in: The Tenth Doctor #3.3-4

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Gabby, Cindy

Synopsis

The Doctor, Cindy, Gabby, and Noobis fought the battle of their lives to escape from a terrifying dreamworld, one in which their every secret desire seemed to be catered for... but at a terrible cost...! The culprit behind this nightmare was none other than an entity... which had disguised itself as a red TARDIS! Displeased that its captives had escaped, it reached out and grabbed Cindy, dragging her into the Time Vortex!

Verdict

Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth was an outstanding comic strip adventure! It really was quite brilliant and I liked that it continued immediately where Breakfast at Tyranny's left off. It was full of action and intrigue and I thought the setting of Ancient China worked wonderfully. I was a huge fan of that and the method of the story being told as a story by Wu Wei to his son Li was sublime. I was a huge fan of that and it made for quite a telling tale. I loved how the latter wanted a dragon and a princess and in a way, he actually got it! It really was striking and quite just marvellous. I particularly enjoyed it when Cindy, the real one, was referred to as a princess as it came relatively late into the story and Li must have been getting restless and the non-appearance of a princess up to that point. I thought Gabby was terrific in this one and I liked how she used her vortex butterflies, with a little help from Anubis, to get over the completely wrong Great Wall that had come to be built. I thought it was intriguing that the Doctor recognised that it was completely natural material but the time period and location was obviously wrong. The characterisation of the Tenth Doctor was very good in this story with David Tennant's likeness being excellently captured on the page. That was particularly present in the numerous speeches that the Doctor gave, particularly defending life. The Para-Nestene was a superb villain and I loved that is what it was revealed to be. The idea of the Nestene Consciousness from another universe making its presence felt was fantastic and I liked the difference of it not being concerned with plastic, but rather the organic. The multiple versions of Cindy were very intriguing and I liked how No-Name was not part of the crowd in just adhering to orders mindlessly. Anubis played an interesting role in the story and it was quite different seeing him with his human disguise. I'm sure Cindy approved! The real Cindy being found by Gabby was great and I liked the Doctor's reaction when he saw all the versions of Cindy. The red TARDIS was a really good aspect of the story and I loved how the Doctor reversed the polarity when it came to that using the Doctor's TARDIS for its own means. It would actually bring about its downfall in quite a spectacular way. The Para-Nestene knew it was defeated before it was too late and that was quite something to see. Overall, a sensational comic strip!

Rating: 10/10