Review: Doctor Who: Sins of the Father by Nick Abadzis, Giorgia Sposito, Eleonora Carlini, et al.

Collection published: 2016
Contents originally published: 2016
Acquired: March 2020
Read: April 2021

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol 6: Sins of the Father

Writers: Nick Abadzis [with Andrew James]
Artists: Eleonora Carlini & Giorgia Sposito, with Leandro Casco, Simon Fraser & Walter Geovanni
Colorists: Arianna Florean, with Azzurra Florean, Mattia De Lulis, Adele Matera, Rod Fernandes & Gary Caldwell
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This volume contains three things: a two-issue story about the Doctor, Gabby, and Cindy in New Orleans during the Jazz Age; the first two issues of a five-part story about the Osirians (the last three parts are in vol 7); and a short story about the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth Doctors.

The jazz one seems like it has potential... but as I said when I read this title's earlier story about living sound, surely comics is the medium least suited to telling a story about music? I also don't really understand what the writing is trying to do with the Doctor's dynamics with his companions now that he has two of them; I feel like the three of them are always getting mad at each other for reasons I have not actually been told about, like writer Nick Abadzis has forgotten to put on the page what ideas he has in his head about how these characters relate to each other. On top of that, I found the climax to this one very confusing in terms of script and art. Giorgia Sposito is good at likenesses and her art is attractive, but her storytelling skills aren't always up to it.

from Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor: Year Two #11
(art by Giorgia Sposito)

As for the Osirian one... well, this title plummets into mediocrity every time that storyline comes up, and this installment is no exception. Dull dull dull planet Zog stuff. It has never been clear to me why I should care, and it still isn't. The twists and turns seem arbitrary and random. Ancient Gallifrey? Why not! I can only hope that when vol 7 brings it to a climax, that that will be the end of it all. At least we have some Elenora Carlini art, but I really wish she was getting to illustrate a more "domestic" story that plays to her strengths. We seem to have all but forgotten the set-up of Gabby's home life in New York City, something that Russell T Davies (who this series seeks to emulate) would never have done.

The short story about three Doctors and the word "con" is cute. For once, Titan remembers to credit the illustrators of a bonus short in the trade... but they still don't credit the writer!

Also the cover once again has pretty poor choices of models. If I can't tell which one is meant to be Gabby (a Hispanic woman) and which one is meant to be Cindy (a Chinese-Canadian woman), I feel like you've really screwed up!

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Eleventh Doctor: The Malignant Truth