Review: Doctor Who: New Adventures with the Twelfth Doctor #4

Previously, “Issue #3: The Swords of Kali Part 2”

In the second part of “The Swords of Kali”, we start off with Rani giving the Doctor a little history lesson of who she was and how she came to be who she is today, relatively speaking. Of course, the Doctor being the cynical personality that embodies the 12th incarnation, he is neither impressed nor does he care about her past.

The exchange is a bit fun as the Doctor then quotes Nietzsche, who was given the quote by the Doctor in the first place.

We learn about the swords of Kali and their importance to the story, the Doctor expresses why he believes that it is quite satisfying to meet someone who is truly evil, and Clara gains some helping hands. Once again, there is a nice photo of the 4th Doctor.

One of the things that I love about Doctor Who is the formula; just enough humor, just enough sentiment, just enough adventure and personality. This issue was more adventure than humor and has a much darker feel to it, which was a nice change of pace from the previous issues. There were some messages about love, life, and humanity’s overall pursuit of power and desires sprinkled throughout this issue.

The ending was a nice surprise because I did not see that coming at all, and it leaves us with a cliffhanger. Early on in the series, I expected the stories to be two-parters or one shots, so I was happy to find out that this was a three-part series.

Robbie Morrison does a great job, once again, with Capaldi’s Doctor and a much better job with Clara for this issue. Luis Guerreo is wonderful with color, while David Taylor and Mariano Laclaustra do well with the art.