‘THE CYBERMEN’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Cybermen on Mondas with…Silurians and Sea Devils?
This is a rather unusual collection of comics featured in ‘The Clockwise War’ graphic novel. Simply called ‘The Cybermen’, it details the exploits of the Cybermen and their origins on planet Mondas. 😐
Since the Cybermen origins story had been done well in the Big Finish audio ‘Spare Parts’, I didn’t think there was anything that could top that. But then again, the Cybermen have had a lot of origins.
Also, Cybermen history is very confusing at times. The entire comic strip was by Alan Barnes, who was ‘DWM’s editor at one time and would later become writer/script editor of the Big Finish audios.
The comic strip was also drawn by Adrian Salmon. I’m not really a fan of Adrian Salmon’s comic book style. It is unique I’ll grant you, but I find his comic book art of characters does tend to look very ugly.
The basis for ‘The Cybermen’ comic strip in ‘DWM’ is that it’s meant to be in the style of the TV Century 21 comic strip for ‘The Daleks’. Therefore, each comic is presented as single strips in ‘DWM’.
Now, someday I would like to check out the TV Century 21 Dalek comics, as I’ve heard good things about them. I can’t say the same thing about ‘The Cybermen’ comic strip and Alan Barnes’ take on it.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an intriguing take Alan Barnes gives to the Cybermen’s origins and it isn’t like what is in ‘Spare Parts’. But halfway through the strip, I got confused about the stories featured.
You see, there are certain stories in ‘The Cybermen’ TV Century 21-styled of comic. The reason why I got confused is there aren’t indications in ‘The Clockwise War’ graphic novel which stories are which.
The tales are ‘The Dead Heart’, ‘The Flesh Unbound’, ‘The Black Sky’, ‘The Hungry Sea’, ‘The Dark Flame’, ‘The Future Perfect’, ‘The Ugly Underneath’ and ‘The Prodigal Returns’. Great story titles! 😀
However, I would like to know which stories are which and where they start and end. Despite Alan Barnes and Adrian Salmon naming the titles in the graphic novel’s commentary, I can’t identify them.
Also the individual comic strips are too fast for my liking when I read them. There’s not enough time to absorb the details of the comic strip in one go. I didn’t feel I gained a lot character development.
I’m also confused about where the comic strip takes place in one story. Does it take place before or after the events of ‘The Tenth Planet’? Are the tales in the right chronological order they should be?
Incidentally, the comic strip was originally published from 1994 to 1996 and was divided into 24 parts. Lately, it’s now 25 parts since ‘The Prodigal Returns’ was released in 2016, celebrating a thing.
The 50th anniversary of the Cybermen in ‘Doctor Who’ of course! I did find the last two-pages of ‘The Cybermen’ tale intriguing. It had a ‘Flip-Flop’ approach of two stories occurring simultaneously.
And yes, it was fascinating to see Mondasian versions of Silurians and Sea Devils living on Mondas and how they interacted with Cybermen. I just wish there was more of them in the comic strip here.
It was intriguing to see the story of Raven in ‘The Dead Heart’ segment, echoing a sort of ‘Wizard of Oz’ feel with Raven as Dorothy and such. A shame Raven became converted by the end of her story.
There is supposed to be a story where the Cybermen are meant to be searching for something called the Dark Continent. By this point however, I was lost as to how the tale began and how it finished. 😦
The story features a character called Golgoth who is meant to be a god-like being worshiped by the Mondasian Silurians and Sea Devils. I’m afraid that I lost interest in understanding Golgoth’s origins.
Golgoth has a son in the story which flew above my head as I wanted to see more Cybermen. That’s another issue I have with the story. There isn’t enough Cybermen to justify their appearance here. 😦
The Cybermen are of course the Mondasian Cybermen from ‘The Tenth Planet’. This I’m okay with as it makes sense to feature the original Cybermen as opposed to later metallic versions which I do like.
So yeah, ‘The Cybermen’ comic strip story in the style of TV Century 21 didn’t satisfy me. If I knew which stories were which and if there was more character-driven stuff, I would’ve accepted the strip.
‘The Cybermen’ rating – 2/10
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