Tested by Anubis at the far reaches of the universe – is he following in the genocidal footsteps of his father?! The Doctor, Gabby and Cindy return to New York City to take stock, after their latest shocking trip in the TARDIS. But while Cindy and Gabby reflect on the passing of someone close to them, and what their travels mean to them both, the Doctor must face a growing threat… Anubis is back, and the TARDIS team are nowhere near ready for what this ancient being is about to throw at them…!

The opening episode of Old Girl, subtitled Aftermath, kicks off what Titan is calling “the endgame of Year Two” of the Tenth Doctor’s comic-book adventures.

Things start to come to a head as the Doctor finally makes good on his promise to help Anubis to ascend to a higher plane – in such a way that won’t destroy the universe in the process! So, following a quick breather in Sunset Park (during which time the Doctor gets along with Gabby’s mom a heck of a lot better that he usually does with his companions’ parents), the Time Lord, Gabby and Cindy are off back to the Osiran’s mother ship, the Shining Horizon.

A few months ago, I complained that #2.10 had felt like a mere filler, but that issue’s brief interaction with unstable pocket universes pays off here, as we see that Osiran science involves the study of alternate, potential realities in order to determine the best course of action. Both Dorothy Bell and Cindy Wu are disturbed by what they see and hear in some of these dimensional bubbles. Cindy also wonders how she can be sure that she wasn’t trapped in a bottle universe back in #2.10, and that the Doctor rescuing her wasn’t just an illusion. The fact is that she can’t!

The beautifully detailed art of Giorgia Sposito continues to be a good fit for this title, as I noted in my review of #2.11. As if to prove the point, this time she shares the art duties with Eleonora Carlini. In contrast to some previous collaborations, is it almost impossible to see where one illustrator’s work ends and the other begins, providing us with a cohesive comics universe.

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Richard McGinlay