Review: Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1
Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1 is an engaging fusion of meat and potato superheroics and off the wall antics. There is a robot gorilla in this comic. Set in Gotham City, it has one foot firmly in the DC Universe and another in heart on your sleeve surrealism. For example, Crazy Jane is the Chief now. (Don’t ask, just read!) With his experience doing fucked up body horror (Nameless) and globe-trotting superhero team-up’s (Batman Inc.), Chris Burnham definitely was the perfect artistic fit for this new iteration of the Doom Patrol, and he and writer Dennis Culver and colorist Brian Reber lay down a first issue that functions as a done in one adventure, a mission statement for the new miniseries, and sets up some fun plot lines down the road rooted in both the original Silver Age Doom Patrol and Paul Kupperberg’s late 1980s Doom Patrol run (If it had more action and fun and less monologuing.) that paved the way for the classic Grant Morrison run.
Until a passionate Cliff Steele monologue towards the end of the issue, Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1 goes for big and bold in its layouts and approach to storytelling. The first page is Monsieur Mallah and the Brain fighting General Immortus’ incredibly crumbly zombies (Burnham’s art has great and occasionally unsettling textures to it.) in a full splash before a double pager that’s a cool title page and gives you everything you need to know about the current Doom Patrol lineup. Unlike the recap pages at the house Mickey owns, Burnham and Culver dish out this information visually and verbally with a classic team shot of the current lineup and three panels setting up the trip to Gotham that Robotman isn’t looking forward to.
And speaking of classic, Dennis Culver and Chris Burnham have gone with a Doom Patrol cast that is both traditional and breaks new ground. Of course, there’s Cliff Steele, Larry Trainor, Rita Farr, and the Chief (With a twist.) But there’s also Beast Girl, who is a hyperactive riff on Beast Boy’s appearances in the pages of Doom Patrol before finding fame as a Teen Titan, both New and Go. Culver and Burnham use her abilities in a clever way in the big climactic fight sequence, and she’s pure id with some added splashes of color from Reber. Her and Robotman also have a pleasant father/daughter dynamic that I hope gets expanded on in future issues.
However, the most intriguing part of Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1 is one of Jane’s alters becoming a new version of the Chief complete with cloth mask, a keen strategic vibe, and the ability to deconstruct DC Comics’ cash cow at will. Like in previous incarnations of Doom Patrol, the Chief sets the tone for the team and series, but Dennis Culver and Chris Burnham do away with the toxicity and manipulation of Niles Caulder in past comics and replace it with radical honesty and compassion. The Doom Patrol isn’t here to fight monsters, but to save them, and there are factions and folks in the DC Universe that aren’t into this setting up future intrigue in the miniseries. But, for now, it’s cool to see this team kick ass and give heartfelt monologues while simultaneously deconstructing and rebuilding the superhero genre.
Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1 has loads of nods to past Doom Patrol stories, but Culver and Burnham find new wrinkles especially in their take on Jane/The Chief and how the team interacts with more mainline superheroes although I was totally substituting Lazarus Planet with Invasion! in the page where that’s mentioned. All in all, the book features a quirky cast of characters rescuing societal outcasts and saving the day, but in an offbeat way with Burnham flexing his horror muscles in a PG-13 way and still providing a lot of big action and bright colors courtesy of Brian Reber and shows it’s okay to get weird sometimes and express big emotions.
Story: Dennis Culver Art: Chris Burnham
Colors: Brian Reber Letters: Pat Brosseau
Story: 8.6 Art: 9.0 Overall: 8.8 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: TFAW – Zeus Comics – comiXology/Kindle
Grab a milkshake, put a cherry on top, and maybe add a shot of whiskey or two, and you’ve got JLA/Doom Patrol #1, the first chapter of the monthlong DC Comics/Young Animal “Milk Wars” crossover. Writers Gerard Way and Steve Orlando combine the surrealism and fourth wall obliterating metafiction of Doom Patrol with the punching and personality-driven Justice League of America to create the soft serve chocolate swirl of “event” comics. It roasts these kind of stories while indulging in all the tropes, including a spread it all around your dorm room four page spread from artist Aco and colorists Tamra Bonvillain and Marissa Louise of the Doom Patrol fighting the literally homogenized version of the JLA.
male spandex clad power fantasies” mascot at worst. In his first appearance, Aco goes for pure horror with inset panels of him shoving milk down the throats of an average white Middle America family. This powerful, nearly silent scene played against an idyllic color palette from Bonvillain and Louise is a reminder that even when art claims to be apolitical, just for fun, or not have a message that it, in fact, does have a message. The Retconn Corporation wants to “homogenize” the DC Comics characters, including their classic Trinity, and turn them from powerful icons of justice into basically toys and merchandise as revealed in a couple pages that seem like a “behind the scenes” of a corporate board meeting. Milkman Man’s reaction to reading the actual Action Comics #1 (After yet another gorgeous and meta as hell double page spread from Aco, Bonvillain, and Louise.) is a reminder of how powerful Superman’s origin story is from Way and Orlando, who realize that pop culture can change the world and immigrants get the job done.