Customer Reviews

Doom Patrol, Book 2: The Painting That Ate Paris

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Grant Morrison's run on DOOM PATROL is not one of my favorite comics ever. It's one of my favorite THINGS ever. My world is a better place by sheer virtue of the fact that this series is lying around in it.

DOOM PATROL (2nd Series), for those not in the know, is an early 90's update for one of the weirdest silver age series around. After an uninspiring intro by Paul Kupperberg (who at least brought the series back), Grant Morrison retooled the whole thing and came up with (Am I stupid enough to say it? Yes!) Pure Magick!

You probably need to be enthralled to the whole superhero ethos to understand this series, but if you are, ZANG! This may be the most off-the-wall bizarre thing you will ever read. If it was anybody else, this would simply be another boring deconstruction of superheroes. It is so very easy to write the strange for sake of the strange. What Morrison brought to the table is an absolute love for the medium and a deep concern with the damaged characters who populate it.

Perhaps his most inspired creation of the series is featured prominently in this trade, the Brotherhood of Dada! They aren't really supervillains as much as art school graduates, rejects and visionaries. Led by Mr. Nobody (whose origin is terrifying), they are simply, I don't know, snork-tacular?

After these escapades we are led into a journey of Crazy Jane's brain (who has been seriously damaged by childhood trauma into mulitple personalities). This issue (#30) is one of the creepiest comics ever to make to publication, and a perfect example of Morrison's commitment to his characters.

We follow this up with the sublimely weird Cult of the Unwritten Book story arc. Who hasn't wished that John Constantine had been a character from Withnail & I?

The final issue of this paperback features Monsieur Mallah & The Brain. If you have never laughed out loud at a comic, you are missing out. It's a testament to Morrison's talent on this series that he can feature two single issues (this and #30) that are so dichotomous, but still work together as a series. Brilliant.

And this was all pre-Vertigo. Nobody was making things like this!

<You forgot the power to make escape-proof spirit jars.>

I remember reading the first Invisibles trade and thinking to myself "man, that was weird. How can he top that?" Well, I got the second one, and sure enough, Morrison did. So why bring this up in a review of a Doom Patrol trade? Because I had the exact same thing happen to me with "The Painting That Ate Paris." I read "Crawling from the Wreckage" and thought there was no way Morrison could surpass it. Well, was I ever wrong! In this collection, we're introduced to the Brotherhood of Dada, who wish to wreck their own brand of havoc on the world. To do so, they unleash a painting that sucks the entire city of Paris into it, hence the title. The weirdness precedes from there, such as battles with the Fifth Horsemen of the Apoclaypse (the way he's defeated is a testament to Morrison's inventiveness) and the Cult of the Unwritten book. If you find The Invisibles too weird for your tastes, and want something along similiar lines, then try Morrison's The Doom Patrol.

The Doom Patrol's old enemies, the Brotherhood of Evil, are gone. In their place stands the strange menace of the Brotherhood of Dada, and their painting that can consume cities. But the Brain, the former leader of the Brotherhood of Evil, is by no means done with the Doom Patrol.

"Doom Patrol: The Painting that Ate Paris" is the second collection of Grant Morrison's groundbreaking and fondly-remembered on "Doom Patrol." He kept the surreal tone coming, slowly and gradually pulling the team to new levels of strangeness.

From a battle with the absurdly inventive Brotherhood of Dada to retrieve Paris from inside of a painting, to a concept of nothing that threatens to consume the world, Morrison tells unique, strange, exciting, but never-confusing stories that deserve their reputation and longevity. You can't go wrong with this volume.

Out of the "new" series, I think this is the best collection of the revamped DOOM PATROL. There is a massive amount of story depth, character development and fairly impressive philosophical/aesthetic theory intertwined into this narrative. I usually read cliche pansy indie comics about how some guy is sad because some girl doesn't like him. However, Doom Patrol took me out of that genre and into the world of "retarded super heros" as one of my friends calls it. I like this metatheme of superheros who don't necessarily want to be super heros and are basically normal people with psychological issues. I think this is a worthy purchase and this is coming from someone who does not usually purchase any DC/Marvel comics. Last, I think this comic is drawn exceptionally well.

Grant Morrison's version of Doom Patrol is brillient, and one of my favorite comis series ever. This is probably the best DP trade book to date, and I would definately recommend it. The Painting that Ate Paris storyarc is great, the bit inside Crazy Jane's mind is great, the Mind and the Body bit is spectacular (IMHO) and the Anitgod arc was pretty good too.

This comic is amazing. The creativity and inventiveness that come out of the book are very enjoyable. In this comic, the Doom Patrol faces a dadaist enemy. An enemy that makes the absurd real. As the title suggest, there is a painting that eats Paris. The Justice League can't do anything about it, but the Doom Patrol is perfect for this sort of case.

Throughout the issues we travel inside the painting to different art styles such as impressionism and surrealism. The intellectual playfulness is incredible. I don't know how the artist was able to pull off these crazy ideas, but he manages to do it and do it well.

The book contains a few more stories besides the one in the title. It has a really good one-shot story in the mind of Crazy Jane, a woman that has 64 personalities. It is an interesting issue where Robotman tries to get Crazy Jane out of a self-imposed coma by going into her mind. Great stuff.

Overall, this comic is fantastic. I am glad I didn't put it down after the lackluster Book 1. I am looking forward to reading the rest of Morrison's run.

Grant Morrison is one of the best writers in the industry and Doom Patrol was one of his first works. The Doom Patrol series is a mix between the superhero and horror genres. The heroes and villains are outcasts and freaks with strange powers.

This book does a very good job of capturing that essence. The first half deals with the titular "The Painting that ate Paris" and introduces the Brotherhood of Dada. The second half deals with the antigod and unmaker of the universe and a few one off issues fill the space between.

One thing you can never accuse this run of, is being uncreative. Creativity gushes of the page in each panel and idea. In a world where most superhero books focus on some evil empire or sympathetic extremist villains, Doom Patrol gives you the type of problems you will never see in any other book. Villains are composed of dead skin cells, are powered by you forgetting a word and having the "just on the tip of the tongue feeling" and many things more absurd. This book is what Hellboy has nightmares about.

Sadly most of the book seems to be just strange for the sake of being strange. I can't really put my finger on where this book failed for me. It just felt so unfulfilling when I reached the end. Everything is so strange that I think it's hard to find an entry point into the series. There is no normal setting to help you identify with any character before your tossed into the world of the absurd. You're just watching a series of rather strange event unfold.

I love Grant Morrison's work. But sadly this just didn't do it for me. If truly like weird and strange ideas and nothing more then by all means pick this up. But if you want a little bit more from your comics then you should probably avoid this series.

Hassle free purchase. WONDERFUL reprints of top notch CLASSIC comics. THANK YOU.
-Richard

I have waited years to read this book, years!!! Finally affordable for my tastes. And a Bolland cover to boot!

I wanted to like this book - I really did. A bunch of heroic freaks and misfits, cast-offs from society who are sworn to defend it - all sorts of wonderful story potential there. And normally I'm a huge vertigo fan, not only of their most popular titles (sandman back in it's time, hellblazer, swamp thing, animal man) but also their smaller one-shot series (sebastian O, the extremist)... Anyone familiar with this selection can tell I'm a fan of off-beat stories.

Having said that - the execution of the story feels...ungrounded. I think I understand what the author is trying to do but it's so far "out there" that it barely makes any sense. Again to cite Sandman and Hellblazer as examples - all sorts of allegorical, magical stuff going on but it was laid out in a way that a reader could identify with, it was coherent... THIS... it's just too far out there to make an enjoyable read. If it seems like I'm struggling to find the words to describe this graphic novel that should tell you something right there about the content within it.

It's only collection number one so maybe I need to give it a chance, move on to the second graphic novel in the series and see what happens...but so far I have to say I'm really not that impressed. Rather disappointed actually - I bought it based solely on the other positive reviews posted here.