Customer Reviews

Showcase Presents: Doom Patrol, Vol. 1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Doom Patrol is one of the super teams that I was visually familiar with, but other than an entry in a Who's Who comic (DC's version of the Marvel Handbook) I knew little about the characters. Unlike other 60s DC books, DP has characters that display personality; compare that to the early Justice League, whose characters are almost interchangeable. Additionally, the villains are interesting and weird compared to the more well-known villains in other books. The artist Bruno Premiani has an interesting sense for drawing the weird, as their first villain, General Immortus, is rendered with interesting wrinkles and appears like an old man with his dentures missing. I enjoy clean storytelling from the 60s after so much of the highly rendered work seen today. I believe this book is an excellent primer for those looking for a little bit different superhero adventure but don't want a "deep" read. The characters are interesting enough and don't have all of the published history of comparable "freak" hero books like the FF or X-Men. It's nice to read something with a cleaner slate.

Showcase presents the Doom Patrol is a cheeper alternative to the five $50.00 archive collections with the same stories. I opted to buy this because I am a huge fan of Morrison's Doom Patrol and I wanted to read their early adventures without having to spend more than $250.00 dollars on said archives. This volume covers about half of the original run and depicts the first appearances of Larry (Negative man), Rita (Elasti-girl), the Chief, and Cliff (Robotman). The collection also includes the first appearances of other friends and enemies such as: General Immortus, the Brotherhood of Evil, the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral man, Mento, and Beastboy. I am not nuts about beastboy and some of the stories are a little Deus Ex Machina with the chief happening upon some random solution but overall it is an affordable read full of some truly enjoyable(and crazy) stories. If you like the zany stories found in the Metal Men, Metamorpho, or Challengers of the unknown get the Doom Patrol.

I never knew much about the Doom Patrol except that they existed and I start liking the characters when I read some of the issues of John Byrne's run. But this Showcase is really something else.

In the first place I think this resembles a lot journal strips, which I love, in the sense that it draws heavely on a clever plot, beautiful art that sometimes speaks for itself, subttle sense of humour, personality of the characters, and the fact that there is something bizzarre about everything. This is not a super-hero masquerade where the cool powers and charisma of the characters often replaces a good story.

The fact that the Doom Patrol is not major league in comics doesn't equate at all to lack of quality at any level, by the contrary, the stories are extremly consistent even if strange, in fact that strangeness makes things that would not look consistent in other type of stories look pretty much natural here.

A great reading.

I have read next to nothing of comic books from this era, just a few excruciating Batman and Justice League stories, and wow, now I understand why so many people consider The Doom Patrol to be so ground breaking. I read Grant Morrison's amazing run (which I hope gets recollected in omnibus form real soon!) and fell in love with this quirky bizarre superhero team.

Cliff Steele (Robotman), Rita Farr (Elasti-Girl), and Larry Trainor (Negative Man) are cursed with unique abilities due to freak accidents and hate it. The Chief (Dr. Niles Caulder) is a brilliant wheelchair bound scientist who wants to help these three utilize their abilities for the betterment of humankind and gain some kind of acceptance back into society. One of touching side affect is that the four bond like a family, despite a lot of feuds, but that's part of being a family, right? The dynamics of this group are great and had to be ground breaking for the time. The harsh name calling, low self-esteem, jealousy, but also the commitment to each other despite their flaws, because deep down inside they really do accept each other. Later on in the series when Mento and Beast Boy come along, there is a threat to their status quo and they do not welcome these "freaks" as warmly as they welcomed each other. Mento does not help his cause by being so arrogant and who flaunts his money and "normal" appearance around. Beast Boy is the unfortunate case of going through his "freak" problems right at the age of puberty, something the others can't relate to, so he is mostly dismissed as a lying brat.

There is a lot of fun and goofiness in this series. I can see it's influence on many superhero team of today. There are a lot of great one-liners and crazy adventures this group find themselves thrust into. Great wacky villains such as The Brothehood of Evil, General Immortus, and the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man just to name a few.

The series starts of slow, as do most, finding it's way and working out the characters and how they relate to one another. But as soon as they click they CLICK! Arnold Drake's writing is fun and intriguing, although at many points of the stories he gets bogged down in over narrating as is common in comics, but it gets really carried away here at times. Almost every chapter someone has to point out negative man has to get back to Larry's body in under sixty seconds or he'll die. You'd think after a certain number of issues that wouldn't be necessary. The artwork of Bob Brown is great and Bruno Premiani is fantastic. The weird yet proportionately sound figures of the characters is uncanny. In order to get this much content for such a decent price sacrifices were made notably that this piece is void of color. But I don't mind, as it Bruno's art is enchanting enough that no color restoration is needed.

A great collection of a greatly under appreciated series. Pick up to find out just how much the chief loathes to have people touch his beard!