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DOOM PATROL #3
"Grudge Match
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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DC Comics
Writer: John Arcudi
Artist: Tan Eng Huat
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Bob Lappan
Editor: Andy Helfer
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
Though there are some good characters and some really nice art in Doom Patrol, I'm mostly left with the feeling that it is a nice, safe super-hero book. The talent is certainly solid: Arcudi is doing some solid work with a team that has definite personal difficulties, and has a bit of a new spin with the corporate angle, and Eng Huat's art seems to improve with each issue and is certainly beautiful. However, I'm not seeing much here that I can't get already from books like JSA, Avengers, Thunderbolts, JLA,
etc.
Where the book definitely
stands out is in the artwork. Eng Huat's work has become less reminiscent of the
faux-manga style that I'm tiring of and more like the work that Travis Charest
did in his heyday, full of clean lines and detail. His work on the backgrounds,
whether it's Bruno's Nightclub or the hospital, is particularly impressive.
Although his work on characters, from the somewhat sad and pathetic face of Ron
Gomz to the stylized interpretation of the Doom Patrol members, is nothing to
sneeze at.
Unfortunately, the book is
taking a while to get going, story-wise. The team hasn't quite settled into a
status quo, three issues in, which should be exciting and unpredictable but is
instead deadly dull. There's not really a feeling that they are facing any kind
of adversity, as their money problems are nonexistent and the dangers they've
faced have been mundane in the extreme. I'm as big a fan of a book that features
the team sitting around talking with one another as anyone, but there needs to
be conflict beyond "Boy, that Negative Man is a jerk, isn't he?" to make it
work.
Arcudi is setting up mysteries
here, but I'm not sure if they're mysteries or poor storytelling. The sudden
appearance of Ava's burned face seemed like a pretty major problem, but then it
disappeared, and I'm not sure if it was a flash forward or something else. It's
clear by the end of the story that Arcudi is going somewhere with it, but Flash
Forward's reaction to the event didn't make what was happening clear enough. In
the same way, Robotman's musings in the hospital about who or what he is
definitely has mystery to it (who is the guy in the hospital bed) but nowhere
near as many mysteries as how he suddenly disappeared from the hospital and
appeared in the headquarters. I'm all for mysteries, but I like to know that
they're mysteries and not mistakes, and I'm not sure in this case.
The cast of this book is quite interesting, with personality quirks that make me want to know more about them and powers that are unusual and intriguing. The artwork is gorgeous, and it becomes clearer each month why Helfer was so high on it in the first place. But what I get from Doom Patrol I can get from any number
of other team books, and it needs something to distinguish itself from those
books... fast.
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