Doom Patrol: Book One

Doom Patrol: Book One by Grant Morrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Doom Patrol: Book One collects issues 19-34 of Doom Patrol, written by Grant Morrison with art by Richard Case, John Nyberg, Doug Braithwaite Scott Hanna, and Carlos Garzon.

The Doom Patrol has been one of my favorite super teams for ages, when I discovered they were an even more dysfunctional Fantastic Four. Goodreads tells me the last time I read these stories was in 2009 so this omnibus was almost like an all new book.

The Chief puts together a new team to kick off the volume: Crazy Jane, a woman with 64 super powered personalities, Rebis, a combination of Larry Trainor, doctor Eleanor Poole, and the Negative Spirit, and good old Robotman, Cliff Steele. The new Doom Patrol take on The Brotherhood of Dada, the Cult of the Unwritten Word, the Scissormen, the Painting That Ate Paris, old enemies Brain and Mallah, and their biggest enemy: themselves.

The art was serviceable, not anything too spectacular. I guess that helps to keep things coherent at times. I don't know how readable this stuff would be with a different art style. The stories are very odd but still have a comic book goofiness to them. They're creepier than Silver Age Doom Patrol stories but I don't think the original Doom Patrol would be terribly out of place.

Sure, there are some logical leaps by the characters and Morrison is in "throw as many ideas at the reader at once but don't explore many of them" mode but the love for the DC universe still comes through. There's a reference to an early issue of Neil Gaiman's Sandman that I missed last time though, plus relatively obscure characters like Sunburst. Mallah pushing The Brain in a baby carriage was one of my favorite visuals in this volume.

Four out of five stars. On to the next serving of weirdness!

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