Doom Patrol: Book Two

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

Doom Patrol: Book Two collects issues 35-50 of Doom Patrol, written by Grant Morrison with art by a who's who of Vertigo artists.

The weirdness level is kicked up a couple more notches in this volume. The Doom Patrol take on The Men From NOWHERE, get caught in a war between The Mesh and The Kaleidoscape, and encounter Flex Mentallo and Danny The Street, as well as getting their asses handed to them by the Brotherhood of Dada again.

To be honest, the weird Doom Patrol stories can seem intimidating and even impenetrable at times but they're really basic super hero stories under the "Look How Weird This is" exterior. They still fall into the super heroes trying to stop super villains archetype, albeit with bizarre conspiracies and mysticism wrapped around them.

Morrison is an idea writer more than a plot writer. The wealth of imagination on display is wonderous, even if the payoff is a little lacking or underexplained at times. One gripe I have is that the Doom Patrol don't have a lot of agency in a lot of their stories and don't even seem like necessary components at times.

Robotman is one of my favorite DC characters and this volume illustrates why. He's got the "I'm too old for this shit" vibe down pat and pretty much tries to keep everyone on the same page as the weird shit comes raining down.

At the end of the day, I liked this quite a bit even though it felt a little unfocused at times. I've reached the point in the series where I'm going in completely blind so the third omnibus should be some crazy shit.

Doom Patrol: Book Two is a strange, fun, slightly incoherent set of tales featuring DC's weirdest heroes. Four out of five stars.

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