Doom Patrol (1987-1995): Book One

FIRST AND FOREMOST: This is exactly the kind of comic art I love. THAT SAID: It's abstract. Absurd. Non-linear. Kooky. ALSO: Heart breaking. Political. Wry. Tender. Sublime. Artful. And unrelenting. BUT MOSTLY: Totally engaging and terrific fun.

I read some of the Morrison/Case run of Doom Patrol back when it was new, and it fascinated me. It was around the time of the Shadow Cabinet storyline. I vividly (and maybe accurately) recall one of my all-time favorite bits of dialog from comics: Fortune Teller - You have a very long life line. It goes all the way around. Crazy Jane - That's a seam. I'm wearing gloves. That day, "Negative Man" (or, at that time, probably "Negative Hermaphrodite") became one of my all-time favorite superheroes. The enigmas that spilled out of Negative Person's bandage-swaddled mouth were amazing, the casual manner of floating just above the ground instead of walking was great, and the whole sense of bizarre atmosphere that infused the story set my imagination a-tingle. I thought it was probably just a particularly weird plot arc, and sadly I did not get to read more than a few issues before losing track of it. Years later, I learned that kind of bizarreness was "normal" for Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol stories. A couple decades after that Shadow Cabinet story, I found out Doom Patrol got rebooted, so I started reading it. Different writer, different artist, different feel. It was nowhere near as intriguing as I remembered. I dropped it after a few issues. It did not really leave an impression. I finally got around to ordering the first collected volume of the Morrison/Case run (Case didn't illustrate all the Morrison issues, apparently, but at least most of them), and this time Doom Patrol did not disappoint. I'm pretty sure I never read any of the issues collected in this volume, but it's excellent. It ended on a hilarious note, left me with a smile on my face and an urge to write this review. I await the next volume on the edge of my seat; I'll order it shortly. If you're the kind of person who likes stories written to comfort the disturbed and (most importantly and dramatically) disturb the comfortable, get this book.

The quality of both the pages and the cover/back is great, and if you're buying this to read it for the first time, you won't be disappointed.

Grant Morrison is most famous for writing Animal man in the late 80's. While that series certainly had it's share of weirdness, it was nothing compared to the insanity of this volume of doom patrol. Doom Patrol starts off at issue #19 of the series. This is the same situation as Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, where DC and fans recognize that the series only really got good once these writers took over. Now, it's a bit more of an awkward start for Doom Patrol, since Morrison didn't devote as much time as Moore did to explaining backstory, but we do get a brief introduction to our main characters. The Doom Patrol isn't like normal super hero teams, consisting of people who are in some way damaged. From a woman with multiple personalities, to a brain stuck in a robot body, to a hermaphrodite-energy hybrid...well it goes on like that for a while. This brings me to my first problem with this volume and the series so far. The three main characters get plenty of screen time, but there are at least four other Doom Patrol members,and outside a focus issue or two, they don't do much. It doesn't really get in the way of the series, but it does feel like it isn't living up to it's potential. So, moving on to the plot of this series. Well. Ok, let's put this bluntly, Doom Patrol is a series that goes weird for the sake of weird. It is an extremely avant-garde, absurdist series, and has the artwork to back it up. To give one example, there exists in this comic a group of police that work for a cult, who operate by drawing the fingerprints of their victims onto their helmets so that those they kill will get trapped in the whorls, and speak entirely in anagrams. Now, that's not to say it isn't engrossing. Some villains are actually quite well developed as characters. But this isn't a series that's going to make a lot of direct sense. Still, it's tons of fun, has great artwork, and I would be remiss if I didn't recommend it.

Must read!

Great book. Loved that it in the style of the 90's comics, made me feel younger reading it. And I've seen the series on HBO Max, it base on this book but the book is better because it has more to the whole storyline. Can't wait to read the next book.

The fact there was a tv show and Brendan Frazier signed on meant it was time to finally read these comics. Wonderful wonderful wonderful. Good writing, good drawings, and good characters place you into a world of doom. Just enough on the edge to give you the skin crawl, but not enough to make you keep one eye open when you sleep.

Truly my favorite run of any book ever. Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol is a surreal rollercoaster ride from beginning to end.

Excelente!

Edicion de 10 de DC. La Doom patrol es una locura. No para todos. Lo lei 2 veces. La 2a me gustó incluso mas. El volumen 2 y 3 igual de buenos. Mejor el 3 para mi. Gran final.

Puede que prefiriese la version de tapa dura, con toda la serie completa, pero pude aprovechar una promoción en la que se encontraban los 3 tomos a unos $450 pesos, aproximadamente. Si puedo echar alguna queja, es que es dificil de leer de lo grande que esta. Tambien, que por algun motivo, el lomo del segundo tomo no coincide con el resto y eso me irrita el TOC ajajajajaja

İngilizce biliyorsanız ve çizgi romanları da seviyorsanız alıp okuyun. Çok güzel bir TV dizisi de vardır, ayrıca öneririm.

Un livre complètement dingue mais très bien exécuté. Les personnages sont issues d’une imagination délirante mais le tout est très bien structuré et renforcé par une grande qualité de dessin. Vraiment du beau travail.