Let’s line up the weird and see where the chips fall.
Creative Staff:
Story: Gerard Way
Art: Nick Derington
Colors: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Todd Klein
What They Say:
The atoms are buzzing. The daydreams crowd sentient streets, and the creative team has been warned, “Turn back now or suffer the mighty consequence of sheer, psycho-maniacal mayhem.” Generation-arsonists unite—this is DOOM PATROL, and the God of the Super Heroes is bleeding on the floor.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While for a lot of fans the big title that got them into Vertigo books in the 90’s was Sandman, for me it was Doom Patrol when Grant Morrison took it over. The series did so many weird and crazy things in a way that made some strange cosmic sense just kept me fascinated from issue to issue. So when the Young Animal line was announced and the launch title was going to be a new Doom Patrol under Gerard Way, which marks the first series of his that I was going to really dig into, I was pretty excited. With Nick Derington on the artwork and Tamra Bonvillain doing some fantastic stuff here in bringing it to greater life with the colors, it’s very easy to get caught up in this book already even though it’s mostly just starting to lay out some of the pieces without really touching on the story.
While I haven’t read any Doom Patrol since that series ended in the 90’s and I suspect fans of it will get just a touch more out of this book, it’s not a requirement to know any of it going into this. Particularly since the book is primarily revolving around Casey Brinke, an all new character. This young woman is a bright and outgoing character, one who learned from her mother to burn bright into the darkness because life is too short. Working as an ambulance driver for three weeks with her partner shows that she’s pretty good at handling the situations and the drain that it takes on the soul with what you see but we also get that nod that she’s just a little bit odd. Nothing in a crazy way but just not like most that end up in this particular line of work. Her goal is to do good and to help as many people as she can before things for them become truly dire.
Getting to know her is a big part of this and it takes its odd turns, such as when they’re called by the not-usual dispatcher to an accident where there isn’t one only for Clif, aka Robotman, to appear out of an alley only to be hit by a truck and shattered into pieces, which Casey naturally takes home. This comes after a surreal mini-journey where see Cliff in some other place that he escapes from out of an apocalypse that’s intriguing, leaving me hoping for more. Casey also has some trouble with her roommate, who is kind of jerk, but certainly didn’t deserve to be blown to pieces by a young woman that shows up at their door and then becomes Casey’s new roommate. It’s that kind of weird series of surreal events that have no connection visible at the moment playing out but is done in a way that really leaves you wanting to know more about it.
In Summary:
As a launch title for Young Animal this definitely feels like it’s trying (and succeeding) in evoking old school Vertigo, which is what I was hoping for. And like those books there’s a sense of a lot of things being thrown at us that we won’t understand yet and will take a few issues to really come together, which I’m more than willing to give to Way and the team here as they’ve done a great job. It’s interesting and curious and wonderfully laid out as Derington captures the surreal aspect within the reality that exists, keeping it grounded but also shifting as needed, such as with Cliff’s journey. The whole thing with Calder was priceless, however, as a page of him without any dialogue is how he’s best presented anyway. I do wish these were priced like the rest of the main DC line though as I’d be more committed than I am but it’s definitely got a lot of potential here mixed with a kind of nostalgia being tickled.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Vertigo Comics/Young Animal via ComiXology
Release Date: September 14th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
