| Posted: 08 January 2005 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | 11
|
|
|
Alright, here's my review of Doom Patrol #7, fulfilling my obligations under the "swap":
Let me start out by saying that the only other exposure I've had to this era of the team is the Waid/Kitson version from JLA: Year One, which I happened to like a good deal, so I can enjoy this lineup. I read this issue twice, since I haven't been following it from the beginning, in order to give myself a better chance of catching the nuances, but still keep in mind that this is the only issue I've read in the series, so I still may miss some of what's going on and why. That said, I wasn't terribly impressed with the issue. While I tend to like Byrne's art better when he's inked by someone else, it still wasn't very dynamic to me. The costumes are very plain, even the "DP" logo on the belts is incredibly simplistic. Robotman is the only one with a decent look. When compared to gorillas drawn by Howard Porter, Scott Kolins and Ed McGuinness, to name a few, Grunt comes across as very uninspired, almost Planet of the Apes-esque.
The story itself wasn't all that captivating. A mad scientist turing people into devolutionized versions of themselves, not really something we haven't seen before and from this issue it didn't look to have any kind of new spin on it. The story didn't even flow very well. At the beginning, Vortex acts unaware of Robotman's transformation as he approaches him with Nudge, yet later on in the issue, we see that Vortex was aware of Cliff's transformation at the moment it happened. And while this is minor, I felt it was a little silly to have Nudge trying to contact Faith for twenty minutes. I mean, really, at the rate they were going the whole place would have been destroyed in twenty minutes. It was like everything else stopped while Nudge tried to make contact. I did like that Faith was mentioned though. Gave a nice feel of congruity.
As for the chracters themselves, Rita, Cliff, Larry and Chief all seemed well and good, although I much preferred Negative Man's old look. Very classic and distinctive. I felt Vortex and Grunt could be interesting characters, but I didn't see enough of them here. Unfortunately, this issue seemed to focus most on Nudge, the character I felt least interested in. Her character type (teenaged female runaway uncertain of her powers and her place in the world) has been done over and over again and I had no desire to see it again. And what exactly is her name anyway? At one point Vortex calls her "Mi-san" but for the remainder of the issue she's called "Mi-sun" and when she introduces herself to the ghost it's as "Mi-sun. Kwon Mi-sun" as if Mi-sun were her last name, yet her mother answered the phone "Kwon residence" making it seem as if Kwon was her last name.
I will say this for the book, it was a weighty read. While I may not have loved it, I still felt as if I had gotten plenty of story with the issue. That's something rare in comics these days. 2 part stories are also a nice change of pace. Although they may make as easy a jumping off point as they do a jumping on point.
I even gave it to my girlfriend to read as one more attempt to get someone else on board, as she often likes things that don't exactly thrill me, since she's newer to the comic medium. No such luck here as she didn't like it much either.
So, even though the book has its strengths, I don't think I'll be staying on board with the book, as I seem to be enjoying the books I already read more and I won't have the money to add another title to my stack for another 6 months. I may still pick up #8 to see how the story ends, plus I'm a sucker for the "Next issue: SOMEONE DIES!" line. Even though, I didn't love the book, I still enjoyed the experience. This was a good idea and I'm glad I tried it out.
I hope my review doesn't affect how people treat the books we swapped for.
|
Topic Closed)
