What do you think?
Rate this book
Doom Patrol (1987)(Collected Editions)
Doom Patrol, Vol. 1: Crawling from the Wreckage
This new edition of the first collection of Grant Morrison's DOOM PATROL run includes issues #19 - 25 of the series, including the restoration of three story pages omitted from the original printing. Plus, a new cover by Bolland.
186 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 1989
About the author
Grant Morrison
1,782 books4,376 followersGrant Morrison has been working with DC Comics for twenty five years, after beginning their American comics career with acclaimed runs on ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL. Since then they have written such best-selling series as JLA, BATMAN and New X-Men, as well as such creator-owned works as THE INVISIBLES, SEAGUY, THE FILTH, WE3 and JOE THE BARBARIAN. In addition to expanding the DC Universe through titles ranging from the Eisner Award-winning SEVEN SOLDIERS and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN to the reality-shattering epic of FINAL CRISIS, they have also reinvented the worlds of the Dark Knight Detective in BATMAN AND ROBIN and BATMAN, INCORPORATED and the Man of Steel in The New 52 ACTION COMICS.
In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.
In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 384 reviews
January 7, 2023
One-thing I strongly recommend when reading amazing comic book runs, is reading the preceding issues in a series so you can truly grasp the leaps and bounds made! I read the preceding Paul Kupperberg penned 18 issue run before starting on this amazing Morrison jam. Oh. Em. Gee. Words almost escape me.
A quirky eclectic collection of unwitting heroes come together to fight the darker forces of eccentricity, irrationality, insanity etc. - a perfect vehicle for the creative but also slightly eschewed mind of the young Morrison. An easy Four Stars, 8 out of 12 for this innovation masterclass. PS, the TV show is on par, it's wonderful :)
2020 read
PS: Watch the goddamn amazing TV adaptation... WATCH IT!
A quirky eclectic collection of unwitting heroes come together to fight the darker forces of eccentricity, irrationality, insanity etc. - a perfect vehicle for the creative but also slightly eschewed mind of the young Morrison. An easy Four Stars, 8 out of 12 for this innovation masterclass. PS, the TV show is on par, it's wonderful :)
2020 read
PS: Watch the goddamn amazing TV adaptation... WATCH IT!
November 23, 2015
A depressed human brain in a robot’s body; a woman with 64 different personalities, each with their own superpower; a hermaphrodite spirit; an ape-faced girl with powerful imaginary friends; a guy who shoots energy beams from his arms but prefers to be an office admin rather than a superhero; and a guy in a wheelchair who likes chocolate bars - welcome to the Doom Patrol!
Grant Morrison takes the strangest and least likely superheroes and throws them together as an awkward team who have to save the world; that’s one of the reasons why I like Morrison so much, the way that he embraces the weird so fully to subvert the established model of the superhero narrative.
The first arc of Morrison’s Doom Patrol has a common theme that has featured throughout his work: fiction as reality. The Scissormen (dudes with scissors for hands – this is also before Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands) are invading Earth, literally cutting people out of our reality and sending them back to their fictional world! Ingeniously, their dialogue looks like the product of William Burroughs’ cut-up method.
The other main story is about a butterfly collector called Red Jack who believes he’s God and Jack the Ripper. He lives in a mansion without windows and tortures thousands of butterflies because he needs pain to survive! Wow.
Maybe it’s because Morrison began his run at issue #19 and didn’t feel like he had to do much introductory work on the established characters but I liked this book’s villains far more than the Doom Patrol themselves who came off as shallow creations. I like that Crazy Jane has dozens of superhero personalities and therefore potentially dozens of superpowers – that’s a really cool idea – but otherwise I can take or leave the rest. Cliff, Joshua, Rebis, Caulder, Dorothy – they never felt more than names that engaged with the far more interesting villains.
And what’s Caulder trying to do besides sending out the team to react to threats? Something about getting the team back together but they’re already together it seems so… eh?
Crawling from the Wreckage is from early in Morrison’s career so the artwork is ‘80s standard, ie. the pre-digital illustration looks very dated today. That said, some of Richard Case’s panels looked quite good, particularly when Rebis battled the Scissormen. Generally though, the visuals aren’t especially brilliant – I think I’ve been spoiled by the incredible comics artwork we see everywhere these days!
Morrison’s first Doom Patrol book has, as you’d expect given the author, some great, original ideas but the overall effect unfortunately isn’t terribly exciting to read. The Doom Patrol are an unusual bunch and I like that misfit aspect but if Morrison hadn’t written them, there’s no way I’d be reading this. In Crawling from the Wreckage, the glimmers of brilliance from Grant Morrison’s script eclipsed the main characters who for the most part came off as uninteresting and flat. He gave readers a reason to give a damn about him rather than the Doom Patrol themselves! His fans will get something out of it but this first Doom Patrol book is still minor Morrison and not an essential read.
Grant Morrison takes the strangest and least likely superheroes and throws them together as an awkward team who have to save the world; that’s one of the reasons why I like Morrison so much, the way that he embraces the weird so fully to subvert the established model of the superhero narrative.
The first arc of Morrison’s Doom Patrol has a common theme that has featured throughout his work: fiction as reality. The Scissormen (dudes with scissors for hands – this is also before Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands) are invading Earth, literally cutting people out of our reality and sending them back to their fictional world! Ingeniously, their dialogue looks like the product of William Burroughs’ cut-up method.
The other main story is about a butterfly collector called Red Jack who believes he’s God and Jack the Ripper. He lives in a mansion without windows and tortures thousands of butterflies because he needs pain to survive! Wow.
Maybe it’s because Morrison began his run at issue #19 and didn’t feel like he had to do much introductory work on the established characters but I liked this book’s villains far more than the Doom Patrol themselves who came off as shallow creations. I like that Crazy Jane has dozens of superhero personalities and therefore potentially dozens of superpowers – that’s a really cool idea – but otherwise I can take or leave the rest. Cliff, Joshua, Rebis, Caulder, Dorothy – they never felt more than names that engaged with the far more interesting villains.
And what’s Caulder trying to do besides sending out the team to react to threats? Something about getting the team back together but they’re already together it seems so… eh?
Crawling from the Wreckage is from early in Morrison’s career so the artwork is ‘80s standard, ie. the pre-digital illustration looks very dated today. That said, some of Richard Case’s panels looked quite good, particularly when Rebis battled the Scissormen. Generally though, the visuals aren’t especially brilliant – I think I’ve been spoiled by the incredible comics artwork we see everywhere these days!
Morrison’s first Doom Patrol book has, as you’d expect given the author, some great, original ideas but the overall effect unfortunately isn’t terribly exciting to read. The Doom Patrol are an unusual bunch and I like that misfit aspect but if Morrison hadn’t written them, there’s no way I’d be reading this. In Crawling from the Wreckage, the glimmers of brilliance from Grant Morrison’s script eclipsed the main characters who for the most part came off as uninteresting and flat. He gave readers a reason to give a damn about him rather than the Doom Patrol themselves! His fans will get something out of it but this first Doom Patrol book is still minor Morrison and not an essential read.
February 12, 2012
Since I've reviewed Showcase
Presents Doom Patrol Volume 1 and Umbrella Academy Volume 1 recently, I thought I'd give the series that fills the gap (of sorts) between them a try, Grant Morrison's renowned Doom Patrol run.
The book starts with Robotman in a mental institution after the Patrol's recent hardships. Robotman meets Crazy Jane, a woman with 64 personalities, each with a different super power. Meanwhile, Negative Man undergoes a bizarre transformation when the Negative Spirit merges with his body and with that of his doctor, an African American female doctor, to form Rebis. As Caulder rebuilds the Doom Patrol, chaos ensues when a fictional reality encroaches on ours and the Scissormen invade. The second story is much stranger than the first. The Doom Patrol encounters Red Jack, a psychotic butterfly torturer that lives in an unescapable house with no windows. He proceeds to hand the Doom Patrol's asses to them.
The weirdness starts as a trickle and quickly becomes a torrent. While this first volume certainly isn't the weirdest of Morrison's run, it's definitly up there with the silver age series. Rebis is one of the more original characters in comics, though I do miss Negative Man a bit. The thing I like most is that while it's a strange book, it's not that much different than the first series. The Doom Patrol are fairly dysfunctional but still act as a family. It's odd that Robotman is the Patrol's most normal member. And why does Robotman wear clothes anyway?
I'd recommend this to fans of odd comics and also fans of the new weird. The Doom Patrol's surreal enemies and the bizarre locales they inhabit should appeal to them.
Presents Doom Patrol Volume 1 and Umbrella Academy Volume 1 recently, I thought I'd give the series that fills the gap (of sorts) between them a try, Grant Morrison's renowned Doom Patrol run.
The book starts with Robotman in a mental institution after the Patrol's recent hardships. Robotman meets Crazy Jane, a woman with 64 personalities, each with a different super power. Meanwhile, Negative Man undergoes a bizarre transformation when the Negative Spirit merges with his body and with that of his doctor, an African American female doctor, to form Rebis. As Caulder rebuilds the Doom Patrol, chaos ensues when a fictional reality encroaches on ours and the Scissormen invade. The second story is much stranger than the first. The Doom Patrol encounters Red Jack, a psychotic butterfly torturer that lives in an unescapable house with no windows. He proceeds to hand the Doom Patrol's asses to them.
The weirdness starts as a trickle and quickly becomes a torrent. While this first volume certainly isn't the weirdest of Morrison's run, it's definitly up there with the silver age series. Rebis is one of the more original characters in comics, though I do miss Negative Man a bit. The thing I like most is that while it's a strange book, it's not that much different than the first series. The Doom Patrol are fairly dysfunctional but still act as a family. It's odd that Robotman is the Patrol's most normal member. And why does Robotman wear clothes anyway?
I'd recommend this to fans of odd comics and also fans of the new weird. The Doom Patrol's surreal enemies and the bizarre locales they inhabit should appeal to them.
November 3, 2019
Doom Patrol was a great title to hand over to Grant Morrison and his special brand of weirdness. Doom Patrol has always been about a strange bunch of misfits who investigate the weird and odd. Even in the 60s they were dubbed as the "World's Strangest Heroes". Morrison keeps Robotman and Niles Caulder around while bringing in Crazy Jane, a woman with 64 distinct personalities each with their own super-power and Dorothy whose imagination becomes reality. Negative Man is quickly transformed into the hermaphrodite Rebus.
In this first trade, they investigate the scissormen who cut people out of reality and Red Jack a "god" who thinks he's Jack the Ripper, torturing butterflies to sustain himself. Morrison had an overtendicy to rely on villains who spout gibberish (see the Scissormen). I'd forgotten how much this was actually grounded into the regular DC universe early on. Crazy Jane and Dorothy both got their powers from the meta-bomb that went off during Invasion and the team moves its headquarters to the original home of the Justice League in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island.
Richard Case is your typical artist you'd see on a Vertigo book in the 90s. He has a chunky, blocky design but fantastic character designs. I love the look he soon gives to Cliff, adding the antenna and jacket.
In this first trade, they investigate the scissormen who cut people out of reality and Red Jack a "god" who thinks he's Jack the Ripper, torturing butterflies to sustain himself. Morrison had an overtendicy to rely on villains who spout gibberish (see the Scissormen). I'd forgotten how much this was actually grounded into the regular DC universe early on. Crazy Jane and Dorothy both got their powers from the meta-bomb that went off during Invasion and the team moves its headquarters to the original home of the Justice League in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island.
Richard Case is your typical artist you'd see on a Vertigo book in the 90s. He has a chunky, blocky design but fantastic character designs. I love the look he soon gives to Cliff, adding the antenna and jacket.
July 15, 2020
Perhaps it’s because I had a late start getting interested in graphic novels, but I hadn’t heard about Doom Patrol until last year, when I came across the TV series and loved it. A dark, super weird and surreal group of fucked up “heroes” with very strange powers? Yes, please! This was just the antidote to the Avengers and Justice League (boooooring!) that I needed.
Grant Morrison’s ideas are really… out there, for lack of a better word. They are also totally genius. He weaves concepts like secret societies, occult religions, stream of consciousness writing, existentialism and dream sequences into the genre, giving a wonderfully bizarre flavor to the superhero schtick and I loved it!
As this volume is the first of a sort of reboot of the series, it assembles a “new” Doom Patrol, and brings together Cliff Steele (a race car driver's brain stuck in a big robot body), the Negative Spirit (who merged together Larry Trainor and Dr. Eleanor Poole in a single multi-gendered and multi-racial and radioactive energy being), Crazy Jane (a woman with dissociative identity disorder, and every one of her 64 distinct personalities have distinct powers) and Dorothy Spinner (the Ape-Faced Girl), under the guidance of Niles Caulder, the mysterious Chief (a know it all in a wheel-chair... where have I seen that before...). They reform Doom Patrol after fighting off the Scissormen (henchmen who cut you out of reality, literally) and Red Jack – and we get just a glimpse of Mr. Nobody, opening the door to their future antagonistic relationship.
The artwork is very 90s comic: a bit clunky, with faded colors, but the writing more than makes up for the visual style. That said, I’m not sure this is a graphic novel for everyone: it might be too literary, erudite (Zen koans in a graphic novel?!), baroque and dark for casual comic book readers, but if you enjoyed the series and are curious about where it came from (or if weird is never weird enough for you), I can’t recommend this enough!
Grant Morrison’s ideas are really… out there, for lack of a better word. They are also totally genius. He weaves concepts like secret societies, occult religions, stream of consciousness writing, existentialism and dream sequences into the genre, giving a wonderfully bizarre flavor to the superhero schtick and I loved it!
As this volume is the first of a sort of reboot of the series, it assembles a “new” Doom Patrol, and brings together Cliff Steele (a race car driver's brain stuck in a big robot body), the Negative Spirit (who merged together Larry Trainor and Dr. Eleanor Poole in a single multi-gendered and multi-racial and radioactive energy being), Crazy Jane (a woman with dissociative identity disorder, and every one of her 64 distinct personalities have distinct powers) and Dorothy Spinner (the Ape-Faced Girl), under the guidance of Niles Caulder, the mysterious Chief (a know it all in a wheel-chair... where have I seen that before...). They reform Doom Patrol after fighting off the Scissormen (henchmen who cut you out of reality, literally) and Red Jack – and we get just a glimpse of Mr. Nobody, opening the door to their future antagonistic relationship.
The artwork is very 90s comic: a bit clunky, with faded colors, but the writing more than makes up for the visual style. That said, I’m not sure this is a graphic novel for everyone: it might be too literary, erudite (Zen koans in a graphic novel?!), baroque and dark for casual comic book readers, but if you enjoyed the series and are curious about where it came from (or if weird is never weird enough for you), I can’t recommend this enough!
March 28, 2021
Ah, Doom Patrol, one of Grant Morrison's most famous DC books, and one of the biggest glaring holes in my knowledge of their work. I was expecting full-on weirdness, and I got a lot of that, but what I wasn't expecting was how straightforward a read this will be — everything is explained! Over-explained, actually, by Morrison's standards. I have no problem with that, though lately I tend to prefer my Morrison books being more on the abstract side, but it's easy to see why so many people love this book so much. Doom Patrol explores a lot of out-there concepts that Morrison is so famous for in a very accessible way, the stories are imaginative and exciting, the characters themselves are awesome and have a great team dynamic that feels like a close family of very broken people who help each other overcome personal struggles — and fight the bad guys, of course, because they also have superpowers. In short, this was very lovely, and I can't wait to finally read the rest of this famous run by my favourite writer.
August 24, 2015
Grant Morrison at his most Morrison-est. There are parallel dimensions and weird superhero characters, most of them fairly one dimensional. It was okay, I guess, just not really my sort of story.
July 29, 2015
This is the strangest book I've ever read so far. It's full of parallel universes, paradoxes, scissor men and people with very very very strange powers. For example crazy Jane is part of the doom patrol and has over 68 known personalities inside her, each one with his or her own super power.
Saying that and it being written by Morrison, it still works really well, because even though it's completely cuckoo, it's got some great characters and they get thrown into some dire situations.
Saying that and it being written by Morrison, it still works really well, because even though it's completely cuckoo, it's got some great characters and they get thrown into some dire situations.
June 11, 2017
Doom Patrol- Crawling from the Wreckage is some really odd stuff. But that's the hallmark of Grant Morrison and the Doom Patrol. This is a weird bunch of guys- from a man with his brain in a metal body, to a multiple personality meta-human and a weird three-in-one person. It is like nothing else I've ever read.
The Doom Patrol is being formed and it seems just in time- the Scissormen are coming and the Doom Patrol must stop them. The best way to describe the Doom Patrol is as it's founder says -they deal in things that might drive a "normal" team mad.
The entire story-and the way it ends with the Priest of Lies and the Priest who tells the Truth is truly well done. Hats off to GM. The second story was also interesting about Red Jack, but it doesn't have the epic meta-philosophy of the first story.
If you like your stories original and weird, then I highly recommend the Dom Patrol. Yes, the artwork may seem dated but the stories never are. This is amazing writing and quite unique in its outlook with plenty of dark humor.
So if you're looking for something out of the ordinary-Doom Patrol is for you.
The Doom Patrol is being formed and it seems just in time- the Scissormen are coming and the Doom Patrol must stop them. The best way to describe the Doom Patrol is as it's founder says -they deal in things that might drive a "normal" team mad.
The entire story-and the way it ends with the Priest of Lies and the Priest who tells the Truth is truly well done. Hats off to GM. The second story was also interesting about Red Jack, but it doesn't have the epic meta-philosophy of the first story.
If you like your stories original and weird, then I highly recommend the Dom Patrol. Yes, the artwork may seem dated but the stories never are. This is amazing writing and quite unique in its outlook with plenty of dark humor.
So if you're looking for something out of the ordinary-Doom Patrol is for you.
February 12, 2012
Doom Patrol was one of the books that Grant Morrison made his name on, and it is so very Morrison. Big, ambitious, strange ideas, flawed and likable heroes, execution that's best described as variable, and compulsively readable. Yes, it's Morrison. But since this is still just the beginning, I know that it gets even stranger. I can't wait.
July 5, 2017
Weird. Seriously weird. I had heard about the Doom Patrol, but never read it before. It's kind of like someone took the rules of superhero and tossed them up in the air and into a blender. I got this meaty volume at my library, and I read it on the way to and from Illinois. I guess this is sort of a newer incarnation because at the beginner, there is talk about the previous members getting killed off except for Robotman, who can't die, because he's a brain in a robot suit. They pick up some new members, each equally weird, and fight weirder villains. With some kooky journeys that play out like one might or might not be on an acid trip and lived to regret it. Grant Morrison was inspired by William S. Burroughs, Henrich Hoffmann and Jorge Luis Borges, as the art movement of Dadaism. It's an interesting mix, to say the least. I can't say I would have written a better review back in March. It's one of those things it's hard to analyze. If you like superhero fiction but with very odd right turns, you would enjoy this. If weird isn't your thing, then pass it by.
Overall rating: 3.5/5.0 stars.
Overall rating: 3.5/5.0 stars.
June 21, 2022
As a huge fan of the show I was excited to go back and read this and, it mostly was pretty dang good.
This in a lot of ways is introducing you to The Doom Patrol for the first time and it's weird as hell. Meeting a guy who's now a robot, a girl who has tons of different personalities in her, and guy/girl who has a demon spirit entity inside him, a girl who looks a bit like a ape, and a normal dude who builds a lot of good shit stuck in-between all this craziness. Enemies range from scissor people to a creepy Jack the Ripper type evil character.
It's trippy, it's weird, but it's actually a breezy read that's a lot of fun. Is it perfect? No. But it's damn entertaining.
This in a lot of ways is introducing you to The Doom Patrol for the first time and it's weird as hell. Meeting a guy who's now a robot, a girl who has tons of different personalities in her, and guy/girl who has a demon spirit entity inside him, a girl who looks a bit like a ape, and a normal dude who builds a lot of good shit stuck in-between all this craziness. Enemies range from scissor people to a creepy Jack the Ripper type evil character.
It's trippy, it's weird, but it's actually a breezy read that's a lot of fun. Is it perfect? No. But it's damn entertaining.
September 22, 2016
Grant Morrison can be a bit esoteric for my tastes, but this book (as weird as it is, and it is WEIRD) is him at his most fun, accessible, and lucid. The 16 individual issues they crammed into this paperback (comprising several different story arcs) are a breeze to read. Looking forward to picking up the next one and following more of the Doom Patrol's adventures.
June 7, 2023
Primer volumen de la etapa de Doom Patrol con Grant Morrison como guionista. El salto de calidad con respecto a todo lo anterior de este peculiar grupo de superhéroes es enorme.
Como ya dije en mis anteriores reseñas, la etapa de Arnold Drake me pareció francamente mala, y la de Paul Kupperberg bastante mejor pero nada del otro mundo. En cuanto Morrison toma las riendas de los guiones la cosa cambia mucho, y a mejor. Las historias están mucho mejor construidas y son mucho más coherentes dentro del mundo fantástico y surrealista en el que se desarrollan. Los personajes están más elaborados y los diálogos ya no dan vergüenza ajena sino todo lo contrario.
En concreto, los números 23 y 24 de este volumen me han parecido de lo mejor que he leído en cómics/novelas gráficas de superhéroes. Una maravilla. Los otros números, bastante buenos, pero sin llegar a la altura excelsa de esos dos.
Puedo decir que ha merecido la pena el viaje para llegar hasta aquí, y lo mejor es que tengo por delante 5 volúmenes más para disfrutar del ingenio de Grant Morrison.
Como ya dije en mis anteriores reseñas, la etapa de Arnold Drake me pareció francamente mala, y la de Paul Kupperberg bastante mejor pero nada del otro mundo. En cuanto Morrison toma las riendas de los guiones la cosa cambia mucho, y a mejor. Las historias están mucho mejor construidas y son mucho más coherentes dentro del mundo fantástico y surrealista en el que se desarrollan. Los personajes están más elaborados y los diálogos ya no dan vergüenza ajena sino todo lo contrario.
En concreto, los números 23 y 24 de este volumen me han parecido de lo mejor que he leído en cómics/novelas gráficas de superhéroes. Una maravilla. Los otros números, bastante buenos, pero sin llegar a la altura excelsa de esos dos.
Puedo decir que ha merecido la pena el viaje para llegar hasta aquí, y lo mejor es que tengo por delante 5 volúmenes más para disfrutar del ingenio de Grant Morrison.
August 24, 2016
HOLY SHIT MY PANTS WTF WHAT.....WHAT???!!! Brain Explosion.
I remember Doom Patrol, it was different it was weird and the characters were awesome. However I was a kid and my source of comics was my friends and this one I read an issue here or there so I never got to really experience the story in full. That's changed and now I've been blown away.
World: The art is fine, it is 80s art and this is what it is, however I will say that the emotions are great and the character designs are wonderful. The pages are a bit static but as I said the characters are great. The world building is absolutely amazing, brain explosion good. The awesomeness is even more apparent if you read issues 1-18 where it was good, but felt like the superhero books you are use to. With issue 19 the world building takes a huge tonal shift and it's insane. The weirdness, the tortured nature of the world, it's brilliant. I won't ruin it for readers, just read it to experience it.
Story: Wow, that is so different and amazing. It's tortured, it's sad, it's melancholy and messed up. This story is just nuts and man they are amazing. The Scissormen, Red Jack wow these are amazing open arcs for the book. The story is straightforward enough but it's the tone and the mood that makes these stories so much more than they are. The first two issues are absolutely amazing the re-adjusting of the Patrol is amazing (more below). This book is great cause you care about the characters it's great. I know I'm not making a lot of sense just read it I don't want to ruin anything.
Characters: Brilliant. Holy shit this is pure brilliance. Robotman, Rebis, Crazy Jane, Dorothy, Red Jack, Scissormen amazing. All these characters and others are absolutely fantastic. The thing about it is that these characters are tortured. This is not the same superhero team with different powers but the same thing. This team is different, the people, the villains the emotions it's all so different. You don't want to be the Doom Patrol. As cool as Cliff Steel is you don't want to be him, he's a sad character, so is Trainor so is Crazy Jane. It's all so good. Just read it, I can't say anymore.
I am not a fan of Grant Morrison, well modern Grant Morrison with the time travelling bullet and the choppy New 52 Superman. I've never understood the critical acclaim of him and now I know. Give him something weird and obscure and you will get gold.
Read this series, it's amazing, don't get turned down by the dated art, just read it.
Onward to the next book!
I remember Doom Patrol, it was different it was weird and the characters were awesome. However I was a kid and my source of comics was my friends and this one I read an issue here or there so I never got to really experience the story in full. That's changed and now I've been blown away.
World: The art is fine, it is 80s art and this is what it is, however I will say that the emotions are great and the character designs are wonderful. The pages are a bit static but as I said the characters are great. The world building is absolutely amazing, brain explosion good. The awesomeness is even more apparent if you read issues 1-18 where it was good, but felt like the superhero books you are use to. With issue 19 the world building takes a huge tonal shift and it's insane. The weirdness, the tortured nature of the world, it's brilliant. I won't ruin it for readers, just read it to experience it.
Story: Wow, that is so different and amazing. It's tortured, it's sad, it's melancholy and messed up. This story is just nuts and man they are amazing. The Scissormen, Red Jack wow these are amazing open arcs for the book. The story is straightforward enough but it's the tone and the mood that makes these stories so much more than they are. The first two issues are absolutely amazing the re-adjusting of the Patrol is amazing (more below). This book is great cause you care about the characters it's great. I know I'm not making a lot of sense just read it I don't want to ruin anything.
Characters: Brilliant. Holy shit this is pure brilliance. Robotman, Rebis, Crazy Jane, Dorothy, Red Jack, Scissormen amazing. All these characters and others are absolutely fantastic. The thing about it is that these characters are tortured. This is not the same superhero team with different powers but the same thing. This team is different, the people, the villains the emotions it's all so different. You don't want to be the Doom Patrol. As cool as Cliff Steel is you don't want to be him, he's a sad character, so is Trainor so is Crazy Jane. It's all so good. Just read it, I can't say anymore.
I am not a fan of Grant Morrison, well modern Grant Morrison with the time travelling bullet and the choppy New 52 Superman. I've never understood the critical acclaim of him and now I know. Give him something weird and obscure and you will get gold.
Read this series, it's amazing, don't get turned down by the dated art, just read it.
Onward to the next book!
February 3, 2014
If we could extract the weird, acid-trip stuff from Grant Morrison and just hang on to the great ideas and character exploration, I would be the happiest boy at the comics shop.
June 16, 2022
I didn’t really know anything about Doom Patrol but went for this edition because a) Grant Morrison and b) Brian Bolland. The first (and really, only) disappointment was that Brian had only created the cover. This disappointment over, I threw myself into the world of the Doom Patrol… and what a weird world it is!
The different characters were each given their own chance to shine. I feel I’m just getting to know them and will definitely be back for more; I want to see more of them working together.
The different characters were each given their own chance to shine. I feel I’m just getting to know them and will definitely be back for more; I want to see more of them working together.
October 28, 2018
Surreal and experimental, but very readable. Grant Morrison's reboot of The Doom Patrol is referenced quite a lot, so I re-read it. In many ways, it really holds up. His exploration of Robotman is particularly fascinating, since he unpacks what it would me to be trapped inside a metal body.
I've never been a big fan of Richard Case's artwork on Vertigo. He's a very good storyteller and draws consistent figures, but the page design seems a bit plain. Here, though, it works. This is a complex story that requires quite a bit of dialogue, so the art is fairly well matched to the series.
I'm already on the next volume, which seems to be getting more surreal and abstract. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, so look out for the next review.
This is not Morrison's finest work, but it does show how he was developing his voice as a writer. Again, it's readable and entertaining enough to find a place in my permanent collection.
I've never been a big fan of Richard Case's artwork on Vertigo. He's a very good storyteller and draws consistent figures, but the page design seems a bit plain. Here, though, it works. This is a complex story that requires quite a bit of dialogue, so the art is fairly well matched to the series.
I'm already on the next volume, which seems to be getting more surreal and abstract. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, so look out for the next review.
This is not Morrison's finest work, but it does show how he was developing his voice as a writer. Again, it's readable and entertaining enough to find a place in my permanent collection.
May 12, 2014
When you have grown up on the original series-this is a total suck fest!
July 5, 2018
As “WTF?” as it gets with Grant Morrison. It’s definitely good, it’s just super strange.
August 28, 2017
Crawling from the Wreckage, being as it is a "Vol 1," is supposedly meant to be a good jumping-on point for new readers, and I suppose as that sort of thing goes it is not the worst Vol 1 of a comic series ever, especially in our current world of endless, endless reboots, which really was hardly even a thing (comparatively) back in the late 80's when this series originally came out.
Still, I feel that this volume, being as it also is a book by Grant Morrison, greatly benefits from being read in a somewhat random-access, circular fashion -- that is, with a Grant Morrison comic it usually doesn't make sense what you're reading now unless you've also read what's come before and what will come after, hopefully with a small handful of Wikipedia pages open to pick up the pieces of what's left over.
With this in mind:
1) The Doom Patrol began as a super-team in the 1960's, and were notably creepy heroes doing genuinely weird things. The (technically cyborg) Robotman was always getting his body mangled or melted to help his teammates; the mummified Negative Man was made up of a powerful energy force and a physical body that collapsed each time the force vacated it; the sweet-as-pie Elasti-Girl could become a threatening giant or an atomic speck, at will. Their boss, the Chief, was a mad scientist whose technology could predict any crime in the world. Also, he decapitated dogs and put them on other dogs' bodies just to see what would happen. AND THE REST OF THE TEAM LOVED HIM.
DP's villains included the undying General Immortus, the disembodied Brain and his Brotherhood of Evil, Monsieur Mallah the talking ape, and the shapechanging Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. All sort-of-standard comic tropes, except just left of center enough that nothing about them is standard at all. It's all gross and WEIRD, is what I am saying. and when sales dropped and the series faced cancellation, writer Arnold Drake just fucking killed the entire Doom Patrol in an explosion.
Because FUCK YOU COMICS.
2) In the 1980's, writer Paul Kupperberg resurrected the Doom Patrol by way of a new character, Arani Caulder, who claimed to be the Chief's wife. Not only does Arani found a new team of superpowered misfits, but she sets off to find the old team members, who simply must be alive. She succeeds in finding Robotman (because robots don't die in explosions), Negative Man (now mysteriously depowered), and the Chief -- saved by, and working for, the government -- who insists he has no idea who Arani is. Just as the new, larger team fully regroups and tries to figure out Arani's actual real-deal, an alien Invasion! occurs, and most of the team dies as a result.
Kupperberg's issues -- deemed by many to be too superhero-y and very un-Doom Patrol, have never been collected in paperback, because FUCK YOU COMICS.
3) At the beginning of Grant Morrison's run, Robotman has checked himself into an insane asylum because he is haunted by the deaths of his teammates from both incarnations of the Doom Patrol. Larry Trainor, the depowered-but-hospitalized Negative Man, is rejoined by the newly-renamed "Negative Spirit," who insists on fusing Larry's body with that of his female doctor, collectively becoming the hermaphroditic Rebis.
The Chief, along with a few of Kupperberg's characters who didn't die, lives in a large, spooky, abandoned Justice League base underneath Rhode Island, full of artifacts that almost immediately start wreaking havoc and carving holes in dreams. The Chief seems coldly unconcerned with anything except ensuring the loyalty of his newest team ("There are areas in which only WE are qualified to operate," he says, "when the rational world breaks down!") even as the team itself loses track of one another in the base's endless rooms.
And then Robotman meets fellow asylum patient Crazy Jane, whose 64 different personalities have all gained individual superpowers in the wake of the aforementioned alien invasion. And then the asylum is invaded by the Scissormen, corporeal imaginary beings whose home, the fictional city of Orqwith, has begun to break through reality and take over Kansas....
Not to mention the travelling murdergod who calls itself Red Jack and has taken up residence in the mind of a comatose former DP member...
And we are off, really off, riding shotgun with Grant Morrison's cockswingin' batshit nuttery, inspired by the last five weird books he read and the old Jan Svankmajer films he watched before it was cool. As always, Morrison's lazy new-age pretentious hodgepodging is infuriating, but when you take into account that he was 28 when writing this, by all accounts high out of his mind and writing five other comics besides, it's remarkable that he is, almost presciently, able to understand just what it is about the Doom Patrol that makes them what they are -- the strangeness, the ickyness, the bizarro discomfort. I refuse to ever give Morrison as much credit as he gives himself, but you gotta hand it to him -- the way he's able to dig into a Silver Age oddity, crack it apart, turn it into something entirely new and yet completely keyed into the spirit of the original intent --
Well, it's something.
Let's find out later if it really meant anything when that priest gets a refrigerator dropped on his head on page 36, or what that black, folding-and-unfolding ball was on page 48. I've read back and forth and I think I have the rest of it. But jesus christ, honestly, this book.
Still, I feel that this volume, being as it also is a book by Grant Morrison, greatly benefits from being read in a somewhat random-access, circular fashion -- that is, with a Grant Morrison comic it usually doesn't make sense what you're reading now unless you've also read what's come before and what will come after, hopefully with a small handful of Wikipedia pages open to pick up the pieces of what's left over.
With this in mind:
1) The Doom Patrol began as a super-team in the 1960's, and were notably creepy heroes doing genuinely weird things. The (technically cyborg) Robotman was always getting his body mangled or melted to help his teammates; the mummified Negative Man was made up of a powerful energy force and a physical body that collapsed each time the force vacated it; the sweet-as-pie Elasti-Girl could become a threatening giant or an atomic speck, at will. Their boss, the Chief, was a mad scientist whose technology could predict any crime in the world. Also, he decapitated dogs and put them on other dogs' bodies just to see what would happen. AND THE REST OF THE TEAM LOVED HIM.
DP's villains included the undying General Immortus, the disembodied Brain and his Brotherhood of Evil, Monsieur Mallah the talking ape, and the shapechanging Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. All sort-of-standard comic tropes, except just left of center enough that nothing about them is standard at all. It's all gross and WEIRD, is what I am saying. and when sales dropped and the series faced cancellation, writer Arnold Drake just fucking killed the entire Doom Patrol in an explosion.
Because FUCK YOU COMICS.
2) In the 1980's, writer Paul Kupperberg resurrected the Doom Patrol by way of a new character, Arani Caulder, who claimed to be the Chief's wife. Not only does Arani found a new team of superpowered misfits, but she sets off to find the old team members, who simply must be alive. She succeeds in finding Robotman (because robots don't die in explosions), Negative Man (now mysteriously depowered), and the Chief -- saved by, and working for, the government -- who insists he has no idea who Arani is. Just as the new, larger team fully regroups and tries to figure out Arani's actual real-deal, an alien Invasion! occurs, and most of the team dies as a result.
Kupperberg's issues -- deemed by many to be too superhero-y and very un-Doom Patrol, have never been collected in paperback, because FUCK YOU COMICS.
3) At the beginning of Grant Morrison's run, Robotman has checked himself into an insane asylum because he is haunted by the deaths of his teammates from both incarnations of the Doom Patrol. Larry Trainor, the depowered-but-hospitalized Negative Man, is rejoined by the newly-renamed "Negative Spirit," who insists on fusing Larry's body with that of his female doctor, collectively becoming the hermaphroditic Rebis.
The Chief, along with a few of Kupperberg's characters who didn't die, lives in a large, spooky, abandoned Justice League base underneath Rhode Island, full of artifacts that almost immediately start wreaking havoc and carving holes in dreams. The Chief seems coldly unconcerned with anything except ensuring the loyalty of his newest team ("There are areas in which only WE are qualified to operate," he says, "when the rational world breaks down!") even as the team itself loses track of one another in the base's endless rooms.
And then Robotman meets fellow asylum patient Crazy Jane, whose 64 different personalities have all gained individual superpowers in the wake of the aforementioned alien invasion. And then the asylum is invaded by the Scissormen, corporeal imaginary beings whose home, the fictional city of Orqwith, has begun to break through reality and take over Kansas....
Not to mention the travelling murdergod who calls itself Red Jack and has taken up residence in the mind of a comatose former DP member...
And we are off, really off, riding shotgun with Grant Morrison's cockswingin' batshit nuttery, inspired by the last five weird books he read and the old Jan Svankmajer films he watched before it was cool. As always, Morrison's lazy new-age pretentious hodgepodging is infuriating, but when you take into account that he was 28 when writing this, by all accounts high out of his mind and writing five other comics besides, it's remarkable that he is, almost presciently, able to understand just what it is about the Doom Patrol that makes them what they are -- the strangeness, the ickyness, the bizarro discomfort. I refuse to ever give Morrison as much credit as he gives himself, but you gotta hand it to him -- the way he's able to dig into a Silver Age oddity, crack it apart, turn it into something entirely new and yet completely keyed into the spirit of the original intent --
Well, it's something.
Let's find out later if it really meant anything when that priest gets a refrigerator dropped on his head on page 36, or what that black, folding-and-unfolding ball was on page 48. I've read back and forth and I think I have the rest of it. But jesus christ, honestly, this book.
May 18, 2012
My roleplaying group has just started a superhero campaign and the GM handed out some graphic novels to get people in the mood. I borrowed this very odd volume. I've read other Grant Morrison so came to this with a degree of wariness (The Invisibles is a little too odd for my tastes) but ended up really enjoying it. The book starts with the Chief, Prof Niles Caulder, putting the Doom Patrol back together after previous events that I don't know about. The Doom Patrol's defining feature is that its heroes are 'defective' in some way. Robot Man is a human brain residing in a robot body with barely any human senses; Crazy Jane has a multiple-personality disorder, with each personality having a different superpower; Rebis was formed by joining a man, a woman and a strange spirit-thing; Dorothy is a teenager with a Neanderthal's face and who can project her inner consciousness into the physical world. The most 'normal' member, Joshua, who can shoot energy beams from his arms, has no desire to be a superhero and stays back to provide medical assistance where required.
Once he pulls himself out of his depression, mostly to help Crazy Jane, Robot Man proves to have a sharp wit and cracks great one-liners ("sorry about the writing, robot fingers, you know?"), and is the de-facto leader of the Doom Patrol as they face a city that's trying to break out of fiction into reality, with pretty damn scary Scissormen literally cutting people out of reality. And after that, they have to deal with someone with a penchant for pain who may or may not be God. "Strange" merely scrapes the surface of what this is. But not so strange (so far, at least) that I get freaked out and leave it behind (*cough*The Invisibles*cough*). I'll certainly be asking to borrow volume 2 soon.
Once he pulls himself out of his depression, mostly to help Crazy Jane, Robot Man proves to have a sharp wit and cracks great one-liners ("sorry about the writing, robot fingers, you know?"), and is the de-facto leader of the Doom Patrol as they face a city that's trying to break out of fiction into reality, with pretty damn scary Scissormen literally cutting people out of reality. And after that, they have to deal with someone with a penchant for pain who may or may not be God. "Strange" merely scrapes the surface of what this is. But not so strange (so far, at least) that I get freaked out and leave it behind (*cough*The Invisibles*cough*). I'll certainly be asking to borrow volume 2 soon.
November 27, 2012
Very interesting in that it's completely not a mainstream comic superhero. Definitely offbeat, but still enojyable, characters that have potential to grow on me. A cool start, I look forward to reading the next volume and seeing what I think then.
June 16, 2020
I’d never heard of Doom Patrol until I recently saw a teaser for the television show (which have not seen.) That lack of familiarity made for a nice surprise. I was aware from said trailer that the team consisted of “broken” individuals, and that mental illness featured prominently in these characters’ makeup. What I didn’t know is the degree to which the Doom Patrol dealt in the strange and weird – and I do love tales of the weird. So, it’s a bizarre / dysfunctional team mashup (like “Guardians of the Galaxy” but less heroic and more mentally ill) that takes on the kind of psychedelic villains one might find in “Doctor Strange.” [I realize I’m crossing the DC – Marvel divide with my comparisons, but – owing to the movies – Marvel is much more broadly known at this point.]
I was familiar with Grant Morrison from one of my favorite Batman stories, “Batman: Arkham Asylum – Serious House on Serious Earth.” And this collection of seven “Doom Patrol” comics – while a little more brightly drawn and lighthearted – share the mind-bending surreality of that book. Though in this book the trippiness is supernatural.
The seven comics included in this volume include the four parts of the “Crawling from the Wreckage” story, plus: “The Butterfly Collector,” “The House Jack Built,” and “Imaginary Friends.” Robotman (Cliff,) Crazy Jane, and Rebis (an amalgam of Larry Trainor / Negative Man and Dr. Eleanor Poole) are the principal heroes of the “Crawling from the Wreckage story, though Joshua Clay (Tempest) and Dr. Niles Caulder play supporting roles. (Caulder is this team’s wheelchair-bound, genius leader. Yes, like in the X-men. While this team is less well known, it does go back to the early 60’s so I don’t know who copied who, but I know both sides seem to have snatched ideas on occasion – or maybe great minds do think alike.) The “…Wreckage” story involves the threat of an imaginary universe (Orqwith) spilling into the world as we know it. The team is established in the first two books, and we are introduced to the opposition in the form of “The Scissormen” (faceless villains that – literally – cut people out of this reality.) Then in the third and fourth installments Orqwith is introduced, and the heroes much go there to bring an end to the threat.
“The Butterfly Collector” and “The House that Jack Built” together present a story of Rhea Jone’s disappearance from the hospital. (Jone’s character is at times a member of the Doom Patrol known as Lodestone, but in this comic book she is mostly unconscious.) One of Crazy Janes’ personalities figures out how to open the portal that the kidnapper must have used. Crazy Jane and Robotman cross over to confront the villain, Red Jack. (Yes, sort of an “Alice in Wonderland” thing going on.)
In “The Butterfly Collector” we are also introduced to Dorothy, a hideous-looking little girl whose imaginings can come to life in the real world with disturbing consequences. The last book in the collection, “Imaginary Friends” imagines Joshua Clay watching Dorothy while everyone else is out. Joshua is a minor character in the other books in this collection, but in this one he is the hero of the hour. The story involves Dorothy’s imaginary friends who’ve come to exact vengeance. We learn that Dorothy developed these friends because she couldn’t make real friends owning to her appearance, but then she had to get rid of them when they got out of hand. Incidentally, tales of woe are a repeated refrain with this team. That’s what creates the team’s uniqueness. There’s an intriguing contradiction. Normally, a reader might envy a superhero, but with the Doom Patrol envy is not where the mind goes.
As I said, I love a good tale of the weird, and this was one strange tale after another. The book is both entertaining and also thought-provoking. If you enjoy comic books and graphic novels, this one is worth reading.
I was familiar with Grant Morrison from one of my favorite Batman stories, “Batman: Arkham Asylum – Serious House on Serious Earth.” And this collection of seven “Doom Patrol” comics – while a little more brightly drawn and lighthearted – share the mind-bending surreality of that book. Though in this book the trippiness is supernatural.
The seven comics included in this volume include the four parts of the “Crawling from the Wreckage” story, plus: “The Butterfly Collector,” “The House Jack Built,” and “Imaginary Friends.” Robotman (Cliff,) Crazy Jane, and Rebis (an amalgam of Larry Trainor / Negative Man and Dr. Eleanor Poole) are the principal heroes of the “Crawling from the Wreckage story, though Joshua Clay (Tempest) and Dr. Niles Caulder play supporting roles. (Caulder is this team’s wheelchair-bound, genius leader. Yes, like in the X-men. While this team is less well known, it does go back to the early 60’s so I don’t know who copied who, but I know both sides seem to have snatched ideas on occasion – or maybe great minds do think alike.) The “…Wreckage” story involves the threat of an imaginary universe (Orqwith) spilling into the world as we know it. The team is established in the first two books, and we are introduced to the opposition in the form of “The Scissormen” (faceless villains that – literally – cut people out of this reality.) Then in the third and fourth installments Orqwith is introduced, and the heroes much go there to bring an end to the threat.
“The Butterfly Collector” and “The House that Jack Built” together present a story of Rhea Jone’s disappearance from the hospital. (Jone’s character is at times a member of the Doom Patrol known as Lodestone, but in this comic book she is mostly unconscious.) One of Crazy Janes’ personalities figures out how to open the portal that the kidnapper must have used. Crazy Jane and Robotman cross over to confront the villain, Red Jack. (Yes, sort of an “Alice in Wonderland” thing going on.)
In “The Butterfly Collector” we are also introduced to Dorothy, a hideous-looking little girl whose imaginings can come to life in the real world with disturbing consequences. The last book in the collection, “Imaginary Friends” imagines Joshua Clay watching Dorothy while everyone else is out. Joshua is a minor character in the other books in this collection, but in this one he is the hero of the hour. The story involves Dorothy’s imaginary friends who’ve come to exact vengeance. We learn that Dorothy developed these friends because she couldn’t make real friends owning to her appearance, but then she had to get rid of them when they got out of hand. Incidentally, tales of woe are a repeated refrain with this team. That’s what creates the team’s uniqueness. There’s an intriguing contradiction. Normally, a reader might envy a superhero, but with the Doom Patrol envy is not where the mind goes.
As I said, I love a good tale of the weird, and this was one strange tale after another. The book is both entertaining and also thought-provoking. If you enjoy comic books and graphic novels, this one is worth reading.
April 1, 2020
Crawling from the Wreckage (#19-22). Rarely has a comic been reinvented so completed (and so successfully) as this. "Crawling from the Wreckage" is basically the Doom Patrol's "Anatomy Lesson", totally reinventing what had previously been a slightly weird X-Men derivative. And, it's amazing. Morrison is quite true to the prior team, with just one real addition, Crazy Jane ... but what an addition she is. And then we get one of the weirdest, scariest, and most evocative stories ever, as a fictional city full of scissor-men, who cut people out of reality, tries to impose itself on the world. There are amazing ideas, amazing visuals, and a new Patrol that's if anything much more true to its origins than the late-era Kupperberg comic was [5+/5].
Red Jack (#23-24). The follow-up makes it clear that we're going to regularly get weirdness in Morrison's Doom Patrol. Here we get Red Jack, who is Jack the Ripper, and who may or may not be God, living on the agony of living beings. But what I think really comes across in this comic is how much of the Doom Patrol's success is based not just on Morrison's writing, but on Richard Case's art. Because the story about Red Jack is a bit shallower than the amazing story of the Scissor-Men that came before, but Case makes it every bit as beautiful [4+/5].
Imaginary Friends (#25). This is always one of my least favorite Doom Patrol stories. It just seems a bit too on the nose, particularly when Josh describes the psychological basis of the whole comic [3/5].
Red Jack (#23-24). The follow-up makes it clear that we're going to regularly get weirdness in Morrison's Doom Patrol. Here we get Red Jack, who is Jack the Ripper, and who may or may not be God, living on the agony of living beings. But what I think really comes across in this comic is how much of the Doom Patrol's success is based not just on Morrison's writing, but on Richard Case's art. Because the story about Red Jack is a bit shallower than the amazing story of the Scissor-Men that came before, but Case makes it every bit as beautiful [4+/5].
Imaginary Friends (#25). This is always one of my least favorite Doom Patrol stories. It just seems a bit too on the nose, particularly when Josh describes the psychological basis of the whole comic [3/5].
August 21, 2021
Sets up our characters decently enough for the following issues but falls into some of Morrison's pitfalls, such as way too much gibberish alien dialogue and silly rhymes. The issue with Red Jack/Jack the Ripper was particularly weak as we just had a bunch of villains with cut-up dialogue, ominous and clever the first time, but after a while the gimmick gets a bit stale. The art is solid and features a few great spreads, and there are no glaring errors, however it doesn't stick out as particularly great until the last issue contained in this volume, which is genuinely unsettling and doubles as an effective horror issue and an introduction to a new character.
I say all this with love as I am a huge fan of Morrison's. I think that he does best when either restraining himself and making something more traditional or just going whole hamhock crazy like he does in the Invisibles. This book still finds him in an awkward middle ground, working out his talents and possibly exhausted from Animal Man which was running its final issues at the time. I'm entertained enough to want to read more of it, and I'm sure there was probably not much else on the shelves as genuinely weird and daring at the time, but it has since been outclassed by other meta-comics and Morrison himself.
I say all this with love as I am a huge fan of Morrison's. I think that he does best when either restraining himself and making something more traditional or just going whole hamhock crazy like he does in the Invisibles. This book still finds him in an awkward middle ground, working out his talents and possibly exhausted from Animal Man which was running its final issues at the time. I'm entertained enough to want to read more of it, and I'm sure there was probably not much else on the shelves as genuinely weird and daring at the time, but it has since been outclassed by other meta-comics and Morrison himself.
April 10, 2019
Krásně divný..
March 24, 2020
Lovely
October 25, 2016
Very enjoyable madness from Grant Morrison. My only problem with the series is the same as a lot of Grant's other works, with all the unending action and end of the world dramas, it begins to feel like a existential superhero soap opera.
Of course, Grant's works are always more subtle and complex than that. My favourite moment in this volume is when Cliff/Robotman is explaining the living hell that is being nothing more than a brain inside an unfeeling robotic body.
As Cliff puts it "Can you imagine how crude robot senses are compared to human ones? They say that amputees feel phantom pains where their limbs used to be. Well I'm a total amputee. I'm haunted by the ghost of my entire body! I still get headaches you know, and I want to crap until I realise I don't have any bowels. And when I look at a woman, sometimes..."
That whole exchange blew my mind. Doom Patrol manages to give a surrealist take on the superhero genre without having to be condescending. The art style suits the content perfectly and even if some of the ideas that Grant throws out are a bit hit and miss, this is still strangely compelling reading.
Of course, Grant's works are always more subtle and complex than that. My favourite moment in this volume is when Cliff/Robotman is explaining the living hell that is being nothing more than a brain inside an unfeeling robotic body.
As Cliff puts it "Can you imagine how crude robot senses are compared to human ones? They say that amputees feel phantom pains where their limbs used to be. Well I'm a total amputee. I'm haunted by the ghost of my entire body! I still get headaches you know, and I want to crap until I realise I don't have any bowels. And when I look at a woman, sometimes..."
That whole exchange blew my mind. Doom Patrol manages to give a surrealist take on the superhero genre without having to be condescending. The art style suits the content perfectly and even if some of the ideas that Grant throws out are a bit hit and miss, this is still strangely compelling reading.
January 17, 2016
I first read this as individual comics when the were first published in 1989, and was a favourite reread for several years afterwards until I had a mass clear-out of my comics collection sometime in the late 90s. So I was glad to pick up this graphic novel edition to see how well the story stands up.
The answer is, surprisingly well. The "heroes" (or maybe victims would be a better word)- Robotman, Crazy Jane, Rebis, Professor Niles Calder and Dorothy are all well handled in these initial stories. The villains are suitably weird, though nowhere near as weird as this series would get later in its run, so this is a relatively mild introduction to the crazy world that the Doom Patrol inhabits. A lot of this is creepy as well as weird.
The art also holds up well considering its age - most of the four colour stories from this era look terrible today, but this isn't bad at all, well laid out and with a strong sense of style.
If you haven't read the Doom Patrol, then I would recommend this one.
The answer is, surprisingly well. The "heroes" (or maybe victims would be a better word)- Robotman, Crazy Jane, Rebis, Professor Niles Calder and Dorothy are all well handled in these initial stories. The villains are suitably weird, though nowhere near as weird as this series would get later in its run, so this is a relatively mild introduction to the crazy world that the Doom Patrol inhabits. A lot of this is creepy as well as weird.
The art also holds up well considering its age - most of the four colour stories from this era look terrible today, but this isn't bad at all, well laid out and with a strong sense of style.
If you haven't read the Doom Patrol, then I would recommend this one.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 384 reviews