[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Gerard Way
Artist: Michael Allred
Pencils: Nick Derington (pgs. 23-24)
Colorist: Laura Allred
Summary
Doom Patrol is not just a comic, but an experience. So grab issues #1-6 so you can complete the experience when the time arrives. Now, let’s dig in to some $#!+ !!
Larry and Cliff are hanging out at the food court in the mall where Larry likes to clear his head. Cliff stumbles upon Niles Caulder a.k.a. The Chief spying on them from behind a plant. The Chief explains he is there to provide his leadership for the newly reformed Doom Patrol. Cliff is sure he doesn’t want the Chief involved, while Larry is willing to give him a chance…. And, he’s already got a mission for them! Yikes!
They fetch Casey from her apartment, who is posting “lost cat” flyers for her lost Lotion, who ran off back in issue #2. The Chief is able to regrow the bottom of Casey’s missing leg and he puts Cliff’s brain in a “better” body and changes Larry’s hand bandages out for some of his own…. The Chief has discovered where bad ideas come from, the Scantoverse, and the worst come in a form of jelly.
In the Scantoverse they encounter Dan Scram who is apparently not after the jelly, but just to shut the Chief down. In the battle, in comes the forefront that the metal in Cliff’s new body is too emotional and wreaking havoc on him, and Larry’s mitten style bandages prevent him from defusing a bomb (both courtesy of the Chief, if you recall!). Talk about bad ideas!!
Scram eats some jelly and mutates and the Chief has to mutate Larry and Casey into psychic werewolves to stop him. They have to eat Scram while the Chief extracts the jelly. Upon returning to the regular-verse, it is apparent to the team that the Chief will just not do, especially since some inter-galactic or inter-dimensional toughs show up to take the jelly that the Chief apparently owes to clear some gambling debts! More bad ideas, Chief!!
Casey, Larry and Cliff leave the Chief alone and sad. Casey just misses Lotion as she goes into her apartment building. The issue ends with the results of Terry None’s product demonstration set up in the end of the last issue and the resulting appearance of the product on a local grocer’s shelves. “$#!+, food additive – makes everything better.” No, $#!+.
Positives
Michael and Laura Allred on art chores is always a positive, so there’s #1! Allred’s style, while certainly unique and recognizable, blends well with the look that Nick Derington has provided for this title. Way has clearly planned out the larger story beats well in advance. Just as the first six issues had nuggets planted throughout, this issue also contains some of those connective story elements. Getting the next step in Terry None’s story as the finale connects up with the end of issue #6. And the big changes that have transpired with Lotion the Cat are earth shattering.
Rendering a tongue in cheek (or is it Chief) issue that puts the ’60’s era DP in a modern perspective is both an enjoyable homage and absolutely hilarious as the absurdity plays for lots of laughs to a modern audience. It’s all done with genuine love for the source material as evidenced by Larry’s desire to give the Chief a chance. Despite his absence from the team by the end of the issue, the Chief has probably pushed the team closer together by his mistakes.
Doom Patrol logic: if the Chief has bad ideas, where do they come from…the jelly? Or, the TV show that apparently inspires his notion of the origin of bad ideas, “Oh, Honey.” Not “Life with Honey” as seen in Shade the Changing Girl, but we know this is hardly coincidence.
Negatives
Only negative is Negative Man. Lol
Verdict
Great issue. Funny. Entertaining. Weird and wacky. Take the time to enjoy a different experience.
