Hopelessness Springs Eternal: Apathy Can Be Fun

*spoilers, Doom Patrol #1

They're back and they couldn't be any less enthusiastic about it. The Super Freakniks themselves, the Doom Patrol, now with a groovy symbol worn on various accessories; a lower case d juxtaposed with an upper case P: dP (sort of).

New series is written by Keith Giffen, whose DC credentials as both artist and writer are solid going back to about the late seventies. He's worked all the G's: goofy, grim, gritty, groovy and even created or at least recreated Lobo as a parody of Badass! heroes of the nineties but found if you toy with irony you may be taken seriously, ie The Main Man was embraced by the very kinds of fans he was mocking. But Lobo is a lot of fun no matter how you take him, one of the more inspired creations (or recreations) of the nineties.

Now we get to the Doom Patrol, and they're back in a new adventure with an opening scene that expresses their name, in the sense that they're on a mission (Patrol) and one of the characters is Doomed. They find a secret lab full of what appear to be Parasite clones, though the creatures don't sap the DP's powers so possibly it's something else. The original trio is in the company of Nudge, who first appeared in Chris Claremont's run of JLA. She has the power to order weak willed beings around (That separates her from other attractive females how? Bwahahahaha!). As her thrall she has apparently selected a four armed gorilla named Grunt, which I think is a good choice on her part. It's what I would have done. Nudge and Grunt, what a team, a concept rich with suggestion...until five minutes into the story where she is sliced to smithereens by enemy fire as the rest of the team run, Indy style, to the getaway chopper being flown by Dusty Gal (a character reminiscent of Jet Girl from Tank Girl comics). Grunt takes off and is not heard from again, for the issue. This fatalistic opener sets us up for the rest of the story, which is quite talky, as the Super Freakniks talk around their feelings regarding her death. This is Giff's approach to the team, that the "Doom" part of their name indicates they are fatalistic and expect, possibly even hope, to be killed on their "Patrols". Elasti-Girl even expresses that she is jealous of Nudge (!). Negative Man lives up to his name in more ways than one. And Robot Man's responses to the tragedy are robotic. It's all funny and tragic at the same time, and makes for a very adequate first ish. And then there is a Metal Men back up feature that reunites Giffen with his other creators of the fun and hilarious Justice League International title of the late eighties. I'm glad to see back up features are back at DC! Huzzah! In the same month as an Adventure Comics revival!

The art on DP is decent, executed by Matthew Clark. He shows potential, but some story telling elements are muddled, and technically he falters. There are some nice single shots, as when Elasti-Girl smashes an enemy helicopter between her fists while she's blown up to giant size. What a way to go-go. Speaking of which, the cover concept is smart, the trio bursting out of an old cover from the sixties, representing that this title is embracing and escaping the team's Silver Age roots all at once. Hopefully there will still be some freaky looking giant robots in the book's future.