DCU Comic Book Reviews

DOOM PATROL #3

Earth Science

December 2009

Written by Keith Giffen

Pencils by Matthew Clark

Inks by Livesay

Covers by Matthew Clark and Kevin Maguire

Synopsis

In Germany, Doom patrol search for the sentient black hole, which has been infecting human bodies as part of its research to learn more about humanity.  On Oolong Island, Dr. Niles Caulder orders Steve Dayton (aka Mento) to mentally contact Rita Farr.  Meanwhile, the rest of Doom Patrol track down and find the sentient black hole.  Angry the team tracked him down, it uses all of the human beings it has infected to attack the team.  Just then, Dayton contacts Rita and then mentally destroys all of the infected humans.  Caulder tells it that with no available hosts in the vicinity, it has lost.  So, it agrees to return to Oolong Island.  On the trip back, Rita is not happy with Dayton’s telepathic violation. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This story is still not clicking with me.  There is something, whether it is the story structure, the plot, or the characters, that I am not connecting with.  My first thought is that it is the writing style of Giffen, but I don’t have the same problems with Magog.  I’ve read a number of Giffen stories in the past and I’ve never had a problem before.  I recognize his style and it is prevalent here, so that is not it.  Maybe it is because of the reduced page count, forcing Giffen to snip here and snip there, causing the story to not flow as well.  It feels choppy and combined with some of the comments from below, I just can’t seem to get into the story or the characters. 

The conflict with the sentient black hole lacked any kind of tension.  The fact that it was killing the humans it inhabited seemed more like an aside rather than main reason why the sentient black hole needed to be defeated.  I understand what is and what threat he holds that require someone to take care of it, but those are surface conflicts that don’t really define who (or what) it is supposed to be.  Part of the problem is that the black hole’s research is inward, which doesn’t really lend itself to the visual medium.  It’s not like we can see the villain hard at work.  The other problem is that we really don’t see it killing.  We are told it kills the humans it takes, but we don’t really see it, other than at the end, but even then that was caused by Doom Patrol, not the black hole.  So, ultimately, we have a villain in which we don’t see do villainous things.

While I understand what Caulder did to create the checkmate referred to in the story, I am still unsure why the sentient being is still living or why he is coming back to Oolong Island.  I suppose it is meant as a sign of respect (since Caulder defeated him, he will bow down to Caulder’s wishes) and if it was truly just conducting research, then it might take Caulder’s sign of superiority as a chance to learn more about humans.  But it is not explained very well. 

Finally, I could not follow what was happening in terms of the Kirlian aura or whatever it was.  Essentially, it looks as if the dude in the lederhosen was a meta-human with the ability to create a force field around him.  It is that force field that allowed the black hole to dismantle Cliff.  And it was that force field that saved its life when Steve overtook Rita to kill everyone.  But it took me several passes to figure that out.  While reading I was trying to recall if Cliff was the one with Kirlian aura or if there was something else I should know. 

I don’t know what to make of the retcon (I will assume) of the relationship between Steve and Rita.  It adds a level of creepiness (and a violation akin to rape) to the characters that I am not sure really belongs in a traditional superhero comic.  Yet, at the same time, when you consider the characters and you consider the team, it is not that too far fetched to ponder.

I...Robot Hunter

Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis

Art by Kevin Maguire

Synopsis

Copper wakes up to find the rest of the Metal Men have left the house.  Unsure what is happening or what to do, Copper decides she will help Miss Romero, one of the neighbors in town.  Meanwhile, Leonard Ruttman, who delusionally thinks he is the robot hunter character he played on tv, holds Miss Romero hostage so he can destroy the Metal Men.  Elsewhere, the Metal Men are at the DMV to get their driver’s licenses.  At Miss Romero’s house, Copper runs into Ruttman, excited to meet the team’s favorite actor.  Ruttman runs away.  Coming home from failing to get their license, Ruttman passess the Metal Men.  Mercury swears its him, but the team doesn’t believe.  So, Mercury chases after him.

Review

On the credit’s page, Giffen and DeMatteis refer to their efforts as a “ten-page time waster.”  This did not feel like 10 pages at all. It felt much longer.  It is packed with a lot of thought balloons and dialogue, in addition to more than the usual number of panels.  This is a very dense story and it takes a while to read through all of it.  Not that this is a bad thing.  Part of it is the great art by Maguire, which invites you to really take a long look at the facial expressions, which are exaggerated certainly, but it fits perfectly with the writing.  The charm to this story is the dialogue and the interactions, especially with the way the Metal bicker amongst themselves and in this case the way Copper and Ruttman bicker and debate with themselves.  It is not often you can enjoy a character arguing with himself, but the 10 panel sequence on page 4 of the story was a hoot, as was the entire thing actually.  I loved the DMV scenes, as well.  This was not a waste of time.

 

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