DCU Comic Book Reviews

DOOM PATROL #9

Thick As A Brick

June 2010

Written by Keith Giffen

Pencils by Matthew Clark and Ron Randall

Inks by Livesay

Cover by Matthew Clark

Synopsis

On Oolong Island, Robotman battles against a mechanical dog for possession of Danny the Brick.  Elsewhere, Father Rocky Davis thinks Crazy Jane knows what is going.  Meanwhile, Negative Man and Elasti-Woman are fighting humanoids from the Division of Resource Allotment, who are searching for the brick.  Just then, Robotman and the dog appear.  The humanoids demand they surrender the brick.  They fight over the brick.  Suddenly, Robotman receives a call from Crazy Jane, who tells him to throw Danny.  When he does, the brick becomes Danny the Bungalow.  The non-sentient brick is then returned.  The humanoids retrieve the brick and return to their dimension.  Later, Danny the Bungalow welcomes its new occupant:  Ambush Bug.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Maybe it is just me, but it seems like an awful lot of trouble to re-introduce two characters back into the Doom Patrol mythos.  Not so much because the story wasn’t good; there was a lot to like.  Besides the usual great dialogue between Cliff and Larry and their usual antics (the brick down Rita’s shirt was great), I also liked the creatures searching for the brick and their decision to terminate Earth.  Despite the seriousness of what they were going to do, Giffen plays the entire sequence for laughs and it works within the context of the story.  It is a funny read.  I can’t complain because Giffen has managed to make this a very fun read.  No, the story seems like a waste because it doesn’t feel as if Jane and Danny add much to the team or to the book.  This may have to do with the fact that there is very little interaction between them and the rest of the team or an ending that suggests either will be brought into the fold for future issues (the prologue didn’t bother to follow up with Doom Patrol tracking them down).  In fact, you could almost remove Jane and Danny from the current story and very little would change in its construct.  Of course, I could be judging the story too earlier, maybe Giffen has more with Danny and Jane and the rest of the team.  But at the moment, it seems like the arrival of Ambush Bug suggests a shift in the story and thus Jane and Danny will be shuttled off to the side and probably forgotten.  Did we really need an entire story to forget characters you are about introduce? 

Thick As A Brick is also the name of a Jethro Tull album from 1972, notable for containing one 45-minute song.  It was intended to be a spoof of concept albums by progressive bands such as Genesis and Yes. 

 

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