The Story: The world’s strangest super-heroes return home to Oolong Island just in time to be attacked by old teammates and lovers under the control of the Black Lanterns. In the second feature, the Metal Men must contend with the creation of three extremely dangerous – and cranky – new robots.
The Doom Patrol in “Dead Reckoning” by Keith Giffen (writer) Livesay & Justiniano (art)
What’s Good: Although the writing wasn’t much to my liking, Justinano’s artwork fell into the win column for me. I wasn’t aware that regular artist Matthew Clark was taking a break for this arc, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised that was the case. I’ve never been a fan of Clark’s, but I have been one of Justiano’s. The artist has a dark, sharp style that suits this tale of zombies and shadows and he was a great choice to fill-in on this issue. His design of Black Lantern Negative Woman in particular gave me chills.
What’s Not So Good: It was with some trepidation that I picked up this issue of Doom Patrol. I’d given the new series a chance once already with the first issue, but didn’t find anything enticing enough to make me want to continue collecting the series. The shadow of the DC juggernaut that is Blackest Night, however, has fallen over many of the publisher’s output this month and I decided to give this comic another try. I wish I hadn’t bothered.
Giffen certainly tries to take advantage of the opportunity he’s been given as a result of the crossover to interest new readers in the title. He brings us up to date on the history of the Doom Patrol itself, while simultaneously using that device to inform us as to the identities of the deceased characters that make their return. It’s a good idea and one that should have worked when it came to eliciting an emotional reaction in the reader when the past and present D.P. members confront each other. Except that it doesn’t. Placing what is essentially an info dump at the beginning of the story only served to turn me off from the book. The Doom Patrol is one of those titles that people usually saddle with being too difficult to get into due to it’s heavy continuity baggage, and this introduction does nothing to combat that criticism. I appreciate the writer’s ambition in bringing new readers up to speed, but I suspect he would have been better off simply concentrating more on the present.
Another problem with the script is the lack of any emotional reaction from the cast when confronted by the ghosts of their past. If it weren’t for the fact that we can see what they’re feeling through the eyes of the Black Lanterns, I’d be hard-pressed to guess that they were feeling anything. If the characters don’t seem to care about who has come back to haunt them, then why should the reader? To be fair, this might be the fault of the artist, but it’s also reflected in the dialogue, so I assume that it wasn’t because of a miscommunication between the two creators. Giffen comes close to overcoming this with his last page reveal and Robotman’s reaction, but it falls too late in the story for me to care.
The Metal Men in “The Coming of… The Clique!” by Keith Giffen & J.M. Dematteis (writers) & Kevin Maguire (art)
What’s Good: The first thought that comes to mind when reading Giffen’s & Dematteis’ smart, funny adventure of the Metal Men is “Why isn’t this the lead feature in this comic book?” When you get a look at the amazing art of Kevin Maguire, the next thought is inevitably, “This NEEDS to be the lead feature of this comic book!” The writers do in this eight-page back-up what the lead feature didn’t manage to in twenty. I’m immediately caught up on what and who the Metal Men are, what the story is, and I care about what happens next. The fact that this is all successfully accomplished when you consider that the stars of the strip only appear in four out of the ten pages is impressive.
What’s Not So Good: There’s not much wrong here, to be honest. If I were to nitpick about anything, it would be that Maguire’s design for the members of the Clique keeps him from utilizing his greatest strength: facial expressions. While I understand what he was going for with the mannequin-esque design, I did find it a little underwhelming.
Conclusion: Hopefully someone at DC will realize that this comic book needs to be called Metal Men. Dematteis and Giffen and Maguire are producing a fun, humorous piece of storytelling that is unfortunately stuck in the back of a comic book not worth buying. It’s a shame, really.
Grade: D
-Joe Lopez
Filed under: DC Comics | Tagged: Blackest Night, Blackest Night Doom Patrol, Doom Patrol, Doom Patrol #4, Doom Patrol #4 review, J.M. Dematteis, Justiniano, Keith Giffen, Kevin Maguire, Livesay, Metal Men | 2 Comments »
Weekly Comic Book Review 