Scan barcode
invertible_hulk's review against another edition
3.0
Complete and utterly-batshit-crazy insanity.
I'm not sure if I really liked it all that much, but it definitely kept me interested and entertained by the sheer 'WTF!?!' factor.
I'm not sure if I really liked it all that much, but it definitely kept me interested and entertained by the sheer 'WTF!?!' factor.
lordofthemoon's review against another edition
4.0
My roleplaying group has just started a superhero campaign and the GM handed out some graphic novels to get people in the mood. I borrowed this very odd volume. I've read other Grant Morrison so came to this with a degree of wariness (The Invisibles is a little too odd for my tastes) but ended up really enjoying it. The book starts with the Chief, Prof Niles Caulder, putting the Doom Patrol back together after previous events that I don't know about. The Doom Patrol's defining feature is that its heroes are 'defective' in some way. Robot Man is a human brain residing in a robot body with barely any human senses; Crazy Jane has a multiple-personality disorder, with each personality having a different superpower; Rebis was formed by joining a man, a woman and a strange spirit-thing; Dorothy is a teenager with a Neanderthal's face and who can project her inner consciousness into the physical world. The most 'normal' member, Joshua, who can shoot energy beams from his arms, has no desire to be a superhero and stays back to provide medical assistance where required.
Once he pulls himself out of his depression, mostly to help Crazy Jane, Robot Man proves to have a sharp wit and cracks great one-liners ("sorry about the writing, robot fingers, you know?"), and is the de-facto leader of the Doom Patrol as they face a city that's trying to break out of fiction into reality, with pretty damn scary Scissormen literally cutting people out of reality. And after that, they have to deal with someone with a penchant for pain who may or may not be God. "Strange" merely scrapes the surface of what this is. But not so strange (so far, at least) that I get freaked out and leave it behind (*cough*The Invisibles*cough*). I'll certainly be asking to borrow volume 2 soon.
Once he pulls himself out of his depression, mostly to help Crazy Jane, Robot Man proves to have a sharp wit and cracks great one-liners ("sorry about the writing, robot fingers, you know?"), and is the de-facto leader of the Doom Patrol as they face a city that's trying to break out of fiction into reality, with pretty damn scary Scissormen literally cutting people out of reality. And after that, they have to deal with someone with a penchant for pain who may or may not be God. "Strange" merely scrapes the surface of what this is. But not so strange (so far, at least) that I get freaked out and leave it behind (*cough*The Invisibles*cough*). I'll certainly be asking to borrow volume 2 soon.
seawarrior's review against another edition
3.0
This is definitely different from any other superhero comic I've read so far, but I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable the issues were to read, since I was originally worried they might be cynical yet hollow.
Instead the plots and antagonists are more absurd and claim to reject meaning, though some can still be found. I really liked most of the characters, including the villains, and hope some of them are given more time in the spotlight going forward.
Many of the protagonists are people who are seen as abnormal and strange in the contextual society of the comic and would most likely be treated the same way in the society of our reality, but their conditions are not seen as a wholly debilitating tragedy. Although the main heroes start off in a psychiatric hospital they prove themselves to be capable of saving the world right off the bat, and often times empower themselves.
Morrison clearly did a decent job of researching dissociative identity disorder before writing Crazy Jane, and while I myself am not really knowledgeable enough to bring light to details of her characterization that are inaccurate, the trauma that led to the formation of her system was explained in a way that was not explicitly exploitative and even the difference between her apparently normal and emotional parts was mentioned. I also liked that her disorder was not seen as just a side-effect of her superpowers, and instead many of the already formed alters had their own unique powers.
Overall these issues were entertaining and intriguing, and while I was planning to only read this first volume and skip straight to the most recent series, I'm now interested in continuing more of the run.
Instead the plots and antagonists are more absurd and claim to reject meaning, though some can still be found. I really liked most of the characters, including the villains, and hope some of them are given more time in the spotlight going forward.
Many of the protagonists are people who are seen as abnormal and strange in the contextual society of the comic and would most likely be treated the same way in the society of our reality, but their conditions are not seen as a wholly debilitating tragedy. Although the main heroes start off in a psychiatric hospital they prove themselves to be capable of saving the world right off the bat, and often times empower themselves.
Morrison clearly did a decent job of researching dissociative identity disorder before writing Crazy Jane, and while I myself am not really knowledgeable enough to bring light to details of her characterization that are inaccurate, the trauma that led to the formation of her system was explained in a way that was not explicitly exploitative and even the difference between her apparently normal and emotional parts was mentioned. I also liked that her disorder was not seen as just a side-effect of her superpowers, and instead many of the already formed alters had their own unique powers.
Overall these issues were entertaining and intriguing, and while I was planning to only read this first volume and skip straight to the most recent series, I'm now interested in continuing more of the run.
bookcosmos's review against another edition
3.0
3 stars
This one was just okay. I hope the rest of Grant Morrinson's run lives up to the hype.
This one was just okay. I hope the rest of Grant Morrinson's run lives up to the hype.
More...