A review by doctorwoofwoof
Doom Patrol, Vol. 1: Crawling from the Wreckage by Grant Morrison

4.0

In a fandom littered with reboot after reboot, with the current ones no better than the previous 4-5 before it, I took it upon myself to finally read Morrison's much-praised mid-1980's reboot of the Doom Patrol. I did not read it when it came out originally, but I remember seeing it. At the time, I was very much about the "flashy" superhero books of 80's: the X-Men (which I will still argue were better than ANYTHING that is currently being written about them!), Wildstorm's 'Gen13' and 'WildC.A.T.s', etc. Mind you, I was also very much into 'Sandman' and "Shade the Changing Man', both of which were part of the still-in-its-infancy stage Vertigo imprint from DC Comics. Weird, right, that I skipped over 'Doom Patrol'. Not sure why I did, but I did.

Now, to the present..

Having read the first volume, which is out-of-print (like so much of DC's pre-"New 52" stuff!), I can safely say I understand all the love that the series has earned! This is mind-blowing stuff, and it's only the first 6 issues!

The book boasts a dark, moody theme at times, but it is more part of the story than about trying to "be something" like many books today try to be. The characters are well-rounded, each having a uniquely interesting personality. There are returning characters, like Robotman, and the team's leader Niles Caulder, but there are also some real creative gems like Crazy Jane, with her 64 personalities and so much more going on in her!

The cool thing about 'Doom Patrol' is it can be recommended to anyone who says they don't like comics because of the costumes, etc. DP is not about costumes, superheroes or anything like that. If it were to be compared to anyting, I would say I got a 'Fringe' (the FOX/J.J. Abrams TV series) feeling when I was reading it.

There are 5 more volumes to tackle, but I shall savor each one, as if it were a fine wine!