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A review by amandaventure
Doom Patrol Vol. 1: Brick by Brick by Gerard Way
2.0
Doom Patrol is a series I’ve always wanted to try out. I wish I had before jumping in with Brick by Brick because honestly, I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on. So perhaps that’s where my problem lies? Maybe I went into a long running series and didn’t know any of the back stories in order to know what the story was about now. I’m not sure if that made sense or not but I’m not really sure about anything at the moment. I really wanted to LOVE this one because it’s written by Gerard Freaking Way for Pete’s sake! He’s one of my all-time favorite artists and I want to believe he can do no wrong. Hence, I have some pretty mixed feelings about this one.
Let’s discuss the stuff that worked. While I didn’t understand the story it didn’t diminish the writing quality. Doom Patrol is really well written. I can’t find fault with that and I knew Gerard Way wouldn’t let me down on that front. I also really liked the art work and character design. The visuals were rather interesting and if nothing else, Doom Patrol is pretty to look at.
I would normally talk about the plot but since I don’t really understand the plot I’m not able to do so. Seriously, was it just me? Like… I had to google the plot and read a Wikipedia article to figure out what the plot was. At least I know what the main story was about but I’m still at a loss for everything else. I’m just so confused… and after looking though several reviews on Goodreads, it appears many other people were as well.
I think this becomes a question of whether it’s my fault for going into a story without a solid foundation or if it’s the authors fault for writing something with absolutely no frames of reference for a new reader to pick up on. I hate to say it (since I respect Gerard Way so much) but I think it’s the fault of the author for writing a story that takes place within an established series without letting the readers in on the past. I think if I knew the backstory I would have found this one amazing. Sadly I went in with a blank slate so I just feel confused about how a book so well written and visually interesting could make literally no sense to me.
Let’s discuss the stuff that worked. While I didn’t understand the story it didn’t diminish the writing quality. Doom Patrol is really well written. I can’t find fault with that and I knew Gerard Way wouldn’t let me down on that front. I also really liked the art work and character design. The visuals were rather interesting and if nothing else, Doom Patrol is pretty to look at.
I would normally talk about the plot but since I don’t really understand the plot I’m not able to do so. Seriously, was it just me? Like… I had to google the plot and read a Wikipedia article to figure out what the plot was. At least I know what the main story was about but I’m still at a loss for everything else. I’m just so confused… and after looking though several reviews on Goodreads, it appears many other people were as well.
I think this becomes a question of whether it’s my fault for going into a story without a solid foundation or if it’s the authors fault for writing something with absolutely no frames of reference for a new reader to pick up on. I hate to say it (since I respect Gerard Way so much) but I think it’s the fault of the author for writing a story that takes place within an established series without letting the readers in on the past. I think if I knew the backstory I would have found this one amazing. Sadly I went in with a blank slate so I just feel confused about how a book so well written and visually interesting could make literally no sense to me.