I mentioned on another thread that I was having a little trouble with all four of the series I'm reading online, and I said I'd discuss The Doom Patrol on the "Doom Patrol" thread.

Then I read #11 and #12 this morning ... and I'm not having trouble with the late 1980s Doom Patrol any more!

I really like the first six or 7 issues, but then there's a bit of a lull and I wasn't feeling it for a few issues. Erik Larsen took over the art chores and, much as I like later Larsen, his early work is SO 1990s! I was wincing a bit.

But I don't know if Larsen got a little better over the next few issues or if I just got used to it, but it's not bugging anymore as of #11 and #12.

The series has also brought in some new members - Lodestone, Karma and ... Scott. (I forget his code name.) I didn't like them at first, but I've come to really like Lodestone (Rhea) and Scott is growing on me. But Karma (Wayne) is a character I really don't like.

Arani and Cliff are great as usual, and I'm liking Joshua a lot more.

Another problem with #7 to #10 was the lame villains, like Shrapnel. And a rather uninteresting Superman cross-over involving Metallo. And also Garguax. It took me a while to warm to Garguax. He's apparently a longtime Doom Patrol villain that I never heard of. Boy, he really hates Cliff!

There's also been a really good subplot as Larry (who used to be Negative Man) is trying to get his power back from Val (Negative Woman), and this has been an intriguing subplot the whole time it's been going on.

But #11 and #12 have got me interested again! I was starting to think about skipping ahead to the Grant Morrison issues, but there's so few issues of the Kupperberg Doom Patrol left that I thought Id stick with it.

And I'm glad I did!

Glad you like it and I'll be changing it in a day or two ... I have over 350 plus made!

Well, that was very disappointing.

They killed Arani in a cross-over in a way that was more stupid than heroic.

What are you looking for in comics?

G. M.'s Doom Patrol had more cool ideas per page than any other mainstream comic I've ever read, pulling from fashion, music, the visual arts and the sciences... plus plenty of psedoscience to boot.  The scissor men are all at once creepy AND absurd and reflect an interest and knowledge of local folklore and how it works.  There's a really wide tonal range to Morrison's stuff.  And while I don't see any interest in continuity, it works surprisingly well as comics criticism.    (Which is an interesting way to interact with the rest of the "DC Universe" which really hadn't been touched on much.*)  


Also the writing is a little wonky - obviously Drake was better at characterization - and I don't get the sense Morrison really figured out how to write for his artists at all.  

Still, I freaking love this whole run.  The appeal is all the cool ideas and the breadth of knowledge.  If that's not what you're looking for I wouldn't recommend the rest of the run.

Skip right to Rachel Pollack.

Heh heh heh.  Morrison wasn't working for him and I told him to go read Rachel Pollack.  Ain't I a stinker!  

The big finale for "Crawling from the Wreckage" in Doom Patrol #22, is a wordplay confrontation between Rebis and the two priests of the scissormen's world. Rebis has to make this world confront the fact this it is a fictional world come to life, and this realization will make the world disappear.

You really have to know your stuff when you get into a wordplay conversation like this. I think of greatness of the "Riddles in the Dark" segment in the Hobbit. And I also think of how awkward Etrigan can be when the writer has to put all his dialogue in verse.

Morrison seems to be in over his head a little bit. (Or maybe it was edited by someone who didn't really quite get it; I'll give Morrison the benefit of the doubt on that. I've seen it happen when I was a copy editor for a newspaper when things would get changed by egotistical editors who could never admit they didn't know what they were doing. But I can only judge what's on the page.)

One of the priests is a liar and the other is an honest man. It's a bit of a twist on a famous story element about having to figure out which of two persons is a liar and which is honest. (I think it's adapted into the film Labyrinth.)

And it's a bit of a twist that doesn't really make any sense because making either of the priests realize that they are fictional has nothing to do with one or the other being a liar or honest.

And then, when Rebis asks "Why is there something instead of nothing?" the black priest says:

I AM A LIAR AND I DO NOT KNOW WHY
THERE IS SOMETHING INSTEAD OF NOTHING.

Rebis says "Which one ... I can't ... think ... Wait. Yes. The black priest must be the liar!"

Yeah. It must be the black priest. BECAUSE HE JUST TOLD YOU.

Which makes no sense. The one that is lying doesn't tell you that he's a liar. That's part of the original conundrum.

I read that scene several times trying to figure out what I was missing. I read Crazy Jane's detailed explanation more than once. I couldn't make it work for me.

I liked "Crawling from the Wreckage" up to this point, even if I didn't think it was great comics. But that little segment was pretty lame.

"Cool ideas" require adequate implementation.

But I'm sticking with Morrison's Doom Patrol. The re-launch has started off a little rocky. I'm assuming Morrison will get better at implementing his cool ideas.

I'm looking forward to the Brotherhood of Dada. I've long thought that it sounded intriguing. And I don't really know that much about the Dada movement so I'm pretty sure I won't be bothered that much if Morrison doesn't either.

As someone who was reading this as it came out i can say you are almost correct in that Doom Patrol was likely to be on most people's dropped list. But the series quirkiness and oddness from anything else at the time kept me (and others i think) interested enough to hang on. It does get better and stranger and the series as a whole works best away from the rest of the DCU in it's own special little rabbit hole Morrison creates. After Morrison, there are highs and lows but the series somehow keeps you holding on to it.

Not having read it since originally on the racks (so to speak) I do wonder how it will hold up on my taking time to read it again. Better or worse? Time shall tell but it does carry fond memories of the times for me when it was printed.