Doom Patrol #7
By Koppy McFad
January 10, 2005 - 15:42
DC Comics
Writer(s): John Byrne
Penciller(s): John Byrne, Doug Hazlewood
Cover Artist(s): John Byrne
The story starts off slow with an over-emphasis on Nudge, this psychic teenager who Byrne inducted into the team. We get to see a little of her background, her thoughts and feelings-- but it still isn't enough to get us interested in her. The whole troubled-teenager thing has already been done to death in the pages of the X-MEN titles and Byrne doesn't really bring anything new to the tale, except for making Nudge an Asian although she looks about as Asian as Jean Grey.
The menace of the issue-- some alien beings who are devolving people and animals-- are introduced rather seamlessly. They don't stand out as baddies but they do look rather formidable, which is more than we can say for the robot boss or the vampires in the earlier issues. One the plus side, this story is fast-moving and filled with action. On the minus side, it still feels like just another superhero adventure-- not quite up to the weirdness that the Doom Patrol are used to handling.
But there is no minus side where the art is concerned. Perhaps it is just the inker or maybe Byrne is pulling out all stops but this issue has some of his best art in months. It is dynamic yet detailed, telling a story well while allowing space for spectacle. If this book survives, it will be the art, not the DOOM PATROL name, the old characters or the Silver-Age style stories, that will save it.
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