Doom Patrol: The Painting That Ate Paris

Rating:
Summary: DOOM PATROL was doomed.
Review: Doom Patrol was a DC Comics series that never took off, so no one minded when Grant Morrison turned them into an upside down version of a Heavy Metal Band with these stories.Not much to really say about it, except in the book, What you see is what you get, and it is really nothing at all.

Rating:
Summary: THIS!
Review: Grant Morrison's run on DOOM PATROL is not one of my favorite comics ever. It's one of my favorite THINGS ever. My world is a better place by sheer virtue of the fact that this series is lying around in it.

DOOM PATROL (2nd Series), for those not in the know, is an early 90's update for one of the weirdest silver age series around. After an uninspiring intro by Paul Kupperberg (who at least brought the series back), Grant Morrison retooled the whole thing and came up with (Am I stupid enough to say it? Yes!) Pure Magick!

You probably need to be enthralled to the whole superhero ethos to understand this series, but if you are, ZANG! This may be the most off-the-wall bizarre thing you will ever read. If it was anybody else, this would simply be another boring deconstruction of superheroes. It is so very easy to write the strange for sake of the strange. What Morrison brought to the table is an absolute love for the medium and a deep concern with the damaged characters who populate it.

Perhaps his most inspired creation of the series is featured prominently in this trade, the Brotherhood of Dada! They aren't really supervillains as much as art school graduates, rejects and visionaries. Led by Mr. Nobody (whose origin is terrifying), they are simply, I don't know, snork-tacular?

After these escapades we are led into a journey of Crazy Jane's brain (who has been seriously damaged by childhood trauma into mulitple personalities). This issue (#30) is one of the creepiest comics ever to make to publication, and a perfect example of Morrison's commitment to his characters.

We follow this up with the sublimely weird Cult of the Unwritten Book story arc. Who hasn't wished that John Constantine had been a character from Withnail & I?

The final issue of this paperback features Monsieur Mallah & The Brain. If you have never laughed out loud at a comic, you are missing out. It's a testament to Morrison's talent on this series that he can feature two single issues (this and #30) that are so dichotomous, but still work together as a series. Brilliant.

And this was all pre-Vertigo. Nobody was making things like this!

<You forgot the power to make escape-proof spirit jars.>

Rating:
Summary: FINALLY!!!
Review: I have waited years to read this book, years!!! Finally affordable for my tastes. And a Bolland cover to boot!

Rating:
Summary: FINALLY!!!
Review: I have waited years to read this book, years!!! Finally affordable for my tastes. And a Bolland cover to boot!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully weird
Review: I remember reading the first Invisibles trade and thinking to myself "man, that was weird. How can he top that?" Well, I got the second one, and sure enough, Morrison did. So why bring this up in a review of a Doom Patrol trade? Because I had the exact same thing happen to me with "The Painting That Ate Paris." I read "Crawling from the Wreckage" and thought there was no way Morrison could surpass it. Well, was I ever wrong! In this collection, we're introduced to the Brotherhood of Dada, who wish to wreck their own brand of havoc on the world. To do so, they unleash a painting that sucks the entire city of Paris into it, hence the title. The weirdness precedes from there, such as battles with the Fifth Horsemen of the Apoclaypse (the way he's defeated is a testament to Morrison's inventiveness) and the Cult of the Unwritten book. If you find The Invisibles too weird for your tastes, and want something along similiar lines, then try Morrison's The Doom Patrol.