Real Life, Real Estate
Writer: Gerard Way
Penciller & Cover: Nick Derington
Inker: Tom Fowler
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Todd Klein
Cover Price: $3.99
On Sale Date: September 6, 2017
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE
BOTTOM**
Hey, I didn’t know if it was going to happen, but
it’s here: a new Doom Patrol issue,
almost a month after the last one drawn by the Allred’s. Missed it by a week.
You know what? We’ll give it to you, Doom
Patrol. You’ve kept what’s close enough to a monthly schedule, and if I
have to wait a mere five weeks for the next issue, I won’t complain, either.
Unless this issue sucks. You can find out by reading my review of Doom Patrol #8, right now!
Explain
It!
I am, by nature, a slob. But before I go away
anywhere for a few days or more, I always clean the house. Empty all the
garbage, bleach the bathroom, wash and store all the dishes. The reason I do
this is, though I am okay with living in squalor, I don’t want to come back
from vacation to a hoarder’s mess. This might be a good practice in serial
fiction, as well—and comic books, in specific: before handing off your series a
fill-in issue or issues, tie up as many loose ends as possible so you don’t
return to chaos in progress. And that’s kind of what’s happened with this issue
of Doom Patrol. It was only one issue, at the end of July, that had art by the
Allreds and was sort of an homage to classic Doom Patrol character designs and
tropes. But it has been four months since we were last steeped in the ongoing
sagas of Casey Brinke and cohorts. So what we get here is a lot of
housekeeping.
The big surprise, which is spoiled on both the
regular and variant covers, is that Casey meets her now humanoid cat, Lotion.
And fucks him. Or at least sleeps in the same bed with him. Long ago, that
would have been comic book shorthand for sex, but I don’t want to make any
assumptions. Regardless, Casey’s got the hots for her cat. And why shouldn’t
she? He’s an aloof, punky, lithe type of disaffected dude that is probably soft
as a bunny and loves tummy rubs. The other new information we get is about Sam
dealing with his estranged wife and Satan-worshipping son. I like this sequence
of events, even though it makes my heart hurt a little. But, quite frankly—it seems
very human, and normal against the scale of the other goings-on in this comic
book.
Aside from this, we find that the Negative Entity,
Keeg, can communicate with others and perform activities outside of Larry’s
body, which I suppose will be useful to know, and works by way of exposition to
explain the current situation with Danny the Ambulance. Terry None also returns
to her shared apartment with Casey to spoon-feed her $#!+, a new food additive
that I’m sure makes people grow six heads or something. For the most part, this
issue reinforces the story we had been following, now many months ago. Nick
Derington’s art is still absolutely terrific, and there are lots of nice
moments for Doom Patrol fans to
enjoy. But it’s still a placeholder for actual story, so I can’t give it my
full support. Nor will I move off of my contention that this series is likely
better read collected in trades.
Bits and
Pieces:
This issue picks up from the storylines left in issue #6, back in May. As a result, there's a lot of exposition to remind the reader of all the goings-on. There's some implied interspecies sex, and a new status for the Negative Entity, but it feels a little like we're in the tutorial stage of this Doom Patrol: The Second Arc video game. I hope the first level proper is coming next issue.
7/10
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