Damage #8 Review

Damage Control 

Writer: Robert Venditti,
Art Team: Tom Dernick, Diogenes Neves, Trevor Scott, Allen Passalaqua
Release Date: August 15, 2018
Cover Price: $2.99


Damage, which started out as my favorite New Age of Heroes concept, has lately spun a bit out of control since its debut issue by featuring a bevy of guest stars, and paying very little attention to actually moving the story at hand forward, as Damage slugs it out with insert name here. Despite those complaints, I tune in with the hope things pick back up, and we get back to solving this mystery so we can progress the character along with his path to redemption. So what does issue eight hold in store for Damage fans? Join me and find out.



The issue begins with Jonas, and the 'goon squad' she's still employing after screwing up royally the last issue, en route to the hospital Ethan was taken to after the River Boat sank.  Fortunately for Ethan, the Unknown Soldier, the person not the tomb, is here to get Ethan out of harm's way.  A nice change of pace from our usual guest star throwing down with Ethan, but not a huge impact otherwise, since I didn't personally have a connection to the character.

After a quick introduction to Ethan, the Unknown Soldier helps him escape the grasp of Jonas and company, making their way to an escape van in the garage below, after a brief one on one with Handyman in an elevator shaft. It seems this Unknown Solider is just a general all-around good guy because he's actually been assisting Ethan from the get-go, filling the runaway in on just exactly how he helped him escape in the first place, all the way back to the first issue.

Everything comes to a head in the issues conclusion with Ethan buying himself just enough time to turn back into Damage as Jonas and her troops descend on the escapees.  Jonas gives the orders to "take him down" as the issues conclude on that cliffhanger.

Overall, this was a bit of a rebound issue for Damage in my opinion. The Unknown Soldier was finally a welcome guest star to the series, actually helping Damage on his path to discovery, instead of getting in his way and fighting him.  I'm not sure the lifespan of a series like Damage, but I'd be interested in the character again more when this overlong origin story is finally out of the way, and he can actually pursue some heroic type feats if that's where the final issues are headed.

The art is a bit of a rebound effort as well with Damage in his brief appearances actually once again appearing to be a threat to those that pursue him.  Some previous efforts lately have seen the scale of our title character vary wildly and its good to see it finding its center once again.

Bits and Pieces:

While I still don't think Damage is quite up to the quality level the early issues of the series were able to obtain this issue seems to show a bit of rebound effort in getting the series focus back on track.  The brief appearance of our title character artistically gets the character back to the size and scale of earlier issues as well. Overall combined together this effort at least makes me look forward to next weeks annual and seeing where this story moves from there.

6.5/10