A few weeks back I won all 40 or so issues of GM's run on "Doom Patrol" on eBay. Needless to say, I was estatic, and having now read Doom Patrol I think I can say it is definetly one of Morrison's best achievements.
BUT, the guy I won it from also decided to toss in a comic called "Doom Force", also written by Morrison. It appears to be a spin-off of sorts and was released in 1992.
After reading it, I came to two conclusions: Either this comic is meant to be a joke, or Morrison was actually serious about this, in which case it could be the worst thing he's ever written. I think the former is the answer here, but...
My first problem is the cover. 5 (fairly poorly drawn imo) heroes all clutching giant guns, constipated snarls on their faces. A big message proclaiming "Collectible first issue!" A yellow arrow pointing to the top hero saying "Which one of these heroes will die?" (hilariously, it is the hero that the arrow is pointing to!) Now, this must be satire. Why else kill a character off in the first issue?!?!
The story itself is quite dull. Five uninteresting superheroes have to save the world from a stock bad guy. The only funny hero is Shasta, the living mountain, who is constantly wailing about how useless he is to the team (after all, all he can do is turn himself into a mountain). The dialouge is terrible too, particularily for the Scratch character: "Come on fellas? What are ya waiting for? Christmas? Well, here's something Santa forgot to bring. And don't worry... he didn't leave you off the list!" or "Figure you're used to fighting wimps, pal. Well, I got news for you. I AIN'T NO WIMP!" The female characters all have huge breasts, I should add. It ends with Shasta heroically sacrificing his life to save the day, yet his comrades just mock him after his death. The final panel shows these hideous, ugly people laughing merrily, along with a box asking readers if they wanted to see more of America's newest band of super-powered misfits (though after this issue, who would want to?) I guess no one did, as there was only one Doom Force issue.
The editorial at the end seems very sarcastic. Like, "Our pencillers/inkers seemed inspired to artistic heights they had never previously reached. If you doubt that, go back and look again at the sheer number of lines they put into each panel and onto every figure" (they say this for the coloring job too). Really though, the art seems very poor to me. Hell, I can draw better then that, and I'm not even very good. It almost looks like it was poorly drawn on purpose.
To add to the infamy, the editor says how GM has a rep as the most tireless superhero creator in the history of comics, and they give a list of possible GM superheroes that could appear in future issues (there's like 72 names, each with a TM copyright near it, and they all have silly names like Goatee, hairline, Spatula, Snot, Cross-hatch, Post-script, etc.)
Come on, this must be some kind of superhero comic satire? Right? God I hope so. |
