Unstoppable Doom Patrol #6 – Dennis Culver, Writer; Chris Burnham, Artist; Brian Reber, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: As this miniseries heads to its conclusion after a Knight Terrors break, it opens with a segment that really emphasizes the biggest strength of the run. It’s managed to make the misfits of the Doom Patrol feel like both a team and a family, complete with a new generation of heroes and allies. That shows this issue in a friendly training exercise led by the boisterous Flex Mentallo, as the rookies have to try to score a point on the veterans. The former group includes some characters we’ve never seen before and some we’ve only glimpsed, added to the team in a slight time jump. It’s funny, gross, and wacky—and then it all comes crashing down when the playful fighting becomes very real fighting and a freakish mob of villains enters the base, quickly claiming a life from the team’s new members and sending the rest of the team into a race against time to stop the villains from pulling off their master plan.
This plan calls back to many years of past Doom Patrol stories, as the uneasy alliance of General Immortus and Monsieur Mallah rob the grave of a beloved and long-lost Doom Patrol member, seeking to perform a ritual that will grant Immortus the extended lifespan he’s seeking. But things go horribly wrong, as they often do. I have some quibbles with the use of Mallah in this run, as the shocking events at the end of the first issue haven’t been addressed in any meaningful way yet. But Burnham and Culver have done a great job of getting us invested in these oddball heroes, and that makes the stakes feel all the more real. With only one issue left and a lot to resolve, this feels like the start of a great new take on the Doom Patrol, not the end, and I’m hoping these creators will be steering the characters for some time—assuming they survive the cliffhanger, of course.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
