REVIEW: Unstoppable Doom Patrol #5

DC as a whole is so underrated! From their movies to their TV shows to their comics. Time and time again they pump out super high-quality entertainment that is mostly passed on by the masses. Whether it’s because Marvel has such a chokehold on entertainment with the Disney money machine behind them, or because people are too saturated with superhero content to even consider going out of their way for other stuff, it’s a shame to not see more coverage on the kind of stuff that DC truly does fantastic at. Supervillain’s turned heroes.

You gotta hand it to DC when it comes to taking the bad guys and turning them into good guys. Suicide Squad from the very beginning was interesting, funny, and all sorts of bloody and nasty. Then we got the movies which only served to maximize that gnarliness, then we got the series Peacemaker which in my humblest of opinions is one of my favorite shows ever about superheroes (that and the Boys). DC has a knack for breaking the rules when it comes to their supervillains acting lawfully. Doom Patrol is all about that. Whilst they are not particularly bad guys they are all weird superheroes that got their powers from weird accidents. They are foul-mouthed, quick to anger, and do not hold back their punches. This issue of Doom Patrol is so awesome!

The art itself is very well done, and whilst quite cartoony it also manages to get a bit grungy with all sorts of inked details that can turn simple close-up shots into horrifying visions of evil. There’s one panel where a superwoman just goes berserk and erupts into a mass of puss, hands, and holes and just looks terrifying. That kind of stuff is hard to create and has it be both awesome and disgusting all at the same time. Couple the outstanding art style with incredible perspective shots that defy the laws of nature and you get some truly amazing panels.

The script itself is not laugh-out-loud funny but it still manages to stay light and quirky, where it really shines is in giving all the characters their own very unique voices that work well together whilst still remaining an easy-to-consume read. The story itself is easy to follow even so close to the end of the run coming in on issue 5 of 7. The lettering is fantastic with wonderful font choices, great title texts, and pretty good word balloon shapes. One thing I did miss of course is the use of sound fx text, I think superhero stories should definitely have their fair share of sound fxs but sadly this story has very little of that, and whilst it’s not crucial to the story because the art is so clear and concise, a couple of “Boom’s”, “Poow’s”, and “Fwoosh’s” would have added a bit more pizazz to everything.

The coloring is exceptional, the art is vibrant, the shading is simple but works well and the color palettes fit perfectly with the tone of the story and the style of the linework. The shading style is actually quite interesting because it’s like a mix of cell-shading and blended shaded, but instead of blending two shades together, they divide the different colors into cell-shaded shapes that work well together and create a sort of ramp of colors that define the form. Think of it kinda like low-poly shading in a 3D model program but with 2D art. It works well because it keeps things very cartoony but still gives them enough form and definition that it makes things appear to have mass and weight. There are some really wonderful panels in this issue and I think this was a great read through and through. I am personally a big fan of the panels with a ton of black ink detail, those panels seem to have been hand-picked to carry the most impact and you can find one or two on every other page and they all look fantastic.

This was a phenomenal read for me, and I am excited to continue reading more on this series. I also just learned that there’s a Doom Patrol tv show so guess I’m gonna be doing some binge watching soon too.

Writing: 5 Stars
Art: 5 Stars
Colors: 5 Stars

Overall: 5 Stars

Written by; Dennis Culver
Art by; Chris Burnham
Colors by; Brian Reber
Lettering by; Pat Brosseau

Cover art by; Chris Burnham & Brian Reber
Variant Cover by; Mike Janín & Alan Quah

Published by DC Comics

Reviewed by Antonio “Mabs”