A review by lordofthemoon
Doom Patrol, Vol. 3: Down Paradise Way by Grant Morrison
3.0
I've enjoyed Morrison's run on the Doom Patrol so far, but this one stretched my patience a little. It's probably the weirdest volume yet and it's not so much the strangeness that I found wearing, but the lack of coherence. While Danny the Street is a charming conceit, I'd love to learn more about him (it?) and his relationship with the woman he comes back to at the start. I'd like to know why the leader of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. appears to have a laugh track running in the background of his home and why he values 'normalcy' so much that he wants to kill Danny (and, eventually, the Doom Patrol).
I probably enjoyed the second half of the book better, where we have Rhea Jones waking from her coma, except running around naked with no face and with an eye growing just above her chest (not a spoiler, it's on the front cover), and being kidnapped to take part in an alien war. Incidentally, disturbing chest-eye aside, I can't help feeling that Rhea's lack of clothes served no real plot purpose other than to portray a curvy lady.
The antagonists of the war that the Doom Patrol get involved in are very interesting and I thought that plot was done well, but it did come at the expense of any sense of closure of the Danny the Street plot.
I'll keep reading, but I'm more wary of the Morrison factor now. Oh, and I found the prologues at the start of each issue tantalising and irritating in equal measure, as they're setting stuff up, but there's no hint of where they're going with them, never mind any resolution whatsoever in the whole book.
I probably enjoyed the second half of the book better, where we have Rhea Jones waking from her coma, except running around naked with no face and with an eye growing just above her chest (not a spoiler, it's on the front cover), and being kidnapped to take part in an alien war. Incidentally, disturbing chest-eye aside, I can't help feeling that Rhea's lack of clothes served no real plot purpose other than to portray a curvy lady.
The antagonists of the war that the Doom Patrol get involved in are very interesting and I thought that plot was done well, but it did come at the expense of any sense of closure of the Danny the Street plot.
I'll keep reading, but I'm more wary of the Morrison factor now. Oh, and I found the prologues at the start of each issue tantalising and irritating in equal measure, as they're setting stuff up, but there's no hint of where they're going with them, never mind any resolution whatsoever in the whole book.