This is a reread keeping in mind that a) I'm older and b) Ellis has been outed as a wrong'un. There's some insight here, some decent commentary on modern life that holds up nearly 25 years later but still so much edgelordery such as ''wah wah wah all religion is pointless and for the lost and gullible''. It very much feels that Ellis wants Spider to be his messianic truth laden mouthpiece who's edgy and doesn't care what you think, which just comes across as teen level wankery now. Then we get to the end where we discover that Spider has committed what is arguably sexual assault and at the least predatory sexual behaviour and it's brushed off as a punch line to a joke. Yeah, Ellis definitely wanted Spider to be his avatar.
Beige, straight, basic and square. Several mainstream heroe cameos and the end reveal made me want to break things. Runs roughshod over the versions of Doom Patrol that Morrisons, Pollack and even Way produced.