Episode 75: Green Monkey Genes Are Cool and Awesome OR Take That, Galtry!

Here we go again, fellow Patrollers! This time Paul and Mike are looking at Teen Titans Earth One Volume 2 and Tales of the New Teen Titans #3 (of 4!). Here's the link to the Podbean. And the link to the Comicosity post for the podcast. 

When you think of the number 75, you realise it signifies the 'diamond anniversary' of a thing, which usually entails a classy celebration of reaching such a milestone but thankfully you'll find none of that rot here. LET'S GET PATROLLING!

• Down on Derington Way - 6:39

• Doom Clock - 11:09

• Doomsplaining - 15:08 - This week we look celebrate the Doom Patrol on our 75th episode by looking at 2 Teen Titans stories. Oh. Anyway, this week we take a look at Teen Titans Earth One Volume 2, and Tales of the New Teen Titans #3!

• Mailbag O Doom - 47:56 - We read your responses to the question, "What is your favourite sequel?"

Here are some images to go along with Paul's assessment of Teen Titans Earth One Volume 2. 

The cover for the book. Safe to say Cyborg's had better days. 

I haven't actually read Volume 2, but there were certainly hints of an homage or re-introduction of the Doom Patrol in Volume 1 as Rita Farr factored into that book. That said, I really can't add much to the commentary, but I sure can provide some images (mostly thanks to Paul!). 

When is Robotman not Robotman?

Kole and Impulse show up to cause problems. 

Tempest, Changeling, Terra, and Cyborg really wonder WHUP is going on. 

Slade Wilson's motto: always make a memorable entrance. 

Don't forget: Raven and Starfire are in this book too! 

Before we go much further, I'm going to cross over to Derington Way to share a cover with y'all. Y'know, the cover for Doom Patrol #5 that Paul was finding so hard to describe.

Alrighty, now let's get to the gorgeous George Pérez art from Tales of the New Teen Titans #3 (which is available on Comixology). 

George Pérez as only Pérez can give us. SO MUCH detail!
And Mento almost looks cool! 

A bit of a dense read, but a good one. 

A George Pérez montage for the win. 

Gar SPAMM!'s Galtry. And no computers were harmed in the making of this spam. 

Return of the Arsenal! 

  

GALTRY!!

There wolf! There castle! 

Dating montage of death! 

Apologies for the bars, I screen-capped the pages from the DC Comics app, but didn't clean them up in the interest of getting this post done. 

 And the post is now done, save for the Question of the Week.
This week's Question of the Week is:

Who is your favourite character who hides their face?

Also, before I hang this up, I'll just post this to commemorate Mike's call regarding Casey's parentage. It's in white. So you'll have to highlight. 
Mike thinks Rhea Jones (Lodestone) is Casey Brinke's mom. And, truth be told, this is the same connection I made earlier in the week. And Danny's the dad, as only Danny can be. 

DOOM PATROL #2 Review

Larry Trainor takes the spotlight on the cover, and leads the action inside Doom Patrol #2, which opens with a flashback to the fateful flight where Trainor made his connection to the negative energy that would become Negative Man. Except this is the origin filtered through years and through the creative processes of writer Gerard Way.

Way latches onto the "negative" aspect of Negative Man and centers Larry Trainor in some spots that stoke uneasy feelings, evoke nastiness, and cause problems. And all of it makes sense, from a certain point of view.

Way uses the rest of the issue to check in on Casey Brinke and Terry None, the latter of which has rebuilt the robot man we all know and love as Cliff Steele, aka Robotman. An interesting set of attacking forces and comic book coincidences brings Larry and Robotman together, with Brinke and her paramedic partner, Sam, in the middle of it all.

Way's writing is creative and playful, fun and entertaining. He certainly seems to be doing what he wants to do with the characters and circumstances in this story, which makes Doom Patrol #2 a wild ride in every sense. Every page turn packs a new surprise, and some of those surprises bring new plot developments, returning characters, and even a headscratcher or two.

The characters each have their own beats that they move to, Terry None is as disturbingly peppy in Doom Patrol #2, Casey is wonderfully optimistic and flexible with the madness unfolding around her, and Cliff Steele is an ass-kicker with heart, as he makes sure to protect Brinke's cat, Lotion, during the battle at the heart of the issue. Lotion gets lost in the action, but I have no doubt there are leads to follow from there that will spin into fantastic tales and added detail for the world Way is building.

The writer provides readers with another Niles Caulder interlude that seems like a playful six-panel romp. I'm sure this interlude and the one from Doom Patrol #1 link together and are telling the reader more about Niles Caulder's whereabouts and doings, but these pages alone are fun enough to showcase the wackiness that can be farmed from the Doom Patrol brand.

Artist Nick Derington is as much to credit with the whimsical nature of Doom Patrol #2 as Way is. The duo meld nicely, playing to one another's strengths. Derington continues to churn out deceptively brilliant designs and brilliantly animated characters with a stunning array of emotions. Sometimes those emotions and expressions are transformed into simplistic, comic strip eyeballs, other times its something a little more subtle, like the parting of lips or a character tilting his or her head.

Derington has no shortage of imagination to draw from, and he shares quite a bit of that with us readers. Whether it's the destruction Steele causes when fighting the angular aliens, or the decorations in Casey's apartment, Derington packs detail into every panel and makes every page of Doom Patrol #2 a playful wonderland.

Colorist Tamra Bonvillain adds to the visuals quite nicely. She drops an uneasy yellow hue that soaks the opening scene where Larry antagonizes the two opposing gang members, that shifts to orange when Larry is distressed in the back of the ambulance, and shifts once more to red when Casey arrives at the cabaret in the last scene of Doom Patrol #2. Likewise, letterer Todd Klein gives sound density, packing the battle sound effects around Robotman as he kicks ass. Klein uses a variety of word balloon styles to transmit variance in language and sound, as the angular aliens have white type in black hexagon balloons, other aliens speak in gristly mixed case, and all of Cliff Steele's lines are packed with power and determination.

All in all, Doom Patrol #2 is a wonderfully impressive second chapter in a brand new, imaginatively disturbing world. There are familiar bits, there are brand new bits, there are bits that are seemingly fully formed and slowly exposed. Amazingly enough, Doom Patrol #2 is just as, if not slightly more, accessible than Doom Patrol #1, and it pays back with interest, quite literally unpacking a whole new world for readers by the end of the issue.

Go out and get it, my friends. HIGHLY recommended. 

Waiting for Doom Episode 74: Yeah He's Found His Weird OR Good Job, Casey!

New week! New issue of Doom Patrol!! New episode of Waiting for Doom!!!

Here's the description of this week's podcast straight from the Podbean, wherein Paul and Mike discuss Doom Patrol #2 from Gerard Way, Nick Derington, Tamra Bonvillain, and Todd Klein:

Episode 74: Yeah He's Found His Weird
New week! New episode! New Doom Patrol! LET'S GET PATROLLING!

Down on Derington Way - 8:48|Doom Clock - 13:04|Doomsplaining

As the boys mentioned down on Derington Way, here's the clown sketch from Nick Derington's Twitter.

Not so much floating as being carried, I'd say. 

And, as an extra bonus, because I cannot get enough of Derington's art, I presume you feel the same way, so here's an early Casey Brinke sketch he recently shared. 

She looks a bit younger in this one. 

They also mentioned the interview from iO9 that Evan Narcisse conducted from New York Comic Con this past weekend. Of note, to me, is this quote:

You can't just have weirdness for weirdness's sake. - Gerard Way

Feel free to sound off with your own preferred quote from the interview. 

For now, let's catch up to what Mike and Paul discussed and share some images with y'all. I'm going to keep the commentary sparse, mostly just the captions, as I'll give y'all my own review of Doom Patrol #2 tomorrow. For now, if you need another take on the issue, check out what my pal, Mexi Gremillion had to say over at Comicosity. 

Here are the covers.

Nick Derington's cover. 

The Allred variant as delivered to us by ComicBook.com

Sweet. My LCS just so happened to have both covers at, well, cover price. So I got mine. How about you? Which cover did you get? 

Oh. That's interesting. No. I didn't really hear you. I pretended I did though, which was kind of fun. Feel free to drop your cover option in the comments below. 

Now let's get on to the panels. I'm putting these in story order, and completely resisting the urge to just drop in the entire issue below. That's why some bits are only panels. If you really want to see the whole thing, but you don't have, well, I guess that means you should go buy Doom Patrol #2, right? 

Anyway, here are some panels. 

The runner-up for Doug's Dig. 

All of page 6. 

"Brain milk." That's how my youngest daughter described this panel,
which is her favorite of the issue. 

Who do you suppose Terry's going to tell?

An interlude with Niles Caulder. 

Mike was so inspired by this scene he wrote a song on Twitter this week. 

A bit of a mess. 

I'm ready. 

In lieu of a "Next Issue" page or blurb, artist Dan McDaid gives us this: 

And now, it's time for Doug's Dig. 

So there you have it, Patrollers. Click back tomorrow to get my actual review of the issue. 

BUT WAIT! It wouldn't be a Waiting for Doom related post if I didn't give you the Question of the Week:
What's your favorite sequel?

October Reviews

A couple months back, I posted the solicits for October's comics, highlighting the Young Animal imprint and also calling out a few other DC Comics that caught my eye. I promised reviews either at Tales of My Greatest Strange Adventures or on Comicosity. I did a bit of both. Check them out and let me know what you think.

As for Doom Patrol (v6) #2, I'll share my thoughts (as well as a Doug's Dig) here, most likely prior to Paul and Mike releasing the next Waiting for Doom podcast.

The standard issue cover for Doom Patrol (v6) #2. 

The Mike and Laura Allred variant for Doom Patrol (v6) #2. From ComicBook.com

Until then, be sure to check out the preview of Doom Patrol #2 on Nerdist.

Episode 73: New Doom Patrol vs New NEW Doom Patrol. What? OR Nude Patrol

There's a new Waiting for Doom episode! Of course there is! But what's this one all about? Well, here's the details from the Podbean:

Episode 73: New Doom Patrol vs New NEW Doom Patrol. What?
Mike and Paul are back with more Doom Patrol awesomeness, with added helpings of legal issues and eastern mysticism! Good grief! LET'S GET PATROLLING!!

Down on Derington Way - 6:15
Doom Clock - 11:30
Doomsplaining - 14:02 - This week we look at issues #3 and #4 from volume 3, by John Arcudi and Tan Eng Huat!
Mailbag O Doom - 48:57 - We read your responses to the question, "What is your favourite conflict in fiction?"

From the Down on Derington Way segment, here's the cover: 

Look for more about the rest of the December 2016 Young Animal releases a bit later right here on this site. 

Now, let's get on to the issues of Volume 3 that Mike and Paul covered. Here's the cover for #3. 

Huat was brilliant then and the work still (ahem) holds up. 

Let's check in at Bruno's. Before we go in, though, click on this image. Do it. Click. Only then can you be utterly humbled by the amazing detail Huat brings to this comic. Look at those bricks! And window frames! And that VW bug! Slug bug - yellow! No slugs back! 

A slice of life for this team. 

Ron Gomz, Negati-er, Flash Forward, and Kid Slick. Sick. 

Tan Eng Huat is simply remarkable. I could just flip through this volume for a day. Or more. But then the story, well, Arcudi did NOT try to walk in anyone's shows. Sure, he was respectful of what came before, but he also forged straight ahead, making this Doom Patrol its own thing, and a darn good thing all the way through. 

Let's take a look at #4 now. 

That's a big sword. I'd've liked to see the old teams facing off trope on this cover, but as it is, this is pretty darn good. 

This new Doom Patrol and the business aspect of it all was a bit much for me at the time. I was sleep-deprived (my middle daughter was not yet 1, my oldest, maybe 4) and just wanted superheroes punching stuff in my comics. Now, well, now, I think this series is freaking brilliant. 

Kid Slick breaks the news about the NEW Doom Patrol. 

Ted might be a jerk, but he's OUR jerk. What a great little twist. 

Fax machines need power to run. 

The next three images really don't need captions, as they tell stories in their own right, but Huat also nails the art. 

Paul and Mike refer to this as the forgotten Patrol. Check the labels to the right and click "Metamorpho". I remembered. I also remembered Rex's birthday. Did you?

And then there's the clue about Ava. 

No, Ted. That's Ava, aka Freak. 

With this post, I'm going to add something new. It's a bit like the Random Panel from other comic blogs, but these aren't so random. Let's call them Doug's Digs, and it'll be the single panel from each issue that I dig the most. Might be because of dialog, art, or just because. No rationale given, just an extra image for you to click and enjoy. 

And be sure to sound off, what's YOUR favorite panel for each issue?  

Doug's Dig DPv3 #3

Doug's Dig DPv3 #4

And that's a wrap my friends and fellow Patrollers. Don't forget the second issue of the Way Derington run hits THIS COMING WEDNESDAY! 

In case you need a refresher on what to look for, here's the cover to what seems to be a Larry Trainor-centric issue (I hope): 

Of course it'll have a UPC and all, but you get the gist. 

While you're waiting for Doom (see what I did there?) Patrol #2, here's your Question of the Week:
Who is your favorite Mister? The character identified with a moniker of Mister _________________ [fill-in-the-blank].
I have a separate answer, but having just seen this TV commercial, well, this might be the winner for me.