They interviewed to fill our vacancy last week. The best candidate wouldn't be able to start for another month, and we'd have to train them up before they could really help with the load, but they seem promising. More promising than these two 1st issues? Maybe!
So, the whole thing with the Lazarus Pit rain has apparently activated a bunch of metagene, and unscrupulous types are rushing to exploit these confused people. So the Doom Patrol, with one of Jane's personalities acting as Chief, are out to protect these folks from a world that hates and fears them. Well, the X-Men are busy failing at nation-building, so why not? There's one entirely new team member, Beast Girl who looks like something you'd see in an enchanted forest designed by Jim Henson. Allows for some variety in size and the horns and fangs help fit in with the idea of the team for monsters.
They recruit a new guy who was being experimented on. He gets stronger and weirder looking as he gets angry, which he likes (the being angry and the getting stronger.) No chance of problems from there! Has a bit of a Doomsday by way of Akira vibe to his look. Some future artist will absolutely streamline that as being too much work. The Suicide Squad has someone infiltrating the team to tear them apart, but if Peacemaker picked them, they probably suck. And the Brain and Monsieur Mallah have broken up. Horrors, not the original Odd Couple! Is there no place for true love at DC?
Since the issue occurs in Gotham, Batman's there with the impotent, "I'll be watching," threat. It's only slightly dumber than the Chief pretending there's a difference between being an alien or Atlantean and having a metagene to the people looking to profit from superpowers. Would someone like that really care if a person's size-changing was due to whatever gives Elasti-Woman that ability, versus it being an inherited trait like Colossal Boy or Shrinking Violet on the Legion?
Besides, I'm pretty sure Robotman doesn't have a metagene, unless "bad driver" qualifies.
Flimsy, bad faith arguments aside, it at least gives Culver a hook for the title. So long as we don't get six issues of the Chief claiming moral superiority in the face of whatever they or their charges do, because the other superheroes "don't understand."
Pete moves into a new apartment by himself. It's probably a bad sign he's scoping out how sturdy the ceiling fan is, and the proximity of electrical outlets to the bathtub. When he gets depressed enough about his recent break-up with his apparently awful, possibly physically abusive ex-girlfriend, he takes a bunch of pills. At which point the ghost of a former child actress appears and makes him throw the pills back up.
Pete wakes up the next morning, alive, confused, and with the word "LEAVE" scrawled on the bathroom mirror in toothpaste. After briefly considering an exorcism, Pete concludes having a ghost around could be good. It's a friend that can't leave! The ghosts are of a slightly different opinion, but Pete's been kicked around and abandoned a lot lately, so he refuses to go.
Borrallo draws Pete as a sad sack type. Slump-shouldered, deep bags under his eyes, wears a baggy hoody that swallows him up. In the apartment, he drapes a blanket over himself like a tent to peer out from. As one of the ghosts observes, he comes off as kind of pathetic.
We see a few glimpses of whatever was going on in his life prior to this and he doesn't seem much happier. His girlfriend glares at him when they have dinner, and someone (probably her) hit him with a shoe. There's the prominent cast on his arm, too and the fact someone (again, her I'm assuming) dumped his stuff on the lawn for anyone to steal, then turned the sprinklers on him when he picked it up.
I'm guessing there's some reason there are so many ghosts in the apartment, and that it probably relates to the contract Pete signed to move in. I'm not sure how the landlord's apparent interest in pop culture fits in, but Borrallo draws the guy's office covered with posters and memorabilia, including in the scene where he and Pete discuss the contract. Feels significant.
No comments:
Post a Comment