Can we all agree, that the cruelest artistic field is the theatre? They’re mean over there! I was reading an account of some musical theatre auditions, and the casting director’s pet evaulation was NVI. Which stands for Not Very Interesting. Owtch! Nothing wrong with the actor, but just nothing in the performance to set the house on fire.
I knew the term would come in handy, and today I’m going to apply it to Doom Patrol #1. You would think a first issue would take care to set the house on fire, but no. This is an okay story, but there is nothing new here. They’ve updated the old Doom Patrol but not in any particularly remarkable way. Another angsty and dysfunctional team exchanging embittered quips: my eyes glaze over.
The current gimmick over at DC is the backup feature, something they haven’t done in years. They’ve played it safe here by using yet another team book retread as a backup — the Metal Men. This is a tad more amusing — in 2009 they can go much further suggesting inventor-on-robot sex, for instance — but it’s still not very witty or original. How much angsty team banter can one comic book hold?
NVI is written all over this issue. It’s not yet time to despair, of course — long-time Doom Patrol fans will recall that the original run’s first issue was pretty wan too. But it is not propitious. This is elementary, guys — a first issue should be a firecracker.
Sigh. You know, I loved Doom Patrol back when I was a young comics reader. I had high hopes that the relaunch would be interesting. Now I know.
That’s a problem with all relaunches. Obviously the previous incarnation had not drawn enough eyeballs to keep the title afloat. Some alterations are called for, so as to attract now customers. But not too many, lest old fans be disgusted and lost. A balancing act is called for.
You can actually see this problem much more clearly when comics are transferred to the movie screen. Why is IRON MAN successful, while the Wolverine movie was terrible? I think in IRON MAN they were able to keep all the essentials, updating the rest, while in Wolverine they stuck to an already overly-convolute premise that nobody but trufen would care about. It takes massive folly, to make a movie with Hugh Jackman that is a failure.
Brenda