Definitely Unique
The Good: Blazing right out of the start, this first issue tells you, it's not trying to be a rehashing of any other Doom Patrol series. It's going to be its own thing. Sure there's Robotman, but what's a Doom Patrol without Robotman? This is something new, and still not altogether quite like the norm in superhero teams. A corporate exec has bought his own superhero team? That's a pretty unique idea, especially for the main characters. And a lot of it is about P.R. and the expense of filling your team with unknown heroes.
Things rarely work out as planned. Thayer Jost isn't quite the elaborate planner Lex Luthor or Maxwell Lord is, but he's pretty good at adjusting to things on the fly, and taking it all in stride. He's not too concerned when things go wrong, but its clearly out of a sense at realizing the possibility of changes and confidence in his adaptability. He hasn't planned for every outcome, but he's certain that he'll be able to handle them when they come along. THAT'S a pretty rare quality for characters of this type.
For the first issue, we do get a great grasp of all the characters and the premise. We can see in advance the framework of what's going to drive a lot of the character development, and all of them have different quirks that make them interesting. Even Fast Forward is likable in his total dickery. He drives some of the development, and is clearly presented as one of the sources of the continued failure despite his subtly demonstrated good intentions. And he does get a lot of backlash for being such a jerk. All of the personalities are balanced out nicely.
The artwork is something pretty unique as well. It's very wild and kinetic, and filled with a lot of thin lines with some odd designs. But it doesn't look trippy, in fact it's surprisingly well detailed. I can't say I've ever seen comic art quite like this anywhere else.
The Bad: Something about this isn't quite gripping yet. It's unique, and well developed, but there's not much else at this point. Some of the characters, despite being interesting, so seem to be filling some cheesy stereotypes, and some of the flashes of potential character development is a little too obvious.
It's Doom Patrol, and it's not quite 'completely nonsensically bizarre.' Nothing really weird has happened yet. It's actually frighteningly realistic in the politics and sociology. But that's a point to its favor in a different way.
In Conclusion: 4/5
The Doom Patrol is one of my absolute favorite superhero teams of all time. They just can't seem to get a break though. Ever since their second series, they haven't lasted beyond 22 issues. I think more people need to give the Doom Patrol a chance, but you don't necessarily have to track down this series, but if you like the Doom Patrol, I have to say, this isn't bad. It's nothing like Morrison, but that's a bit of a point to it's charm. The Doom Patrol has had some of the most radically different interpretations of any superhero team, while sticking to the same name. Sure X-Men has all those splinter groups and spin-offs, but they're SPIN-OFFS. The Doom Patrol is still the Doom Patrol. But the variety is wild among itself, and that can be a point to its favor. Kieth Giffen's Doom Patrol was still very weird, but not at Morrison's meta level. But it made up for that with it's rich character development and generally high entertainment value. This Doom Patrol does the whole realistic corporate angle. Which is a pretty unique combination.