Elegy To The Never Person
The Good: The cover is simple yet effective. The haunting simplicity to the design sets the somber tone. No life is shown on the cover, just a hollow shell of a man, and the hands who most desire to reach him.
It was ridiculously amusing to see Negative Man in his element. Rednecks. But it serves to highlight his newly gained positivity via the team's newly found positivity.
The team dynamic is fantastic. The interplay between the characters isn't as rough as the prior issues, and is well on the way to being a well oiled machine.
Jost is starting to show his truer colors. I liked his quick thinking and adaptability. Now he's doing what every corrupt corporate executive does. Delving into dark, shameful, and sleazy tactics. And this clearly isn't a new place for him. He walks a creepy fine line between crafty and cruel.
The landscape is especially beautiful in this issue.
The new dynamic between Freak and Negative Man especially hits my heart in this issue. The 2 extremities are helping each other to balance out their personalities. Nonstop spitfire Negative Man is slowing down, chosing his words more carefully; while quite sequestered Freak is acutally using words. It reminds me of some of the great character development between Robotman and Crazy Jane in Morrison's run. The crowning moment comes when Fever and Kid Slick instinctively jump to Negative Man's defense when Beast Boy badmouths him. They all are starting to realize hiw much they care about each other.
I'm really happy that my instincts about Kolodenko were right. Thayer Jost is a man on top, an idol of the capitalist world, which rules today's society. Kolodenko is the idol of a fallen age of communism. The outcast Doom Patrol is realizing who they belong with more.
The range of unique designs in the mad scientists for the interview was excellent.
The issue started off very minimalist, and moved into a more sci-fi direction. But here we get the setup teasings of a new plot on the horizon, and it perfectly represents a complete reversal. It's both anti-minimalist and anti-science fiction. It is compley, dark, and complex. Gothic.
Huat also continues to do an excellent job with the varied villain designs.
The Bad: This issue's a little slow, and after a slow last issue it grates a tad bit more. It's not a huge flaw, but it's a bit of one.
In Conclusion: 4.5/5
It's still everything I love, but its a bit of a repeat of the last issue. Its almost like its a full repeat of the last issue, but retold through a perspective of the team more unified after the tension last issue. And the plot does move along, albeit without any action. This is a purely transitional issue but its still damn fine.