My knowledge of the old Doom Patrol and what it stood for could be summarized to —
This was a comic that took the humanity of Marvel superheroes and shoved it inside the DC universe. Now that Gerard Way and co. got their mitts into it, it turned into an Us vs. Them series plagued by a tired edginess that never bogged down Grant Morrison or Fabian Nicieza / Rob Liefeld’s writing.
A comic book is not a music video is beyond that. And I feel like most of Gerard Ways attempts beyond Dark Horse fumbled because he currently carries the burden of leadership of a flagship series that got cancelled because people lost interest in it.
Milk Wars #1 proves that early 00’s cheesy / edgy no longer works. The age of calling each other “poser” had faded along with Gibson and Fender guitar sales. Nobody’s interested in the after burn of being ostracized and being different. People are already singing another anthem —
And portraying Superman, Wonder Woman, and basically every other god in the DC universe as the progeny of capitalism — using the dairy industry as its base metaphor for conforming– was pretty smart but he execution was confusing. I think it had something to do with bad paneling, bad timing, coupled with forged edginess. It’s saving grace, however, is the art.
If Young Animal brands itself as the “Save As Draft” section of DC then perhaps, the smart move should be publishing it as a little featurette behind bigger titles. Think shorts like What A Cartoon Show or Cartoon Cartoons or something akin to the testing ground that is Channel Frederator — where everything’s a pitch before Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon picks it up and turns it into something worth watching.
Will I be subscribing to this series? No. It did not break the fourth wall enough for me. (Spoiler Alert!)
Beyond the Fur 