Well . . Steven Dayton is back this issue. As you can tell by the cover. But his return is under less than ideal situations. Cliff, Rita and Larry are over in Europe confronting the 'black-hole' like entity that's revealed itself from under the guise of the super-collider experiment. It claims to be a scientist, and that scientific curiosity is one of it's main reasons to exist. The problem is . . it gathers information by assuming control of a nearby human and absorbing it's knowledge and memories. It then moves on to the next, when it feels it can no longer learn or experience any more from it's current host. But as it moves on to the next host, it leaves the current one little more than a pile of ash. When confronting this entity in Brandenburg, the Doom Patrol realizes that a simple taser can disrupt it's connection to it's host. It still leaves the connection as ash, but . . they can route it's ambitions temporarily. However, having used up all the human life in Brandenburg, they assume that it's heading towards the next congregation of hosts . . Cottbus, population 106,415. The real problem is, though . . that's only 125km from Berlin. Should it discover that information, and become more ambitious, a lot more people would be in jeopardy. They follow it to Cottbus, and while there . . while controlling 106,742 hosts . . it discovers an anomoly. 'A latent ability power talent . . ' . . a mutant. With no stress factor to incite it's evolution, it discovers a man with an ability that it's not experienced before. Apparently the host can do telekinetic projection via Kirlian aura. Basically, he can push an invisible force outwards from himself, which kind of looks like what the Invisible Woman does with the FF. The Chief, while observing through Cliff, is quick to take advantage of this situation.
He has Steven take mental control of Rita. She then enlarges to the size needed to cover the exposed area of population and, I think, basically taser or emp everything. All the rest of the hosts lose their connection and turn to ash, and the one with the power puts a protective bubble around itself to ensure it's continued existence. Niles then informs him that he's been checkmated. 'Your drones have been neutralized, present company excepted. Your primary form is quite isolated, well removed from any potential host forms. And, unless I'm mistaken, the kirlian field surrounding this host has your quite contained. Have I missed anything?' So they're putting him in the helicopter and taking him back to the Chief. We still have a couple of problems here, though. Mostly in the form of Rita. She's not going to be happy about Steven's control of her, plus . . during the exchanged she shared his memories which include all the 'stalker-like' things that he's done to her by mental manipulation. Steven's character is changed this issue. Some of the assumptions and perceptions that we've previously had of him are challenged, by Niles. We learn that he's a whole lot more powerful than we ever really knew. But that all may be moot, because when Rita gets back, she's probably going to try to kill him. And it looks like they're going to have to deal with
Blackest Night. This was another fantastic chapter in the opening of this book by Keith Giffen and Matthew Clark. I think Keith is the perfect person to take on the relaunch of these characters. I've said before that I thought Grant Morrison's version was the best, and I think Keith has the right frame-of-mind to mimic, without actually copying that series. Plus I think he's the only capable of coming up with 'far-out' enough ideas to keep this troupe in business. And I absolutely love Matthew's interpretation here. He's a fantastic artist. In the back-up, once again the Metal Men are brought to us by Keith, JM DeMatteis and Kevin Maquire. This is also the perfect team for the Metal Men. This issue focus' on Copper. Who? Copper. Exactly! And who knew Kevin could make a robot look so hot? The combination of these 2 stories, and 2 teams makes this the perfect book. It's fantastic, and I can't wait to read more.
Well . . Steven Dayton is back this issue. As you can tell by the cover. But his return is under less than ideal situations. Cliff, Rita and Larry are over in Europe confronting the 'black-hole' like entity that's revealed itself from under the guise of the super-collider experiment. It claims to be a scientist, and that scientific curiosity is one of it's main reasons to exist. The problem is . . it gathers information by assuming control of a nearby human and absorbing it's knowledge and memories. It then moves on to the next, when it feels it can no longer learn or experience any more from it's current host. But as it moves on to the next host, it leaves the current one little more than a pile of ash. When confronting this entity in Brandenburg, the Doom Patrol realizes that a simple taser can disrupt it's connection to it's host. It still leaves the connection as ash, but . . they can route it's ambitions temporarily. However, having used up all the human life in Brandenburg, they assume that it's heading towards the next congregation of hosts . . Cottbus, population 106,415. The real problem is, though . . that's only 125km from Berlin. Should it discover that information, and become more ambitious, a lot more people would be in jeopardy. They follow it to Cottbus, and while there . . while controlling 106,742 hosts . . it discovers an anomoly. 'A latent ability power talent . . ' . . a mutant. With no stress factor to incite it's evolution, it discovers a man with an ability that it's not experienced before. Apparently the host can do telekinetic projection via Kirlian aura. Basically, he can push an invisible force outwards from himself, which kind of looks like what the Invisible Woman does with the FF. The Chief, while observing through Cliff, is quick to take advantage of this situation. 
He has Steven take mental control of Rita. She then enlarges to the size needed to cover the exposed area of population and, I think, basically taser or emp everything. All the rest of the hosts lose their connection and turn to ash, and the one with the power puts a protective bubble around itself to ensure it's continued existence. Niles then informs him that he's been checkmated. 'Your drones have been neutralized, present company excepted. Your primary form is quite isolated, well removed from any potential host forms. And, unless I'm mistaken, the kirlian field surrounding this host has your quite contained. Have I missed anything?' So they're putting him in the helicopter and taking him back to the Chief. We still have a couple of problems here, though. Mostly in the form of Rita. She's not going to be happy about Steven's control of her, plus . . during the exchanged she shared his memories which include all the 'stalker-like' things that he's done to her by mental manipulation. Steven's character is changed this issue. Some of the assumptions and perceptions that we've previously had of him are challenged, by Niles. We learn that he's a whole lot more powerful than we ever really knew. But that all may be moot, because when Rita gets back, she's probably going to try to kill him. And it looks like they're going to have to deal with Blackest Night. This was another fantastic chapter in the opening of this book by Keith Giffen and Matthew Clark. I think Keith is the perfect person to take on the relaunch of these characters. I've said before that I thought Grant Morrison's version was the best, and I think Keith has the right frame-of-mind to mimic, without actually copying that series. Plus I think he's the only capable of coming up with 'far-out' enough ideas to keep this troupe in business. And I absolutely love Matthew's interpretation here. He's a fantastic artist. In the back-up, once again the Metal Men are brought to us by Keith, JM DeMatteis and Kevin Maquire. This is also the perfect team for the Metal Men. This issue focus' on Copper. Who? Copper. Exactly! And who knew Kevin could make a robot look so hot? The combination of these 2 stories, and 2 teams makes this the perfect book. It's fantastic, and I can't wait to read more.
i love your summination of the climax, i think you have it right on
ReplyDeletei print out many many
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