After more than a year of DC Comics avoiding having big event specials, we’ve now got a glut of them. And the latest is a a special kind of craziness crossover between the DC Universe proper and its Young Animal imprint.
JLA / Doom Patrol Special 1
Written by Gerard Way, Steve Orlando and Magdalene Visaggio
Pencils and Inks by ACO and Sonny Liew
Colors by Sonny Liew
I’ve fallen away from the books included in the Young Animal imprint, as I slowly lost interest in each one over time. The weirdness eventually got the best of me and I decided to save money where I could. But the opener of this crossover event came during a fifth week, when I didn’t have a whole lot of books to read, so it gets a pick-up.
Turns out, I’m glad I did grab it, as the story felt like something out of the Giffen-DeMatteis Justice League run. It doesn’t hurt that the book features a villain that is usually associated with their Superbuddies.
Khan has turned to a company called RetConn – I mean, Orlando and Way may as well have added several “Bwa-ha-has” throughout the issue – to find a new place to live. The company is using genetically modified milk to rewrite everything about the heroes of Earth Prime, most notably the Justice League of America. The heroes Batman leads were changed into the Community League of Rhode Island. The team’s favorite bastich, Lobo, is now head of the Happy Harbor Neighborhood Watch, Carl Lobo. And when the Doom Patrol shows up in Happy Harbor to figure out what’s happening, it turns into a good ol’ fashioned hero vs. hero barn burner.
And then Milkman Man shows up…
RetConn staff explains that Superman is too pure an archtype to change to their whims, so they created someone new, and he doesn’t really stay all that stable as he goes after the people of Happy Harbor and battles the Doom Patrol – and eventually the JLA.
The issue is a big set up for the series of one-shots coming out of the crossover, which lead into the upcoming revamp of the Young Animal imprint’s original books. It was fun, but it didn’t really sell me on dedicating my resources to the rest of the specials or the YA reboot. Probably worth a read, though.