As one of the few fans of the Doom Patrol who sees merit in Paul Kupperberg, John Arcudi and even John Byrne's runs, I have no regrets saying that Dennis Culver's Unstoppable Doom Patrol is the worst Doom Patrol comic ever in my book.
Everyone takes great exception to Culver's decision to ignore Dorothy Spinner and Kate Godwin's resurrections in DC Pride 2022 (in effect thoughtlessly undoing an effort to resolve two of the most reviled decisions made in the history of the team), but that aspect is just one part of the miniseries that I take considerable umbrage with.
The miniseries begins with the Doom Patrol's iconic enemy the Brain being upstaged and killed by General Immortus, who had Mallah help in his coup with the asinine justification that Mallah's relationship with the Brain was "toxic", which flies in the face of the Brain and Mallah seeing each other as equals even before they confessed their love for each other in Grant Morrison's run.
Other parts I greatly despised include the parts where they butted heads with Batman and the Green Lanterns, the narrative trying to make the Caped Crusader, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner look like authoritarian bullies who aren't doing enough to look out for metahumans, which completely ignores that most of the super-powered beings Batman and the Green Lanterns deal with are not deformed outcasts who are unfairly persecuted but deliberate menaces with no regard for who they hurt who deserve to be locked up to keep them from endangering innocent lives.
All this combined with the decision to ignore Dorothy and Kate's resurrections, General Immortus' plan to use a ritual where Dorothy's corpse is dug up and used to revive the Candlemaker (an enemy she defeated in the first place) as well as the conclusion showing Danny the Street in ruins at the hands of the Batwoman Who Laughs really give the impression that Dennis Culver was going through a checklist of how to peeve off fans of the Doom Patrol.
If the Doom Patrol is to have a new comic in the foreseeable future, they are better off under a different writer than Culver.
An insult to the fans from a tone-deaf writer
As one of the few fans of the Doom Patrol who sees merit in Paul Kupperberg, John Arcudi and even John Byrne's runs, I have no regrets saying that Dennis Culver's Unstoppable Doom Patrol is the worst Doom Patrol comic ever in my book.
Everyone takes great exception to Culver's decision to ignore Dorothy Spinner and Kate Godwin's resurrections in DC Pride 2022 (in effect thoughtlessly undoing an effort to resolve two of the most reviled decisions made in the history of the team), but that aspect is just one part of the miniseries that I take considerable umbrage with.
The miniseries begins with the Doom Patrol's iconic enemy the Brain being upstaged and killed by General Immortus, who had Mallah help in his coup with the asinine justification that Mallah's relationship with the Brain was "toxic", which flies in the face of the Brain and Mallah seeing each other as equals even before they confessed their love for each other in Grant Morrison's run.
Other parts I greatly despised include the parts where they butted heads with Batman and the Green Lanterns, the narrative trying to make the Caped Crusader, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner look like authoritarian bullies who aren't doing enough to look out for metahumans, which completely ignores that most of the super-powered beings Batman and the Green Lanterns deal with are not deformed outcasts who are unfairly persecuted but deliberate menaces with no regard for who they hurt who deserve to be locked up to keep them from endangering innocent lives.
All this combined with the decision to ignore Dorothy and Kate's resurrections, General Immortus' plan to use a ritual where Dorothy's corpse is dug up and used to revive the Candlemaker (an enemy she defeated in the first place) as well as the conclusion showing Danny the Street in ruins at the hands of the Batwoman Who Laughs really give the impression that Dennis Culver was going through a checklist of how to peeve off fans of the Doom Patrol.
If the Doom Patrol is to have a new comic in the foreseeable future, they are better off under a different writer than Culver.