Written by Robert Venditti
Illustrated by Diogenes Neves
Published by DC Comics
All right, I’m going to start a betting pool to see when this book is going to get canceled. My guess will be before issue number 12. The reason behind this is very simple: there’s nowhere for this title to go! Venditti may have a plan but if he does I’d love him to clue us in on what that is.
This issue starts off with Damage facing off against Poison Ivy. It’s a humdrum fight with lackluster pacing . Venditti can do better than this. The art is just dull too and this opening scene has nothing dynamic to make it stand out.
The dialogue is also painful. When Poison Ivy says “You came to reap, this is what you’ve sown” I wanted to stop reading. And there were a few other true groaners in this issue.
What also was tough, is that Venditti has the story going back and forth in time. Since there are no visual indicators, I started getting lost and not caring. Are we in the now? Before?
“Earlier?” When is that? It kills the momentum of the storytelling for me.
As the issue progresses, we see Ethan Avery try to struggle with his dual persona. Although, not as much as one would like. Ethan is rather dull and doesn’t register as well as Bruce Banner nor is he as tragic. He seems to be the Incredible Hulk for the smartphone generation.
The rest of the issue features some character we don’t care about finding out Ethan’s secret, and a lot of exposition that leads to Damage going up against Gorilla Grodd.
The creators here don’t seem to have much passion for this beyond it being an assignment. That’s a shame. I feel like this book could be interesting if somebody just cared. Sadly, that does not seem to be the case at all.
RATING: D
