It’s the return of Dorothy Spinner… or maybe not? Your Major Spoilers review of Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #5 awaits!

DOOM PATROL: WEIGHT OF THE WORLDS #5

Writer: Becky Cloonan & Michael Conrad
Artist: Becky Cloonan
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Editor: Andy Khouri & Molly Mahan
Publisher: DC Comics/Young Animal
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 6, 2019

Previously in Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds: Clark is a comic book fan just like you, and his favorite title is Doom Patrol! But Clark’s fandom is put to the test when he literally falls into the reality of the world’s weirdest superheroes, where he must team up with long-lost Doom Patrol heroine Dorothy Spinner!

HOW TO GET INTO COMICS

We open with a young man named Clark, who makes his way through the world by using a collection of Doom Patrol comics as a makeshift Ouija board, flipping through the pages and pointing out a word bubble that (theoretically) illuminates his dilemma. That’s when things get weird, as he finds a panel featuring Dorothy Spinner…. who is dead… and also doesn’t even appear in the comic that he’s been reading. A quick snip through reality later and the #1 Doom Patrol fan is IN the Doom Patrol. Dorothy speaks to him in a very peculiar fashion (“Expanse willow turncoat!”) and indicates that she needs his help to find Robotman, something that he’s more than happy to do. Of course, being a fan of the Patrol, he realizes as I did that the way “she” communicates is a throwback to Doom Patrol continuity, and he finds Robotman just in time to blurt out that Dorothy is really Scissorman! Robotman is able to defeat the creature, even tricking Clark into stepping back to his home reality, but the issue ends with Danny The Street welcoming the young fan back to his fictional world, which the boy accepts with a cry of “I love comics!”

IS CONTINUITY EVEN A THING ANY MORE?

I hadn’t been following this Doom Patrol run, so I hadn’t realized what a strange, meta experience it has been, and even having read the previous issues of this series, I’m not sure what’s going on. That’s not a bad thing, though, as this issue is infectious in its joyful appreciation of the Doom Patrol. (I will say that using the collected volume of the previous Young Animal run and talking about how great the comics are felt a bit TOO self-referenctial for my taste.) Becky Cloonan’s art is a lot of fun, with lots of expressiveness from young Clark throughout, and the references to previous issues are interspersed well. (I mighty have liked them to use the actual panels, rather than redrawn versions, but it still works.) The story is so much fun that I’m not even bothered by the fact that I don’t understand Doom Patrol continuity and its multiple levels of metatextual reference, and the return of Morrison’s Scissomen from waaaay back in ’88 is fun stuff.

BOTTOM LINE: A FUN, IF CONFUSING READ

In short, Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #5 is a high-energy story, full of enthusiasm and fun, making for a rare appearance of a comic book fan who isn’t a completely stereotypical loser, bridging multiple (and darn near incompatible) previous Doom Patrol volumes into a single issue that has convinced me to pick up the previous four issues, earning 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. It’s a fun story with a lot of charisma, and it all seems to be building to something even weirder, so… I’m in!

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