Oh, goody, it’s another Doom Patrol relaunch. If someone can explain why this is supposed to be an exciting prospect, I’d be grateful. When originally created, they genuinely offered something different – a superhero team of misfits, weirdos and outsiders – but in the decades since, their unique appeal has been somewhat lost. With the exception, of course, of Grant Morrison’s run on the title, they’ve seemed increasingly irrelevant as a proposition. The problem is, there are so many teams out there either with the “taking on all the weird shit cases no-one else will touch” angle or the “taking on all the suicidal cases no-one else will touch” angle that there’s simply nothing that makes them stand out beyond whatever residual affection a reader might have for Roboman and Elasti-Girl.

It’s a problem that strikes Keith Giffen’s new version, particularly when you consider that one of the comics on which he made his name was the late ’80s Suicide Squad – a series with a rather similar premise. As such, while there’s nothing really bad about this comic from a technical point of view, it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s just going through the motions. It’s standard first-issue stuff – we join the team partway through a strange mission, to give a feel for the sort of work they do. A “new” character (only familiar to any of the five people who will have read John Byrne’s ill-fated run) gets suddenly killed off, to give a feel for the level of danger they put themselves in. And characters grouse at each other in expository dialogue, to give a feel for who they are and what their relationships are.

So far, so generic – honestly, if the characters all looked a bit younger you’d think it was another Teen Titans book – and that goes for the art, too. Again, there’s nothing wrong with Matthew Clark’s pencils, aside from the odd instance of reaching at Bryan Hitch-ville, but I also find it hard to see how they’d inspire excitement or devotion. And that’s the thing – it’s just difficult to care about this. It’s a feeling I get almost universally from Giffen’s solo writing work – as if he needs someone like J.M. deMatteis to plug into and make his characters work.

And holy moly, if that isn’t exactly what we get with the backup strip – because, let me be clear, if there’s any reason whatsoever to buy this book, it’s because of Metal Men. It’s the Justice League International team of Giffen, deMatteis and Kevin Maguire – and honestly, you would not think it shared a single member of its parent book’s creative team. As you’d expect, the dialogue absolutely crackles with wit, the characters sparkle – the use of relatively recent team addition Copper is inspired – and Maguire’s facial expressions are second to none. It’s not quite at Formerly Known As The Justice League levels or anything, but it’s still as much fun as you’ll have with a currently-published comic outside of Batman & Robin. So much so, in fact, that its ten pages almost justify buying the thing alone – sadly, I can only say “almost” because of the fact that it’s a $3.99 book, so you’d need to be a JLI fanboy like me or someone with no sense of economic value in order to buy it solely for the backup. Still, for longtime Doom Patrol fans who’ll be buying the thing anyway, it’s one hell of a bonus to throw in.