Quirky Cat
Written on Sep 25, 2018
I received a copy of Damage Vol. 1 through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Damage is a new series by DC Comics, and if you look at the cover you can immediately get a good idea of what sort of character this guy is. Like we’ve seen in many a comic book series, Ethan Avery was a solider willing to do anything to help his country – including letting mad scientists experiment on him. Unfortunately for him, while the experiment was a success, he didn’t make out so well as many other characters in the same position.
Origin stories for new characters are always tough. They have the potential to take off and become a huge success, or they could fizzle into nothing. Sure, there are series that fit between those two extremes, but I feel like those happen in smaller frequencies.
In this case I’d say that Damage has a lot of potential, we just haven’t seen all of it yet. The character design itself isn’t really anything new, but it’s also a format that we know can work. It’s just a matter of figuring out what makes him interesting – what makes him stand out amongst all the other irradiated shifters of the world.
Still, the first volume did manage to surprise me at more than one point. The appearance of Waller and the Suicide Squad shouldn’t have surprised me at all. Waller’s handling of the situation was probably the most believable point in the series – and trust me, that’s an insult to her (one well earned). Of course Waller either wants to obtain or destroy Damage. She’s only capable of seeing things in black and white, but instead of good versus evil is a matter of what she can use versus what she can’t use.
One other appearance surprised me a lot more; Poison Ivy made a show! She’s one of my favorite DC villains, so naturally I was thrilled to see her. I’ll be honest that I wasn’t terribly thrilled with the way she was represented here…however the covers involving her are absolutely fantastic so I guess I can forgive it.
There are a few more cameos, one of which seems like it might lead into the next plot. At least it was the conclusion of this one, so I’m making an assumption on that. I don’t know how much that character can help Damage, but everyone seems to think he can? Which is an interesting revelation. There’s also an epic fight with Wonder Woman (naturally she goes right after Damage) which was fun to watch if nothing else.
As weird as it sounds, I wasn’t expecting Damage to spend so much time away from the cities. But so far we’ve seen him spend as much time out of the cities as in them. In fact, we see him spend a decent chunk of his time in a field or forest. The unexpected locations are surprising, but not unwelcome. It hadn’t occurred to me just how many series I’ve been reading have been based in the city until now. So the change is actually really refreshing.
As far as I’m concerned the jury is still out on Damage. I think it has a chance to be something really interesting. It just needs some time to work out some of the issues it has. I’ll probably continue reading it to see how it goes.
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