Reviewer: John Babos
Story Title: The Tragedy of Nudge & Grunt (from the cover) or Hearts and Minds (from the interior)
Written and Penciled by: John Byrne
Inked by: Doug Hazlewood
Colored by: Alex Bleyaert
Lettered by: Jared K. Fletcher
Assistant Edited by: Michael Siglain
Edited by: Mike Carlin
Published by: DC
DC’s Solicitation
Guest-starring Metamorpho! While the Chief seeks to cure Metamorpho of his uncontrollable powers, Nudge and Vortex continue their quest to rescue Grunt from his captors and end up on the run from the authorities. Plus, the startling origin of Grunt!
The Review
I have enjoyed the current Doom Patrol series more with every new issue. It gotten better and better over time.
However, the character on the team that I least liked was its four-armed simian named Grunt. So, you can imagine that with this story focusing on his origins and his relationship with the team’s psychic Nudge that this would be a tough read for me.
And, it was. I find that I don’t really care about Grunt or Nudge. The only new character that intrigues me is Vortex and we do get some more crumbs about him in this issue too.
That said, what I was emotionally moved by some of Grunt’s origin – and the boy who “donated” his brain to simian – particularly the Little Shop of Horrors feel that embodies the scenes of the brain “donation”. It is creepy and jarring stuff.
Do I feel for Grunt more now? Maybe. He is more tragic then I thought, but I still haven’t “connected” with him, even after parts of his origin’s reveal, or Nudge, even after 10 issues and 6 issues in the JLA.
I enjoyed the conclusion of the Metamorpho arc in this issue. We learn how he became an uncontrollable force of destruction last issue and John Byrne’s rendering of Metamorpho is clearly inspired by the character’s Silver Age co-creator artist Romana Fradon.
The next issue concludes the Grunt-Nudge “Year One” arc, but I’m more interested in the antagonist for next issue… the man who put the Chief into a wheelchair returns to finish the job once and for all.
