Damage #4 Review

Writers: Cary Nord and Robert Venditti

Artist: Cary Nord

Colourist: Tomeu Morey

Letterer: Tom Napolitano

The primary motivating factor for people buying this book is not present, that being Tony S. Daniel's immensely gorgeous artwork. Instead Cary Nord is going to be filling in for the next few issues, with Diogenes Neves also filling in as far as July. I know this is due to Daniel going on over to draw Batman with Tom King, but I think Daniel's decision may have effectively killed all this book had to offer.

Nord's art isn't bad on its own merit, but it doesn't even come close to replicating Daniel's art. I must therefore question why DC would bother launching this book when Daniel planned to jump off after the first three issues to do Batman. It's frustrating since I've mostly enjoyed this title, but now the artwork is mostly subpar compared to what we've gotten previously.

And with the decrease in art quality, comes a bigger focus on the story. I've made it known that the story and the plotting aren't exactly the most gripping aspects of this series. The art was. The story we get here is the run-of-the-mill Hulk story where Ethan meets up with some nice, normal folk. What happens to them? It's easy to guess, and it's so emblematic of the story's unoriginal aesthetic; I was able to overlook it because of Daniel's art. I can't anymore. In addition to this, the cover entails that Poison Ivy is the villain of this story. I just wish DC would pick a lane and run with it; Poison Ivy has appeared in three major series recently and her motivations and plans are different in each of them. It's also clear that this book may just be a villain of the weak sort of thing; Damage has already battled the Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, and Poison Ivy, all in the first four issues.

This issue was boring and disappointing. The art simply isn't up to snuff, and that itself reveals the staleness of the story. The art itself isn't bad but plotting is just so generic and awful that I simply can't condone anyone reading this series.