That's the most action poor Rita Farr gets in a couple of decades, I think. From the original Patrol's last stand in 1968 to John Byrne`s reboot in 2008 (?), Rita was the ghost that haunted the Doom Patrol, much like Barry Allen's spectre in Mark Waid's The Flash.
Beyond that, the issue is actually much better than I remember. The characters are nicely delineated, we`re given a sense that time has actually passed since the last time we saw the team together, and they bicker all the time. The Doom Patrol are actually one of the few DCU teams in which we actually see the passage of time - my son and I have a theory that, due to their high weirdness, they`re actually aware of all of the various iterations of the universe through which they've passed. But that's a longer blog post.
While I do appreciate the attention to Arani's complexion that we finally get to see in this series, I still really hate her. It's no wonder to me that she's written off as insane by Morrison, and, indeed, by the writers of the television series. Arani's singular focus made her even more misanthropic than Niles, which is not an easy feat.
Despite the large action scene above, few of these characters appear in the issue, and the most action is from government agents who are, for mysterious reasons, pursuing the members of the Doom Patrol, Arani most especially. She manages to reel both Cliff and Josh back into action, just in time for Kalki, a new villain, to appear. Just what secrets he holds we'll have to see tomorrow.
I'm going to try to be kinder to this run this time around. Without it, we wouldn't have the spectacular run that follows it, but more importantly it was a labour of love for many of the people involved in its creation.
"You stubborn fool! Your Chief lives, and I have proof!"
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