There are, I think, three different kinds of covers for comic books. The first is the teaser cover, one that shows a version of a scene from the story itself, in order to show perhaps an important, or expected, moment that will draw a reader in. The second is the portrait cover (see tomorrow's comic), a cover that depicts the major players of the comic in a pose that has little or nothing to do with the story content within. The third, of which today's cover is an example, is the metaphoric cover. At the end of yesterday's issue we are left with the possibility that the characters named on that tombstone cover all die in a plane crash. In most superhero comics we might scoff at this possibility, but Doom Patrol is a series famous for having killed off its main characters, so why couldn't it happen again?
Of course, it doesn't. Nor do Cliff and Larry actually meet in this issue. I don't actually think they've met up at all in the series. The metaphoric cover can work really nicely sometimes, but other times it can be misleading, used only for shock value rather than as commentary on the events within the issue. This cover balances precariously on that line. On the one hand, it could be an interesting cover to have if it weren't revealed on the very first page that everyone survives. Had that reveal been left for the end of the issue, this cover would become more and more unnerving as pages went by and the supposedly dead characters did not appear. On the other hand, the blood-splatter text, the lightning bolt behind the shadowed characters, all smacks of sensationalism. I appreciate the cover as a call-back to the Patrol's history, but it's misleading, and immediately loses its power as one opens the comic to five very-much-alive superheroes.
More to follow.
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