3 out of 5

I managed to read the first issue of the first series of Damage Control and thought it was fantastic; McDuffie’s idea to have an agency responsible for clean-up in the wake up Marvel’s Manhattan’s frequent super hero disasters was a stroke of Duh genius that gave the creator a way to write something both grounded and absurd, blending realistic concerns of financials and logistics and business politics with some sly jabs at the ridiculousness of the comic world – while also very much celebrating that ridiculousness.  Ernie Colón’s art blended classic sensibilities with expressive angles and action-packed but clear setups; the colors (John Wellington) and letters (Ed King) were also applied with the same balance of fancifulness and classiness.  I was prepared to scramble for more issues… but saw that Marvel was planning a “complete collection” (perhaps in preparation for a TV show…) and so decided to wait.

The collection’s here.  I don’t know if it would’ve been more or less expensive to track down the single issues, but I’m glad I didn’t have to make that effort: reading the bulk of DC in one go (I don’t think it’s complete complete so much as a complete collection of McDuffie’s take, which is the majority of it – and as the creator, the definitive take of it, as far as I’m concerned) makes it easier to assess, and easier to see that Dwayne and Colón ended up getting pretty far off track from that original concept, which – to me – ultimately stripped the title of its potential and charm.

Briefly addressing the quality of the collection itself: I do think it’s a valid deal for $35.  This is a lot of material – 15 full issues, with excerpts from five other books and scattered backmatter / ads of related Damage Control ephemera, plus 2 further pages of new bonuses.  The cover / pages are very flexible, leading to easy creasing of the cover, but also making the tome easy to tote around the house and flip open, and though it’s a glued binding, it’ll lay flat enough for reading on most pages, excepting the beginning and ends, of course.  Still, when we get into the more modern era stuff with art that goes to the page’s edge, you have text running into the crease, which is always frustrating.  I think they chose the overall spacing of binding to page pretty well to balance readability with portability, but it’s a good thing that most of this is from the late 80s / early 90s when we still commonly used gutters all around the page.

Now to the content.  The first series is definitely the best, introducing us to the DC concept and hinting at the fun we can have reading about the larger-than-life problem solving and the ensemble, human cast – the latter of which matches the sitcom setup McDuffie reportedly imagined, with will they / won’t they leads (John Porter, new account man, and sometimes boss Robin Chapel), the quirky one (inventor man Eugene), the uptight one (comptroller Albert), the cynical one (construction guy Lenny), and the youngsters – receptionist Anne and intern Bart.  And it does say something about how likeable and defined the cast is that I could recall that without having to look at the book.  But even by the second half of this 4-issue mini, plotting takes us away from the joys of, say, talking to Doctor Doom about his outstanding accounts: we divert to media manager Henry’s attempts to turn Damage Control into a brand, and then some foibles in the X-Men’s Danger Room.  Both of these stories show Dwayne’s penchant for poking fun at his medium (and the publishers),  but they do so at the expense of feeling like we’re building up a story vs. a gag book.  The second series remains fairly on point, though Colón’s art has loosened up considerably (looking closer to Buscema mixed with Archie), making the book look much more like a parody book a la something Hembeck would do or the short-lived Spoof!.  And by “on point,” I don’t mean returning to damage-solvin’ fun, just that McDuffie uses the then-event Acts of Vengeance to shake up DC’s management and give us an excuse to hang out with the gang again.  It’s a pleasant enough time, but again, it’s more easily defined at this point as something mainly for chuckles.  By the time of the ’91 series, we’re fully into nonsense, with fourth-wall breakings and issue-by-issue lampoonings of the industry.  The art, similarly, is completely into Crazy territory.  Is it funny?  It’s okay.  It’s funny in the passes-the-time way that Crazy is.  Some of the original charm returns with the post-Civil War three issues “Aftersmash: Damage Control;” the way Lenny and John deal with a rogue building is exactly the kind of quirkiness I wanted, – and felt was a reasonable assumption of the premise from the series’ first appearance.  But this is such a small slice of the overall collection, and it’s literally the last issue in the trade, that it comes across as too little too late.

So I guess it depends on what version of Damage Control you wanted or remember.  It’s McDuffie’s show, so I can’t say the issues weren’t what was intended, but if you came here for the raised eyebrow hijinks of the start of the series, you’ll probably be surprised by how much of Damage Control is just straight up gag work.  But if the latter is your bag, this is a fairly priced, well-presented collection that should make ya’ happy.