In just five of the issues, aside from introductions and Casey Brinke and company's attempt to free Danny the Street (now an ambulance) from aliens who want to use him to mass-produce food, Way also manages a tangential trip by Negative Man Larry Trainor and Robotman Cliff Steele to the Negative Zone.

Way packs a lot into Brick's six issues, deceptively so. At the same time, I consider Doom Patrol's use of language no small thing that could just be lifted out instead, given the metaphysical heights to which Doom Patrol climbs, an occasional realistic curse (instead of mainstream comics's substitutions thereof) helps to keep Doom Patrol anchored to the ground. In that respect it's almost a shame that Doom Patrol has to carry the 'mature readers' label, as I'd think it might shrink the audience of this title that surely ought to read it. There's no sexual situations, and the 'violence' in Doom Patrol, such as it is, is almost docile in comparison to your average comic (and most of Brick's conflicts are solved by talking or catching/not catching a gene bomb). What is 'mature' about Way's Doom Patrol is actually just the language I'd like to think complexity does not a mature comic make (or have to make). With Tamra Bonvillain and company's bright peppy colors throughout, Brick by Brick is a breath of fresh air romp of the kind it seems DC Comics's Rebirth is meant to evoke, even if it isn't a Rebirth title itself.

Things never get so dire in Brick by Brick, but even when they do, there's a levity to the proceedings, buffeted in no small part by Nick Derington's art. But even as the whole band doesn't get back together in this volume on its own, enough of them happily reconnect with one another as to create something of a party atmosphere. And what's immediately gratifying about Doom Patrol is that it's 'mature' without mistaking maturity for grittiness rather there's a vein of optimism that pervades these pages, perhaps even more surprising as it surrounds the oft-put-upon Doom Patrol. 1: Brick by Brick represents a 'rebirth,' to be sure - the rebirth of a mainstream, superheroic mature readers line at DC Comics.

Doom Patrol, Vol. 1 by Grant Morrison