Damage Control: New Employee Handbook

Damage Control (2022) #1-5

by Adam F. Goldberg, Hans Rodionoff, Nathan Stockman (Artist)

Marvel’s unsung heroes finally get sung! After the mega-powered battles and Hulk-level catastrophes, Damage Control is always there to clean up the mess and get things back to normal. But Damage Control is much more than just a glorified cleanup crew — now we’re pulling back the curtain and revealing the secret inner workings that were previously only available to people with Clearance Level Eight. And we’ll witness it all through the eyes of Gus: a fresh-faced, eager newcomer to the company who has no idea how chaotic his life is about to become. Adam F. Goldberg (creator of TV’s The Goldbergs) and Hans Rodionoff team up with artist Will Robson to take you into the secret labyrinth of Damage Control, where it’s totally common to run into familiar faces like Moon Knight! Nightcrawler! She-Hulk! And more! Plus, Charlotte Fullerton, the spouse of DAMAGE CONTROL creator Dwayne McDuffie, scripts a never-before-seen tale of the Damage Control crew cleaning up after the Infinity Gauntlet!

COLLECTING: Damage Control (2022) 1-5

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Humor, Ebooks

128 pages, Paperback

Published March 28, 2023

Reviews

[Matthew Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. The cameos in this book were really fun, but the story was way too predictable, played out, and just not really entertaining.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Damage Control: New Employee Handbook" is a dismal and disappointing attempt to revisit the original "Damage Control" stories from the 80's. This book has traces of humor but never even comes close to reaching it's full potential. The characters are underdeveloped for the most part and the primary protagonist is clueless, arrogant and thoroughly unlikeable. The final "big reveal" is completely and utterly underwhelming. All in all this book has very little to recommend it and most readers will do better to revisit the original "Damage Control" stories.

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do plan to one day read the original series by creator Dwayne McDuffie. The concept is excellent for a major comic book company. A business such as Damage Control would exists to clean up after each crisis, etc.

But, the characters in this mini-series are dull, to just obnoxious. The story, when you get the finale proves to be just, well

IMO stupid.

[Alex Sarll]

My main interest in this came from a scene Moon Knight-Core had days of fun with, everyone's favourite deranged vigilante ordering a silly coffee and the barista writing 'Moob Knife' on the cup. Well, that comes early in the first issue, and it's all downhill from there. And even then, when you see it without the subsequent riffing, you start to wonder...why? Why is he in costume, in a coffee shop, in daytime? There's a lot of that here: why is Ghost Rider in the lift? Why is Doctor Strange in the company canteen? Sure, the whole point of Damage Control is that they're the company who clean up after superhero battles &c, so they can end up interacting with almost any Marvel character, but here it sometimes seems more like all the heroes are their subcontractors. Which, to be fair, is at least less dull than the MCU's inexplicable decision to waste the Damage Control name on yet another sinister government agency, and OK, this is a comedy book. But the more of this I read, the clearer it became that despite the co-writer coming from a successful sitcom*, he doesn't appear to understand anything I'd recognise as comedy. There's no sense of a meticulous clockwork unfolding, set-up and punchline - just one allegedly wacky thing happening, then another. Which, OK, can be funny too, but it needs performers with comic chops, which in comic comics means your artist, but here we instead have Will Robson (modern Marvel house style plus rictus grins) and Nathan Stockman (an alien with no concept of what you humans call...'funny' attempts to emulate Rob Guillory). As for the plot, such as it is: the company takes on a new intern, who doesn't get fired despite being shit. And not as in, he can't keep up with the kerazy! world of Damage Control, as in he does really obviously bad things that should get you fired anywhere. Except he apparently can't get fired, so that's one comedy mainstay out the window. Three issues in, we're eventually told there's an order to that effect. At the end of the series we find out why...and it makes no sense, either in-world or as a gag, it's just stupid. Based on this evidence, I can only assume that co-writer's successful sitcom, The Goldbergs, is one of those atrocities popular with US network viewers but utterly unfunny to more demanding audiences, such as protozoa.

If I were ordered at gunpoint to find a silver lining beyond 'Moob Knife', it would be the recap pages. Not that they demonstrate any more wit than the script, but they're presented as screengrabs of 'Chirp'. Which I swear is at least Marvel's tenth Twitter analogue, but it amuses me that they now all have less shit (not to mention less half-arsedly Marvel) names than real-world Twitter.

*The other writer is Hans Rodionoff, a name I associate with horror. It's a truism now to note the overlaps between comedy and horror, and of course both are very subjective. For my tastes, nothing here did any better at being scary than being funny, but at least it wasn't trying to be scary.

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd say Adam Goldberg needs to stick to writing TV shows but The Goldbergs which is "based" on his life is awful too. The premise is there's a new intern working at Damage Control that keeps screwing up and gets handed off to a new department each issue. It's not at all funny though even though it's trying very hard to be. This kid would have ended up in jail after the 1st issue. It's not bothering to pay attention to current Marvel continuity at all. If you're going to have nonstop cameos, at least have them make sense. Having a Wrecking Crew work out in the prison yard of the Raft with their weapons and powers makes no sense. It's pretty obvious that Marvel was awed by the guy having a sitcom that ran for 10 years and just let him do whatever he wanted. Editors exist for a reason.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know why I keep picking up various Damage Control comics. Maybe I'm just old that way and part of me likes the just-short-of-breaking-the-fourth-wall humor that defined these books in the 80s and 90s. It's crazy how it still largely features the same core cast of characters. At the very least, they have tried to evolve the concept of Damage Control to be more than what it was initially claimed to be, which was a really bad business.

This book has a brand new intern trying to find a role at the new Damage Control but a lot of the same hijinks end up happening. What's worse is that this is somehow a cliffhanger for another volume? Good grief! hahaha

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a new-ish version of 'What The?!, the old self parodying Marvel comic. It's too goofy for my taste (surprisingly?). The original Damage Control series was light and fun. This feels way too schticky.

Also, written (maybe just outlined?) by Adam Goldberg..the creator of ABC Television's comedy series, "The Goldbergs"

Bonus: No bonuses. Trust me.

[Sesana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too dumb for me. The sense of humor is immature at best, the main characters are dumb and/or incredibly annoying, and the established characters aren't used very well. They're out of character, and they're wasted on stupid set pieces. This feels kind of like a Mad Magazine style parody of superheroes, without any cleverness or anything to say. The Damage Control concept deserves better.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think there was a good Damage Control once upon a time, but this was not it.

It's slapstick that's not very funny and that doesn't have any particular continuity within the comic.

I think I made it two issues in before I gave up.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun, but there was a lot of silliness. I will keep reading, if there are more issues in the future.

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Painfully unfunny.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Potential fun. But it doesn’t quite hit.

[libreroaming · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up. Main character lacked charm and a lot of the jokes suffered from it.

[Gary Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 315

[Josh Newhouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun if silly read! I want more!

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

please be good, please be good, please be good... or at least funny...

dang it.