Comics Explained: Doom Patrol

The original Doom Patrol, left to right: Beast Boy, Negative Man, Robotman, the Chief, and Elasti-Girl

Yesterday, as of writing, DC's new TV show Doom Patrol finally debuted after first being shown in the show Titans. The Doom Patrol is a misfit team of superheroes first appearing in the Silver Age of Comics back in the 1960s. After their initial appearance they became a smash hit with comic readers for most of the 1960s. Since then their popularity has fallen and risen each decade, and the current Doom Patrol is extremely popular - it helps that it is being written by the very talented Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance.

Origins and First Run

My Greatest Adventure #80

The Doom Patrol debuted in My Greatest Adventure #80 in 1963. As you can tell, My Greatest Adventure started out as an adventure comic, but with the resurgence of the superhero genre DC wanted to change it into a superhero comic. Writer Arnold Drake was hired to make a new superhero comic, and he was joined by fellow writer Bob Haney and artist Bruno Premiani. The trio decided to break with DC's traditional way of making superhero teams. Normally DC's heroes were almost entirely flawless, had no overt problems (other than fighting crime), and never bickered with other heroes. Marvel challenged this. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and others created stories where heroes argued, dealt with family problems, were flawed, and doubted themselves. A wheelchair-bound scientific genius nicknamed 'The Chief' brought together three remarkable individuals. Rita Farr, Elasti-Girl (later Elasti-Woman), was an actress exposed to gases which allowed her to change size, but she couldn't control her powers; Cliff Steele, Robotman (originally called Automaton), a former race driver whose brain was moved into a robot body after a deadly crash causing him to develop depression; and Larry Trainor, Negative Man, a pilot exposed to radiation giving him superpowers, but to avoid infecting others with radiation he had to wear bandages. The Chief brought together these outcasts from society to give them a purpose. If you notice the similarities with X-Men you might be right - Drake once in an interview accused Stan Lee of taking the idea. However, shortly before his death he said 'Since we were working in the same vineyards, and if you do enough of that stuff, sooner or later, you will kind of look like you are imitating each other.' How much influence Doom Patrol had on the X-Men we might not fully know.

My Greatest Adventure #80 featured the Chief bring together the Doom Patrol together seeing that they are outsides. An alien spaceship crashed which attracted the attention of supervillain General Immortus who wanted the ship's technology. In a surprise in a comic book Immortus proved to be a match for the new heroes, and he is seemingly killed when the ship exploded. Doom Patrol's debut proved to be a resounding success and, just like the X-Men, started attracting many readers. The failing My Greatest Adventure saw record sales and after six issues the title was even renamed to The Doom Patrol! The comics combined the harsh emotion of being an outcast with out-there events and villains. Immortus returned, a shapeshifting villain called Madame Rouge arrived, and they faced a villainous duo, the Brain and Monsieur Mallah - the Brain was a scientist who is a brain in a jar and Monsieur Mallah was a gorilla whom the Brain made intelligent...and gave him a machine gun. Since then the Brain and Monsieur Mallah have since became lovers just showing how much fun the writers of Doom Patrol had with the characters. The villains even came together to form the Brotherhood of Evil - naturally they were often defeated by the Doom Patrol. In The Doom Patrol #99 a fan favourite was introduced. The Doom Patrol arrived back at base to find it ransacked by different animals, and to their surprise they found a green boy who could turn into different animals who gets the nickname Beast Boy. After he helps them prevent a jewel heist he would join the team.

Disbanding and After

Doom Patrol #121

By 1968 The Doom Patrol had started to lose support from readers. The popularity of other DC and Marvel teams meant that it was hard for the comic to compete. An ultimatum was issued with The Doom Patrol #121 which declared 'Is this the Beginning of the End of the Doom Patrol? You Decide' with Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, and Robotman standing behind their own graves. Editor Murray Boltinoff and artist Bruno Premiani even appeared in the comic urging readers to help the team. An enraged Madame Rouge teamed up with a literal Nazi, Captain Zahl, to destroy everyone: the Doom Patrol, the Brotherhood, and the Brain and Mallah. The lairs of the Brotherhood and the Brain were soon destroyed and the Doom Patrol was given an ultimatum. Zahl had placed a bomb at the Doom Patrol's island base and one in the town of Codsville, Maine with a population of 14. Either the team could save themselves or save Codsville, and, surprising Zahl, the team decided to save Codsville. The bomb detonated killing off the Chief, Robotman, Elasti-Girl, and Negative Man. Never before had a comic ended so brutally - comics never really actually killed off characters.

It would take almost a decade for Doom Patrol to make a return. In 1977 DC re-released Showcase seeing how well the previous run had been, and how successful Marvel's had been. Showcase was an anthology series which would feature new stories and characters for a single issue to a few issues to test the water - if they were well received they could get their own series. DC asked The Doom Patrol fans Paul Kupperburg and Joe Staton to bring back the team. Ironically, Kupperburg was inspired how Marvel created a new team of X-Men and aimed to do the same with Doom Patrol. Wanting to respect the original team's sacrifice he created a new one formed by Arani Desai, Celsius, the widow of the Chief - Kupperburg never approached the issue of why the Chief's superpowered wife never was even mentioned before. Robotman was brought back in a new body, and two new members were introduced. The Negative Spirit which gave Negative Man his powers was attached to a Russian cosmonaut called Valentina Vostok who became the Negative Woman, unlike he predecessor she could control her powers far better. Finally, we have the natural metahuman, an African-American man named Joshua Clay who adopted the moniker of Tempest. Sent to Vietnam he saw a massacre which caused him to have a breakdown, kill the officer in charge, and go AWOL. This new series only lasted a few issues - it was not well received. Kupperburg quite bluntly said why: I was missing the point of the Doom Patrol. The original group were outsiders and freaks, while my new guys were just comic-book superheroes. I was young and inexperienced and new to writing, with about two years under my belt before getting the gig. The new Doom Patrol would make several appearances in other comics, but the only one to truly survive was Beast Boy. Under the name of Changeling in 1980 he joined the Teen Titans which he is most recognised from.

Grant Morrison and Rachel Pollack

Under Morrison Doom Patrol regularly parodied other comics, such as this one parodying X-Force

Doom Patrol was brought back fully with an extended cast but it was far from well received. DC decided in 1989 to put Grant Morrison in charge of the comic with #19. To pave the way for him taking over the Invasion storyline was even used to eliminate some of the other new members of the team. Morrison is known for his out-there and fantastical stories, and his run on Doom Patrol set the stage for how current audiences view the team. He brought in Dadaism, surrealism, and conspiracies to the comic, and Arnold Drake said that only Morrison's run reflected his original story. The Chief was back in charge, Robotman and Negative Man were back, and he kept on Joshua Clay. Negative Man was changed as well. The Negative Spirit merged him with his doctor, Eleanor Poole, forming a transgender and transracial entity named Rebis. They were also joined by new heroes: Dorothy Spinner, who had been introduced in #14, who had the face of an ape and could bring her imaginary friends into the real world; 'Crazy Jane', a woman with multiple-personality disorder where each personality has its own power; and Danny the Street, a literal living street which can teleport. I would highly recommend Morrison's run on Doom Patrol - I would argue that it is one of the best comics period. It features stories including the Patrol battling an inter-dimensional invasion who invade by cutting people from reality, called the 'Scissormen'; Red Jack, a man who thinks he is both Jack the Ripper and God, who gets power from torture, so he has thousands of butterflies pinned to his walls; and, my personal favourite, the Brotherhood of Dada. This surreal group had people with unique powers like Sleepwalk, she has super-strength only when she's asleep, and The Quiz, she has every power 'that you hadn't thought of' but as soon as you think of a power she loses it. She's also terrified of dirt. Morrison also revealed that the Chief was not a DC version of Professor X - #57 revealed that he caused Robotman, Elasti-Girl, and Negative Man to get their powers. He also intended to use nano-bots to 'improve' humanity.

Here's an example of one of the tamer panels from Pollack's run 

In #63 spiritualist Rachel Pollack, a good friend of the fantastic author Neil Gaiman, took over the series. Pollack was so eager to write that she sent many, many letters to DC. Doom Patrol was moved also to Vertigo - then newly formed so DC could publish more graphic and adult titles. If you now want to by reprinted issues of Morrison's run they are now published under Vertigo. Pollack continued the surrealist imagery and stories that fans had come to love, and she added more to it. With a freer reign with Vertigo she could explore far more ideas: transgender identity, humanity, bisexuality, sexual identity, menstruation, religion, and generations gaps. Pollack even made comic history by introducing the one of the first transgender characters in comics: Coagula. After having sex with Rebis she developed the ability to turn solids into liquids, and vice versa, so she joined the Doom Patrol. The Chief is also now a head in cryogenic storage, and the team moved to a house haunted by those who died in sexual accidents. Pollack really embraced the surreal nature of the comic. Eventually, Doom Patrol was cancelled in 1995 and was brought back into mainstream DC publishing in 2001. However, that, and successive series, really failed to reignite the love that fans had for Morrison's and Pollack's run.

Gerard Way and Vol. 6

The current Doom Patrol, Casey in the middle

Other than music Gerard Way has a talent for writing, and it was a match made in Heaven when he took the reigns of the new Doom Patrol volume. Naturally, Way continued the surrealist nature that Doom Patrol is known for. Danny the Street has been writing comics including one about a young woman called Casey Brinke: an EMT and gadget-wielding superhero whose mother had sacrificed herself to stop her supervillain father. Danny accidentally pulled Casey into the real world, and allowed her to lead a normal life until he was attacked by aliens named the Vectra. In order to save him she had to recreate the Doom Patrol. Casey brought together Elasti-Woman, Robotman, Negative Man, the super-strong Flex Mentallo, and Fugg, a furry creature made by Danny to help Casey. Together they defeated the aliens, and Casey's father who had been brought to life by Danny while being tortured, and had taken over the aliens. The team also found Crazy Jane again - a homicidal personality took over and aimed to destroy the other personalities. To do this the 'Dr. Harrison' personality created a cult with the intention to give the cult members the other personalities, and then kill the cult with the personalities going with them. They managed to destroy Dr Harrison and save Jane. They even briefly reunited with Chief but kicked him thanks to his disastrous leadership skills and gambling.

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