Comics Explained: Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E

CW is soon to release their new TV series Stargirl, so it is quite fitting that we look at her today. Stargirl has been consistently one of DC's second tier characters meaning that she has had a regular background role in the comics, or membership in superhero teams, but has not been seen as one of the main heroes. Similarly, we cannot discuss Stargirl without her partner S.T.R.I.P.E who was introduced all the way back in 1941 under the name Stripesy. Today we'll look at both characters and their history in the DC Universe.

The Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy

Even before the United States entered the Second World War, there was a feeling that they would soon enter and feared espionage from the Axis powers. In 1941, before the bombing of Pearl Harbor which brought the US into the war, a wave of US-themed, nationalistic heroes came into being. The most famous would, of course, be Captain America, published by Marvel's forerunner Timely. All the comic book publishers had some form of nationalistic character to whip up patriotism: the Fighting Yank from Nedor Comics, Yank and Doodle from Prize Publications, and Miss Victory from Helnit Comics being some notable examples. DC had a plethora of patriotic heroes with names such as Uncle Sam, Liberty Belle, and Miss America. Debuting in Star Spangled Comics #1 in October 1941, (although one had been introduced in the earlier Action Comics #40), was a new patriotic duo fighting Nazi agents: the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy. Sylvester Pemberton was a spoiled rich kid and Pat Dugan was his bumbling chauffeur. However, they were secretly honed acrobats and athletes, and donned costumes forming the duo Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy. In a story created by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and artist Hal Sherman this duo of non-superpowered heroes fought against Nazi spies wanting to take down America. The two were noted for flipping the superhero genre. Normally, the younger character was the sidekick, but it was the older Stripesy who was the sidekick. That is the only thing innovative about the duo. Publishers wanted to make sales on the popular 'patriotic hero' genre, and it was certainly quantity over quality. Stripesy's appearance is literally a well-built man in a red-and-white striped shirt, and his abilities were acrobatics and being a good engineer. Unsurprisingly, it did not take long for the duo to be relegated to a team of B-tier heroes.

By the end of 1941 writer Mort Weisinger was tasked in creating a new superhero team, due to to massive popularity of the Justice Society. Leading Comics #1 introduced a new team: the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Comprised of largely newly created characters the Seven Soldiers were: the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy; Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy; the cowboy-themed hero Vigilante; Shining Knight, a member of the Knights of the Round Table frozen in time; and the Crimson Avenger, DC's answer to the Green Hornet. What was interesting about this time, in contrast to the Justice Society, was that each member did not have superpowers - instead they relied on their own physical skills, abilities, and gadgets to fight crime and spies. Throughout the war they remained popular, but the end of the war came with the end of their popularity. Western, romance, and animal stories started replacing superheroes in popularity, and wartime heroes suffered as a result. By the mid-1940s the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy had stopped their appearances.

Return

In the 1970s, nostalgia for the 'Golden Age of Comics' of the 1940s, and searching for new and interesting stories, DC decided to bring back the Seven Soldiers of Victory. How could they though? The Seven Soldiers had not been published since 1945! The writers of Justice League of America had the answer. From issues #100-102 in 1972 we found out why the Seven Soldiers vanished, (other than the publisher's desire to jump on new trends), and how they were brought back. On a mission in 1950 a problem in time scattered the team throughout history, so the Justice Society and Justice League teamed up to rescue them. Stripesy was rescued from ancient Egypt by Batman, Hourman, and Starman, and the Star-Spangled Kid was rescued from a cave 50,000 years ago by Aquaman, Wildcat, and Green Lantern. Brought back to the 1970s, and not 1950, the rescued Seven Soldiers made a new life. Stripesy gets married to someone called Maggie, but she eventually left him taking their son with her. The Star-Spangled Kid continued with heroics helping Dugan regain his lost patents, and fighting his nephew who had used the family estate to fund supervillains. In a revived All-Star Comics he grew close to Starman - a scientist who constructed a powerful rod which could manipulate energy. When Starman was injured, he gave Pemberton his rod which the young hero used to create a streamlined version of the rod in the form of a belt. With this he adopted the moniker Skyman. However, it would end in tragedy. While fighting alongside a new team called Infinity Inc. he was killed by the hulking zombie Solomon Grundy. 

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E

Finally, we've arrived at when Stargirl arrives on the scene in the comic series Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Debuting in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E #1 in 1999 we see the origins of a new pairing. A retired Pat Dugan remarried and moved to Nebraska, with the new life and marriage came a stepdaughter - Courtney Whitmore. Courtney was resentful of Pat coming into her life, and moving the family to Nebraska, so was not the biggest fan of her new stepdad. That is, until she came across his old keepsakes. There she found out that her stepfather Pat was actually the former hero Stripesy, so she decided to pull a prank on him. Going to a fancy-dress party she donned a costume similar to that of Stripesy's old partner, and included his old belt. However, during the party an old enemy of the Seven Soldiers, who survived the war until now, called the Dragon King attacked leading to Courtney using the cosmic belt of the old Star-Spangled Kid to defend herself. At the same time, Pat knew that one day he might have to return as a superhero, so he put his engineering skills to the test. Creating a suit, resembling a mix between the Iron Giant and Iron Man, he adopted the new moniker S.T.R.I.P.E - Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer. He joined Courtney and together the beat the minions of the Dragon King; seeing how well the formerly feuding pair worked together they decided to make it a permanent pairing. Courtney became the new Star-Spangled Kid, and together they formed Stars and Stripes. Courtney, in particular, proved to be popular with fans thanks to her charm and bubbly personality. A big reason behind this was that writer Geoff Johns based her off of his sister who had tragically died in a plane crash, so Courtney became a tribute to her. The quaint pairing and stories made Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E a welcome part of the DC Universe - even if they never became as popular as other characters.

Becoming Stargirl

The popularity of the duo meant that they soon appeared in wider comics, namely the Justice Society. Courtney and Pat added a familial aspect to the Justice Society which extended to the rest of the team. It was through this that the duo became a mainstay of the DC Universe, even if it was a minor one. In Starman Vol. 2 #80 Starman had been impressed by Courtney's dealing of the dark magic using Klarion, and decided that she was the best person to inherit his Cosmic Staff. Accepting it, and to honour the older hero, she adopted the moniker Stargirl. Armed with both Skyman's belt and Starman's staff this gave Courtney enhanced strength, durability, speed, and agility, as well as energy projection and flight. During her time with the Justice Society she became close friends with Power Girl, and even started dating Captain Marvel, (Shazam). The team had such a close bond that, in full costume, the entire Justice Society came to her house for a surprise party after she got back from the dentist. Meanwhile, S.T.R.I.P.E remained a loyal member of the team helping build equipment and supporting Stargirl. In JSA #81 Courtney found out that her absent biological father had died, which sent her world into crisis. While wanting to hate him for abandoning both herself and her mother, she couldn't find the hatred. Instead, she chose to find love, and realise that she always had a father - Pat. From there, they grew closer as a father and daughter superhero duo. Following the reboot of the DC Universe in The New 52 the duo shifted to the Justice League as the Justice Society was written out of the timeline, but then Doomsday Clock changed things. In Doomsday Clock we found out that Dr Manhattan from Watchmen had been manipulating the DC timeline, which cause the JSA to be written out of existence. However, at the event's end when he returned things to 'normal', the duo were part of the Justice Society.

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Comics Explained: The Batman Who Laughs

Despite only debuting in 2017 the Batman Who Laughs has made a big impact on DC comics. A mixture of his design, the premise behind him, and his significant presence in the Dark Knights: Metal storyline has made him a quickly popular character. Despite his recent appearance, he has already made a cameo in other media being an alternate skin for a character in Mortal Kombat 11. Created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo for their new Dark Knights: Metal story, where they wanted to create Batman's worst nightmare, and Scott hoped that he would be popular enough to remain a constant in the DC Universe. At the moment, his desire has come true. Before we discuss the Batman Who Laughs we have to first set out how this character came to be.

The Dark Multiverse

Barbatos

Many comic books have the idea of the Multiverse - including DC. Prior to the Flashpoint event, when the Multiverse was in existence, there was feasibly an infinite number of realities were an infinite number of variations of characters can exist. After the Flashpoint event the Multiverse was reduced to just 52 realities - among them a world where all crime is gone and the children of heroes live a reality TV show like life, a civil war among superhumans from Injustice, and even a universe where all the characters are anthropomorphic animals. Scott Snyder for Dark Knights: Metal created the Dark Multiverse. Over the course of the event more information was revealed about the Dark Multiverse. The Batman Who Laughs summed it up quite well:

Stop me if you've heard this one... worlds will live, worlds will die... but imagine if your every fear, each bad decision, gave birth to a malformed world of nightmare. A world that shouldn't exist. And desperate as it fights to survive in the light of the true multiverse far above... these worlds are doomed to rot apart, and die, because they are wrong at their core. Welcome to the Dark Multiverse. Home to stories that should never be... It's all one big cosmic joke, except no one on this side is laughing. ...well, almost no one...

As you can tell, the Dark Multiverse was a version of the Multiverse where nightmares and bad decisions lead to the creation of universes who were unstable in their structure. In the past, a being named the World Forger was tasked with having these unstable realities destroyed, and the energy from these destroyed worlds to be used to create new realities. The World Forger used the 'Great Dragon' Barbatos to destroy these worlds, but Barbatos later betrayed the World Forger and destroyed it. Barbatos allowed these universes to germinate with the intention of using them to invade and destroy the Multiverse. When the main reality Batman got transported through time by Darkseid during the Final Crisis event this brought him to the attention of Barbatos, who recognised the similarity between itself and Batman. Barbatos would use Batman to open the gateway between the Dark Multiverse and Multiverse, which is where the Batman Who Laughs comes in.

Origins

The Joker Robins

Although the Batman Who Laughs was introduced thanks to the Dark Knights: Metal event, it was actually in The Batman Who Laughs #1 which explored his origin. In Earth -22, Bruce Wayne and the DC Universe matched the mainstream reality except with one difference - it was based on Batman's fear of becoming like the Joker. In Earth -22 the Joker found out Batman's secret identity, and decided to perform the ultimate attack on Batman as a finale, due to the chemicals which turned him into the Joker now killing him. First wiping out all of Batman's villains, and killing Commissioner Gordon via an acid trap in his notebook, planned to merge the fates of himself and Bruce Wayne. He killed the parents of a few children in front of them, and then introduced them to his Joker Venom - copying the origin of Batman and the origin of Joker. To make his plan complete he had Batman witness the children's turn into 'Joker Robins'. A broken Batman broke free and choked the Joker to death, but the clown had a secret weapon - when he died his concoction would be released infecting whoever killed him. 

Killing the Bat Family

A few days later members of the Bat Family were training with robots programmed by Batman, but they were fighting surprisingly harder this day. When they confronted Batman about this, he revealed that he had been infected by the Joker's toxins, and was slowly becoming the Joker. While Nightwing assumes that the robots were set to harder difficulties so they could beat Batman when the time came; it turned out that the turn had already came. With the robots failing to kill the Bat Family, a now changed Bruce Wayne proceeded to shoot Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Robin, and Red Hood. Turning his son, the current Robin Damien Wayne, into another Joker Robin he soon wiped out the Justice League. Confirming his descent into the Batman Who Laughs, he used a type of kryptonite on Superman and Superboy causing them to kill Lois Lane before dying themselves. Laughing, he drew a smiley face on a window of the Justice League Watchtower in the blood of his former friends. Using the weaponry of the Justice League he soon proceeded to destroy life on the planet, and this is what made Barbatos to approach him to become his right-hand. Barbatos tasked the Batman Who Laughs to recruit the 'Dark Knights' - a collection of the most twisted versions of Batman who take over the Multiverse. 

Dark Knights: Metal

The Batman Who Laughs's major appearance was during the Dark Knights: Metal event, but I don't want to give away too many spoilers for the comic. As it was recently published it is still available in stores, and it's a good story, so I would recommend reading it yourself. Instead, I'll just quickly go over some notable events which the Batman Who Laughs oversaw. Naturally, being the right-hand of Barbatos, he lead the initial attack on the Multiverse, arriving in the main reality and setting the Joker Robins on the Court of Owls. The Court of Owls is a sinister group, and it is difficult to quickly summarise them, but for the purpose of Dark Knights: Metal, they worship Barbatos and worked to use Batman to bring them into the Multiverse. Now, with their purpose fulfilled, the Batman Who Laughs had them killed, and then sent the Dark Knights to attack the home cities of the Justice League. To secure his base in Gotham, he handed out cards which could alter reality to the Riddler, Poison Ivy, Firefly, Mad Hatter, Bane, and Mister Freeze - if someone wished to take down his base, they would have to fight through the warped version of Gotham created by the villains. Through the rest of the story, the Batman Who Laughs tries to wipe out reality and his enemies, but was challenged by a team of alternate reality Batmen led by the main Batman. However, what took the Batman Who Laughs was that the Joker helped in the fight. The Joker simply explained, the Batman Who Laughs still had the planning of Batman so they had to do something which Batman would never expect: fighting alongside the Joker.

After the Dark Knights

The Batman Who Laughs managed to survive the defeat of Barbatos, and was later found to be under the custody of Lex Luthor. The other members of the Legion of Doom, especially the Joker, were uncomfortable having the Batman Who Laughs at their base, and he himself goaded Luthor about knowing the secrets of the Multiverse. It turned out that the Batman could escape whenever he wanted; he was biding his time to see how events were going on the outside. Later, in exchange for information, Luthor released him. He then began his new goal: taking down Batman. To achieve his goal he recruited another Batman from the Dark Multiverse - the Grim Knight. A mixture of Batman and the Punisher, this version of Batman killed Joe Chill, who murdered Batman's parents, when he dropped his gun. This put him on a course to becoming a murderous Batman who turned Gotham into a police state. The Joker, meanwhile, realised that his Batman didn't have the same disregard for human life as the Batman Who Laughs and Grim Knight, so he infected Batman with a diluted version of the Joker Venom. He would become another Batman Who Laughs, but with more control. In the end, a confrontation in the Wayne graveyard main reality Batman defeated the Batman Who Laughs, and Alfred gave him a serum stopping him from becoming a new Batman Who Laughs. Despite his incarceration in the Hall of Justice, he began his new plot to tear apart the Justice League and this reality: infect Superman with the Joker Venom. He came close using an infected Shazam and Blue Beetle to get Superman in position, and he would have succeeded if not for Supergirl grabbing a batarang designed to affect Kryptonians before it could hit him. 

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Comics Explained: Victor Zsasz

Batman over the years has had many twisted and sadistic villains over the years, and one good example of them is Victor Zsasz. Since his debut in 1992 Zsasz has never been close to one of Batman's main villains, but he has been in the background fairly often. Especially since his extremely brief appearance in the movie Batman Begins, he has steadily been appearing more and more. He regularly appeared in the hit video game series Batman:Arkham, has featured in the TV show Gotham, and is set to appear in the upcoming Birds of Prey movie. 

Origins

In the grand scheme of Batman's publication history Zsasz is a very recent addition - he first debuted in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 in 1992. Created by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle he was initially disturbing serial killer, as the main focus of the story was the ongoing renovations on Arkham Asylum and the new warden Jeremiah Arkham vowing to 'cure' a chained Batman. Zsasz was noticeable as his body was covered in scars forming tally marks - it was later revealed that each tally represented a person murdered by him. This was part of a story called The Last Arkham - it turned out that Zsasz had been manipulating Jeremiah Arkham, and had managed to bribe a contractor while the asylum was being restored to build a passage out of his cell. During the day, Zsasz would slowly chip away at Arkham's sanity, and at night he would leave to commit further murders. Batman and Commissioner Gordon made a plan getting Batman committed where he could search for clues on the inside. Although Zsasz was stopped, whenever a breakout happened his killing spree started again.

Batman Chronicles #3 later told how Victor Zsasz became who he was. Like Bruce Wayne he was born into a life of luxury. His owned his own international corporation, and received further funding from his incredibly wealthy parents. However, aged 25, they were killed driving him into a deep depression. Unlike Bruce Wayne, who became the Batman, Zsasz turned to gambling to take his mind off of his depression, but this became an addiction. He spent days upon days at the Iceberg Lounge - a club and casino owned by the Penguin. Seeing an easy mark the Penguin kept challenging to games which made Victor lose more and more of his money. Eventually, Zsasz lost everything, and stumbling away from the club decided that he was destined for suicide. While attempting to jump from Gotham Bridge, a desperate mugger came at him with a knife. Instead, Zsasz grabbed the weapon and used it to end the mugger's life. In that moment - seeing the life leave the eyes of the mugger - everything changed. He saw nothing and meaningless in the eyes of the mugger, and viewed his murder of the man as bringing him a 'gift'. He realised that he was the only actual human, everyone else were 'zombies' and he had to liberate them. As a sign that he had liberated someone, and to prove that he was the only real human, he carved a tally into his skin. Now, he commits murders and places the victims in real-life positions so they could be 'real' in death. After every kill he carved another tally onto himself. In later stories it was revealed that Zsasz would have a breakdown if he couldn't leave his mark or kill someone - often saying that he 'has to have the mark'/

Knightfall and No Man's Land

In Knightfall, to break Batman both mentally and physically Bane released all the inmates from Arkham Asylum - everyone from the Joker to the Mad Hatter were released. One of those to escape was Zsasz. He broke into an all-girls boarding school taking them all hostage. As they were the daughters of Gotham's elite he wanted to make a statement by 'liberating' such high-class zombies. Even when the girls tried to overpower him he remained strong - Zsasz is very strong once dislocating Batman's shoulder in Detective Comics #368. The two police officers who were sent in to get him were also killed by the serial killer. By this time Batman was becoming increasingly exhausted hunting down escaped villains, so the agile and strong Zsasz proved to be a match. The killer's taunts started driving Batman to the edge causing him to snap and savagely beat the killer after he suggested that they were the same. Kevin Smith in 2008 would explain this in Batman: Cacophony as Batman hates Zsasz the most for his outlook on people and life. It took detective Renee Montoya dragging Batman off of the killer to stop the beating.

In No Man's Land Gotham experienced an earthquake isolating it from the rest of the country, so the villains took over. Poison Ivy, Joker, Bane, and Mr. Freeze were just some of the villains to take over parts of Gotham. Zsasz similarly claimed an area to kill as he pleased. Being one serial killer facing off against super-powered individuals and gangs meant he was soon injured and sent to Dr. Leslie Thompkins's field hospital. Her good nature and care started shattering Zsasz's worldview. In Thompkins there was evidence that people were not simply empty vessels - they were hopeful and good. As he couldn't cope with this shift in perception he decided to ignore and run away from the field hospital.

With Other Villains

Part of Riddler's gang with Scarecrow, Deathstroke, Two-Face, Firefly, Killer Croc and Clayface

Zsasz has occasionally ran with other villains, but his nihilistic and homicidal view on humanity means that he is often kept at arm's length. After Batman was killed by Darkseid a new story called Battle for the Cowl began. During this a new Black Mask, later revealed to be Jeremiah Arkham, managed to hire Zsasz as one of the members of his new gang. With a large amount of money he let Zsasz purchase a warehouse which could host battles-to-the-death between Gotham's runaway or kidnapped child population. Children would be forced to fight one another with the provision that the last one standing could fight Zsasz and earn their freedom. This enraged Damian Wayne, Bruce's son and the new Robin, who became traumatised seeing the bodies of the dead children. Damian was not raised by Bruce so was very willing to kill, and he almost killed Zsasz by slashing him with a sword before kicking him into the river. He would survive and continue working with Black Mask, and would sometimes move away to continue killing by himself. In 2017 DC published the War of Jokes and Riddles story - told in flashback it tells a Gotham wide gang war between Joker and the Riddler. More and more villains ended up picking a side; Zsasz would end up joining Riddler's gang.

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Comics Explained: The Anti-Monitor

A new crossover is happening between the DC TV shows based off of one of DC's best known stories - Crisis on Infinite Earths. This story featured the debut of the Anti-Monitor - a being so powerful that he destroyed thousands to millions of alternate versions of powered beings across the Multiverse. In DC, there is possibly an infinite number of universes (although this has changed regularly) called the Multiverse, and the Anti-Monitor went from reality to reality destroying them all. The Anti-Monitor was the main antagonist of the event, and today we're looking at him.

Origins

The Anti-Monitor was created by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and Jerry Ordway, and debuted in Crisis on Infinite Earths #2 as the main antagonist for their story in 1985. By the 1980s DC wanted to reboot its universe for a new generation - they feared that up to fifty years of stories spanning several universes would be too daunting for new readers. As a result, our three authors were brought in to reinvent the DC multiverse, but to create a new reality they had to destroy the old one - and the Anti-Monitor was the one to do this. 

The Anti-Monitor was created through a somewhat convoluted way. Many, many years ago, on the planet Oa, a scientist named Krona performed an illegal experiment in order to see the origins of the universe - instead his machine exploded shattering the universe and forming the multiverse. The denizens of Oa became divided about how to go on, and a civil war broke out. One faction went to one of the new universes called the Anti-Monitor Universe, some of those who remained became the Guardians of the Universe - who themselves formed the Green Lanterns. Those who went to the Anti-Matter Universe settled on the planet Qward where of being of anti-matter was formed called the Anti-Monitor. Gaining consciousness he grew increasingly powerful by absorbing the energy of that universe, and he enslaved the people of Qward forming his army called the Thunderers. However, in the original universe, off of the planet Oa a being a positive matter, called the Monitor, came into being. Sensing his opposite the Anti-Monitor began a million year long campaign to eventually wipe out his opponent. Eventually, both the Anti-Monitor and Monitor went into hibernation for billions of years - both absorbing the energy from their respective universes.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

After billions of years in hibernation a scientist called Kell Mossa hoped to see the origins of everything, and he managed to see a giant hand reaching onto an abyss forming new worlds. This came at a price. His home world was destroyed, and he saw the Anti-Monitor awaken. He was saved last minute by the Monitor who named him the 'Pariah' and given the power to travel across parallel universes. Wanting to destroy the Monitor he began destroying positive matter realities which would bring more energy into the anti-matter universe, and make him more powerful. The Anti-Monitor was unstoppable, so to prevent him from destroying everything the Monitor made preparations to prevent the destruction of five realities - Earth-One (the main reality), Earth-Two (DC's Golden Age reality), Earth-S (Captain Marvel's reality), Earth-X (the Freedom Fighters' reality), and Earth-Four (the reality of Blue Beetle, the Question and a few others). The Anti-Monitor attacked these worlds and even managed to finally kill the Monitor after enlisting the aid of the emotion-manipulating villain Psycho-Pirate, and reconfigured the robotic hero Red Tornado to briefly fight for him. 

Aided by Alex Luthor, the son of Lex Luthor from Earth-Three where he was a hero and not a villain, the heroes went to attack Anti-Monitor at his base. Supergirl almost destroyed the being by breaking his shell, but he killed her by focusing all his energy onto her. He then finished creating his ultimate weapon to destroy the five universes - the anti-matter cannon. Barry Allen, the Flash, then ran faster than the speed of light to destroy both the cannon and himself - he would remain dead for a good thirty years with Wally West taking over as the Flash. Through insane story plots the Anti-Monitor transported all the heroes and villains to the dawn of the multiverse, where it was revealed that it was his hand, and that of God's wrath personified, the Spectre, which Pariah saw. Through various reality and time spanning battles the extra-dimensional villain Darkseid shot the Anti-Monitor into the sun! Even then this did not properly kill him - he shot out of the star as an energy sphere. The Superman of Earth-Two, also overpowered as Kryptonians get more power the closer they are to the sun, shattered him into molecules. In the aftermath of the Crisis almost all the universes were destroyed, the five remaining ones were merged into one forming the New Earth. From 1985 to Flashpoint in 2011 this would be the sole reality, more or less, in the multiverse.

Infinite Crisis and the Return of the Multiverse

Grant Morrison is a fantastic writer and is fond of over-the-top stories, so he wanted to bring back the multiverse. The Infinite Crisis story of 2005 brought back the multiverse in typical Morrison fashion. He established that those who witnessed the final destruction of the Anti-Monitor were not really lost when the old multiverse finally was destroyed - instead they were watching the events of the new universe from a quasi-heaven. In this reality there were Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-Two, Alex Luthor of Earth-Three, and the narcissistic Superboy-Prime of Earth-Prime. The insane Superboy-Prime viewed the heroes of New Earth as false heroes, and managed to punch a hole in reality freeing them from their pocket universe! This punch had ripples across the universe, such as resurrecting the dead second Robin Jason Todd, and it brought back the multiverse. During this the remains of the Anti-Monitor were used as a 'tuning fork' to recreate the frequencies which the previous universes vibrated on, with the intention that this would recreate their universes - even if it meant destroying New Earth. Superboy-Prime ended up messing up their own plan. His battle with Superboy caused them to crash into the tower they were using wrecking the tuning fork with it.

Return

As the events of Infinite Crisis brought back the multiverse it also brought back the energy which Anti-Monitor fed on. This resurrected him, and one of the worst people possible took advantage of this. Sinestro had broken off from the Green Lanterns and harnessed the power of fear forming the new Sinestro Corps. Rebuilding Anti-Monitor's body he became Sinestro's 'Guardian of Fear', and by default one of the most powerful beings in the universe. The fear the universe had of him became a way to power the rings of the Sinestro Corps permanently. However, after battling the Green Lanterns he crashed landed on the planet Ryut in Sector 666 of the universe - the Green Lanterns had divided the entire universe into different sectors, and 666 had long been abandoned. Krona had used the precursors of the Green Lanterns, the Manhunters, to commit a genocide on Ryut, and this set the stage for one of the oldest prophecies in the universe. The Green Lanterns knew that one day an event known as 'Blackest Night' would come along, and the crashed Anti-Monitor provided the energy for this.

A voice commanded him to rise and he did so becoming trapped in a lantern power battery - the object which grants lanterns the energy for them to function. This was the Black Lantern Power Battery, and it would prove the springboard for the Black Night. The battery was brought to Earth where it was used to power the Black Lanterns - their power rings resurrected the dead to destroy the living. The bolster their power their leader, Nekron, sent out rings to turn the resurrected into Black Lanterns - including the Anti-Monitor. However, by doing this to such a powerful being it allowed him to break out from the Lantern Battery. During the Brightest Day he was resurrected, but has rarely appeared since then. One of the times was at the end of the Forever Evil story where he tried to enslave the New Gods and finally killed Darkseid. 

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Comics Explained: Swamp Thing

The new Swamp Thing show is starting soon bringing attention to this bizarre character once again. Swamp Thing has always been one of DC's darker characters, and has gone from the mainline comics to DC's darker imprint Vertigo, and then back to the mainline ones. As a result, and thanks to various writers, Swamp Thing's history has changed quite often. Today we'll look at the Guardian of the Green, and how Swamp Thing has changed over the years. To make things easier we'll only look at the first two Swamp Things, and we'll also briefly look at the daughter of the second Swamp Thing. 

Origin - The House of Secrets #92

Swamp Thing debuted in a story by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson in a story both reminiscent, and very different, from the Swamp Thing which we know of today. Keeping with the later stories, Swamp Thing debuted in the horror comic The House of Secrets in a story straight out of H.P. Lovecraft or Edgar Alan Poe. Issue 92 in July 1971 saw the origins of the first Swamp Thing. In the early years of the 1900s scientist Alex Olsen lived a blissful life in Louisiana with Linda, his wife, while performing experiments with his friend, Damian. However, Damian was deeply in love with Linda, and was willing to murder for them to be together. Mixing up chemicals he hoped Alex's next experiment would go wrong; the explosion didn't kill him so Damian dumped his body in the swamp. The chemicals merged with the swamp's foliage and Alex managed to emerge from the waters as a monster - the Swamp Thing. By this time, Damian had exploited Linda's grief enough so much that she married him, but Linda was suspecting that the experiment which seemingly killed Alex was not an accident. Not wishing to be caught, Alex planned to kill Linda via a secret lethal injection. Just as he was about to kill Linda, Alex, now the Swamp Thing, smashed his way in and killed Damian. A terrified Linda refused to be near him, and he was unable to speak. Unable to communicate, and unable to cry, Alex shuffled back into the swamp to live the rest of his life as a monster.

Alec Holland

The popularity of The House of Secrets #92 encouraged DC to give Swamp Thing his own series, so Wein and Wrightson decided to change the monster's origins to suit an ongoing story. Now set in the present-day, Swamp Thing #1 tells the story of a scientist, Alec Holland, is forced to create a bio-restorative formula to encourage rapid plant growth by a sinister group. Holland tried to resist so the group blew up his lab; Holland was dosed in chemicals as well as being set on fire, and his wife, Linda, was killed. Trying to extinguish the flames he fell into a swamp, however, as he was dosed in the formula the nearby plant life grafted to him and gave him powers. 'Dr. Alec Holland had all the answers... he was an intelligent man... but Alec Holland is dead... and in his place stands only a... SWAMP THING!' Wanting revenge, Alec killed the individuals, and he began his journey. The first Swamp Thing volume set the stage for the later comics and introduced several important concepts. As Swamp Thing, Alec was granted super-strength and the ability to control plant life. His most infamous opponent was Anton Arcane - a mad scientist and warlock obsessed with immortality. Introduced, officially, in Swamp Thing #2 Arcane had witnessed Holland's resurrection so hoped to use that to gain eternal life. He had even stitched his blown up brother back together again, and then had him confined in a dungeon. Using an army of half-human creatures called Un-Men the two fought, and to save a village which Arcane hoped to destroy Swamp Thing knocked the wizard from a tower window. This issue also introduced one of Swamp Thing's most important characters - Abigail Arcane. The niece of Anton, she grew up with telepathic and empathy, living in terror of her evil uncle. However, her empathy powers allowed her to understand that the Swamp Thing meant her no harm, and had a kind heart. She would later travel to the US, and in the future marry Alec. The first run of Swamp Thing ended after 24 issues in 1976 - the last two issues saw Alec lose his powers and have to fight as a regular human. The promised fight against Hawkman at the end of #24 consequently never happened.

The Alan Moore Run

In 1982, a movie adaptation of the first volume by Wes Craven, who also made Nightmare on Elm Street and The Hills Have Eyes, was being released, so DC decided to bring Swamp Thing back. Now called The Saga of Swamp Thing it was written by Martin Pasko and drawn by Tom Yeates. Swamp Thing had now become an urban legend in the Louisiana swamps, and travelled across the world fighting demonic threats - including a resurrected Anton Arcane. However, by issue 20 it was quickly losing popularity so DC decided to take a chance and give a little known British writer free reign. This writer was Alan Moore - the creator of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen among others - and his run would become one of the greatest runs in comic history. Swamp Thing had always had a darker tone compared to other comics, but Alan Moore decided to expand on this aspect by ignoring the Comics Code of Authority. Moore, as a spiritualist, was also keen to expand on the magic and monstrous aspect of the Swamp Thing comics. The Saga of the Swamp Thing #21 opens up with the monster being captured and dissected only for it to be revealed that he doesn't have organs. Swamp Thing was never a human; a collection of plants took Holland's dying consciousness so the creature which emerged believed itself to be formerly human. We also find out about the Green. The Green is an elemental force connecting all plant life, and Swamp Thing is the protector of the Green - he has to prevent humanity from devastating the foliage of the world. Not only that, in order to connect the current comics to The House of Secrets, there have been other defenders of the Green - Alex Olsen was one previous defender of the Green. As Swamp Thing protects the Green he gets his powers from it, and cannot be killed as long as plants exist. One time he managed to come back to life using tobacco leaves.

Constantine and Swamp Thing

Moore's run further engaged with magic seeing the Swamp Thing becoming closer to Abby Arcane, so much so that they would become married. The foul-mouthed, Liverpudlian wizard John Constantine, whom Moore has claimed to have personally met, was introduced in issue 37; originally introduced as a way to explain Swamp Thing's status as a Plant Elemental, Constantine would become one of DC's best known magic users. We also have the Parliament of Trees - a group mind of former Plant Elementals, including former Swamp Things, who, once their time has ended, join this collective. Moore's run ended with issue 64 in 1987, and various other writers would take over including Doom Patrol's Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, the creator of Kingsman and Wanted. When the Vertigo imprint was created in 1993 to publish DC's darker stories Swamp Thing was moved there. The series ended with issue 171 when Swamp Thing became the master of all elementals.

Tefe Holland

The next volume of Swamp Thing came out in 2001 in a series written by Brian Vaughan, and drawn by Roger Peterson and Giuseppe Camuncoli. Instead of focusing on Holland, it instead focuses on his daughter Tefe. When Holland was believed dead the Parliament created a Sprout to form a new protector, but when he was found to be alive the Parliament decided to destroy the Sprout. Holland and Abby wanted the Sprout saved, so Constantine allowed Holland to take over his body to impregnate Abby with the Sprout. Tefe was born as a result - she was half-Elemental and half-human. While her parents hoped she could mend the divide between two worlds, or just lead a regular life, the Parliament wanted to use her to wipe out humanity for destroying the planet. Making things more complicated, Constantine had demon blood flowing through him at the time when Tefe was conceived so she also has demonic blood in her veins making it harder to control her powers. Initially ignorant of her powers and heritage, Tefe lost control at her prom when her boyfriend and best friend attempted to betray her. Her powers resulted in their deaths, and made Tefe go on a journey to find her origins. She eventually meets her father who had lost contact with the Green, and the next volume dealt with their lives in relation to the Green.

Brightest Day

Swamp Thing would not properly return until Brightest Day, but we need to quickly explain Blackest Night. In DC, there are the Lantern Corps representing different emotions connected to colours, and then a new one was introduced - the Black Lanterns of death. A representation of death, Nekron, used Black Lantern rings to resurrect dead heroes and villains in order to wipe out all life in the universe. He was defeated and a new corps was created - the White Lanterns of Life. Brightest Day focuses on the heroes who were fully resurrected by the White Lantern rings, and there was a specific story focusing on Swamp Thing. During the Blackest Night the Green had become corrupted, and now its protector no longer believed that it was Alec Holland; instead it viewed itself as being Nekron and had a new goal of wiping out all life. Constantine, however, enlisted the resurrected heroes to solve the issue. They needed a new Guardian Entity, so they resurrected Holland. Instead of being a mass of plants who thinks that it is Alec Holland, this new Swamp Thing was to be actually Holland. As a result, this new Swamp Thing's last memory was jumping on fire into the swamp. The new Swamp Thing destroyed the corrupted original, and began restoring dead regions of the world to life. Since then he has made a few appearances, but no major ones.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook, or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Eighty Years of Batman

In May 1939 the comic book Detective Comics in issue 27 released a new story featuring a new superhero. A superhero craze had begun in the 1930s, and all comic strips and radio shows were eager to introduce their own heroes. However, Detective Comics #27 would introduce perhaps the most important pop culture icons, never mind comic character, of all time: Batman. Superman is perhaps the only other comic book character to possibly rival Batman's importance in shaping pop culture. Over the last eighty years Batman has gone through many stories, took many forms, and has been adapted many times over. Today we'll look at Batman's creation, and some of the best stories to read to understand the Dark Knight.

Creation

After seeing the success of Superman, a new genre of comics emerged: the superhero comic. Already, DC's predecessor company had given Superman his own comic, but they wanted more. Editor Vin Sullivan had hired two new figures, Bob Kane and Bill Finger, to create a new hero for Detective Comics. As what was regular at the time, Kane and Finger were given great creative control over creating a new hero. Finger recalled that, 'Kane had an idea for a character called 'Batman,' and he'd like me to see the drawings'. Kane had got the idea of 'Batman' from watching the 1930 movie The Bat Whispers. A remake of the 1920 silent movie, The Bat, (the director of The Bat would remake his own movie in The Bat Whispers), featured a bat-themed thief who hid in the shadows. Kane's original design was very reminiscent of Superman, and a bat-wing cape based off of a design by Leonardo da Vinci. Finger would alter the design, being very inspired by fictional characters like Zorro, including giving Batman a cowl. In fact, Finger did most of the work in the creation of Batman - even down to choosing the name 'Bruce Wayne' - but for over fifty years he was largely forgotten. Kane was an aggressive self-promoter, and despite only writing the first issue, for a long time he was credited as Batman's sole 'creator'. It took until 2015 for Finger to be actually credited in a comic for creating Batman! In his debut most of what we recognise as Batman today was fairly limited - most of his backstory was created for the later Detective Comics #33 in November. Now that we've briefly gone over the creation of Batman we can look at some key stories.

Detective Comics #27 and #33

The best way to start with Batman is his first appearances. Little of what we recognise as Batman exists in these early days, but it is interesting to see how he has evolved over the years. His debut opens with a Commissioner Gordon discussing the newly emerged 'Bat-Man' to his socialite friend Bruce Wayne. The bored Wayne joins Gordon to a crime scene - chemical manufacturer Lambert had been killed and his son taken into custody. Bored, Wayne leaves, Lambert's associates start turning up dead, and Gordon is trying to track both the mysterious Bat-Man and the killers. It turns out, one of Lambert's business partners, Alfred Stryker, was planning to buy out the other partners, but grew tired of waiting and decided to kill them all off. Bat-Man confronted Stryker and knocked him into a vat of acid stating that, 'A fitting end for his kind'. The comic ends with Wayne laughing off Gordon's story, and for him to enter another room where, 'his door slowly opens and reveals its occupant... if the commissioner could see his young friend now... He'd be amazed to learn that he is the Bat-Man!'. Most of Batman's recognisable features were absent: no Alfred, the Batmobile is just a regular car, there's no Bat Cave, and even no Gotham! Batman, spelt 'Bat-Man', operated in New York instead. His 'no kill' rule, as you can probably already tell, wouldn't come around till the late-1940s - in his debut he even threw a man off of a building killing him!

Batman become the central character in Detective Comics, and in #33 he got his now famous origin story. The beginning of the comic quickly goes over the Dark Knight's origin. Returning home from the cinema via an alley the young Bruce and his parents, Thomas and Martha, were confronted by a mugger. When trying to steal Martha Wayne's pearls the mugger shot Thomas, and then shot Martha to silence her screams. Days later, the young Bruce makes a vow by candlelight, 'I swear by the spirits of my parents to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals!'. He spent the rest of his life training, but he realised that 'Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts'. Just then, a bat flew through his window giving him his moniker. 

The Joker and the Cat

Batman was so popular that within the year he had gained a sidekick in #38, 'The Sensational character-find of 1940...Robin - the Boy Wonder!', and his own comic. In this comic, Batman #1, two of Batman's major characters debuted: the Joker and Catwoman. Half the stories featured a new villain, based off of Conrad Veidt's character in the German silent movie The Man who Laughs, who was a maniacal clown named the Joker. The Joker would announce his crimes, mostly murder and robbery, and leave his deceased victims with a devilish smile on their face through an unknown poison. At the end of the first story Batman managed to apprehend the Joker, but two days later, in the second story, the Joker escapes to continue his crime spree. It only ends when, during a trap, Batman and the Joker clash where the Joker stabbed himself in the chest, narrowly surviving. Originally, it was intended for the Joker to die - a last minute change of heart by Bill Finger meant that comics' most classic villain could become a cultural icon. Meanwhile, another story, called 'The Cat', dealing with a mysterious woman attempting to steal a $500,000 emerald from a wealthy socialite. Batman managed to capture the Cat, but smitten, he lets her go. Thus started one of the most endearing will-they/won't-they romances in comic history.

The Killing Joke - the Most Controversial Batman Comic

From the mind of Alan Moore, the author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, and drawn by Brian Bolland, 1988's The Killing Joke remains one of the most controversial Batman comics. Alan Moore has even stated that he regrets writing it. The story is split into two. The first, deals with the origins of the Joker. A loving father-to-be and husband an unnamed failure of a stand-up was on the brink of destitution. Desperate to give his emerging family a better life he agreed to take part in an extreme robbery - dressed as a villain 'the Red Hood' he was to distract any police who arrived on the scene. They would assume that he was the mastermind, not the other gang members. However, the day of the robbery his wife had a deadly fall, and the gang made him push on with the robbery regardless. Naturally the robbery went wrong. The police shot the gang members, and the scared Red Hood fell into a vat of chemicals upon seeing Batman. The chemicals bleached his skin and left him with a devilish smile. With all that happened that day it drove him insane, and now the Joker wanted to show that 'one bad day' could drive anyone insane. Arriving at the home of Jim Gordon he knocked out the commissioner and shot Barbara Gordon, who at the time was Batgirl, in the spine paralysing her. Batman tracks the Joker to a carnival where he has had Gordon beaten, tortured, stripped, and forced to look at photos of his abused and shot daughter. However, Gordon was not broken as Joker intended, and the comic ends with Batman finally laughing at one of Joker's jokes. Grant Morrison has suggested that Batman may have even killed the Joker at the end - the last panel makes reference to the joke where one man is implied to die. Although praised for the story and art it has earned controversy for the treatment of Barbara Gordon. She suffers disproportionately compared to the other characters, her abuse became a plot tool, and she remained paralysed for decades. The only redeeming part from this is that Barbara Gordon became a major disabled superhero in the form of Oracle.

Batman: White Knight

This story by Sean Murphy finished just last year, and I would highly recommend getting your hands on it. Set in one of DC's many alternate realities, and heavily inspired by the Tim Burton Batman movies, it features a broken and harsher Batman alienating himself from his allies. Publicly force feeding the Joker pills that the clown said could cure him it transpired that the pills actually worked. A sane Joker, called Jack Napier, planned to run for office and bring Batman to justice for aggressive violence, and we find out there are two Harley Quinns. The original left the Joker thanks to the events of Death in the Family but returned when her love seemed sane. However, Joker's rehabilitation may not be all that it seems, Alfred is close to death, and the second Harley becomes a new Joker. A must read.

A Death in the Family

This story was released the same year as The Killing Joke, but unlike Moore's story it was very much intended to be canon. The second Robin, Jason Todd, had become fairly disliked by fans who saw him as overly moody and whiny - quite ironic considering the later introduction of Damien Wayne as Robin. For 50 cents, DC allowed fans to ring in and answer a simply question: should Jason die? Quite possibly some fans rang many times to rig the competition, but regardless DC got an answer - fans honestly decided to kill a child. In A Death in the Family Jason finally reunited with his mother, only for the Joker to capture them, and he savagely beat Jason with a crowbar. Before Batman could rescue them Joker detonated a bomb killing Robin. The second half went down hill extremely quickly - including an overtly racist plot point towards Arabs and Iranians (a topic I'm hoping to write about one day). One of the most iconic scenes in comics came from the story - Batman holding the broken body of Jason Todd. Later adaptations changed the story to omit the racist ending, and Jason Todd would later be resurrected as the violent vigilante Red Hood.

The Dark Knights Returns

This story is perhaps the most famous comics of all time, and inspired Tim Burton's adaptations, and has been partially adapted into an episode of The Batman, The Dark Knight Rises, and Batman v. Superman, as well as having its own animated adaptation. Expertly written by Frank Miller, and beautifully drawn by Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley, it depicts a bleak and very violent version of Batman. A retired Batman, depressed from the death of Jason Todd (actually written years before A Death in the Family) and being alienated from Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement as Gotham's crime rate explodes. Satirising everything from media sensationalism to Ronald Reagan's Cold War policies a bitter Wayne has to contend with a cannibalistic gang called the Mutants, murderous vigilantes acting in his own name, a murderous returned Joker, and Superman acting on Reagan's orders. It also introduced my favourite version of Robin, and one of the few female Robins, who was inspired by Batman: Carrie Kelley. Every panel of this story has become iconic and has inspired future gritty reboots of other heroes, however, none can compete with this one.

Knightfall

This was also partially adapted into The Dark Knight Rises, Knightfall is a good story, albeit written for the wrong reasons. In the 1990s many comic companies, including DC, almost went bankrupt, and DC hoped to boost sales through big stories. In January 1993 Superman was killed, and in May we got Knightfall. In this story, a new villain named Bane plans to both mentally and physically break Batman. Breaking all of the inmates from Arkham Asylum he lets Batman fight them all, slowly exhausting himself as he went, until Bane finally fought him. Bane then broke Batman's back over his knee paralysing him. Unfortunately, DC ruined a good story. The new Batman was the textbook definition of 'edginess' and was hated. DC resurrected Superman and had Bruce Wayne heal from his paralysis to get more people reading - sadly killing permanency in comics with it.

Batman: Year One

My second favourite Batman comic Year One served as the comic which inspired Batman Begins. Written by Frank Miller, and illustrated by David Mazzuchelli, it depicts a revamped origin for Batman. Jim Gordon tries to fight blatant and rampant corruption in the GCPD, Selina Kyle begins a life of crime, and Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham to begin his career as Batman. There are none of Batman's traditional Rouge's Gallery - no Penguin, Scarecrow, or Riddler. Two-Face is just the normal Harvey Dent, and only at the end of the comic is the Joker mentioned. The villains are instead the GCPD and Gotham's mob. A noir-esque story, realistic, and a great introduction.

The Long Halloween

I've saved the best for last...it's also perhaps the longest story on this list. Written by Jeph Loeb it is set early on in Batman's career. His villains from Year One are angered by the increase in masked or themed criminals like the Penguin, Joker, and Poison Ivy who are edging them out of existence. At a Halloween party a major mobster is killed and a jack-o-lantern is left at the scene. Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Dent have to find the killer - the 'Holiday Killer' as they kill a major member of the mob on holidays - while also dealing with the mob itself, and the rise of the supervillains. At the same time, Harvey's mental health is failing thanks to exhaustion, and his marriage is falling apart. It ends with a new supervillain on the scene... 

Thank you for reading. These are just some of the stories I would recommend reading if you want to become acquainted with the Dark Knight. I haven't mentioned many other fantastic stories including the creepy Court of Owls, the alternate reality steampunk Gotham by Gaslight, and one of my all-time favourite comics, Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum. Batman for eighty years has given comic book fans story after story to love, and has brought himself fully into popular culture. How many other comic heroes can claim to have such a cultural presence than Batman? Only perhaps Superman and Spider-Man. Everyone not acquainted with comics know many of the key details and aspects of his comics. To another eighty years!

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. 

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.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.