Doom Patrol

The Doom Patrol is a name that has been used by five semi-related DC Comics superhero teams.

Contents

1 The original Doom Patrol 2 The new Doom Patrol 3 The Morrison Doom Patrol 4 Other Doom Patrol revivals 5 External Links

The original Doom Patrol

The Doom Patrol first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80, June 1963. My Greatest Adventure, a supernatural anthology title, was being converted to a superhero format. Writer Arnold Drake was assigned the task of creating a team that fit both formats. With the help of writer Bob Haney, Drake created the Doom Patrol, a team of superpowered misfits who were regarded as freaks by the world at large. The initial membership of the Doom Patrol consisted of:

• The Chief: Dr. Niles Caulder was a paraplegic gifted with a genius-level intellect. Caulder used his scientific knowledge to develop numerous inventions and innovations that made him wealthy. It was Caulder who organized the Doom Patrol to protect the innocent and fight crime.
• Elasti-Girl: Rita Farr was an actress who was exposed to unusual volcanic gases while shooting a film in Africa. When Farr recovered, she discovered that she could grow or shrink her body from roughly 1 inch to 100 feet tall. Elasti-Girl later enhanced her powers to enlarge one limb at a time.
• Negative Man: Larry Trainor was a pilot who flew an experimental plane high into the Earth's atmosphere. Trainor was buffeted by unexpected cosmic radiation, and when he landed, he discovered that his body had become radioactive. Trainor was also able to release and control a silhouette form he called Negative Man from his body. Negative Man, who could fly and pass through matter, could only remain out of Trainor's body for 1 minute at a time. Caulder developed special bandages that masked Trainor's radiation and allowed him to freely interact with others.
• Robotman: Cliff Steele was a world-famous athlete who was nearly killed in a car crash during a race. Caulder successfully transferred Steele's brain into a robotic body that was resilient to harm and which possessed super-strength.

The initial Doom Patrol, bitter from being isolated from the world, were motivated by Caulder to use their powers for the greater good. The series was a success, and with issue 86, My Greatest Adventure was officially retitled The Doom Patrol.

The Doom Patrol's rogues gallery matched the strange, weird tone of the series. Villains included the immortal General Immortus, the shapeshifting Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, and the Brotherhood of Evil, which was led by the Brain, an actual brain that was kept alive by technology. The Brotherhood of Evil also included the intelligent gorilla Monsieur Mallah and Madame Rouge, a shapeshifter.

The Doom Patrol would acquire 2 asoociate members over time. Steve Dayton, one of the world's richest men, built a helmet to enhance his mental abilities. Calling himself Mento, Dayton adopted the Mento identity to impress Elasti-Girl, whom he had fallen in love with. His plans were successful, and in Doom Patrol #104 (June 1966), Mento and Elasti-Girl were married. They soon adopted Garfield Logan, an orphaned boy who possessed the power to change form into any animal. Calling himself Beast Boy, Logan joined the Doom Patrol on a part-time basis. Mento never officially joined the Doom Patrol, but would assist the team on several occasions.

When the book's popularity waned and the book was canceled, Drake ended the series in a dramatic manner-he killed the Doom Patrol. In Doom Patrol #121 (September-October 1968), the Doom Patrol sacrificed their lives to save a small fishing village in Maine. Artist Bruno Premiani and editor Murray Boltinoff appeared at the beginning and the end of the story, asking fans to write to DC to resurrect the Doom Patrol. Despite the efforts of the creators, a Doom Patrol revival did not occur for 9 years.

While the basic concept is similar to X-Men, the teams debuted within three months of each other and the similarities are probably coincidence.

The new Doom Patrol

In Showcase #94 (August-September 1977), a new Doom Patrol was introduced. Robotman was revealed to have been the only survivor of the explosion that killed his teammates, and he soon joined a new Doom Patrol, which included the following:

• Celsius: Arani Desai Caulder, who claimed to be Niles Caulder's wife, possessed the ability to generate blasts of hot or cold energy. It was Celsius who organized the new Doom Patrol.
• Tempest: Joshua Clay was a mutant who could fire powerful blasts from his hands. Clay used this ability to fly, as well as for offensive uses.
• Negative Woman: It was later revealed that Negative Man released his energy form just before his death. The being formed a protective cocoon, which was destroyed when pilot Valentina Vostok crashed into the cocoon. The freed being entered Vostok's body, and she became the host for Negative Woman. Her powers were the same as Negative Man, although Negative Woman could speak in her energy form, unlike her predecessor.

Robotman briefly wore a new, futuristic robot body, but soon returned to his original look. The new Doom Patrol proved unpopular, and only appeared in a handful of stories in the 1980s.

The Morrison Doom Patrol

In the late 1980s, another revival was attempted, beginning with longtime writer Paul Kupperberg. After 18 issues, Kupperberg was replaced by Grant Morrison, who took the Doom Patrol and superhero comic books to places they'd rarely been, incorporating bizarre secret societies, elements of Dada, surrealism, and the cut-up technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin; the ideas of Jorge Luis Borges were also borrowed. Morrison's innovative run gained a cult following, but was derided by others as incomprehensible. Controversially, it also introduced the concept that Caulder was directly responsible for the accidents which mutilated Farr, Trainor, and Steele. A few issues were dedicated to parody and homages, one issue featuring a dream sequence that mimics the Stan Lee / Jack Kirby Fantastic Four, specifically the Galactus storyline. Another special called Doom Force was released as a one-shot, and was meant to mimic the X-Force book by Rob Liefeld.

Joining Robotman (who, by this point, preferred to called by his real name, Cliff Steele) and Niles Caulder were Crazy Jane (a.k.a. Kay Challis), a former mental patient suffering from dissociative identity disorder, where each identity had a unique set of superpowers, and Rebis, a hermaphroditic being comprised, in part, of former Doom Patrol member Negative Man. Also returning to the team was Joshua Clay (formerly Tempest), who had given up superheroics to serve as the team's official physician. Rounding out the regular cast was young Dorothy Spinner, a disfigured girl who had the ability to create physical manifestations of beings from her imagination, and Danny the Street a sentient, transvestite boulevard (which was typically illustrated through the presence of pink curtains on, for example, hardware stores).

During Morrison's tenure on the title, the Vertigo imprint was launched, and this title was one of six transferred by DC to the new imprint for publication.

Morrison left after four years, and was replaced by Rachel Pollack. Returning for Rachel Pollack's run were Cliff Steele, Niles Caulder (now reduced to a disembodied head, usually kept on a tray filled with ice), and Dorothy Spinner. Newcomers included Coagula (a.k.a. Kate Godwin), a woman with the power to coagulate or dissolve any substance. Pollack continued with the title until its cancellation with issue #87 in February 1995.

The first sixteen isues of Morrison's run have been compiled into two Vertigo trade editions: Doom Patrol Volume 1: Crawling from the Wreckage and Doom Patrol Volume 2: The Painting That Ate Paris.

Other Doom Patrol revivals

In December 2001, a fourth Doom Patrol title was launched by writer John Arcudi and artist Tan Eng Huat. The series, in which Robotman led a team of new, young heroes, lasted only 22 issues. The launch of this series also saw the reversion of the publication of the title, from the Vertigo imprint back to DC Comics.

In August 2004, a new Doom Patrol series was launched, written and illustrated by John Byrne, with inks by Doug Hazlewood. Touted as "Together again for the first time!", Byrne generated controversy among longtime Doom Patrol fans by rebooting the series, eliminating the continuity that dated back to the Silver Age. This angered some of Morrison's fans, but the argument supported by DC was that the classic line-up should be supported, especially since attempts to continue the current continuity were unsuccessful.

In the current series, the Chief, Elasti-Girl, Robotman, and Negative Man are joined by three new members: Grunt, a four-armed gorilla; Nudge, a teenage girl with telepathic powers who shares a bond with Grunt; and Vortex, an energy being. The new team was introduced in the pages of JLA.

External Links

• DC Cosmic Teams: Doom Patrol (http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/cosmic/index.html)
• Grand Comics Database: Doom Patrol Appearances (http://www.comics.org/search.lasso?type=character&query=Doom+Patrol&sort=chrono&Submit=Search)it:Doom Patrol