Doom Patrol

An aging wheelchair bound scientist known only as the Chief gathers together three super-powered outcasts: Robotman, Elasti-Girl and Negative Man to use their powers for the greater good as The Doom Patrol.

Place of Formation

Midway City

Creators

Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani, Murray Boltinoff, Bob Haney

First appearance

My Greatest Adventure #80
(June, 1963)

History

First Incarnation

Origin

An aging wheelchair bound mad scientist known as the Chief (Niles Caulder), gathers together three super-powered outcasts: Robotman, Elasti-Girl and Negative Man. As the heroes greet one another, they learn of the personal circumstances that brought them all together.

Rita Farr was a Hollywood starlet, and Olympic level swimmer. During filming of one of her movies, Rita was exposed to strange vapors that granted he the ability to alter her size at will. Her career in ruins, due to her mutation, she now fights alongside the Doom Patrol as Elasti-Girl.

Larry Trainor was once a civilian test pilot – until the fateful day when he flew an experimental suborbital aircraft into a stratospheric belt of radiation. Now he exists as a living mummy, forced to wear special bandages to contain the radiation that has disfigured his body. As a side effect of the incident, Larry can now summon a dark energy being from his body, which he calls the Negative Man.

Robotman was once Cliff Steele, an international sportsman and daredevil whose body was burned to a cinder after a deadly racecar crash. The Chief’s scientific genius transferred Steele’s brain into a new robot body.

The Chief motivated the original Doom Patrol, bitter from being isolated from the world, to use their powers for the greater good.

Death

Madame Rouge embarks upon an ambitious plot to avenge herself against the Doom Patrol. First though, she decides to send the Doom Patrol a message by destroying her old colleagues the Brotherhood of Evil. Rouge and her henchmen bomb the lair of the Brain and Monsieur Mallah, seemingly killing them both.

Rouge teams up with a former Nazi U-boat commander named Captain Zahl. Zahl and Rouge pilot their submarine to the island. Zahl blames Niles Caulder for his disability and wants to kill him, but Rouge wants the Doom Patrol left alive so they can continue to suffer unending humiliation. Zahl launches several weapons designed to counter each of the Doom Patrol members' special abilities. He then tells them that he has planted a bomb in a small fishing village in Maine named Codsville, population: 14. He has a second bomb ready to destroy the Doom Patrol's island. He leaves it to the Doom Patrol to decide which bomb he shall detonate – confident that they will elect to save their own lives rather than that of fourteen strangers. Surprisingly, the Doom Patrol decide to sacrifice themselves rather than risk the deaths of the people of Codsville. Zahl pushes the plunger and the island explodes, killing the Doom Patrol.

Second Incarnation

Mere months after their seeming demise, Robotman washes up on a beach in the Caribbean where he is found, rescued, and repaired by Doc Magnus. Returning to the DP's old HQ where he finds (and briefly fights) a group of people calling themselves the Doom Patrol -- Celsius, Tempest, and Negative Woman.

Doom Patrol II

They reveal that General Immortus is seeking a new immortality formula developed by Niles Caulder. Immortus attacks, eventually disabling them is a a powerful noxious gas.

Immortus tries to take the immortality serum formula from the mind of Celsius. using his Psycho-Probe he learns of her history with Niles Caulder (The Chief). While working for the Red Cross in India, Caluder treated Arani, fell in love, but was unable to take her with him to the United States. Leaving her with a religious sect, she eventually discovered her powers.

Eventually Caulder returned to India. Immortus had, his identity unknown to Caulder, supplied him wiht unlimited funds to research and develop the serum. Caulder, wary of unleashing such a serum on the world until his mysterious benefactor is revealed, makes it a wedding gift to Arani.

Negative Woman Goes Berserk!

Superman prevents a New Jersey power plant from overloading and causing a statewide blackout. After rescuing the plant workers, he notices the cause of the overload, a black energy shape in the form of a woman. The shape flies off before Superman can catch it.

Adding to the chaos, the black energy being also appears in Metropolis and begins wreaking havoc. Clark changes into Superman and begins chasing the entity all throughout the city. While doing so, he encounters the new Doom Patrol who explains to him that the energy being is actually their ally, Valentina Vostok. Robotman tells him that Vostok has absorbed the Negative being that was once a part of his late colleague Larry Trainor. Unfortunately, fusing with the entity has driven Negative Woman berserk.

Superman and the Doom Patrol attempt to contain Negative Woman. Valentina Vostok's condition stabilizes, but she laments the fact that she must wear specially treated bandages or else risk losing control of herself once again.

Post-Crisis-Pre-Infinite Crisis

Celsius is killed during the Invasion! event.

Post-Infinite Crisis

During a battle with Superboy_Prime, Speedy fires a special Phantom Zone arrow (that she acquired from Arsenal) at Superboy. As the missile strikes him, Superboy is thrust into the Phantom Zone. However, his super-strength is sufficient for him to break free. This causes reality to change again, where the Doom Patrol remember their previous adventures, Elasti-Girl's death, and Beast Boy's time on the team. The former hero goes berserk and begins slaughtering heroes.

Steve Dayton is again using the Mento helmet and he is mentally unstable; however, he remembers his time as the Crimelord. The Chief appears to be manipulating the Doom Patrol members once again; he claims to wish to return them to normal, so "maybe one day [they] won't be freaks anymore." After the Doom Patrol encounters the Titans, the Chief tells them that Kid Devil should be a member of the Doom Patrol instead of the Titans, since his unique appearance and nature will always separate him from others. However, Beast Boy, Elasti-Girl and Mento all stood up to the Chief and forced him to step down as the Doom Patrol's leader, with Mento taking over that role. Recently, while fighting the Titans and the Doom Patrol, the Brain claimed that he had been the Chief's lab assistant, that his body had been destroyed in an explosion Caulder caused, and that he was to have been the original Robotman.

Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.

Notes

No special notes.

Trivia

No trivia.

Publication History

Origins and X-Men

The first appearance of the Doom Patrol pre-dated that of the X-Men by a scant three months. The vague similarity in concept (group of misfits led by a mysterious wheel-chair bound genius, and similarly named enemies (Brotherhood of Evil and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants)) has led to speculation as to the relation between them, if any.

According to Comic Coverage: Which Came First: The Mutant or The Freak?, creator Arnold Drake felt:

"...I’ve become more and more convinced that (Stan Lee) knowingly stole The X-Men from The Doom Patrol. Over the years I learned that an awful lot of writers and artists were working surreptitiously between (Marvel and DC). Therefore from when I first brought the idea into (DC editor) Murray Boltinoff’s office, it would’ve been easy for someone to walk over and hear that (I was) working on a story about a bunch of reluctant superheroes who are led by a man in a wheelchair. So over the years I began to feel that Stan had more lead time than I realized. He may well have had four, five or even six months."

My Greatest Adventure and Doom Patrol Vol 1 1963-1968 (Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, Bruno Premiani)

The group debuted in My Greatest Adventure #80 in 1963. By issue #86, the title was renamed Doom Patrol and lasted until #124. Issues 122-124 were reprints, the team having been killed off in #121. Both Murray Boltinoff and Bruno Premiani appear in the final tale, saying that only the readers can save the Patrol from their fate.

Doom Patrol Vol 2 1987-1995 (Grant Morrison)

Doom Patrol (Volume 2) began publication in 1987 and continued until 1995 spanning a total of 87 issues, 2 annuals and a collaborative special edition (with the Suicide Squad). For the first 18 issues, the series writers crafted the book in the style of a traditional super-hero comic. With issue #19, writer Grant Morrison further developed the team in an effort to expand upon their reputation as "misfits". New characters were added and the overall dynamic of the book evolved, encompassing a more mature and esoteric tone. With issue #64, the Doom Patrol became part of the Vertigo family of titles and remained as such until its cancellation.

Doom Patrol Vol 3 2001-2003

Doom Patrol (Volume 3) was published from December of 2001 until September of 2003. The team was revived with a completely new cast of characters and a slightly altered version of the classic Robotman character.

Doom Patrol Vol 4 2004-2006 (John Byrne)

This series, written and illustrated by John Byrne ignored previous continuity and introduced some new characters.

Byrne's Doom Patrol

In an interview at UGO Byrne discusses the changes:

UGO: The initial press releases about Doom Patrol created a lot of angry responses because you were sidestepping established continuity. When you were doing Fantastic Four for Marvel, you could create a story around an obscure character or continuity point, but with Superman you began to move away from continuity. What's made you move in that direction? And what draws you to a group of characters like Doom Patrol if you strip away their history?

JOHN: Doom Patrol and Superman are the only titles, out of dozens I have worked on, that I have "rebooted." This is not my first choice. In fact, in both cases, the suggestion came from the editorial level. Dick Giordano wanted me to start Superman from scratch, and it was Mike who first invoked the words "Man of Steel" in reference to the Doom Patrol. Stripping away history is never the goal, in any case. Digging down and finding history that has often been buried or lost is more the issue. Doom Patrol, for instance, had drifted far, far, far from its roots. If the object was to get back to them, we reasoned, we could spend six issues undoing a lot of what had gone before, or we could spare potential new readers all that and just hit "rewind." So we end up with the book I am doing, which has much more in common with the Drake/Premiani version that what followed.

Doom Patrol Vol 5 2009- Present (Keith Giffen)

Series debuts August 5, 2009.

Keith Giffen discusses his approach on the new series at Newsarama:

The Doom Patrol are heroes in spite of themselves. They're heroes who gained their powers through tragic circumstances. They do not look at themselves as superheroes. They view themselves as freaks and outcasts. They're the ultimate superhero dysfunctional family. They didn't make the leap from, OK, I've got these powers so I'm going to be a superhero. They were kind of forced into making that leap. One of the hardest things for me is always to make that jump from, OK, Tim you've got superpowers and you can fly, so now you're going to spend all your time fighting crime. I wouldn't be out there fighting crime if I could fly. I'd be making millions, making personal appearances around the country. I'd do the Spider-Man route, or I might stop the burglar, but then I'd soak in the limelight.

I'm just going to keep using new characters as much as I can. I'm not going to be the guy who just pages through the DC Encyclopedia and chooses a villain of the month. I want the character to have some kind of resonance with the Doom Patrol.

Alternate Media

Teen Titans

Season 5 of Teen Titans focuses on Beast Boy a great deal, as it deals with his history as a member of the animated series' incarnation of the Doom Patrol. Until "Homecoming", in which his former teammates make a guest appearance, Beast Boy was the only member of the Doom Patrol to appear on the show. In the second episode of the fifth season, Beast Boy becomes the first male Titan in the series to be explicitly referred to by his real name (Garfield). In "Titans Together", Beast Boy leads Herald, Jericho, Pantha, and Más on an assault on the Brotherhood of Evil. He remains the leader even after other Titans such as Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven join the fight, and only stands down from leadership when Robin is thawed.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Batman: The Brave and The Bold Vol 1 7: TBD

Links and References

External Links

Unca Cheeks' Fabulous Freaks article on the Doom Patrol (Part One)
Gloom and Doom article on the Doom Patrol at Comics101
Hall of Justice: The Doom Patrol by Alan Kistler, at Fanzing (1999)
Comic Coverage: Which Came First: The Mutant or The Freak?
Doom Patrol at Wikipedia.org

Footnotes