Doom Patrol

The Doom Patrol is an idiosyncratic DC Comics superhero team that has been through several incarnations. Created by writers Bob Haney and Arnold Drake, and artist Bruno Premiani, the original Doom Patrol first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80 (April 1963).

The first Doom Patrol consisted of super-powered misfits, whose "gifts" caused them as much alienation and trauma as they did abilities beyond normal human beings. Although superficially similar to the X-Men, who debuted the same year, the Doom Patrol are considered one of the most unique superhero teams of the Silver Age. However, the team failed to find a large audience, and Drake killed them off in 1968.

After their apparent deaths, the team developed a cult following and several subsequent Doom Patrol series were launched. Each of these attempted to utilize the spirit, if not any of the line-up, of the first. The most successful was perhaps the 1989-1992 run by future star writer Grant Morrison. His writing utilized elements of surrealism previously unseen in mainstream American comic books.

Recently, writer/illustrator John Byrne rebooted the series, bringing back the original team without its long-standing continuity. This reboot was both controversial and short-lived, and the Doom Patrol's continuity was restored as a result of DC's Infinite Crisis crossover.

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 fellow writer Bob Haney and artist Bruno Premiani, Drake created the Doom Patrol, a team of superpowered misfits who were regarded as freaks by the world at large.

The original 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.

Some have noted similarities between the Doom Patrol and Marvel Comics' X-Men, who debuted months later and would go on to become the most financially successful franchise in American comic books. Both teams were marketed as strange, considered freaks by the world at large and were mentored by a paraplegic genius (in the X-Men's case Professor X). The writers and artists of both series consider the similarities coincidences.

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.

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 another nine years.

Paul Kupperberg's Doom Patrol

Writer Paul Kupperberg, a longtime Doom Patrol fan, and artist Joe Staton introduced a new team in Showcase #94 (August-September 1977). This team was led by the supposed widow of Niles Caulder who called herself Celsius. This run also revealed the whereabouts of the Negative Spirit, which now possessed Russian cosmonaut Valentina Vostok, making her Negative Woman. Robotman was revealed to have been the only survivor of the explosion that killed his teammates. He briefly wore a new, futuristic robot body, but soon returned to his original look after only two issues. This new version of the team lasted only a few issues before slipping into series of guest appearances in other DC titles, such as DC Comics Presents (teaming up with Superman) and Supergirl. Robotman also appeared as an occasional supporting character in the Marv Wolfman and George Perez era of Teen Titans.

Eclipse Comics also printed a two-issue index (with covers drawn by John Byrne) to the Doom Patrol in 1984, which included all of their appearances from their first to their final appearance before their early 1980s revivial.

This second revival, written by Kupperberg and illustrated by artist Steve Lightle showed a more superheroic version of the Doom Patrol. It included new members Lodestone, Karma, and Scott Fischer. This run was generally disliked by fans. After issue 18, Kupperberg left the series. Grant Morrison was given the task of writing the book.

Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol

After the first 18 issues (and various crossovers and annuals), Kupperberg was replaced by Grant Morrison, starting with issue 19. Kupperberg agreed to help Morrison by writing out characters Morrison didn't want to use. Celsius, Scott Fischer and Karma were killed off before issue #19; the Negative Spirit left Negative Woman's body, and Lodestone plunged into a coma that she would remain in for the first half of Morrison's run on the book. Tempest gave up field work to become the team's physician.

Morrison used DC's Invasion crossover to restart the book, and took the Doom Patrol and superhero comic books in general 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 and artist Richard Case turned the title round and the series quickly gained a cult following, but was derided by some as being incomprehensible.

Over the course of the series issues were dedicated to parody and homages. Issue 53 featured a dream sequence that mimiced 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. Issue 45 parodied Marvel's Punisher in a satire called the Beard Hunter.

Morrison's approach to the book was also notable in that his villains were extremely unusual and strange, even by Doom Patrol's eccentric standards. For example, Red Jack is a near-omnipotent being who thinks he is both Jack the Ripper and God. He lives in a house without windows, torturing butterflies, and cannot materialise in the world. The Brotherhood of Dada are an anarchistic group who fight against reality and reason, featuring members such as Sleepwalk, who can only use her tremendous powers when she's asleep (she takes sleeping pills and listens to Barry Manilow on her headphones before battles) and The Quiz, who literally has "every superpower you hadn't thought of" and a pathological fear of dirt. The Scissormen are a fictional race of beings that attack non-fictional beings in the "real world" (ie., the world the Doom Patrol live in) with the large scissors that they have instead of hands and literally cut people out of reality.

In Morrison's final storyline, it was revealed that the Chief had caused the "accidents" which turned Cliff, Larry Trainor and Rita Farr into freaks with the express intention of creating the Doom Patrol. He also unleashed nanobots into the world, hoping to create a catastrophe which would make the world a stranger and more wonderful place. However, Caulder did not anticipate being decapitated by the Candlemaker.

Rachel Pollack's Doom Patrol

Morrison left the book with issue #63, and was replaced by Rachel Pollack. Pollack's first issue was also the first under the new Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. Returning characters for Rachel Pollack's run were Cliff Steele, Niles Caulder (kept alive by the nanobots, but reduced to a disembodied head, usually kept on a tray filled with ice), and Dorothy Spinner. Newcomers included Coagula (also known as Kate Godwin), a woman with the power to coagulate or dissolve any substance. The series ended after Cliff Steele's brain became all robot, until Dorothy Spinner used her imaginary friends to "repair" it. The Chief would later die after trying to enter the Tree of Life.

Although the run was critically well-received, a new artist, Ted McKeever drew the series for the 13 issues. Many readers complained that McKeever's artwork was poor and generally incomprehensible, and it turned away many long-term readers. Pollack continued writing the title until its cancellation with issue #87, in February 1995.

John Arcudi's Doom Patrol

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

Arcudi's storylines explain what happened to the last team. Dorothy Spinner had a mental breakdown and accidentally killed most of the members of the Kupperberg/Morrison/Pollack run. She fell into a coma, but subconsciously created a new Robotman, who became a part of a new Doom Patrol. This Doom Patrol was a company-owned team for a while before working independently.

The Robotman that Dorothy created faded away when it realized what it actually was, but the other teammates searched for Cliff Steele, who became a member of the Doom Patrol yet again. At the end of the series, Cliff had Dorothy's life support pulled.

John Byrne's Doom Patrol

In August 2004, a new Doom Patrol series was launched after the new team debuted in JLA. The fifth series was written and illustrated by John Byrne, with inks by Doug Hazlewood. Touted as "Together again for the first time!", Byrne rebooted the series, eliminating the continuity that dated back to the Silver Age.

This also retroactively eliminated Beast Boy's origins and numerous important Doom Patrol appearances, including the reunion of Beast Boy and Robotman in the 1980s Teen Titans and the team's important role in JLA: Year One. It also angered some of Morrison's fans, but DC editors argued that the team's classic line-up should be supported, especially since attempts to continue the current continuity were unsuccessful. Byrne's series was cancelled with issue 18.

Infinite Crisis and One Year Later

DC editorial turned to their mega-crossover, Infinite Crisis, to restore the Doom Patrol's continuity. In escaping from the paradise dimension they had inhabited since the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superboy-Prime and Alexander Luthor created temporal ripples which spread throughout reality, altering certain events, such as restoring Jason Todd to life.

While assisting the Teen Titans in battling Superboy-Prime, members of the Doom Patrol had flashbacks to their original history. Robotman and Niles Caulder regained memories of the previous Doom Patrol teams they were a part of. This battle apparently undid some of Superboy-Prime's timeline changes, and resulted in a timeline incorporating all previous incarnations of the Doom Patrol, but with Rita Farr and Larry Trainor still alive. In Teen Titans #36, the Chief says that Rita was indeed blown up in Zahl's explosion, but was not actually killed; the Chief later found her skull and treated it with synthetic proteins until she was able to regrow her malleable body.

Steve Dayton is once again using the Mento helmet and 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. It seems that Mento is taking over that role.

Another twist is that while fighting the Titans and the Doom Patrol, the Brain claimed that he had been the Chief's lab assistant, his body destroyed in an explosion Caulder caused and that he was to be Robotman.

The whereabouts of Nudge, Grunt, and Vortex have yet to be revealed.

Members of Doom Patrol

Doom Patrol's team roster has changed a great deal over the years. Here's a list of the team members during the Patrol's various incarnations:

Original roster

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 gained the ability 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. He could now release and control a silhouette form he called Negative Man. Negative Man, who could fly and pass through matter, could only remain out of Trainor's body for one 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 super-strong robotic body that was resilient to harm.
Mento: Steve Dayton, one of the world's richest men, built a helmet to enhance his mental abilities. Calling himself Mento, Dayton adopted this identity to impress Elasti-Girl, with whom he had fallen in love. His plans were successful, and in Doom Patrol #104 (June 1966), Mento and Elasti-Girl were married. Steve was never actually an official member, but some time in the future he would join the team.
Beast Boy: Garfield Logan contracted the deadly Sakutia virus, and his two scientist parents cured him. However, the cure had turned his skin and hair green and gave him the ability to transform into any animal he wanted. His parents died in a river-rafting accident over a waterfall, leaving Gar to be adopted by a cruel guardian. The Doom Patrol saved him and he was adopted by Rita and Steve Dayton. In the process he became the team's mascot and a part-time member. He would later go on to join the Teen Titans after changing his name to Changeling.

Team roster: Showcase Doom Patrol

These members were introduced during the Showcase run on the Doom Patrol:

Celsius: Arani Desai Caulder claimed to be Niles Caulder's wife and possessed the ability to generate blasts of hot or cold energy. She organized the new Doom Patrol. In the next series she had a reoccurring suspicion that her late ex-husband was alive and believed that Negative Woman had some idea where he was.

Tempest: Joshua Clay was a mutant who could fire powerful blasts from his hands. This ability could be used offensively and also enabled Clay to fly. At the start of Kupperberg's second run, Joshua was blackmailed by Celsius to rejoin the team after he graduated from medical school under a false name.

Negative Woman: Negative Man released the Negative Energy spirit just before his death. The spirit formed a protective cocoon, which was destroyed when pilot Valentina Vostok crashed into it. The being entered Vostok's body and she became its new host, becoming Negative Woman. Her powers were otherwise identical to Negative Man's, except she could speak in her energy form. She had some idea about the whereabouts of Niles Caulder.

Team roster: Kupperberg Run

These members joined during the first 18 issues of the Doom Patrol's next run, along with Kupperberg's characters from Showcase.

Lodestone: Rhea Jones was caught in an explosion involving an electromagnet. The blast killed her father but gave her electromagnetic abilities. She ran away and joined a circus. She was found by the Doom Patrol and became a member.

Scott Fischer: Scott possessed a burning touch. He joined the team so that Celsius could teach him to control his powers.

Karma: Wayne Hawkings was a mutant born with a power to disrupt the mental processes of people attacking him so they could not touch him -- punches would miss in what seemed to be accidents, such as the attacker slipping or tripping. However, his power only protected him from attackers who had brains; a collapsing building or a stray bullet could still kill him. He joined the Doom Patrol, but fled when they discovered that he was a wanted man.

Team roster: The Morrison/Pollack run

New additions to the team during Morrison's and Pollack's runs were:

Crazy Jane (Kay Challis): A former mental patient suffering from dissociative identity disorder, where each identity had a unique set of superpowers. During the Candlemaker story arc Jane was thrown into an alternate reality, where she was placed into a mental hospital and subjected to shock therapy before being saved by Cliff. At the start of the Pollack run Jane remained on Danny the World, where she still lives.

Rebis: An androgynous character comprised, in part, of former Doom Patrol member Larry Trainor (Negative Man), his physician Eleanor Poole, and the Negative Spirit, or Anegima Regis. Rebis spoke of hirself in the form of "we," and possessed a vast mental capacity and powerful mental abilities, being able to transfer minds and read energy signatures. They went through their reproduction cycle before being killed by the Candlemaker, thus producing a new Rebis, who now works for Checkmate.

Dorothy Spinner: Dorothy was a young girl raised in isolation, due to having the facial appearance of an ape. She kept herself company with imaginary friends, whom she could bring to life. However, not having had any real friends left her in a frail state. After joining the Doom Patrol she accidentally lost control of her powers and brought the Candlemaker to life. After that incident the Chief started to teach her how to control her abilities.

Danny the Street: Now Danny the World, he was created by Brendan McCarthy and named after drag queen Danny La Rue). Danny is a sentient, transvestite boulevard, typically illustrated through the presence of pink curtains on, for example, hardware stores or gun shops. Danny was the leftovers of an alternate dimension wiped out before he expanded to become a new world. Crazy Jane is now one of his residents. One of Danny's denizens was the The Man of Muscle Mystery, Flex Mentallo.

Rhea Jones/Lodestone/The Pupa: Rhea would awake from her coma during the Orthodoxy/Geomancers storyline, when it turned out her coma was actually a form of metamorphosis. After she awoke she turned into a magnetic butterfly. Her face was bare and her eyes were now on her chest and back. She was actually a weapon sought out by the aliens and her given title was the Pupa. After ending their war, she flew off into space.

Niles Caulder/The Chief/The Head: It was revealed that Niles Caulder had been responsible for the accidents that caused the original Doom Patrol. After his secret was revealed, he killed Josh Clay and tried to cover the world in nanotech. However, he was decapitated by the Candlemaker and then reduced to being a severed head in a tray of ice, fed with milkshakes. He felt remorse for what he did to the Doom Patrol, and tried to rectify his mistakes. He died trying to enter the Tree of Life.

Coagula: Kate Goodwin, formerly Clark Goodwin, was a transsexual woman who worked as a prostitute. One of her clients was Rebis, and after having sex with them she gained the ability to coagulate and/or dissolve anything with her touch. She later started a relationship with Cliff. Kate was both one of the first transsexual and bisexual superheroes. She became a member during the Pollack run of the Doom Patrol.

Team roster: Arcudi's run

Robotman III: A psychic construct created by Dorothy Spinner's mind. He faded away after realizing what he was.
Robotman II (Cliff Steele): He was found by members of the new team after the psychic construct away.
Fast Forward/Negative Man II (Ted Bruder): He could see sixty seconds into the future. He was nicknamed Negative Man II because of his pessimistic attitude.
Kid Slick (Vic Darge): He could create frictionless force fields.
Fever (Shyleen Lao): She had power over heat transfer and fire, giving her a burning touch similar to that of Scott Fischer's. Like Scott, she couldn't control her ability, so she wore special gloves.
Ava (formerly Freak): She hosted a tentacled monster of some kind and could control her hair as a weapon. She dropped the alias Freak after a while.

Team roster: Byrne's run

In this most recent series, the Chief, Elasti-Girl, Robotman, and Negative Man were joined by four new members:

Grunt, a four-armed gorilla.
Nudge (Mi-Sun Kwan), a teenage girl with telepathic powers and shares a bond with Grunt.
Vortex, a being of pure energy from an alternate world.
Faith, a former JLA member whose abilities include flight, command of powerful energy, and the ability to inspire trust in those around her.

Team roster: Current

In the latter half of the year following the events of Infinite Crisis, Beast Boy returned to the Doom Patrol, which relocated to the Dayton Manor in Prague. As of their revelation in Titans #34 and #36, the current roster appears to be the original grouping of the Chief, Elasti-Girl, Robotman, Mento, Negative Man and Beast Boy. They were joined by two new members:

Bumblebee (Karen Breecher-Duncan)
Vox (Mal Duncan)

Trade paperbacks

The first part of Morrison's run has been compiled into four Vertigo trade paperback editions:

Crawling from the Wreckage (collects Doom Patrol #19-25, 2000 ISBN 1563890348)
The Painting That Ate Paris (collects Doom Patrol #26-34, 2004 ISBN 1401203426)
Down Paradise Way (collects Doom Patrol #35-41, 2005 ISBN 140120726X)
Musclebound (collects Doom Patrol #42-50, August 2006 ISBN 1401209998)

Other media

On the Teen Titans animated series, the Doom Patrol made an appearance in the two-part episode "Homecoming", the season five premiere. Featuring Negative Man (Judge Reinhold), Robotman (Peter Onarati), Mento (Xander Berkeley), and Elasti-Girl (Tara Strong), this Doom Patrol was captured by the Brotherhood of Evil, with only Robotman free to save his comrades. After Robotman successfully sought out former Doom Patroller Beast Boy, he and the Teen Titans teamed up to rescue the Doom Patrol. In flashbacks to Beast Boy's Doom Patrol days, it is clear that Mento and Elasti-Girl play parental roles toward the young masked hero. When Beast Boy has to make the choice to defeat the Brotherhood of Evil or save his friends in both teams, he elects to save his friends, a decision denounced by Mento and lauded by the Titans.

The Chief is absent in the series. Mento acts as the team leader.

Throughout the fifth season of Teen Titans, the team faces the menace of the Brotherhood, who wish to destroy all of the world's young heroes. The Titans gather these heroes, issuing each a Titans comunicator and membership on the team. Finally, in a climactic battle, the Titans all work together and defeat the Brotherhood of Evil.

Trivia

Dayton Manor

Now that the team fully remembers its past, they've collected artifacts of the former Doom Patrols and their histories in the Dayton Manor, including:

Portraits of Dorothy Spinner, Crazy Jane, and Fever.
The Quiz's filtered gown/gas mask.
A portrait of Mister Nobody.
A portal into Danny the World.
The Painting that Ate Paris, now a mural, hides the door to the Chief's operating room.
A statue of someone resembling Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man.
A ballroom that exhibits odd weather patterns.
A greenhouse with at least one talking lemon tree.

References

'San Diego Comicon 2005: Teen Titans Behind The Scenes', Titans Tower (July 19 2005). Retrieved July 27 2005.

External links

DC Comics superhero teams | DC Comics titles | Vertigo titles | Teen Titans animated series characters

Doom Patrol | Patrulha do Destino

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