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


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 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 initial membership of the Doom Patrol consisted of:

  • ''' 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.

  • '''. 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 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 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 two associate 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, with whom he had fallen in love. 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 another nine years.


NEW DOOM PATROL

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Writer Paul Kupperberg (a longtime Doom Patrol fan), and artist Joe Staton introduced a new team in '' Showcase '' #94 (August-September 1977). Robotman was revealed to have been the only survivor of the explosion that killed his teammates in the last issue of the orginal series. On his return 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 after only two issues. This new version of the team lasted only a few issues in ''Showcase'' 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 late 1980s revivial.


MORRISON DOOM PATROL

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In the late 1980s, Kupperberg attempted another revival of the title, this time with artist Steve Lightle . This run was generally panned by readers, many of whom wrote disparaging letters printed in the series' letters page, an overwhelmingly negative reaction rarely seen in such a venue. After 18 issues (and various crossovers and annuals), Kupperberg was replaced by Grant Morrison starting with issue 19. Members of the Kupperberg run were Robotman, Celsius, Negative Woman, Tempest, and new members Lodestone (Rhea Jones), a woman with electromagnetic powers, '''Scott Fischer''', who had the burning touch, and '''Karma''', who could cause bad luck. Celsius, Scott Fischer, and Karma were killed off before issue #19, with additionally the Negative Spirit leaving Negative Woman and Lodestone plunging into a coma that she would remain in for the first half of Morrison's run on the book.

Morrison used DC's '' Invasion '' crossover to start again (Kupperberg had agreed to help Morrison by writing out characters he didn't want to use) and 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 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 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 . Issue 45 parodies Marvel's Punisher in a satire called the Beard Hunter.

Morrison's Doom Patrol featured enemies and curiosities such as:
  • Red Jack: a near-omnipotent being who thinks he is both Jack The Ripper and God and lives in a house without windows, torturing butterflies. Without pain he is unable to materialise in the world. Red Jack was based on Peter O'Toole's character Jack Gurney from the 1972 Film The Ruling Class , a movie which Morrison has expressed his love for. Jack tried to marry Rhea Jones even though she was in a coma.

  • The Brotherhood of Dada, a group which fights against reason and reality. They were led by '''Mr. Nobody''', a surrealist supervillain. The Brotherhood's members were '''The Fog''', a man who turns into a psychedelic death cloud and could absorb people, '''The Quiz''', a Japanese woman with every superpower you haven't thought of and a fear of dirt, '''Frenzy''', an illiterate black man who could turn into a cyclone, and '''Sleepwalk''', a British girl with immense power but only when she is asleep. The latter four gained their powers from the Gene Bomb.

  • The Scissormen, beings from a living Fairy Tale city called Orqwith who cut their enemies out of reality.

  • The Cult of the Unwritten Book. This huge, fanatical, quasi-gnostical cult is centered in the ghost of a German town, and intends to summon the '''Decreator''' (The equal and opposite of God, which appears as a huge eye).

  • The Painting that Ate Paris, a living painting that the Brotherhood of Dada used to absorb Paris. Each level in the painting is based on a different type of artistic genre such as symbolism, photorealism, and futurism.

  • The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse was trapped inside the Painting that Ate Paris, but was awakened when the Brotherhood entered it. They destroyed it by sending it into the Dada section of the Painting. It is said that it's name is Extinction. It drew it's power from the levels of the painting and took on a different appearnce as it moved through it.

  • The warring alien Geomancers and '''Orthodoxy'''.

  • The Beard Hunter, a psychotic hitman with a preference for murdering bearded men.

  • Mr. Jones, a deranged, escaped Pentagon agent, and the ''Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.'', his surreal normalizing force.

  • The New Brotherhood of Dada was created after the original Brotherhood was trapped inside the Painting that Ate Paris. Mr. Nobody once again led the group, after escaping the painting, and this team consisted of even stranger villains such as '''Agent "!"''', who can blend into any crowd, '''Alias the Blur''', the ghost of a mirror who eats time, '''Number None''', every little thing that goes wrong in your day which can occupy anything, '''the Love Glove''' (Bobby Carmichael), a wannabe loser stuck in the sixties whose power depends on what kind of glove he wears, and '''the Toy'''. Mr. Nobody's goal was to free his partners who were still in the painting by holding a rally to where everyone would combine their will of mind to try and break the painting's barrier. It was destroyed, along with the Brotherhood except for the Toy who was delayed from the meeting.

  • The Candlemaker, an ancient demon who came into the world through Dorothy Spinner's power to bring imagniary beings to life when he invaded her mind when she was a child. He first became a physical manifestation when Dorothy wished a boy who bullied her was dead. He killed the boy, but Dorothy blocked him back in her mind until he escaped while she was with the Doom Patrol.

    • .]]

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 character 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''', (created by Brendan McCarthy and named after Drag Queen Danny La Rue ) a sentient, Transvestite boulevard (which was typically illustrated through the presence of pink curtains on, for example, Hardware Store s).

Morrison left with issue 63, and was replaced in issue 64 by Rachel Pollack as writer. 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 (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. Although the run was critically well-received, many readers complained that Pollack's style was hard to follow and sales decreased, Pollack continued writing the title until its cancellation with issue #87 in February 1995.

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

  • ''Doom Patrol Volume 1: Crawling from the Wreckage'' (issues #19-25).


  • ''Doom Patrol Volume 2: The Painting That Ate Paris'' (#26-34).


  • ''Doom Patrol Volume 3: Down Paradise Way'' (#35-41).



FOURTH 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, in which Robotman led a team of new, young heroes, lasted only 22 issues. The new members include:

  • Fast Forward/Negative Man II (Ted Bruder), can see sixty seconds into the future.

  • Kid Slick (Vic Darge), can create frictionless forcefields.

  • Fever (Shyleen Lao), has power over heat transfer and fire.

  • Ava (who initially had the alias of 'Freak', but quickly abandoned it), hosts a tentacled monster of some kind.


The book also exposed the fate of the surviving Morrison/Pollack Doom Patrol members, who were killed in an explosion caused by an angry Dorothy Spinner. Spinner was left lingering in a brain dead coma, and a rebuilt Robotman reluctantly decided to pull the plug at the end of the series.


JOHN BYRNE DOOM PATROL AND RETCONS

.]]
In August 2004, a new ''Doom Patrol'' series was launched after the new team debuted in issues of '' 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 generated controversy among longtime Doom Patrol fans by rebooting the series, eliminating the continuity that dated back to the Silver Age .

This also retroactively eliminated ''. This in turn 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. This series was cancelled with issue 18.

In the 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 who shares a bond with Grunt.

  • Vortex, an energy being.

  • Faith , a former JLA member whose abilities include flight, command of powerful energy, and the ability to inspire trust in those around her.



INFINITE CRISIS AND ONE YEAR LATER

Unwilling to retcon away Byrne's unpopular tenure on the Doom Patrol, DC editorial turned to their mega-crossover, '' Infinite Crisis '', to provide explanation. 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 replacing the Jason Todd who died with one who hadn't.

While assisting the Teen Titans in battling Superboy Prime during ''Teen Titans'' #32, 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).

It was revealed in ''Teen Titans'' #34 that in the latter half of the year following the events of ''Infinite Crisis'', Beast Boy returned to the Doom Patrol, which relocated at Dayton Manor in Prague . Details of this new Doom Patrol have not yet been revealed, but Bumblebee and Herald are apparently members.


IN 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.

Throughout the fifth season of ''Teen Titans'', the team faces the menace of the Brotherhood, who wish to defeat 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 beat the Brotherhood of Evil.


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