Doom Patrol – DC Comics Characters 101

The Doom Patrol are relatively obscure in pop culture, but are one of the most unique teams in comic book history. On today's show we give a brief recap of the history of the World's Strangest Heroes.

History

Created by Arnold Drake/Bob Haney(writers) / Bruno Premiani (artist)

First appearance:  My Greatest Adventure #80 (June 1963)

The comic was renamed The Doom Patrol in issue #86

Got canceled, last issue was #121 (Sept-Oct. 1968) because it wasn’t that popular.

Revived for 3 issues by Paul Kupperberg (writer)/Joe Staton (artist) in 1977 for Showcase

Post-crisis, the Doom Patrol came back in a 3-part (different writers) “volume 2” from 1987-1995. It also moved to Vertigo during this time.

2001:  John Arcudi/Tan Eng Huat - 22 issues and canceled (brought back to DC from Vertigo)

2004: John Byrne - 18 issues and canceled

2009-2011: Keith Giffen - 22 issues and canceled.

2016-current: Re-launched under the Young Animal imprint by Gerard Way/Nick Derinton. Is going to go on “hiatus” in August of 2018

Other Media: Teen Titans - Shows Mento and Elasti-Girl raised Beast Boy, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Justice League: The New Frontier

Who are the Doom Patrol?

Dubbed: “World's Strangest Heroes”

Original team: The Chief, Elasti-Girl, Negative Man, Robotman, Mento, Beast Boy (he was adopted by Elasti-Girl and Mento)

Current team: Robotman, Negative Man, Crazy Jane, Flex Mentallo

Upcoming TV Show: Niles Caulder/The Chief, Elasti-Girl, Robotman, Crazy Jane, and Negative Man

Powers/Abilities

The Chief: genius level intellect

Elasti-Girl: Can stretch, shrink, grow to any size. Super strong when stretched to be big.

Robotman: Just a brain transported into a robot, he has super strength because of being a robot.

Crazy Jane: Has 64 alternate personalities, each with a different super power.

Negative Man: Must wear bandages at all times to keep him together. Can fly, phase through solid objects, create energy.

Villains - Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, General Zahl, Scissormen

Important Storylines

* Right from the start, definitely unique in DC comics: the team fights among themselves and have lots of personal problems. The Chief finds and helps people who are disfigured/outcast from society to work for good.

* Post-Crisis, a more conventional superhero team

* Invasion happened, Grant Morrison took over and made them really weird, especially with villains: Red Jack (Thinks he’s Jack the Ripper and God, Scissormen: live in the real world, have scissors for hands and can cut people out of reality). In this storyline, Chief was the one who caused the accidents that turned all the members into heroes.

* Volume 4 (John Byrne): rebooted, eliminated old stories from canon

* Infinite Crisis: old teams are brought back into canon

* New 52: Again Caulder (Chief) caused the “accidents” for the all the team members

* Current: Young Animal run: got really weird again, Danny the Street (a literal sentient street) creates Casey Brinke to communicate through comic books, also becomes an ambulance. They get asked to go on a mission by Caulder, but they kick him out.

Coming Up

Will appear in episode #5 “Doom Patrol” of Titans

13 episode series on DC Universe streaming service sometime in 2019

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