Cliff Steele is a race car driver. Larry Trainor is a test pilot. Rita Farr is an actress. They have little in common. Cliff’s car goes up in flames. Larry’s plane is hit by radiation. Rita’s exposed to strange gasses in a shoot. They now have something in common. Tragedy has taken their ‘normalcy’ from them. It’s stripped them of the lives they led before. They cannot go back.
It is then that they are united by the mysterious man in a wheelchair- Niles Caulder aka The Chief. Cliff becomes Robotman. Larry morphs into Negative Man. Rita is Elasti-Girl. Under the guidance and leadership of this rich, brilliant benefactor of theirs, The Doom Patrol is born.
They are the freaks, the monsters, the weirdos. They are the oddballs on the sidelines, who society will never let take center stage. They are the lovable losers.
They are The World’s Strangest Superheroes.
Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, and Bruno Premiani are all names that are synonymous with 1960’s American comics, particularly DC Comics. Haney and Premiani together are famously the creators of the Teen Titans. But add in Drake, who had a penchant for a bit of the strange, and within the pages of the My Greatest Adventure anthology, this oddball team was born.
Drake had the idea for a crew of freaks and misfits, and teamed with Haney and Premiani, we got a rare sort of superhero book at DC. Wherein most of the heroes suffered no drawback for their powers, and were largely loved, the Doom Patrol were the people who stood as an exception. Here were the figures on the fringes, the ones who didn’t fit in with everyone else. These would be their stories.
The Doom Patrol are the weird heroes. They are the figures caught in tales and troubles too out there and absurd for all others. They are the shattered souls who are united in their status as being on the margins, being the misunderstood, messy people with traumas. They’re no super-squadron or elite task force. They’re just the complicated superhero universe version of a support group.
Gold
Crawling From The Wreckage
January 1989- January 1993
- Doom Patrol #19-63
- Doom Force Special #1
- Grant Morrison
- Richard Case, Doug Braithwaite, & Kelley Jones
- Scott Hana, John Nyberg, Carlos Garzon & Mark McKenna
- Danny Vozzo & Michele Wolfman
- John Workman
The Plot
The new Doom Patrol puts itself back together after nearly being destroyed, and things start to get a lot weirder for everybody. The Chief leads Robotman, the recently formed Rebis and new member Crazy Jane against the Scissormen, part of a dangerous philosophical location that has escaped into our world and is threatening to engulf reality itself.
Why We Love It
Grant Morrison, Richard Case, and John Workman truly took the conceit of ‘The World’s Strangest Superheroes’ and brought it to life in a way it hadn’t been before. Gone was the standard X-Men-esque superhero soap opera approach to the team book. Here was something more akin to a successor for Steve Gerber’s work on The Defenders, but with influences from outside comics. Whether it be the works of Jorge Luis Borges, experimental European cinema, the ideas of Heinrich Hoffman to Dada, surrealism, and plenty more, it’s all in there!
This is the run that put the Doom Patrol on the map. This is where they’re redefined as a wildly creative expression of a super-support group. It remains the high bar and creative peak every era since has tried to reach towards. It’s the brand new foundation of Doom Patrol and its primordial creative pool. Whatever Claremont was to The X-Men, Miller was to Daredevil, Morrison is to the Doom Patrol.
In a display of perhaps the highest praise possible- the original creator Arnold Drake himself expressed that he believed only Grant Morrison ever saw in the team what he was trying to do.
But vitally, Morrison and their collaborators didn’t just see what Doom Patrol was and had been. They took it further beyond and posited Doom Patrol as a book that explored the What Could Be. It’s a comic about the impossible, but of course it is. It’s a Grant Morrison comic.
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Silver
Sliding In The Wreckage
February 1993 – February 1995
- Doom Patrol #64-87
- Doom Patrol Annual #2
- Totems #1
- Vertigo Jam #1
- Rachel Pollack
- Richard Case, Stan Woch, Linda Medley, Ted McKeever, Mark Wheatley & Scott Eaton
- Tom Sutton & Graham Higgins
- Stuart Chaifetz, Daniel Vozzo, & Tom Ziuko
- John Workman
The Plot
The Doom Patrol must pull themselves together yet again as they move into a bizarre new headquarters, gain two new members and try to cope with the preteen menace known as the Wild Girls!
Why We Love It
A Trans comics icon and continuing the trend of Doom Patrol being defined by Queer voices, Rachel Pollack succeeded Grant Morrison on the title. Her work kept up the weirdness and brought a fresh new spin to it, with the title now officially under the Vertigo label. Pollack truly made the book her own while forging forward on the foundations that had been laid. From landmark moments like the introduction of Coagula, the first DC trans hero and one of the rare Trans heroes actually created by a Trans creator, to a rapid rush of Big Ideas, this run really has it all.
Even now, this run remains a rare jewel that has historically been far too overlooked and underappreciated. Make no mistake though, it is excellent and plunges the characters into paths you may not fully expect.
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My Greatest Adventure
June 1963 – October 1968
- My Greatest Adventure #80-85
- The Doom Patrol #86-107
- Challengers of the Unknown #48
- The Brave and the Bold #65
- Arnold Drake & Bob Haney
- Bruno Premiani
- Bruno Premiani
- Stan Starkman
The Plot
Out of the Silver Age of Comics came a very different comic book team, featuring a new breed of superheroes. Cast out of society due to their deformities, the Doom Patrol were a group of misfit loners not blessed, but cursed, with unnatural powers. These human oddities—Elasti-Girl, Negative Man, Robotman and the Chief—save the world one strange case at a time. See them take on such equally bizarre villains like the undying criminal mastermind General Immortus, shape-shifting Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, the Brotherhood of Evil and more!
Why We Love It
The classic, original run of Doom Patrol by its true makers. This is it! This is where it all began! It’s a delightful, fun romp and one that stands somewhat apart from the DC offerings of that period in a curious way. It hews closer to your average Marvel book of the time, relatively speaking. On the whole though, with gorgeous Premiani artwork and a whole burst of bizarre bastards and weird creatures the creators can conjure up, it’s a really telling and useful root. If you’re up for old-school comics, this can be a good time.
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The Man Of Muscle Mystery!
April 1996 – August 1996
- Flex Mentallo #1-4
- Grant Morrison
- Frank Quitely
- Frank Quitely
- Tom McCraw & Peter Doherty
- Ellie de Ville
The Plot
Once he was Hero of the Beach…and of the Doom Patrol. Now Flex Mentallo, the Man of Muscle Mystery, returns to investigate the sinister dealings of his former comrade, The Fact, and a mysterious rock star whose connection to Flex may hold the key to saving them both.
Why We Love It
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s ultimate and intimate expression on superhero fiction is a certified classic. And although it stands well on its own, its star, the glorious Man Of Muscle Mystery, is from The Doom Patrol. Meet him once more here, and get to know him better than ever. But also stand witness to Morrison exploring certain key motifs and thematic ideas from their Doom Patrol run in a wholly different way just 3 years after its conclusion! It’s vintage Quitely and prime Morrison weaving a story about toxic masculinity, imagination, and the strength of the human soul.
It’s Dennis Potter’s Singing Detective but with superhero comics instead of music!
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Bronze
Brick By Brick
September 2016 – October 2018
- Doom Patrol #1-12
- Gerard Way & Jeremy Lambert
- Nick Derington
- Nick Derington & Tom Fowler
- Tamra Bonvillain
- Todd Klein
The Plot
Flex Mentallo, Robotman, Rebis, Crazy Jane, and more are back to twist minds and take control. But there’s also new faces! Meet Casey Brinke! Who is she? Why does she drive an Ambulance? And what the hell is a Doom Patrol?
From corporations hell-bent on food-production to micro-universes, witness the return and rebuilding of The Doom Patrol!
Why We Love It
The modern revitalization of the Doom Patrol! Rockstar Gerard Way is joined by (comics) Rockstar Nick Derington for one hell of a concert! Way, being Morrison’s close personal friend and apprentice, is wonderfully suited to the title, as is Derington with his wonderfully distinct artwork. Way’s prior work The Umbrella Academy was in effect a pastiche/riff on Doom Patrol, so it all comes full circle here.
‘Find the new weird’ was the advice and baton-passing legacy Morrison handed to Way. And you know what? Together with Derington, he does. It’s weird, it’s full of colorful characters and its vitality is what helped rejuvenate the Doom Patrol for the 21st century. For the first time in ages, they work again!
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The Weight Of The Worlds
July 2019 – July 2020
- Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #1-7
- Gerard Way & Jeremy Lambert
- Nick Derington
- Nick Derington & Michael Allred
- Tamra Bonvillain
- Simon Bowland
The Plot
The Doom Patrol goes on an epic trip around the solar system, facing off against the fanatical fitness fiends of planet Orbius, the Marathon Eternal, and more. Big changes are coming for these heroes as Robotman comes to terms with his new life as a human, and Flex Mentallo seeks Destiny.
Why We Love It
Following the first 12 issues of their run together, Way and Derington changed things up. Way had brought on Jeremy Lambert for the final 12th issue as a co-writer, and with this new maxi-series, you get that expanded out into a whole artistic showcase spanning space-time. It’s two mates with a cavalcade of talented artists putting the final bow on this particular take on The Doom Patrol.
If any of that sounds fun, it’s because it is. This is the height of the Way era Doom Patrol, as the book finally feels like it comes into its own. It’s where Way feels much more comfortable and the book proceeds past the Morrison shadow a bit more than previously. And by the end? Everything changes here, and a bold new future awaits our super-support group after all this!
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Milk Wars!
January 2018 – February 2018
- JLA/Doom Patrol Special #1
- Mother Panic/Batman Special #1
- Shade, The Changing Girl/Wonder Woman Special #1
- Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye/Swamp Thing #1
- Doom Patrol/JLA Special #1
- Gerard Way, Steve Orlando, Jon Rivera, Cecil Castellucci, & Jody Houser
- ACO, Ty Templeton, Mirka Andolfo, Langdon Foss, Dale Eaglesham, & Nick Derington
- Tamra Bonvillain
The Plot
The Doom Patrol has discovered that an interdimensional corporation called RetCo has been stealing stories, reconfiguring them and repackaging them for new markets. Our gang of misfit heroes have felt the touch of this nefarious company, and it has already started to change them!
Why We Love It
An utterly absurd comic centered around corporations homogenizing stories to repackage and sell them in other markets, treating all these super-characters as nothing more than minable IP? You don’t get more Doom Patrol than that!
It’s as fun as it is dumb, and it’s an ‘event comic’ spanning the entirety of Way’s Young Animal imprint (of which Doom Patrol was the central flagship), and it presents a sort of Doom Patrol spectacle that is perhaps never likely to be seen again.
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