Doom Patrol

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Doom Patrol (dt. Doom patrol ) is the title of a series of comic publications that the US publisher DC Comics publishes since 1963.

The Doom Patrol comics are part of the science fiction genre and describe the experiences of a group of adventurers who are socially ostracized due to their appearance, which society regards as disfiguring, but at the same time are gifted with extraordinary abilities ("superpowers"). which they use to do good.

Release dates

The Doom Patrol was first introduced in a story written for the comic book My Greatest Adventure # 80 from June 1963 by the authors Arnold Drake and Bob Haney , which was visually implemented by the illustrator Bruno Premiani . The editor Murray Boltinoff, who edited the Doom Patrol stories in the following years , was also involved in this issue . After this test story met with an overwhelmingly positive response from the readers of My Greatest Adventure , the series (previously a "Try-Out" series with constantly changing content) was renamed Doom Patrol with issue # 81 and from now on only tells the story the group's adventures. This series continued for almost five years before it was discontinued in September / October 1968 with issue # 127.

In 1977, nine years after the end of the old series, author Paul Kupperberg and draftsman Joe Staton presented a reinterpretation of the material in issue # 94 of the Showcase series : the name and premise remained the same as in the series from the 1960s, but became put other main characters at the center of the plot after the heroes of the old series sacrificed their lives at the end of Doom Patrol # 127 to save a fishing village on the American west coast from destruction. The covers for these new Doom Patrol issues were designed by Jim Aparo . In addition to their own series, the Doom Patrol characters were frequently incorporated into stories in the team-up series DC Comics Presents and Supergirl at the time .

In the 1980s a new Doom Patrol series was started (Volume 3), the first seventeen editions of which Paul Kupperberg wrote again. Steve Lightle was assigned to him as a draftsman. Later author Grant Morrison took over the series, while Richard Case contributed the drawings. Later, Eric Larsen and Ted McKeever took over the drawing job one after the other . As the successor to Morrison, Rachel Pollack wrote the last years of the series before it was discontinued in February 1995 with issue # 87. The series cover artists included Simon Bisley .

After several years of publication hiatus , DC commissioned the author John Arcudi to develop a new Doom Patrol series (Volume 4), the first edition of which was released in December 2001. This series was mostly drawn by Tan Eng Huat and reached twenty-two editions.

Less than a year after the end of the fourth series in autumn 2003, a restart of the Doom Patrol comics was set in motion again in August 2004 . The stories for this new, fifth (Volume 5) series, Doom Patrol , were written by author John Byrne , who also provided the drawings. Inker Doug Hazlewood reworked Byrne's drawings with ink . This series was discontinued in early 2006 after only eighteen issues.

action

The Doom Patrol story begins in most versions of the material with the wheelchair-bound scientist Dr. Niles Caulder , known as Chief , gathered around him, two men and a woman who were given miraculous abilities through strange accidents, in order to found a group of superheroes with them. These three are Larry Trainor and Rita and Clifford Steele. Trainor is called Negative Man , because a shadow-like alien being called Negative Spirit "inhabits" his body, which he can "unleash" if necessary and let go of opponents. Rita Steele becomes Elasti-Girl who can deform and stretch her body like a elastic band, and Clifford Steele, a racing driver, becomes Robotman after his human body is destroyed in a serious car accident and his brain is transplanted into a robot body. Later on, Beast Boy aka Garfield and Mento aka Steve Dayton join Doom Patrol: Beast Boy is a green-skinned teenager and can transform into any animal he thinks of if desired, and Mento has extraordinary mental powers.

Together, the group fights against bizarre super villains like the highly intelligent gorilla Monsieur Mallah, the malicious Madame Rouge, the immortal striving General Immortus and the sectarian Brotherhood of Evil, which is led by Brain, a brain that is artificially kept alive with the help of elaborate technology. In addition, Doom Patrol has to grapple with the prejudices of a cruel and narrow-minded society that judges living beings not according to their character, but based on their appearance.

In the Doom Patrol series of the 1970s, a number of new characters were introduced: The Indian Arani Desai alias Celsius appears here as the founder of a second generation of Doom Patrol. The goal of this new group is initially to find Niles Caulder, who Celsius believes is still alive and who she claims is her husband. The team also includes: Robotman , who was the only member of the old group to survive their last mission, as you learn in the new group's first adventure; then the resourceful technician Joshua Clay aka Tempest , who designed a new body for Robotman's brain after its old body was badly damaged and thus unusable; also the cosmonaut Valentina Vostok, who becomes Negative Woman after the negative spirit has settled in her body. Then there is Lodestone , who has magnetic powers, karma , which can trip other people with the help of psychic impulses, and a man named Scott Fischer .

Grant Morrison incorporated numerous postmodern themes into his Doom Patrol stories. They contain echoes of art historical ideas such as Dadaism and Surrealism as well as modern psychology. During his authorship, the Patrol has to deal with, among other things, Indian ghosts and an anarchist group called the Legion of Dada , which has set itself the goal of creating disorder and chaos. Grant Morrison's run ended with the revelation that the supposed "accidents" that disfigured Rita, Steele and Trainor and gave them their superpowers were in fact carefully planned attacks by Caulder to create his future teammates. Morrison's successor, Pollack, also addressed religious concepts such as Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, as well as deviations from sexual norms such as bisexual and transsexuality.

Adaptations

Some Doom Patrol members (Robotman, Negative Man, Mento, and Elasti-Girl) guest stars on several episodes of the Teen Titans animated series .

Variety magazine also reported on July 19, 2006 that Warner Brothers Studios had hired screenwriter Adam Turner to write a script for a Doom Patrol movie.

After the team was introduced in November 2018 in the episode of the same name in the series Titans , the series Doom Patrol has been appearing since February 2019 .

Reprints

The Doom Patrol stories of the 1960s have been reprinted in six edited volumes:

  • Doom Patrol Archives # 1, 2002 (contains My Greatest Adventure / Doom Patrol # 80-89)
  • Doom Patrol Archives # 2 (contains Doom Patrol # 90-97)
  • Doom Patrol Archives # 3 (contains Doom Patrol # 98-105 and Challengers of the Unknown # 48)
  • Doom Patrol Archives # 4 (contains Doom Patrol # 106-113)
  • Doom Patrol Archives # 5 (contains Doom Patrol # 114-121)

Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol stories have been reprinted in six volumes:

  • Crawling from the Wreckage , 2000. (includes Doom Patrol # 19-25)
  • The Painting That Ate Paris , 2004. (includes Doom Patrol # 26-34)
  • Down Paradise Way , 2005. (includes Doom Patrol # 35-41)
  • Musclebound , 2006. (includes Doom Patrol # 42-50)
  • Magic Bus , 2007. (includes Doom Patrol # 51-57)
  • Planet Love , 2008. (includes Patrol # 58-63 and Doom Force # 1)