The Original Doom Patrol

[@hermmmc]

I know I'm late on this one but there's something I've always wondered about the original Doom Patrol. Originally Rita has the ability to shrink and grow making her the most versatile member of the team. About midway through the series she seems to lose the ability to shrink, a power that certainly would've come in handy during their final adventure. Did Drake ever say anything about why this power was forgotten?

[@cornbreadthedog]

Hi. And not that I can remember. DC Comics was cancelling the original Doom Patrol because of low sales and other reasons. And the creative push, at the time, was for the whole team to die. But even the ability to shrink might not help Rita to survive a huge explosion that destroyed an entire island. Also, the Doom Patrol went out as real heroes, willing sacrificing themselves for a small fishing community that they never saw. Besides, Rita and Larry's powers were slowly killing them anyway. LOVE the original team. NOT a fan of where they are now. Hey, have a great weekend.

[@charliejacobs1468]

I loved this. Doom Patrol is my favorite comic but it's niche so no one really did a great in-depth analysis about them

[@ems6706]

one of my favorite 60s runs in comics, along with Kirby's Thor run and Ditko's Dr.Strange run. i think this specific run is just surprisingly empathic with how it threats those marginalized by society. I really love the art as well. It has art deco realism? It's really fundamental but very cleanly composed panel compostion.

[@markuscriticus8278]

One of my all time favorite Silver Age runs.

[@cornbreadthedog]

Mine, too. I LOVE the original Doom Patrol. I have all of the hardcover DC Comics Doom Patrol Archives.

[@deliusmyth5063]

Arnold Drake's brother was songwriter Ervin, who wrote the classic "It Was A Very Good Year". Altogether now, "When I was seventeen..." 🎵

[@leavonfletcher4197]

I would love to see an analysis of another oddball group, the Metal Men.

[@youraveragecrownofthorns8919]

Great idea!!!

[@scifiguy9000]

I would like him to have an overview or the entire first series of Alpha Flight one day.

[@StrangeBrainParts]

I have considered that, scifiguy! It's a definite maybe.

[@squidfartz]

@@StrangeBrainParts I like where this is going.

[@itszackempire]

I feel the same way!

[@therussiancomicbookgeek]

Fantastic seeing you booked this lovely little series:)

[@mmickle6191]

Doom Patrol passed me by and I didn't know they existed before the TV show began. Most of what I know about Doom Patrol I learned here on Overlord Comics!

[@cornbreadthedog]

The tv show isn't really faithful to the great original 1960 comic book series. They based the television show off the awful Grant Morrison run of the Doom Patrol comics. Negative Man, one of my favorite heroes from the team, wasn't ever gay or even married at all. Actually, in the original series, he was really in love with Rita but couldn't have her because of the radioactivity of his powers. Negative Man is a non-stop walking cosmic radioactive battery. His powers were slowly killing him. However, Morrison didn't care or even really knew what the original Doom Patrol team was all about. His take on the team was all about: recurring gothic horror and the occult, pro-LGBT themes, strange physical deformities and deeply severe unsolvable mental health issues, shockingly oddball weirdness and visually nightmarishly disturbing scenarios and unreal surreal characters that had nothing to do with the original Doom Patrol series at all. Morrison's "work" split the Doom Patrol community in two: you either thought that Morrison was this new cowboy genius who brought new life into a dead and obscure comic book series or, being a huge fan of the original team from the 1960's, you found his work laughably bad, disturbingly ill, and not faithful to the original source material at all. I tried to watch the Doom Patrol television show. I was instantly turned off by it. It felt like a dark, low budget, psychotically lit with dark candles, fan made homage to the Doom Patrol but on a really bad nightmare acid trip with Rod Serling (The Twighlight Zone host) as your personal ambulance driver. But I am glad that it's making new fans of the team and that some are actually seeking out the original Doom Patrol adventures from the 1960's to see how much the television show got right or wrong. Hey, but all the best. Take care.

[@jeremycline9542]

That art is gorgeous.

[@cornbreadthedog]

It most definitely is. The Doom Patrol had an amazing artist in Bruno Premiani. Extremely talented and I love his use of shadows on the characters and on the buildings. Bruno made the Patrol visually appealing and accesibly real. Sadly, Bruno Premiani left comics a little after the original Doom Patrol run. A shame, too. DC Comics really should have used him on some of their other projects.

[@mikecunningham4682]

​@@cornbreadthedog I love how expressive he makes robotman! And negative man's whole design is so simple and perfect, silhouette with yellow sparky border. Perfect. Really fantastic artwork by Bruno Premiani

[@cornbreadthedog]

I LOVE your comment! And I agree. I absolutely adore Bruno Premiani's work on the original Doom Patrol series! Would've loved to have met him and have had Bruno sign my Doom Patrol comics. But, when he was alive, I was still a little kid and too broke to afford a plane ticket to where he was. LOL.

[@ironshoes1720]

For me it was first and foremost the covers. 🤩 It took me a while to get my hands on an issue, but the comic adds inside other comics often featured the Doom Patrol and these covers alone were incredible. There were giant toy soldiers, a French gorilla holding a machinegun and all kind of other stuff that mesmerized me. Usually a cover prompts me to buy the comic to see what's happening inside, but for Doom Patrol I would wait and try to figure out how come giant toy soldiers were suddenly attacking them, how they worked, who created them, etc. Those covers (as well as a few others from Strange Adventures) put my brain in overdrive. 😍

[@unrulysimian3897]

Great overview. You're spot-on about the art. It definitely grounds the story in a way that serves the narrative well.

[@GuardianKyle]

Robotman: "The Fuck?"

[@camilocuba6927]

I just discovered your channel and I love your content. The original Doom Patrol is a personal highlight of DC’s Silver Age. The quality does take a little bit of a dip during the “checkerboard” era, but that happened across all of DC’s comics at the time. Their last story was great though as well as New Teen Titans story.

[@tartanphantom]

Thanks for another great mini-documentary!

[@TheMasterShake]

I just found your channel recently, and I think it's fantastic. The intro music always puts me in such a good mood, keep up the excellent work!

[@scottanderson8167]

The spiritual and aesthetic ancestor to Mike Allred’s Madman, which I always loved. Are these stories available in reprint anywhere?

[@lukejohnson3715]

DC has a Silver Age Omnibus available for Doom Patrol for $65. For a cheaper price, there are two trades which contains half of the omnibus each, the first being available and the other releasing in June (I think).

[@scottanderson8167]

Luke Johnson thanks Luke!

[@OrangeGeemer]

I only knew the Doom Patrol from the Invasion event (around 30 years ago), I recently read the Morrison run and it was amazing, I'm now getting the previous silver and bronze runs for a full Doom Patrol goodness. Your channel has been really insightful.

[@cornbreadthedog]

Respect your opinion but, for me, Grant Morrison's run of the Doom Patrol was just truly awful. Morrison didn't know or even really care what the original characters were even all about. Morrison is a weird horror and macabre goth writer at his very core, and I mean that as a compliment. The original Doom Patrol team were damaged people who became odd superheroes trying to navigate their medically complicated lives in a real-world setting and using their powers trying to help people who, sadly, still viewed them as freaks and misfits. Morrison, though, took the team in the complete opposite direction: unrealistically darkly freakish and disturbingly nightmarish both in tone and in setting. From Morrison's run on the Doom Patrol? I only remember talking Victorian paintings that wanted to eat the world with ketchup, constant themes of fragmented mental illness and physical deformity, Negative Man just instantly becoming a woman with mental health issues when he woke up one morning, a powerfully inter-dimensional insane ghoul with visually missing various body parts who wore 1950's Ricky Ricardo smoking jackets, silk pajamas and slippers. Yeah, Morrison's run was like viewing the Doom Patrol in a nightmarishly dark dreamscape while dropping heavy acid and powerful mushrooms while Rod Serling (The Twighlight Zone host) was your personal ambulance driver. But, hey, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I didn't get it all or find it worth my time or money as a huge hardcore fan of the original series. But, hey, to each his own. All the best.

[@OrangeGeemer]

@@cornbreadthedog Hi, sadly I never got a copy of the silver age run. I did get the bronze age and the Rachel Pollack omnis, I don't think you would like the Pollack run, is even odder than Morison's. I hope they reprint the silver age sometime soon. Cheers.

[@cornbreadthedog]

I actually liked the bronze age Doom Patrol and it's on my list of stuff to get when I get some more free cash. And due to the success of the television show, they will reprint the 1960's Doom Patrol omnibus again. Only a matter of time. Oh, and there's also the individual hardcover DC Doom Patrol Archives 1-5 that are up on Ebay and Amazon. That's close to a 200 to 260-dollar investment or so. Cheers.

[@luthermanning6945]

A title decades ahead of its time. Excellent video, especially the editing, very polished!

[@StrangeBrainParts]

Thank you, Mr. Deathlok.

[@Ubermensch9240]

5:05 So THAT'S where Stewart Little got it from..... either that or M. Night is a comic book nerd.

[@KamenSentaiMetalHero]

And this was published by DC during the Silver Age, the same company behind a number of the wacky stories in that period.

[@anthonyperdue3557]

@@StrangeBrainParts Yes please do The Inferior Five. Doom Patrol, Challengers of the Unknown and Inferior Five were my favorite DC teams. Have most of the Doom Patrol issues including their first and last appearances and their two part team up with the Challs. Unfortunately I sold their teamup with The Flash ( my favorite DC character, who was always on my buy list). Arnold Drake knew melodrama since his brother Stan was involved with The Heart of Juliet Jones comic strip, great artwork, and Arnold knew how to write low budget offbeat material which made Doom Patrol a Grant Morrison precursor of the 1960s since Arnold Drake did script the 1960s Sal Mineo sex thriller "Who Killed Teddy Bear? ", a low budget b/w gritty oddity for its time.

[@rickytoddbotelho9555]

Great history. Been waiting to hear this for 40 years.

[@StrangeBrainParts]

Wow...sorry it took me so long to get it done. :) I'll try to work faster in the future.

[@rubysuncle]

Just discovered your channel and love it. Keep up the good work on these videos. Very enjoyable. Writing because I wanted to help out after viewing this one with regards to Negative Man and his brief appearance in the Crisis on Infinite Earths (IF, after a year, it hasn’t been pointed out for you): Ish #7, pg. 16, panel 6. You’ll find him there.

[@flareinc7413]

Doom Patrol is so good. Love the Team.

[@cornbreadthedog]

So, do I. I became a huge fan of the Doom Patrol when I was 14 years old way back in 1984. At the supermarket, there was a huge comic book display rack. I picked up DC Comics Blue Ribbon Digest # 19 which reprinted 100 pages of the Doom Patrol's greatest adventures. Must've read that book over and over again like a hundred times. Best 95 cents I ever spent. Hey, all the best.

[@delaneymiller5822]

Off the top of my head of other Heroes who were dead by the time CoIE happened: There was Crimson Avenger & Wing, LoSH members Ferro Lad, Invisible Kid I, Chemical King, & Karate Kid, & I think the original Mister Terrific.

[@richardsreviews8820]

Could you do a video on golden age Superman comics?

[@JulianPope]

These breakdowns are fantastic, I probably wouldn't read through this original run.

[@infinihedron]

Oh please, other videos at other times! Every version of the Doom Patrol that I've encountered has been one of the most interesting and weirdly human of all "super" teams.

[@charliejacobs1468]

Yeah I'd personally would love more documentaries on the Doom Patrol not many people touch on them and with the series coming out might be a good opportunity.

[@sirongogaribaldi4532]

I definitely found this Larry Trainer in crisis on infinite earths. The graphic novel, page 190. Hes on a TV bubble

[@youraveragecrownofthorns8919]

Cool stuff...luv it, luv it, luv it...

[@johnellizz]

"X-Patrol" and "Doom-Men" are great comics, bruh.

[@ironshoes1720]

I know the legend tells the story that one of those two teams is the copycat of the other, but for me the Doom Patrol and the Fantastic Four are almost clones of one another, some powers being switched around. The sad and strong monster : Robotman and The Thing The brain of the operation : the Chief and Reed The stretching heroes : Rita and Reed (Negative Man too, to some extent [pun intended]) The young guns with dangerous bodies : the Human Torch and Negative Man The maternal figure holding the family : Sue and Rita

No-one even mentions Section Eight in passing, but as a lesser known DC group of super powered misfits . . maybe not lesser known so much as . . not spoken of. Gotham City's best kept secret, nobody fucked with Section Eight.

[@allsystemsgo8678]

The Defenders/New Defenders 152 the last issue the Defenders are killed. Well half of the team is killed...

[@dbmikeyg255]

I cant wait to see the brain in season 2

[@rainbow-coloredducttape4427]

how to read doom patrol in correct order?

[@RodrigoXV]

Video muito informativo.

[@Medraut00]

as far as I am concerned the original DP is the best version. I prefer it over all other versions. The team died as heroes.

[@cornbreadthedog]

I agree with you. Grant Morrison's run was just seven days into dog awfulness and psychologically disturbing and nightmarishly ghoulish. But everybody swears up and down that Morrison's run on the team was just the best. Sorry but The Doom Patrol wasn't all about constant mental illness, the occult and psychotic horror, and constant pro-LGBT stuff...pretty much what Morrison spiraled the team into on his run of the series. But, hey, please have a great day. Thanks for being a Doom Patrol fan.

[@Medraut00]

@@cornbreadthedog people just go with what is popular. I prefer silver age Doom Patrol

[@cornbreadthedog]

So, do I. Really wished that I could have gotten Bruno Premiani to sign my copies of the Doom Patrol in the 1980's. But he was all the way In Argentina at that time and I was a broke teenager with no air fare. LOL.

[@Ubermensch9240]

Surprised DC didn't sue Disney.

[@triciasomogyi5431]

❤️👍

[@arthurtripp6922]

IT WAS A GREAT SERIES AND HATED THE END . FAR BETTER STORYLINE BASED ON SCIENCE FICTION. AND THE STORY OF XMEN STORY LINE IS TRUE HATE BETWEEN DC AND MARVEL.

[@cornbreadthedog]

I agree. LOVE the original Doom Patrol series.

[@akwilson1676]

Doom Patrol feels more like a bunch of freaks. X Men are way too cool.

[@crazybobert5243]

X men=better heroes Doom patrol=better stories

[@cornbreadthedog]

Actually, the Doom Patrol were first. The X-men followed about 6 months later. And the whole point of the Doom Patrol was that these were all very successful people whose lives were turned upside down by the very accidents that gave them their powers. Yes, they were freaks and outcasts, but they became heroes despite their circumstances. Then, they became family. And unlike the X-men, the Doom Patrol's powers were slowly killing them. The team was literally living on borrowed time. I got a huge kick out of seeing them mentally deal with their issues of NOT being normal and I loved the team's infighting, too. The Doom Patrol are cool, too. In their own way.

[@akwilson1676]

@@cornbreadthedog Yeah that's my point. Both use the freak tropes. But I feel like the X Men are way too cool with their powers to be considered freaks and outcasts.

[@cornbreadthedog]

Actually, the X-men ARE considered freaks and outcasts by their society since day one, issue one. The X-men, although having saved the world countless times over, have never been embraced or celebrated like the Avengers of the Fantastic Four were in their universe. Despite their various and interesting powers that they have, the X-men are still considered outlaw mutant superheroes and still wanted by the US government for a bunch of judiciary/air travel violations and tons and tons of just insane property damage. And some of Charles Xavier's students would strongly disagree with you on how "cool" their powers and mutations are: at the top of the list, Cyclops, Rogue, Angel, Wolverine, Beast, Nightcrawler, Magma and Wolfsbane. And depending on how extreme the mutation, an X-man or any Marvel mutant, instantly falls into the freak and outcast category even more: Nightcrawler, The Blob, Mystique, Sabretooth and the list goes on. Oh, and quite a few Marvel mutants and super-villains in the past have openly criticized the X-men for only recruiting and attracting the handsome and pretty mutants like Jean Grey, The Angel and Gambit, to name just a few. However, in the last past 6 years or so, more and more extremely visually mutated mutants have joined the X-men roster. Hey, have a great day. Nice chatting with you. And all the best.

[@squidfartz]

Good Lord, your work is excellent. Keep it up.