Customer Reviews

The Doom Patrol Archives, Vol. 1 (DC Archive Editions)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This volume is among the best of the DC Archives volumes I've read so far. Apparently DOOM PATROL was a cult favorite back in the 60's, but its reputation has been obscure enough to discourage any sort of systematic reprinting up until this book. In a pointless lifetime of reading comics, this is the first time I've run across the original series.

DC benefited from a number of excellent pencil artists back in the 1960's, such as Curt Swan, Neal Adams, and Murphy Anderson. Bruno Premiani is a name that never seems to appear in that list, but it really should. The artwork here is really impressive, comparable in places to Alex Raymond or Lou Fine.

The Arnold Drake stories are also consistently entertaining, although you have to get used to a style of dialogue and characterization that smacks strongly of 50/60's-era horror and science fiction films. But the writing is at least as good as anything being done in that period at Marvel or DC. In some ways the storytelling reminds me of some non-superhero DC titles from the time, like STRANGE ADVENTURES or MYSTERY IN SPACE.

Highly recommended to anyone who likes Silver Age comics.

A team of young misfits with strange powers led by an enigmatic and brilliant man in a wheelchair...

No, not the X-Men...the Doom Patrol!

This DC Archives brings together the first adventures of the legendary ne'er-do-well team and found DC in a very Marvel-ous mood three months BEFORE the X-Men debuted. Stan Lee himself could do little better than these angst-ridden antiheroes: a racecar driver spared a gruesome death only by having his brain placed in a robot body; a movie actress who could grow to gargantuan heights or shrink to Lilliputian dimensions; a test pilot bonded with a strange alien radiation.

Together, they would tackle the oddest menaces to be found: a disembodied brain with a gorilla sidekick, an octogenarian madman with world-conquering pretensions, a shape-shifter able to take on any form. Unlike your other super-powered teams of the time, the Doom Patrol did not adjust well to their new situation, and the tension on the team was palpable from the first.

Arnold Drake's Doom Patrol was in many ways a precursor to Chris Claremont's X-Men. His stories were character-driven and emphasized the alienation each of the heroes felt from their comrades as a result of their abilities. The team struggled on behalf of a world which would never accept them. And behind it all lurked the unfathomable ambitions of their stricken leader, Dr. Niles Caulder, "The Chief."

This collection includes "My Greatest Adventure/Doom Patrol" 80-89 from 1963-1964.

It is a must-have for any Silver Age comics fan.

I wanted to share a little story about Arnold Drake. I only knew his name as the writer who created DEADMAN and DOOM PATROL, but I didn't know much about him until two years ago when I was at a convention in Westchester, NY. Roy Thomas, Dave Cockrum, Chris Claremont, and a few other writer/artists of the X-Men were on a panel discussing the differences between the filmed version of X-Men, and the comics version. It was an interesting discussion, but it became more interesting when this older gentleman with a white beard, glasses, and an African beret entered the room, and Roy Thomas began a conversation with the man from across the room. "Arnold would you like to join us?" The man was sort of uncomfortable. He said his wife was waiting for him, but "What the hell, I can spare a few minutes," and he joined the panel, and discussed the few times he wrote the X-men, and also entertained the audience with hilarious anecdotes about: "Stan "the man" Lee, who was quite enamored with the word 'Brotherhood." He basically said that the X-men was a direct knock off of his Doom Patrol, but he was respectful, if a bit flippant. Then he left the room as dramatically as he came in, and we gave him a round of applause. Conventions are fun for comics fans and creators, but the rare moments like that make the experiences unforgettable.
Now, the DOOM PATROL. Highly imaginative, heroes that are sort of confused about their place in the world, but go ahead and save humanity whenever they can. ROBOTMAN has a human brain, but that's all that is left of Cliff Steele after a tragic car accident. Rita Farr grows to enormous heights, and Larry Trainor has a shadow that fights, flys and glows! Their leader is Niles Caulder, a crippled genius in a wheelchair. He grounds this ragtag band of heroes to their missions. This is great stuff, and it looks like a second volume is due out (hooray!). The first volume collects issues from My Greatest Adventure (which quickly changed the title to just DOOM PATROL) #80-89. There will probably be two more volumes. Then if the Grant Morrison run will be reprinted, we Doom Patrol fanatics will be in Nirvana.

A group of disgruntled social outcasts with super powers comes under the guidance of a wheel-chair bound genius and is frequently called on to save a general populace they increasingly grow to despise.

You got it...the X-Men, right? Nope. The Doom Patrol.

The comparisons are immediate and striking (The Chief/Professor X, The Brotherhood of Evil/The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants), and given that Doom Patrol actually predated the X-Men by several months, one has to wonder if Stan the Man and the merry men at Marvel didn't pass out a few copies of Doom Patrol at editorial meetings.

But to the stories themselves: the characters are great. The heroes find that their powers have literally ruined their ability to lead normal lives. They are resentful. They find code names stupid and embarrassing and call each other by their first names. Even in attempting to forge relationships with each other, they frequently fail due to shattered self-confidence over their own perceptions of themselves as nothing more than freaks. Remember kids, this wasn't written in the 80's or 90's. This was written in 1963!

Arnold Drake's scripts are hokey by today's standards, with what can be called B-movie dialogue and plots. However, once you accept them on that level (don't look for the gritty realism of the 80's or 90's), they are great fun. Bruno Premiani's artwork is simply excellent, at places it reminds me of Brian Bolland. I agree that it is simply unfathomable that Premiani is not held in more esteem.

While X-Men became a mass market phenomenon, Doom Patrol has had what can be charitably called a star-crossed publishing history. No incarnation of it has ever lasted, although Grant Morrison gave it a great run in the early 90's which I recommend to anyone. Somehow, though, this is sadly appropriate for Arnold Drake's original vision of the quintessential unhappy super heroes. They just never got popular enough to sell out.

The next time you see Hugh Jackman or Patrick Stewart onscreen, or walk past the endless rows of X-Men compilations in a comic book store, do yourself a favor and find the DC section and introduce yourself to these characters. Take the Doom Patrol challenge: go for the original.

The Doom Patrol was one of the great lesser known DC series of the Silver Age. A group of "freaks" joined together to form a super-team. The Chief was the wheelchair bound genius leader. Robotman was a human being with his brain trapped in a robot body. Negative Man could cause a radio-energy being to leave his body at the speed of light, but had to keep his body wrapped in bandages to protect people from his radioactive skin. Elasti-Girl could grow really big or really small. (Actually, she not all that "freakish". No more so than any other super-hero, anyway). Besides being considered "outcasts", the Doom Patrol was different than other DC heroes in that they actually had personalities. Robotman and Negative Man often had arguments with each other, and they both had moments when they felt bitter about their situations. This book features the Doom Patrol's first ten comics. Besides meeting the heroes, you will also meet their legendary enemies; General Immortus, The Brotherhood of Evil, and Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. (Yes, that last one has a goofy name, but he's still a pretty cool villain.) I think that anyone who is a fan of Silver Age comics should get this book. While it's true that the stories aren't as "sophisticated" as today's comics, they have a charm that most of the current comics can't duplicate.

A wheelchair-bound mentor gathers unique individuals with extraordinary powers, to defend the world against evil adversaries. No, this is not the introduction to the Uncanny X-Men, but to a group which was formed a few months earlier by DC Comics, The Doom Patrol.

Comparison with the X-Men are inevitable, where we have the wheelchair bound leader, The Brotherhood of Evil (Mutants). But there is also a twist here. For while the X-Men are treated as outcasts, the Doom Patrol are treated as heroes.

The X-Men won over The Doom Patrol I think because the readers wanted more 'super-hero' stories which is what they got, and they were also able to expand into other Marvel titles like The Fantastic Four, Thor, Avengers, and so on. Reading The Doom Patrol here, it feels as if they have their own DC Universe with hardly any mention of other DC characters. I felt that this was a good point, as the characters are able to develop on their own, we get to know them more, the plots are more character driven, more down to earth.

The art is a joy to look at, and Bruno Premiani is a vastly under-rated artist, who when asked today, most people would never have heard of. When people talk about the great Silver Age artists, especially from DC, people would mention Gil Kane, Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson. Bruno Premiani deserves to be ranked alongside these artists as well.

This is a beautiful edition to add to your DC Archives collection. These stories are from an era where they have never been surpassed in the quality of their stories, the Silver Age.

I do hope that a second collection of The Doom Patrol is not far away.

Doom Patrol, as represented in the first volume of their Archives Edition, was an interesting attempt in the 1960s at DC to expand the notion of what makes a super-hero, along with Deadman, Challengers of the Unknown, Eclipso, and Metamorpho (most of these heroes created by Bob Haney, the author behind the Doom Patrol). Their resemblance to the X-Men is obvious although DC was never able to create an environment where the oddball heroes fit in as well with Superman, Batman, et al, whereas the X-Men never seemed out of place in the Marvel universe. But Doom Patrol's biggest weakness was its lack of stand-out villains. The X-Men had Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants while the Doom Patrol struggled along with General Immortus and the Brotherhood of Evil. The Doom Patrol stories are still quite charming, though, and show great promise for what could have been. It was an adventurous experiment at DC to create a team of outcast heroes that is worth checking out.

Found this to be one of the best archives that DC has to offer. And from one of the least popular series they had. The art and stories are superb. And still stand today. I had reservations about getting this. But when DC announced that there was going to be a new Doom Patrol series coming I decided it was time to get to know these characters all over again. And guess what. Not a single disappointment.
Pick this up if you get the chance. You will not be disappointed. So glad I did. Already ordered Vol.2. So enjoy.

deserves the big screen treatment. Far more interesting than the X-Men, this is the story about a group of people who become superheroes through no fault of their own (its the result of machinations from somebody, but you'll have to read the series to find out), and how they deal with being "different". Negative Man, Robotman and Elastigirl are three of the most tragic figures ever to grace the comic page and their stories are far more pathetic than anything in X-Men(not that I don't like X-Men). Read the series. You won't be disappointed.

They were four damaged people: Rita Farr, a beautiful actress who, while shooting on location, was exposed to a gas that gave her the power to vary her height; Larry Trainor, a daring test-pilot who flew through a belt of radiation, and come through with the ability to release an embodiment of negative energy, but only for a minute at a time; Cliff Steele, a race-car driver, until the crash that destroyed everything but his brain, which was transferred into a robot body, and; Niles Caulder, the brilliant genius who brought these people together as a force for good. They are Elasti-Girl, Negative Man, Robotman, and the Chief: the Doom Patrol.

Contrary to popular belief, DC Comics figured out pretty quickly that rival Marvel Comics formula of character-development was something that they needed to infuse into their own line. The problem was that they were very hesitant to do this with their big gun characters: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, iconic characters that never had any of the problems Spider-man did. However, DC had no problem creating new characters in the Marvel style: fantastic characters with a down-to-earth core.

Perhaps the best example of this approach is the Doom Patrol. This was a team of strong individuals who found themselves possessed of powers that they didn't want. Indeed, for these characters, there was very little hope of ever being normal again. So, they did the next best thing: they fought people who were in worse shape than them, hell-bent on spreading evil.

Arnold Drake's writing made the most of the bizarre premise. The villains were sinister, vile, and above all, quirky. Of course, while General Immortus, the centuries-old genius, was perhaps the team's most persistent enemy, by far their best loved was the Brotherhood of Evil. Led by the Brain, a disembodied brain, and Monsieur Mallah, a surgically enhanced gorilla, the team was the Doom Patrol's counter-part; misfits that sought revenge on the world.

Amazingly, Drake's scripts never stretch credibility to the breaking-point. He stayed within the rules he set for himself, and never forgot that his heroes were suffering, and not always in silence. They pined for normality, they wished for acceptance, they bickered amongst themselves. At the same time, he never let the action get bogged down in the team's personal traumas. Moreover, Drake tailored the stories to spotlight the unique abilities of his characters, while examining the strengths and weaknesses of their individual personalities.

Bruno Premiani's name is not one of those artists who immediately named when discussing comic book greats. He probably should be. As his artwork proves here, Premiani had a strong sense of realism. He made the most of his talented line work, grounding his art with a realistic sensibility that further underscored the bizarre tone of the series. One only need to look at the gorilla Mallah, and the extraordinary detail he paid to the character's design. Truly, Premiani was a craftsman, and deserves much more recognition.

It's not hard to see why, although never a first-string book, "The Doom Patrol" is still remembered fondly today. It was a unique mix of absurd super-heroics and sharp character-drama. While DC recently made some questionable continuity decisions about these characters, they've wisely pulled away from them. So enjoy these wonderfully weird stories.