The Doom Patrol

The Doom Patrol was assembled by Niles Caulder (aka the Chief), whose intent was to study the effects of traumatic events on individuals; this was a part of his greater ambition to invent an immortality serum. These heroes were different, outsiders and victims of tragedy: Robotman (Cliff Steele), Elasti-Girl (Rita Farr) and Negative Man (Larry Traynor).

The team originally operated from Midway City and debuted in the Silver Age of heroes, about the same time as the Justice League. The two teams met once, early on. (JLA: Year One #5-7) The JLA later attended the wedding of their new member, Mento, and Elasti-Girl. (Doom Patrol vol. 1 #104)

The original team ended when they agreed to sacrifice themselves to save an entire town from their perennial foes, the Brotherhood of Evil. (#121) Robotman's brain was recovered by Dr. Will Magnus (creator of the Metal Men), and revived in a new body. Negative survived but remained comatose for years. Years later, the deranged Chief revealed that he could have saved Rita's life, but chose not to. (Doom Patrol vol. 2 #57)

Another latter day member was Beast Boy (Garfield Logan), who was adopted by Mento and Elasti-Girl. He later joined the Teen Titans, (Teen Titans #6) and changed his name to Changeling (DC Comics Presents #26).

New Doom Patrol (1977–1989)

A second iteration of the Doom Patrol was headed by Caulder's supposed widow, Arani Caulder, aka Celsius. Caulder had married Celsius as a test subject in his quest for the immortality serum. When they were ultimately reunited, the Chief denied ever having married her. (Doom Patrol vol. 2 #??) Arani revived and recruited Robotman, Tempest (Joshua Clay) and an inheritor of Negative Man's power, Negative Woman (Valentina Vostok [Showcase #94]).

Many years later, the team added some teenaged freaks: Lodestone, Karma (Doom Patrol vol. 2 #4), and Scott Fischer (#6). Negative Man and the Chief also returned from the dead around this time. Both Arani and Scott died in battle when the Earth was invaded by an alien alliance. (#17-18) Karma also died on a Suicide Squad mission. (Suicide Squad #58)

   

Crawling from the Wreckage (1989)

Things then got even freakier during the "Vertigo age," when writer Grant Morrison took over Doom Patrol with issue #19 (Feb. 1989). During his legendary tenure, Morrison introduced Crazy Jane, Rebis, Dorothy Spinner and Danny the Street. Ultimately, Niles Caulder revealed his true colors as a cold-hearted manipulator, culminating in his killing Tempest. (Doom Patrol vol. 2 #55) The Chief was even decapitated, but not before setting off another mad scheme. (#55-57)

Will Magnus stepped in to help guide the team, which ended when Danny the Street became Danny the World, an entire dimension which encompasses all fictional worlds, such as Oz, Wonderland, Never Never Land, and Slumberland. Rebis and Crazy Jane decided to stay with Danny, and Jane was "cured" of her mental condition. Dorothy and Cliff decided to return to Earth by floating on a magic balloon. (#62) Other allies during this period included the magician Willoughby Kipling and Flex Mentallo.

The Chief decided to make amends for his past. As penance, he tore his head off from his new body and continued to lead the team in this fashion. (#64) Cliff, Dorothy and Magnus were joined by the Bandage People, George and Marion. (#67) George and Marion had been transformed into energy beings and could manipulate the bandages which covered them. (#76) Later, they met Kate Godwin (Coagula). (#71) This team effectively ended after the Chief entered a spiritual anomaly, the Tree of Life. The others returned to Earth. (#87)

Eventually, Robotman began to grow weary of adventuring and contemplated retirement. He decided it would be best if Dorothy met her birth-mother. He and Kate took a camping trip to break the news to Dorothy, but she panicked at the idea and her reality-distorting powers kicked into overdrive. The resulting blast killed Kate and destroyed Cliff's body. (Doom Patrol vol. 3 #9) Dorothy herself went into a coma and her unconscious mind created a new Robotman to look after her. This duplicate sold the Doom Patrol name to the eccentric Thayer Jost.

Corporate Doom Patrol (2001)

   

Jost founded a fourth incarnation of the team, a corporate endeavor with teen heroes Negative Man II, Fever, Freak and Kid Slick. Led by an imitation "Cliff," the team soon split with Jost for ethical reasons and began work on their own. Briefly, Jost hired four heroes — Metamorpho, Dr. Light IV, and Elongated Man led by Beast Boy — to oppose Robotman's team. They too quickly split from Jost. (Doom Patrol vol. 3 #4)

Ultimately, the imaginary Robotman vanished and the Patrol's investigation discovered his inert brain under a mountain. They revived him in a new body, designed by the Russian engineer Kolodenko. This team was also, indeed, doomed. Incessant infighting fractured their sense of unity and Robotman left them again. He was drawn back briefly by a villain named Tycho, who killed Kolodenko. (#21) After this, Jost evicted the young heroes from their headquarters. Separately, they and Cliff were again set adrift. At the end of this period, Cliff made the decision to remove Dorothy Spinner from life support. (#22)

John Byrne's Inter-Crisis Doom Patrol (2004)

When it was created, John Byrne's new Doom Patrol — which debuted in JLA #94 (May 2004) — was intended to be a bona fide retcon/reboot, but it was unpopular and its existence was also erased in favor of a return to the original. (Events from this era have since been folded back into the team's official history.)

Ostensibly, what caused this change to continuity was the reality-warping power of the evil Superboy of Earth-Prime. Superboy had been locked away in an other-dimensional prison since the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. Each of his reality-altering blows supposedly "corrected" a wrinkle in time left by the original Crisis on Infinite Earths and one of them erased the original Doom Patrol's history and replaced them with a completely different team. Their line-up mirrored the original: the Chief with Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl. They made a new home in an old Confederate prison built in 1861 on Key Mordaz, in Florida.

     

This team included Grunt, a bioengineered four-armed gorilla with the brain of Henry Bucher. and His companion was a young girl known as Nudge (Mi-Sun Kwan). Nudge was a gifted telepath, a drifter who came upon a circus where Grunt lived as a barely-tamed animal. Her powers could calm Grunt and the circus owner hired her. They were discovered by Caulder and taken to live on Key Mordaz. (Doom Patrol vol. 4 #10)

Their activities drew the attention of the Justice League. The two teams allied to end the schemes of a vampire called Crucifer. After this case, the JLA's Faith opted to go with the Doom Patrol to serve as Nudge's tutor. (JLA #94–99)

Another new recruit was the mysterious Vortex, Crucifer's servant, who helped the D.P. defeat the monster. He could project a powerful wave of disruptive energy from his mouth, was resistant to mental control, and could open interspace portals. To look upon Vortex's face without his mask could cause incurable insanity. He was ultimately revealed to be of a race of beings from the far future, and he returned to his home time. (Doom Patrol vol. 4 #18)

Infinite Crisis (2006)

Ironically, the events set in motion by Superboy-Prime were also the cause of the Doom Patrol's restoration. This "Infinite Crisis" resulted in the recreation of a multiverse and many continuity anomalies were resolved in its wake. The "restored" Doom Patrol made several appearances before the launch of their next series (volume 5, 2009). Writer Keith Giffen talked about his approach to D.P. continuity in an interview with Newsarama:

"… everything counts. There are no Doom Patrol adventures that are outside the canon. OK, maybe there are some events within those adventures that are outside the canon because the characters have been around so long, so you have to make some adjustments here and there. But the main goal was to say, Grant [Morrison]'s Doom Patrol counts, Rachel's counts, Premiani counts, but above all else, it was just to have fun with Doom Patrol and its rich history."

Niles Caulder had finally succeeded in resurrecting Rita Farr! For years, he had kept her brain from suffering true death by treating it with special proteins. He regrew her entire body — but she now suffered mental instability becasue of the elastic nature of her brain.

Caulder also somehow restored Larry Trainor as the host of the Negative Man entity. He and Robotman returned to the Doom Patrol in order to help Rita adjust. (Doom Patrol vol. 5 #6) Elasi-Girl's mind was fragile, and they decided to behave as though she'd never been dead (at least, until she was better acclimated).

In the intervening years, Mento had gone mad and committed villainous act against the Titans, as the Crimelord. He repented, returned to the fold, and apologized to Beast Boy. Mento's mental powers were in full force but he was unable to focus on mundane tasks. True to form, the Chief kept Mento in tow by convincing him that Rita would only love him again if he wore the Mento helmet.

The Patrol's members forgave the Chief for his past treachery and agreed to work together, in hopes for a better future.

The calamity of the "Infinite Crisis" also affected members of the Teen Titans. Beast Boy lost several of his friends and decided to return to the Doom Patrol to help look after his parents. During a mission in space, a great wave washed over a band of heroes. Former Titans Bumblebee and Mal Duncan were injured and treated by Dr. Mid-Nite and Steel. After being stabilized, the Chief stepped in to offer further help for Bumblebee and Mal.

Bumblebee had shrunk to the size of an insect and grown real wings. The Chief invented a drug that would keep her tiny physiology functioning. Mal was hit by shrapnel from the Red Tornado and from his sonic horn. When the horn exploded, Mal lost his vocal chords. The Chief fitted Mal with a device derived from the horn that gave him sonic powers. As Vox, he now also spoke via the Red Tornado's old speaking apparatus. (52 #4-5)

Beast Boy took up a campaign to take down the Patrol's old enemies: the Brotherhood of Evil, who were still wanted for destroying the city of Blüdhaven. This led to a confrontation with the Teen Titans. (Teen Titans vol. 3 #34) When the Titan called Kid Devil was injured by Plasmus, (#35) the Chief repaired him and attempted to use this as leverage to keep Kid Devil with the Doom Patrol. But more pressing matters prevailed; the two teams united to prevent the Brotherhood's leader, the Brain, from acquiring a new host body. (#36)

The Doom Patrol learned that the Brain was an early "benefactor" of one of Caulder's experiments. Weeks before Cliff Steele's accident, Caulder caused an explosion that affectied one of his peers, a man renown for his work in animal evolution. Caulder intended to place this man's brain inside the original Robotman body, but the man's super-gorilla companion, Mallah, rescued him before he became bonded to the body. This unnamed scientist also claimed that there were other casualties of Caulder's failed experiments: Human Cannon, Negative Girl and Electric Blu. The Brain and Mallah escaped this clash, but the rest of the Brotherhood was rounded up.

Afterwards, the Doom Patrol went to confront the Chief, and found him attempting to brainwash Kid Devil. Mento came to his senses and with the Patrol, took back control of the group from Caulder. (#37)

Doom Patrol Members