Doom Patrol | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | My Greatest Adventure #80 (June 1963) |
Created by | |
In-story information | |
Base(s) | Former:
Current: The Shelter |
Member(s) | |
Roster | |
See: List of Doom Patrol members |
Doom Patrol is a superhero team from DC Comics. The original Doom Patrol first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80 (June 1963),[1] and was created by writers Arnold Drake and Bob Haney, along with artist Bruno Premiani. Doom Patrol has appeared in different incarnations in multiple comics, and have been adapted to other media. The series' creator has suspected that Marvel Comics copied the basic concept to create the X-Men, which debuted a few months later.
Doom Patrol are a group of super-powered misfits whose "gifts" caused them alienation and trauma. Dubbed the "world's strangest heroes" by editor Murray Boltinoff,[2] the original team included the Chief (Niles Caulder), Robotman (Cliff Steele), Elasti-Girl (Rita Farr), and Negative Man (Larry Trainor); Beast Boy (Garfield Logan) and Mento (Steve Dayton) joined soon after. The team remained the featured characters of My Greatest Adventure, which was re-titled Doom Patrol as of issue #86 (March 1964). The original series was canceled in 1968 when Drake killed the team off in issue #121, last of that series, (September–October 1968). The team wouldn't come back until 1987 at the hand of comic writer Paul Kupperberg until most of the new team were killed during the Invasion! event, at the nineteenth issue of the second volume of Doom Patrol, scottish comic writer Grant Morrison transformed the title into a much more surreal and bizarre story that explored topics of mental health, gender identity, and sexual discovery in an abstract manner. Morrison's run garnered critical acclaim, and the mature themes of their stories led to the comic being integrated into Vertigo Comics.