One typically imagines a strong person who has undergone hard training to master their skills and abilities in order to be able to defend the universe when they think about superheroes. But today, we will look at a superhero team made up of outcasts with peculiar abilities.
Introducing the Doom Patrol, a group of misfits who became superheroes after being brought together under the watchful supervision of “the Chief.” They were created by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, and Bruno Premiani and debuted in the ‘My Greatest Adventure’ comic book series published by DC Comics in 1963.
The Doom Patrol was DC’s response to the X-Men, a group of heroes who used their extraordinary abilities to advance society. Explore the members of the Doom Patrol in depth as we immediately delve into the history of this oddball team of heroes!
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Exploring the origins and the members of this unique superhero team
The ‘Chief,’ also known as Professor Niles Caulder, created the Doom Patrol. The Chief, a paraplegic who dedicated his life to assembling a team of superheroes to battle crime and defend the ordinary people, was paraplegic. He planned a number of deliberate “accidents” while confined to a wheelchair in order to identify the ideal superhero team. The Chief’s master plan was to engineer these mishaps that would take the lives of the wealthy and successful.
The Chief went up to them and assisted them in transforming their feelings of powerlessness into fury once these people had begun to feel miserable about how their lives had changed. His targets, who had previously felt as though their lives had no purpose, suddenly thought they had nothing to lose and could go on missions and save others.
The Chief, a brilliant guy, used all of his knowledge to transform these ordinary individuals into superhuman force multipliers. The Chief assembled the “Doom Patrol,” a band of superheroes who were regarded as freaks, out of a group of carefully chosen individuals. The Doom Patrol were primarily a group of outcasts joined together, but they also possessed odd talents.
The Chief’s first superhero choice was ‘Robotman,’ and he sought inspiration from the ‘Mystery Man’ from the 1940s to create this being. The Chief intended to implant a human brain in a robot’s body, but his plan did not go exactly as he thought it would.
The Chief wanted to obtain his colleague’s brain to create Robotman, and he even planned a laboratory explosion that would destroy his colleague’s body and leave his brain behind. This plan was almost successful, but in the end, the colleague’s pet gorilla ‘Monsieur Mallah’ got his hands on ‘the brain’ and saved it. Later on, the ‘Brain’ created the Brotherhood of Evil, which consisted of a group of villains that often stirred up trouble for the Doom Patrol.
After the Chief’s first attempt at creating an unnatural superhero was a failure, he refined his techniques and set out to find a new brain. He came across ‘Cliff Steele,’ a race car driver who was quite famous internationally. Cliff Steele was quite the daredevil and often performed riskily on the race tracks.
The Chief was determined to get his brain to create the ‘Robotman,’ and carefully arranged an accident during the Indy 500 race. Cliff Steele’s car slid around in some oil, which caused a crash that left Cliff with many injuries. The Chief then showed up as ‘Doctor Caulder’ and volunteered to treat him. Though Steele’s body was completely obliterated, the Chief saved his brain. He then created a robot body that would function with a human brain and fitted Steel’s brain on this cybernetic body that was formed with the help of a special ceramic metal.
The Chief had designed the robotic body to have powers such as self-repairing and superhuman strength, but some faults in the inner wirings started affecting Steele’s brain. He started going crazy and went on a rampage across the city when the Chief finally approached him and made a formal introduction. He offered to fix his body, and Robotman let him perform surgery on him once again, without knowing that it was the Chief who had caused all this in the first place.
Steele now led a new life as a robot, and the Chief convinced him to join his group and fight evil in their society. His powers included superhuman durability and stamina, and he was also skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Robotman could also use his robotic limbs as boomerangs and fling them at his opponents during a fight. He also had the ability to perform ‘thermo kinesis,’ by which he could melt even dense metals with just a touch of his hand.
After successfully recruiting Robotman, The Chief then recruited ‘Elasti-Girl’ as the second member of the team. ‘Rita Farr,’ who later became Elasti-Girl, was a renowned Hollywood actress until the Chief decided to wreck her life in order to make her a part of his team.
Besides being an actress, Rita was also an Olympic-level swimmer and had even won a gold medal at the Olympics. The Chief planned an accident in Africa, where Rita was shooting for a new movie. When Rita was performing one of her stunts, she insisted on swimming with crocodiles in order to get a good shot without using any special effects. However, the crocodiles soon started approaching her, and she tried her best to swim away from them in order to escape.
Though she managed to evade the crocodiles, Rita ended up in an unknown location where she inhaled some strange vapors that caused her to lose consciousness. Upon recovering, she discovered that her body could now grow twice its size on will and that she even had the ability to shrink her body. There was no limit to her ability to expand or shrink her body, and she could sometimes even enlarge just a specific part of her body.
When the news of her newfound abilities spread, people started labeling her as a freak, and Rita’s bright career was ruined. She was devastated, and the Chief decided that the time to approach her had now come. He offered Rita a place in his superhero team, which consisted of other freaks who just wanted to do good for society.
She joined the team and, in the future, even married another member of the Doom Patrol, Steve Dayton aka Mento. Besides the ability to alter her body’s size, Rita also possessed powers such as superhuman strength and the ability to regrow entire parts of her body.
Finally, Larry Trainor, aka, Negative Man, was the last member of the original Doom Patrol. He used to work as a pilot in the US Air Force until the Chief orchestrated an accident on one of their experimental aircraft. Larry was manning the aircraft X-19 and had reached beyond the Earth’s atmosphere when the Chief caused the aircraft’s guidance system to fall apart. The aircraft’s controls started malfunctioning, and Larry was exposed to a lot of radiation before becoming unconscious.
In this state, his body floated around the stratosphere for several hours before the aircraft finally landed back on Earth due to the gravitational pull. He regained consciousness just in time to land the X-19 on the ground safely. Larry then noticed a search plane that was having difficulty landing, and he felt as though a rush of energy was flowing through his body towards the aircraft. In the form of this energy, Larry managed to guide the safety plane to a safe landing and then realized that he could now produce radiation energy.
He even checked into a hospital in order to treat his skin, which had now become translucent and was significantly deformed due to the radiation. Since the doctors did not know how to treat him, they quarantined him in a special room covered with lead-lined walls. The Chief then approached Larry in the disguise of a stranger and gave him special radiation-proof bandages.
Larry then began wearing these bandages every time he left the quarantine room and was quite bitter about this new life where he had an appearance of a mummy. He decided to leave society and live in isolation, where he discovered the full extent of his energy powers. Larry soon began referring to his ‘energy self’ as Negative Man.
Negative Man was then approached by a physician known as ‘Doctor Drew’ to work as his assistant. Though Larry agreed to do the job, he couldn’t help but feel something was amiss. He soon discovers that Drew is a crazed genius who wants to take over the world. Larry quits this job for who he refers to as ‘Doctor Death’ and returns to flying planes for a commission. However, Doctor Death now swears revenge upon Larry, and he sabotages his flying mission.
Doctor Death then tries to get Larry to unleash his powers and use them to destroy the government by attacking important political leaders. Though Larry tries his best to escape Doctor Death, he is eventually captured by him and trapped in a cell lined with lead walls. The Chief then appears in Larry’s life and reveals his real identity. He promises to help Larry deal with Doctor Death and even offers him a place in the Doom Patrol. Larry accepts his offer, and thus, the Negative Man joins the group.
Negative Man’s powers included the ability to generate black electrical energy, which could travel in an astral form and return to his body at will. He could also absorb thermal energies and convert them into energy blasts during fights. Moreover, he can project energy and create waves of heat that can cause explosions. Negative Man also has the ability to fly around the skies, as well as pass through solid objects by changing his body density. However, he cannot pass through lead since it’s a high-density element.
Together, Robotman, Elasti-Girl, and Negative Man formed the original Doom Patrol under the guidance of the Chief ‘Niles Caulder. Over the course of time, the Doom Patrol had newer members such as Crazy Jane, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Mento, and so on. Crazy Jane, also known as Kay Challis, was an essential member of the Doom Patrol who joined the group at a later date. Crazy Jane was the alternate personality of Kay Challis, who suffered from a dissociative identity disorder and had a total of about 64 alternate identities. She was exposed to a ‘gene bomb,’ which gave unique personalities and superpowers to every single one of her identity, thereby making her a mighty being.
All about the popular Doom Patrol TV series
The Doom Patrol series was first televised in 2019 and has been running for around three seasons, with a total of 35 episodes. The series explores the life of these strange bunch of superheroes as they go on various missions together and help make the world a better place. Created by Jeremy Carver, this series has been quite a hit and has even won an Emmy award for ‘Outstanding Stunt Coordination’ in 2021.
The series includes the original Doom Patrol team and some other new additions such as Cyborg, Crazy Jane, Silas Stone, and many others. Some of the notable actors that played the lead roles were Diane Guerrero, who portrayed Crazy Jane; April Bowlby, who played the role of Elasti-Girl and Matt Bomer, who plays the role of Larry Trainor, aka, Negative Man. Timothy Dalton played the part of the Chief, while Brendan Fraser portrayed the character of Cliff Steele.
The series has been ongoing for about three years now and has been renewed for a fourth season at HBO max. It has been quite loved by viewers so far, who regard the show as weird and strange but in the best possible way! The Doom Patrol series combines a superhero theme with some good old dark comedy, making it an extraordinary watch.
The writers have done a great job at developing a solid plot that keeps the audience hooked, as the storylines are pretty unpredictable and intriguing. The actors also do a commendable job at breathing life into these wonderful characters, and Doom Patrol is genuinely a breath of fresh air in the current pool of superhero TV shows!
The comic book origins explored
The origins of the Doom Patrol were explored in Dc’s comic series ‘My Greatest Adventure.’ Released in June 1963, the 80th issue of this comic was titled ‘the Doom Patrol,’ and it formally introduced this strange superhero team in the DC Universe. The comic first introduced the Chief and then dived into the origin stories of the original Doom Patrol, consisting of Robotman, Elasti-Girl and Negative Man.
After bringing the three of them in one place, the Chief revealed that he had performed the initial surgery on Robotman, thus saving his life or at least his brain from dying. The Doom Patrol are pretty impressed with this revelation and seem willing to join his team.
The Chief even gives them a tour of his headquarters, and they come across the ‘nerve center,’ a room from where the Chief can contact any place on Earth when a disaster strikes. Just then, the news starts playing on a huge screen in the nerve center, and a reporter appears onscreen to talk about a time bomb due to set off at any minute.
Apparently, a deadly missile bomb has been hidden in the middle of a shipment at a harbor, and the detectors cannot locate the exact crate that contains the bomb. The Chief asks Negative Man to use his powers and send the dark shadowy form of energy within his body to the harbor to locate the bomb. While this energy form leaves his body, Negative Man’s physical body slumps to the floor, and the Chief tells the other members that his energy form has sixty seconds to return to his body, or he will die.
Of course, Negative Man’s energy form is successful in his mission and returns with the missile. The Chief then asks Rita, also known as Elasti-Girl, to take care of this explosive by shrinking herself to get inside the missile. The Chief guides her through it and tells her exactly how to diffuse the missile. She then returns to her human form, and the group is overjoyed after having saved the lives of hundreds of people by taking care of the missile. They are even more determined to become a part of the Doom Patrol team officially.
In the second chapter of this issue, titled ‘The Challenge of the Timeless Commander,’ the Chief discovers a secret picture of an alien spacecraft that has landed on Earth. The Chief uses various drone rockets to keep an eye on any unusual activity, and this rocket spotted the alien spacecraft.
The Chief further investigates this spacecraft and discovers that it has a secret weapon capable of turning any matter into atomic fuel. This could have disastrous effects on humanity if not used correctly, as any atomic fuel is potentially explosive and can create a huge bomb blast that could even destroy the Earth.
The Chief sends the Doom Patrol to locate the ship and bring back this atomic converter. In the meantime, ‘General Immortus’ learns about this spacecraft, and he too is determined to get his hands on this weapon. General Immortus has been a long-standing enemy of the Chief, who has been defeated by this immortal mastermind on many occasions.
He is determined not to let Immortus gain this weapon, and the Chief communicates with the Doom Patrol and gives them instructions to ensure a smooth mission. Once they reach the spacecraft, they observe that it is being protected by an eye-shaped ‘electronic spotter’ and a cannon that shoots freezing bolts of ice upon detecting any human presence.
They form a plan, and while Negative Man uses his energy form to block the vision of this electronic detector, Rita enlarges herself and destroys the eye on top of the sensor. Once sixty seconds are about to get over, Negative Man’s energy form returns to his body, and the detector spots these humans and shoots ice at them. Both Negative Man and Robotman are entirely frozen, while Rita is still enlarged and only finds her legs frozen due to the ice blast.
According to the plan, Robotman needs to use his strength to destroy this ice machine, but he finds it increasingly difficult to do so as the machine blasts him with ice with every step he takes. Finally, he succeeds in destroying it, and the Chief asks the group to hurry up and enter the spacecraft before General Immortus shows up. They enter the ship, locate the atomic converter and successfully get their hands on it. General Immortus then shows up and offers them a choice between either surrendering to him or dying.
Robot Man tries to go up against him, but the General shoots at him with a polarization ray that stops all motor functioning within his body. He then attacks Negative Man, while Rita shrinks and hides within the Robot Man’s metal body. Rita sneakily turns off the polarization ray, thereby undoing all the damage caused to Robot Man and Negative Man.
While the Doom Patrol regroups, the General gets trapped within the spaceship as it prepares to take off on its own. General Immortus boasts about being able to understand its controls, but unfortunately for him, he presses the wrong button, which causes the ship to blow into pieces. After a long day of carrying out missions and fighting off General Immortal, the Doom Patrol then returns to the Chief’s headquarters as the comic comes to an end.
Conclusion
Though the Doom Patrol were an odd bunch of superheroes, they came together to form quite a powerful team. The unique characters with tragic origin stories, supernatural powers ranging from robotics to dark energy projection, and exciting story arcs made the Doom Patrol a massive hit with audiences and garnered many fans!