Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Doom Patrol

On the new blog DC's started, THE SOURCE, there've been several preview panels/pages of art for the upcoming series that pairs two of DC's underdog teams.

Both look great, IMO!

From interviews, it would seem that the DP will be focusing pretty heavily on the original four (if you count Chief). Other members who've been on the team aren't being ignored, exactly, but obviously won't be driving story. I kind of think the most recent additions (Bumblebee and Vox) might still be around on the edges, but I don't have anything concrete to back that up.

Anyway, the artist stated that he was inspired by Emma Peel of AVENGERS (British TV, not Marvel superteam) fame when he designed Rita's look. A good match.

As for METAL MEN-- they've been returned to the classic, pre OYL looks (ie- more human looking, not TikTok from Oz), though the new character, Copper, is on the roll call. Exactly what I would've wanted.

I think these paired strips will be a blast, though I probably would've bought each as a solo series, so I'm saving $ even with an increased price tag.

(EDIT - June 7, 2010 - removed 'Metal Men' from thread title as Doom Patrol no longer has a back-up feature. - Moderator Cobie)

Yeah, I've got several $3.99 titles added to my preorders... this will definitely be on next month's order.

I'm looking forward to this on an almost AMBUSH BUG level!

^^^ As am I!

I've never read a Doom Patrol book before but I really liked the spin Geoff Johns gave them in Teen Titans and any book that might feature Mal and Karen Duncan in is an automatic lock for my money.

(Having the too-cool-for-school Metal Men as <strike>back-up</strike> sorry, co-feature is just icing on the cake.)

I just hope the kill-happy Giffen doesn't start looking the former Titans' way when it comes time to off members. Remember Keith - Nudge, Grunt and Vortex suck so much more!

I haven't really been into Doom Patrol since Morrison took over (two or three relaunches ago)but I'll give the new book a shot. I'm not interested in the Metal Men though, so it'll really have to grab me and do it in two issues or I'll have to pass.

The preview pages look great! I have high hopes.

I haven't seen these pages yet, thank you for posting them! I am interested in this book, it has a great creative team, and I love that Giffen is going a different route with this incarnation of the team. Hopefully it will be better than Byrne's last attempt, I just wish that we would be seeing Mento, Bumblebee, and...Vox (not a fan of his development from OYL).

I think Mento is supposed to show up in a later issue, so maybe the others will be added as well.

Reactions to DOOM PATROL #1:(SPOILERS)

- Rita comes across as an older woman, which is interesting in a comic book.
- I get that they're all screwed up, but I hope it doesn't get hit over our heads *too* much. I still want to be able to identify with them as people rather than just read about a bunch of nutcases.
- Don't know who "Nudge" was, but that was kinda harsh... good riddance.
- I'm not a big fan of the Robot Man redesign. For some reason I don't like how he looks like a younger man, facially.
- It's interesting how much of a dick Caulder is. I find it more intriguing than the outright villain that Morrison turned him out to be.

I read it. Very disappointing. All of a sudden Challenger of the Unknown and wrestler Rick "Rocky" Davis is a sensitive priest/counselor? And the DP themselves? What a bunch of whiny losers. What unidimensional characterizations. The Metal Men were more nuanced. I fear Giffen, like too many comics creators of his duration, has become a caricature of himself. If you took all that was bad about 5YL, it would be this Doom Patrol. No fun, no whimsy, just misery. And Nudge was created by John Byrne a few years ago. An annoying character, but we all know the the obvious metatext here, don't we? Giffen wastes Byrne's character! Joy.

Well all I can say is "Thank God for Byrne's run" otherwise that would have been Mal or Karen Duncan biting it in the first issue. And I can not have that!

Although I'm still saying a nightly prayer for their continued safety especially now that...

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... artist Matthew Clark has revealed that he's busy drawing another member's death in an upcoming issue! Remember Keith - Grunt and Vortex are still out there!

Okay, it was a harsh opening for Nudge, true. But then, we get a shot of Karen and lemme tell ya, BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! Hey, everybody does it. *Points to the old timers that get the reference.*

The story had a lot of action in a very short time. It also had a lot of hands in pockets psychobabble, which I have never cared for and don't like. But, it did serve to give us a fast personality update on the characters, which is what was needed. Yes, a lot of us know the old characters and love them, but a lot of the new kids don't know them that much except from the later failed runs.

I actually thought Rita was fairly close to the original character. Larry seemed a bit more of a horn dog, and Cliff needs more of that old school charm that seemed to wow the ladies, even though he has a robot body.

I do ask that they don't do up his robotic body so much that he cant do things like be twisted into a giant drill to clear a hole into a collapsed cave or something. I loved those old types of stories.

I've never been a big fan of metal men. Sorry, just haven't. it was nice. Nice to look at, some nice humor. But its the Doom Patrol for me.

The DP story sucked. The Metal Men story was faboo!!

That seems to be a consensus for those familiar with DP or at best, it was wait and see further.

Coming in with no connection to DP, for me it was entertaining and fulfilled my info-junkey requirements by making sure that I knew at least something about each character.

Unfortunately, the message I'm taking from postings on the boards, what I'm being told about the DP members isn't consistent with what was?

OK I finally read this issue...

... and what a disappointment!

The Metal Men story was at least pretty good with whatever small problems it may've had smoothed over by the fantastic art.

But the Doom Patrol tale was a hot mess! It actually took me two reads to get through it because the writing and art just seemed so... off-putting? I don't know what it was but this comic wasn't written for me.

I didn't like any of the characters except Bumblebee, and that may only be because she was the one we saw the least of, though I did hate her new re-design. Has Matthew Clark not seen the JLA's Queen Bee? Why has he given Karen the exact same ugly look?

But the others were all grim, moody, depressives. Angst has its place in comics but this was too much. I read comics for escapist FUN, not to be bored by someone else's problems.

I wasn't keen on Rocky Davis as the team's priest all of a sudden either. It just totally seems like one of those pointless developments that all future Challengers writers will understandably ignore.

Nudge's death didn't bother me too much because she was a bad character from a bad era of this team, but what I don't like is the mood it sets for this book. Giffen is obviously (IMO) setting this book up as the type of read where life is cheap and any member can die at any time, and not even your teammates are going to care about your passing.

OK. That type of setting can and has worked in the past (most explicitly in Suicide Squad which had a revolving cast of minor and expendable characters) but this is the Doom Patrol which has 4 core members, 1 prominent supporting member (Mento) and (now) exactly TWO disposable members - Bumblebee and Vox! How long do we expect the kill-happy Giffen to keep either of those two characters around? And as DC's first two African-American heroes(*) they are way too important to end up as cannon fodder in a lame book that they have no history with anyway.

I don't know. I might just be worrying needlessly but I have a bad feeling that the writing is on the wall for Mal in this book. I hope I'm wrong though. I will give this book until the Blackest Night issue (#5 I think) to improve/impress me but if it still hasn't done so by then I'll be dropping it.

(*) Of their respective genders.

This longtime DOOM PATROL fan enjoyed #1 quite a bit.

Isn't God the ultimate unknown? I don't mind this former Challenger finding a home in DP.

Lots of generally negative outlooks here but that is to be expected on a team of super-freaks. I was a little surprised no one had any interest in retrieving/rescuing Grunt but I suppose without Nudge he would be really more of a nusiance. I hated Byrne's brief run so don't care what happens to his added-on characters.

I would, however, be very curious to see what has become of Kid Slick, Flash-Forward and Freak from Arcudi's run (I know Fever died in TERROR TITANS).

Seeing Karen was wonderful. Giffen's doing a bubbly take on her that is... different for her, but that's okay.

Balancing out the negative attitudes of DP was the second feature starring METAL MEN. By far the best of DC's second features I've read, and also PACKED with panels and dialogue, I felt as if I'd read a full issue of a MM comic.

I LOLed at the Platinum/Magnus scene where she has cooked for him. Diagnostic tests... salivating...

Even if I loathed the DP story, which I don't, I'd gladly lay down the $4 monthly to get the METAL MEN by Giff/DeMatteis and Maguire. I've loved everything they've ever done togather.

Warning: a patented MLLASH opinionfest follows; statements may or may not be supported by actual facts


THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT DOOM PATROL or THE LITTLE SUPERHERO TEAM THAT COULD (but hasn't so far)

What is it with the DP?

What other super-team has had such a spotty sales history yet continues to be relaunched time and again?

I mean, DP is no JLA, Teen Titans or Legion. Those teams have had periods of years where they were top sellers for DC, so when sales dip, it's no surprise they are revamped and relaunched.

But why DOOM PATROL? I'd consider DP to be more on the side of the fence with The Ravers and Blood Pack... y'know, fun for a minute but never top sellers and no one is in a hurry to revive them.

But DP has consistently been relaunched, sometimes after lying dormant for years, sometimes just months after a previously failed relaunch ended.

Let's review the DP history.

1. Launches in MY GREATEST ADVENTURE, which later officially changes title to DDOM PATROL. Series ends with a literal bang that was at that point never done before. The MGA/DP series lasted 41 issues. The concept lay dormant for years until...

2. The SHOWCASE revival, which ran 3 issues. I loved it as a kid. The Kupperberg/Staton relaunch was heavily inlfuenced by the then all-new X-Men (multiracial/multinational cast with lots of in-fighting) but a relaunched title was not to be. That is, until...

3. The late-80s Kupperberg/Lightle/Larson revival. Running 18 issues, it obviously wasn't a huge sales success, which led directly to...

4. The Grant Morrison era. Here's where the team gets some critical notice. And it's such a departure from the previous 18 issues, I do think it fair to call it a relaunch. It lasted from issue 19-63. Rachel Pollack took over for issues 64-87 aka the VERTIGO era. She upped the ante on Morrison's weird take to varying degrees of success. The sloppy McKeever artwork for the final issues remains the worst comic book artwork I have ever seen to date, but Pollack's weird stories sometimes were not much better. She did add Kate Godwin AKA Coagula to the team, a character I loved. Overall, this 87-issue run remains the longest run of any DP comic even though it has 3 distinctly different eras (Kupperberg/Morrison/Pollack). And the team goes dormant again for a few more years until...

5. The Arcudi relaunch. This series lasted 22 issues and remains a favorite. Arcudi was classy enough to reveal what happened to Kate Godwin, Dorothy Spinner and Robotman after Pollack's run ended, when he certainly could have ignored that whole era. New characters like Flash-Forward and Kid Slick were fun. The book never took off saleswise and at one point was selling a mere 8000-9000ish issues a month. Rumour had it that the daughter of a high-ranking DC exec was a HUGE fan of this incarnation. Rumour also had it that it was the daughter of no less than DC top dawg Paul Levitz himself. This series most likely never would have lasted 22 issues otherwise. It was hardly any time until...

6. The John Byrne reboot. The DP is Byrned and all previous incarnations are retconned out. This travesty of a run is mercy-killed after 18 issues. And now, just a couple of years later we have...

7. The Giffen relaunch. # 1 was enjoyed by me, though the enjoyment may have been influenced by the excellent METAL MEN second feature. Giffen has the decency to at least acknowledge Byrne's addons to the team, though the few fans of Byrne's run probably wish he hadn't. The future will reveal how succesful this run will be, though fan reaction here has been mixed at best so far.

So what is it about DOOM PATROL that has a new creative team trotting out a revival hot off the heels of the previous failed attempt? Why does DC even allow so many attempts? It's just curious to me. You don't see a SEA DEVILS or CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN relaunch every few years... so there is definitely something about Doom Patrol...

Sounds like a writer's favorite. Dc is in the business of making money but part of that is keeping talent happy. Perhaps that's why?
From the boards I've been reading, most seem happy that Bryne's characters were acknowledged, then promptly killed, lol.

Doom Patrol is the Alpha Flight of the DC Universe. If you see them, they'll probably have all-new members, and all the old ones will be dead again. For awhile. Until they are slowly phased back in. And then the series ends again.

"Pinky! I have a brilliant idea! Let's relaunch a franchise with characters nobody has heard of, but using the name of an established team! Then, when it sputters and dies because nobody has any investment in these new characters, we'll slowly add in the characters that the original fans (who left already) wanted to read about in the first place, while phasing out the new characters (that anybody still reading is finally warming up to and wants to read about)! We'll so alienate the twelve remaining fans of the original premise that people will avoid anything we publish under that title for *decades!*"

"Narf!"

I liked the Doom Patrol story, not having any particular feeling for Nudge. It was weird, the sort of thing they're supposed to handle. They've been "freaks" together for years and have developed a cold, chip on the shoulder attitude with black humour and sarcasm - always with outsiders and even among themselves at this point.

The Metal Men story was classic, light-hearted, funny. I did think they overplayed the "where's Copper?" thing. Gold with a big ego - that's new to me, but it makes sense. He's always been more of a level-headed leader before.

I enjoyed #1 quite a bit, but I was a bit put off by the jadedness of the Patrollers. I'm used to them thinking of themselves individually the way they seem to now respond to others.

Still, I thought Rita's continued inner-freakishness to be thought-provoking. Cliff worked, but I found Larry to read like a new character.

I loved the Bumblebee in the dollhouse scene, but can't Karen still fly? And shoot-whatever-they-were beams out of her butt? OK- not her butt, but still...

I'd think some kind of armor wouldn't be so difficult to invent for her...

Where was Mal?

I really wish they'd gone with the evocative house that the DP was headquartered in when they appeared in TEEN TITANS in the mid-30s of that title. It was way more intriguing than super-mad-scientist island... though I guess there's much more fodder for laughs on the island, which would appeal to Giffin, I can see.

I wish they'd make the HQ more like the house, at least.

Loved the METAL MEN feature: though I was a bit disappointed in Gold's 'voice'. He always personified the 'good as gold', 'heart of gold' connotation to the metal, rather than the arrogant 'king of metals' characterization he's putting out here. Back to the responsometer-calibrater for Gold!

I'm glad Copper wasn't tossed onto the scrapheap, but the way the MM kept forgetting her was borderline cruel and not really all that humorous. It made me think something was wrong with their circuits, if anything.

I hope she and Platinum become friendly rather quickly, as robot-girl-cat-fighting doesn't sound so appealing. All right, it does-- but just once!!!

I thought Tina was 'over' Doc Magnus. Guess she got reprogrammed.

#2: The three classic DPers read more like the classic Fantastic Four than ever. Well, at least Robotman and Negative Man do. If I squint, I can imagine Thing at his grumpiest and Johnny Storm saying their lines. Though Larry is a bit wittier? more sardonic? than the Human Torch ever is.

When with these two, Rita doesn't really register, for me somehow. She finally sounds like a person when she's concerned over Negative Man exceeding his 'limit' late in the story. Most of her lines are questions. Sometimes she seems like she's leading, other times like she's not really paying attention.

Playing a role... but not too well.

She seemed much 'realer' when she teamed up with The Atom months (years?) ago and in her scene with Bumblebee last issue.

Somethin's up with Rita, I think.

The Starro-like Black Hole is an interesting Giffen opponent/antagonist. As yet, it doesn't seem he's really a villain- which is always nice to see, at least for me.

Great art, I thought. Interesting conflict with a curious antagonist. But the central characters aren't *quite* there, for me.

I enjoy seeing Bumblebee, even in her stuck-at-six-inches state (I'm assuming here- even though we've seen her at normal height since Countdown... maybe she's staying small for some psychological reason?). The revelations about her marriage to Mal (Vox) are disheartening, if only because we haven't seen hide nor hair of him in the series yet. We must be going to, though.

I hope they fight for their marriage. That'd be refreshing.

I'm glad this book is being published- I think it's the right creative team for it. There're are definitely ideas in play... but so far there's a spark that hasn't caught yet. For me, anyway.

Maybe it's just that they all seem a bit too familiar with each other.

METAL MEN: I'm wondering- should these 'second features' get threads of their own? Or be discussed by book, as we're doing here?

OK- the Copper joke has worn even thinnier than I found it last month. I only hope something comes of it, story-wise.

Still not liking Gold's voice. Like, at all.

I am enjoying 'Tina's reversion to her crazy-as-hell '60's persona. For a bit there, I thought she'd be a good character to spin out and join the Justice League or something. She seemed together.

Guess that was a misfire in her responsometer.

Mercury as a garden gnome... Lead and Iron combined to mow the grass... tee-hee!

Robot Hunter as their arch-enemy? Hope there's more to him than parody!

"Lame-Ass Robots Destroy Satellites!"

The boys have been reading the Metal Men Showcases, haven't they?

Tin thinking he 'killed' the TV when the satellites ran into each other was funny. Not enough of Iron/Lead/Mercury for me. This was about the right amount of space for Tin, who, frankly, can annoy (me) in doses larger than this.

By the way- the new TOYFARE has a pic of Mattel's upcoming (in 2010) action figure for Iron that is just stunning. Can't wait.

Well, three issues in and after a pretty rocky start, I'm starting to get into the groove of Giffen's DP. Either Giffen is finding his pace or as a reader I'm finding a way to enjoy it. Its not the easiest read by far, though. But I'm liking the play between all the characters and its so different from everything else that I'm glad I've read it when I'm done.

The Metal Men, meanwhile, is just a pleasure to read. It actually is the perfect follow-up to DP, to kind of make it a more strait-forward fun story after the complicated craziness of the DP. Copper is a great addition. Gold is great. Love Tina. Doc is perfect. The whole old JLI creative team is as awesome as ever.

For a $3.99 price I'd say this comic is ultimately worth it. Its got enough there to justify it even though neither story is in my top ten "must buy" titles at the moment. Perhaps this stands as the most successful attempt of doing an ongoing back-up by DC these days (from a quality stand-point, not sales).

I agree. I'm enjoying both series so far. I'm not excited about the Blackest Night tie ins, but will ride them out to see what happens. I'm enjoying the Metal Men, here, more than I've ever enjoyed them before. Copper is a great addition.

DP 3; I was struggling through the DP segment, but when I finally took a breath and started over, I enjoyed it. Mento and the Chief deserve a thorough ass-whipping from Rita.


The Metal Men segments make the issues complete; they are the PERFECT compliment to this version of DP. I seriously don't think I would be enjoying the DP stories as much WITHOUT the MM backups to compliment/offset them.

And yes, Copper is a great addition, even though I could not finish the mini that intro'ed her to the team. Now THAT was a difficult (impossible, for me) read!