To finish the Doom Patrol retrospective, let’s go back to the pre-Crisis days for the storyline that acts as the epilogue of their original series.
New Teen Titans #9 (1981)
by Marv Wolfman & George Pérez
Mento is a no-show at the beginning of the series; in fact, he hasn’t been seen since the death of the first Doom Patrol. He’s apparently obsessed with finding a way to avenge Elasti-Girl, leaving Beast Boy behind.
This is all connected to a plot to steal the fictional super-metal Promethium… not to be confused with the ACTUAL element of promethium… that Mento’s company has discovered.
But this has nothing to do with the Doom Patrol so far.
New Teen Titans #10 (1981)
by Marv Wolfman & George Pérez
This is the very first issue of New Teen Titans I ever read, and it includes an introduction to the old Doom Patrol.
So Beast Boy recaps both his origin story and the death of the Doom Patrol.
With all that business involving Promethium, Beast Boy decided to find what happened to Mento.
This leads to a reunion with Robotman; since Beast Boy wasn’t in the failed DP relaunch, this is the first time they meet since 1968.
Since this was published before Robotman showed up in DC Comics Presents, we can thank Beast Boy’s scientists for making him a decent-looking body instead of the travesty of his first relaunch.
Or more realistically, thank George Pérez.
Beast Boy might be the only person in the world who actually WANTS to see Mento again.
Marv Wolfman is at the top of his game at this point of the series. Notice this little interaction explains why Beast Boy avoided the Doom Patrol survivors and even links it to his friendship with Cyborg. Good stuff!
And once again the rest of the story has nothing to do with the Doom Patrol… this is a VERY busy series with A LOT of subplots!
I must, however, point out just how ridiculously small their table is. That’s not enough to hold a meeting of the Fantastic Four, and the Teen Titans has seven members right now!
Also Beast Boy is morally wounded in battle. That might be slightly more important.
New Teen Titans #13 (1981)
by Marv Wolfman & George Pérez
But enough with the preamble. After a couple of issues that deal with other plots, let’s kick off the saga for real.
Robotman isn’t responding to calls anymore so Robin, Cyborg and Kid Flash track him to Uganda.
And when they find him… well, the cover didn’t lie.
This moment was also in the Teen Titans cartoon, by the way.
That must have been horrific for someone who had not read the original series, where Robotman survived WAY worse.
Never change, Robotman, never change.
Meanwhile Beast Boy has survived because Wonder Girl and Starfire took him to Paradise Island…
…where he’s allowed to stay on a technicality. Because when the Amazon say that “no man shall set foot on Paradise Island”, they mean it LITERALLY.
Turns out Madame Rouge and General Zahl have been hiding in an awesome Pérez background these African ruins.
And underneath that, they find a GIGANTIC lair…
…as well as Madame Rouge.
Yeah that’s about the expected reaction.
Robin manages to calm him down and allow him to be the one to take charge, probably because he knows something about being obsessed with revenge.
Since Kid Flash is with them, they only need 0.00000001 nanoseconds to find the guy that Rouge has taken prisoner.
That would be Mento, who despite being drugged looks better than in the Silver Age.
Then the Titans deal with some goons wearing super-armors.
They’re still missing Mento’s super-helmet.
It’s going to be hard to scout this entire lair to find it!
So the Teen Titans bring Mento back to their ship… under Madame Rouge’s watch.
New Teen Titans #14 (1981)
by Marv Wolfman & George Pérez
Dammit Mento, you had ONE chance at not sucking!!!
The entire team regroups in Uganda, and Beast Boy is finally reunited with his adoptive father.
Or he would, if Mento wasn’t nuts.
Robotman, I told you that you should have waited the Teen Titans revival to resurrect!
Please note that Beast Boy (and this comic in general) doesn’t have the highest opinion of Mento’s superhero career. Proof that Wolfman did his research!
Mento then gets into costume, and hilariously both Starfire and Robing take shots at him… the latter at Mento’s older costumes as well.
Although honestly this is not AS bad as the originals. I would rank this at the fourth worst Mento costume up to this point (out of four, but still!).
Aaaaand he immediately goes on a rampage.
Alright, alright, to be fair to Mento, he IS under mind control right now.
But on the other hand, would it be THAT out of character for him to attack everyone out of sheer stupidity?
He’s also SIGNIFICANTLY stronger than in the Silver Age (now that’s a sentence I don’t get to write often!), considering he’s able to overpower Starfire.
He even attacks Beast Boy, forcing Robotman to come to his defense.
But thanks to Raven’s empathic abilities, she’s able to make him hallucinate Elasti-Girl and eventually stop.
Madame Rouge is obviously not happy that her attempt to get back at the Doom Patrol failed.
I’m ambivalent to her new look… it’s a great design that makes her stand out, but A) it’s kind of wrong to give armor to a shapeshifter B) IT’S STILL NOT RED.
The latter is infuriating because HER LACKEYS WEAR RED.
Also, why is she STILL allied with General Zahl after he killed Chief without her consent?
Meanwhile Mento is himself again, and he narrates the origins of the Doom Patrol.
Robotman’s return also gets a shout-out. Even George Pérez can’t make that design look good!
Cyborg… you repaired him LAST ISSUE, how is this news for you!?
As for how Madame Rouge kidnapped Mento… well he’s an idiot.
A word of advice for people in superhero universes.
If your fun-loving wisecracking hero stops making jokes and gets incredibly serious… BE AFRAID.
(see also: Spider-Man)
And then THE ENTIRE VILLAIN BASE FLIES OFF.
Specifically it flies to the fictional country of Zandia, which Madame Rouge wants to take over.
If Zandia is in the Baltic Sea and they started in Uganda… that’s about a 4,000 mile journey!!!
Zandia will be the go-to fictional country of this series; it’s where Brother Blood will originate.
It’s introduced as a nation with “no major industry, no imports and no exports”, which… isn’t really a thing.
Also with a population of 3,769, in 2025 it would be the world’s second-smallest country, well above Vatican City’s 800 and WAY below Tuvalu’s 10,000.
It wasn’t particularly better in 1981, when Vatican City would still have been the smallest but Nauru had about 7,000 people and Tuvalu about 8,000.
So yeah, Zandia is TINY even by micronation standards!
At least until the invasion. Its population might have doubled thanks to all the soldiers, despite all the murder.
Ridiculously, Beast Boy has been hanging on the flying base IN HUMAN FORM the entire time.
Those suits are quite impressive!
Although the comic should REALLY stop using defeating Starfire as shorthand to showcase how powerful villains are.
(spoiler alert: it won’t)
The Teen Titans try to rescue Beast Boy… only it’s Madame Rouge in disguise again.
And so we end with the Teen Titans being taken prisoner by Rouge and Zahl…
…and Beast Boy by the new Brotherhood of Evil, including an AMAZING new design for The Brain.
And that’s where we’re going to stop for now.
Next time: the final confrontation with the Brotherhood and the official end of the retrospective.
Historical significance: 8/10
As far as the Teen Titans are concerned this is an important storyline. But Zandia also shows up elsewhere in DC Comics (although not anywhere near as much at Latveria at Marvel).
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
This series can be a bit too crowded at times, and later Wolfman will needlessly complicate stuff… but here both him and Pérez are firing on all cylinders.