Doom Patrol #92 (1964)
by Arnold Drake & Bruno Premiani
cover by Bob Brown
I can’t imagine why “Dr. Tyme” didn’t become a regular villain.
We begin with Elasti-Girl answering to an emergency call, presumably with all the citizens of the neighborhood appreciating the view.
Negative Man is being uncharacteristically, uhm, negative about her having some time to herself.
The emergency is saving a child locked inside a bank vault.
Who’s worse, Mother and Father Of The Year here or the security guard outsmarted by a literal baby?
Negative Man gets inside the vault to activate the switch that will open it… and AGAIN he’s completely useless.
Also Elasti-Girl is the one doing all the work, AGAIN.
If Chief pays them, she should definitely ask for a raise at this point.
One of the things that really sets apart this book from its contemporary DC series is how realistically its characters can act.
Anywhere else, this plot point would be dragged throughout the issue and we would maybe get an apology at the very end.
But Negative Man is man enough to admit he’s been acting out because he’s jealous of Mento.
Thankfully, Elasti-Girl has already figured out Mento is just. The. Worst.
And then Robotman drops by Mento’s office.
Mento has already written off Elasti-Girl as a potential love interest, but Robotman basically forces him to ask her out.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!? We had the chance to get rid of Mento in his first appearance and you just blew it!!!
We are then introduced to the villain of the story, Dr. Tyme, who conquered time by experimenting on frogs apparently.
And no, we don’t get ANY backstory for him.
We then see him on a “giant airliner”, where he’s slowed time.
I know airline security was something else in the 60s, but I hope he didn’t board in full costume!!!
Considering he says he has only slowed time by 4 times, should he really look THIS fast to other people?
At least we’re not told how much he slowed time for his descent, so he might be falling much more slowly. I think that if he was falling just 4 times slower than normal it would still be a lethal fall, especially since HE’S DROPPING HEAD FIRST.
So the plane is late and Dr. Tyme stole precious jewels.
Not a bad first impression, but I feel like if you have time-stopping powers you could probably make way more money in other ways.
Even legally!!!
You have to love Robotman’s explanation for how this could have been accomplished without time powers. Why would the thief bother to mess with the watches of other passengers, Cliff?
Once again, dude, WHAT ARE YOU DOING???
I mean, if Elasti-Girl had shown interest in Mento, I could put aside my intense distaste for the character and give props to Robotman.
But A) she clearly didn’t like him B) it’s not like Mento is the only guy in the world that would be interested in her.
So now Mento has a THROUGHLY UNDESERVED second chance with Elasti-Gir… and he blows it.
You know, if Dr.Tyme had a halfway decent costume and a better name, I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of him.
He just happens to be pulling a robbery next to the Mento date, and conveniently Elasti-Girl wore her costume beneath her evening clothes.
And she follows Dr. Tyme to his hideout. Because Elasti-Girl is the best.
Wait, I thought the Doom Patrol already figured out the thief had time powers when Elasti-Girl argued about it with Robotman!
Also the convenience doesn’t stop, because now Chief just happens to own exactly the kind of tech he needs to find Tyme.
As all themed supervillains, Dr. Tyme is contractually obligated to have a themed lair.
Just look at the level of detail Premiani includes for such a minor scene!
Alright, at this point it’s pretty clear that while Elasti-Girl does pretty much everything she’s TERRIBLE at stealth.
And that she’s EXTREMELY vulnerable when she shrinks.
We’re used to people like Ant-Man and Atom keeping their regular strength when they shrink; this is most definitely not the case for Elasti-Girl.
So I could cut her some slack in some situations, but I still have to ask: would it really be THAT hard for her to just grow to regular size???
Mento then teams up with the Doom Patrol to find Elasti-Girl.
Dr. Tyme’s lair is in a castle. Come on, you’re supposed to stay on theme! Make it a clock tower or something!
Also: this is set where, exactly? Where did Dr. Tyme get a full castle like this in America???
Not that the heroes need to rescue Elasti-Girl: she rescues HERSELF.
Too bad that the guys don’t know that, so when Negative Man throws a grenade full of knockout gas (as you do), he ends up knocking HER out. Dr. Tyme is fine thanks to his mask.
For crying out loud, Negative Man, you’re being less useful than Mento!!!
Great job, Negative Man, now you owe your life to Mento.
WHY DO THEY LET THE BAD GUY GO???
Since Elasti-Girl is knocked out in her giant form and she’s too heavy to move (even for Robotman?), Mento has to use his mind powers.
And that’s how the story ends, rather abruptly and with the unpleasant suggestion that Mento could use his powers to warp Elasti-Girl’s mind.
Historical significance: 0/10
This is the only Silver Age appearance of Dr. Tyme. He does show up in future incarnations of the book, plus he’s among the scientists in the “52” series. You might remember we saw quite a few Dial H for H.E.R.O. villains there, like Bug Baron and Dr. Cyclops.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
It says a lot about what we can accept in comics that I have absolutely no problem believing Dr. Tyme can create a time manipulating device but I draw the line at unexplained American castles.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
A mixed bag. The characters are as usual the strongest part of it, although Chief is surprisingly absent from most of the story. The villain is a bit out of nowhere, but he’s effective and memorable (again: give him a better costume and he’s a close contender with Chronos as a time-themed villain).
So what doesn’t work today? The way the very forced romance is written and just how incompetent the team seems to be without Elasti-Girl. It started out as a cool way to distinguish her from the other heroines of the era, but at this point it’s ridiculous.
Think about it: if Elasti-Girl was the only superhero of the story, she would’ve caught Dr. Tyme!
Speaking of which, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for letting him escape.
I exaggerated my distaste for Mento just a bit for comedic effect, but once again I have to ask: was anyone reading this at the time NOT rooting against him???
Times Robotman has been damaged: 7
Issues when Robotman is never damaged: 7
Interesting letters: I’m not the only one bothered by the lack of color consistency.
Also a letter from future writer Mike Friedrich (who was 15 years old in 1964), asking for Robotman to be closer to the design of the Golden Age Robotman.
(yes, I will cover him in the origins retrospective)
Something I took from this is that Cliff is much more accepting of his uniqueness than Larry is. This might be because Chief keeps holding out hope to Larry for a cure, while Cliff is condemned to his robotic body for life. While I believe Cliff has very strong feelings toward Rita, he accepts that a relationship between himself and Rita is impossible, so he tries to steer Rita toward Dayton, who admittedly would be quite a catch (with a personality transplant.) Larry, meanwhile, wrestles with his jealousy despite knowing he would be unable to maintain a relationship with Rita.
There are other signs that Cliff has accepted his robotic body and is almost cheerful about it. He seems enthusiastic and even proud of his ability to sacrifice his body parts for the team, as an example.
Dr. Tyme has one of the most Silver Age costumes ever. He totally should have been a Batman TV series villain.