Let’s jump ahead a little bit and see what happens to the second formation of the Doom Patrol.
I will only be looking at how the characters develop and to what happened to the older cast, not at the individual stories.
Doom Patrol vol2 #1 (1987)
by Paul Kupperberg & Steve Lighle
Kupperberg is once again the only one pushing for this new incarnation.
Steve Lighle won’t last long as the penciler. Apparently there were disagreements between him and Kupperberg, with Lighle being promised he would be given the chance to contribute to the plots but never being allowed to.
Celsius sports a complete redesign, and by now they’re really emphasizing she’s Indian… which, at this time in superhero comics, means she’s grey-skinned.
The series also introduced a new bad guy, who is also eventually revealed to be her father.
Tempest has been working as a doctor, busy growing his Reed Richards hair.
Celsius has reassembled the team because she believes Chief (her husband) survived the blast that killed the Doom Patrol… but all Robotman finds is proof that Elasti-Girl is dead.
This is a gut-wrenching moment, and Lightle sells it masterfully.
I can see what Chief saw in her. They were definitely made for each other.
Doom Patrol vol2 #2 (1987)
by Paul Kupperberg & Steve Lighle
The series doesn’t fully embrace the absurd until Morrison arrives on the book with issue #19 (which will be outside of the scope of the retrospective)… but keep in mind that the first big bad claims to be a reincarnation of Buddha.
Negative Woman has gone back to working for the Soviet Union.
She reconnects with the Doom Patrol once the original Negative Man is revealed to have survived.
Doom Patrol vol2 #3 (1987)
by Paul Kupperberg & Steve Lighle
After Kalki has been defeated, we learn that the only way to save Negative Man’s life is for Negative Woman to renounce her powers… which she won’t do.
At this point she wears a wig by the way.
Doom Patrol vol2 #4 (1987)
by Paul Kupperberg & Steve Lighle
New member Lodestone joins the team. She gets super-strength through magnetism.
The other new member is Karma, a stereotypical bad boy with the power to give others bad luck.
As if the Doom Patrol needed more!!!
Also Negative Man IS still alive after all… just in a rough shape without his powers.
Doom Patrol vol2 #6 (1988)
by Paul Kupperberg & Erik Larsen
Steve Lighle only lasted the first five issues, being replaced by Erik Larsen for most of Kupperberg’s run. He’s VERY rough this early in his career and he ALSO didn’t get along with the writer… in fact, whenever Larsen didn’t like the plot, he just changed it.
Apparently no editor ever complained about it, something that even Larsen found weird.
You can see much of the manic energy Larsen would eventually bring to Savage Dragon, with tons of disposable characters showing up with barely any explanation and then disappear.
Except whenever Savage Dragon does it, usually it’s for satire; Doom Patrol plays this straight.
Doom Patrol vol2 #7 (1988)
by Paul Kupperberg & Erik Larsen
Another member is introduced: Scott Fisher, a kid with the power to burn anything he touches.
His codename is supposed to be Blaze, but he’s mostly just Scott Fisher.
He’s the first of the new members who thematically fits the Doom Patrol, since he HAS to wear gloves all the time to avoid destroying anything he touches.
The only downside to Lodestone’s powers is that her eyes are permanently blank, and Karma’s downside is that he looks ridiculous with a mohawk.
Doom Patrol vol2 #9 (1988)
by Paul Kupperberg & Erik Larsen
Negative Man manages to be more depressed than Robotman in this series, which is saying something!
Also, Robotman has started to wear actual clothes again.
Garguax is back, and he REALLY let himself go. Also apparently he managed to accidentally destroy his own planet.
Superman vol2 #20 (1988)
by John Byrne
The Doom Patrol has a team-up with Superman, where they fight Metallo.
Fitting, considering that he’s ALSO a brain inside a robot body.
Metallo is even able to control Robotman against his will…
…which goes just about as you’d expect.
The rest of the team doesn’t get to do much.
Doom Patrol vol2 #13 (1988)
by Paul Kupperberg & Erik Larsen
After briefly recovering the use of his energy body, Negative Man is restored to his human form.
But it’s actually because Negative Man missed his powers SO badly that he sent a supervillain to steal them from Negative Woman. So he’s going to need another kind of bandages soon.
Doom Patrol vol2 #14 (1988)
by Paul Kupperberg & Erik Larsen
This issue introduced the monkey-faced girl Dorothy Spinner, who has reality warping powers.
She will become a full member of the team during the Morrison run, but she was initially conceived as a one-off character; I bet most fans of the Morrison run (and I’m one as well) don’t even know he didn’t create her.
I would make the joke that Lodestone is in a skimpy bikini throughout the story for important plot points and not for blatant fanservice, but I wouldn’t be fooling anyone.
Doom Patrol vol2 #15 (1988)
by Paul Kupperberg & Erik Larsen
As if Scott Fisher didn’t already have enough problems, with the whole incinerating touch… turns out the same stuff that gave him powers also gave him leukemia.
Also Chief has survived. Which means that, at this point, the explosion ONLY killed Elasti-Girl.
Doom Patrol vol2 #17 (1989)
by Paul Kupperberg & Graham Nolan
As we saw during Invasion!, the Alien Alliance soundly rejected Garguax. So he tries to fight back, allying himself with the Doom Patrol.
Celsius dies in the defense of Atlantis. She’s not going to be the only Doom Patrol casualty.
Doom Patrol vol2 #18 (1989)
by Paul Kupperberg & Graham Nolan
Chief is not exactly distraught by the death of his wife.
Negative Woman loses her powers.
And Garguax dies when THIS happens to his ship.
Invasion! #3 (1989)
written by Keith Giffen & Bill Mantlo
pencils by Bart Sears
Grant Morrison would take over from Doom Patrol #19, revitalizing the book. As part of the deal, the characters he wasn’t interested with would be disposted by the crossover.
So when the Gene Bomb is detonated and all superpowers go haywire…
…Lodestone goes into a coma, and Scott Fisher dies.
Historical significance: 2/10
As you saw, the entire team is shoved aside before the massively influential Grant Morrison run.
Did they deserve better? Kind of
This version is not as unique as the first, but also not as generic as the pre-Crisis relaunch.
I think they should have capitalized in having the older heroes mentoring the young ones, because Lodestone-Scott-Karma have a good dynamic. Reminds of what they were doing on X-Factor.
I think the main problem was that the book was juggling way too many characters and plots, without giving proper weight to everyone.
Whatever happened to the rest of the Doom Patrol?
Negative Man is reunited with his energy form right in the first Morrison issue, Doom Patrol #19.
This eventually leads to the birth of Rebis, a strange hermaphrodite fusion of Larry Trainor, the Negative Man spirit and another woman.
He… they?.. will be one of the main Doom Patrol members for years.
Waaaaaay later, Larry will be separated from the others. He’s still going around as Negative Man.
Karma left the Doom Patrol to join the Suicide Squad, where he promptly dies in 1991’s Suicide Squad #58.
Lodestone goes through some weird mystical transformation, becoming some kind of goddess and eventually leaving Earth.
Tempest is a recurring supporting character, but he’s killed by Chief in Doom Patrol vol2 #55 in 1992 after discovering his horrific plans.
Negative Woman survives much longer. Restored to her human self, she acts as the White Queen of the super-spy agency Checkmate for a while.
Eventually she dies… I couldn’t find a reference HOW or WHEN, but she’s briefly resurrected as a zombie to fight Negative Man.
As for Elasti-Girl… it’s an incredible mess.
To make a VERY long story short: John Byrne did a relaunch in 2004 that is an unbelievable continuity nightmare, as it insists on placing the debut of the Doom Patrol in the present instead of at the beginning of the superhero age.
The attempt to integrate THAT version into the mainstream DC Universe was an unmitigated disaster, later relegated to the “let’s never talk about this except to make fun at how confusing it was” corner.
According to the 2009 Doom Patrol series, however, we’ve been following a clone of Elasti-Girl created by Chief.
This version is FAR more deserving of the name Elasti-Girl than the original ever was, to be honest.
Given the nature of countless DC reboots, I have no clue whether the current Elasti-Girl is still a clone or the original version.
As for Mento, he’s driven insane in Swamp Thing #50 from 1986; that’s probably his most famous appearance. He’s lucky he survives at all, since it’s the same story where both Zatara and Sargon die.
He will eventually be cured by Raven the following year, in New Teen Titans vol2 #34, and continues to plague assist the Doom Patrol from time to time.
Next time, we will go back to pre-Crisis times to finish the Doom Patrol retrospective with a storyline on New Teen Titans that acts as an epilogue to the original series.
Actually, Mento was losing it in NTT vol. 2 before the SWAMP THING Story.
Another Karma? Must have been a trendy superhero name in the 1980s. Do I hear three?
Byrne’s Doom Patrol relaunch was just one of a number of creator-wish-fulfillment stories that DC integrated into their regular universe and to heck with continuity rather than letting them write an Elseworlds. Superman: Birthright was another one of those. Eventually, they needed the absurdity of a “Superboy punch” to explain the unexplainables.
At least Birthright is a decent story, even if it makes absolutely no sense as a retcon.
I’ve read only a couple of Byrne’s Doom Patrol issues and they were aggressively meh. From what I’ve heard it doesn’t get better.
Negative Woman makes extensive appearances in the latter third of the 1983 Vigilante series, unsurprisingly also by Paul Kupperberg.
Aren’t “incredible mess” and “unbelievable continuity nightmare” implied any time a John Byrne retcon is discussed?
Growing up with Byrne’s work before he started sucking in the mid-90s, I still consider that an exception.
Even though I have to admit that, at this point, the Byrne relaunches that completely miss the mark outnumber those that did a great job.
Valentina Vostok was deployed by Checkmate to Bludhaven when it was destroyed in Final Crisis. She was presumed dead, and her appearance as a Black Lantern seems to confirm it.
Gerard Way’s Doom Patrol resurrects original Rita. While not as iconic as Morrison’s run, Way’s run is pretty close in feel.
My introduction to DP was the Byrne illustrations in WHOS WHO where he drew all the original members (save for Perez Garfield & Mento) and Madame Rogue. He also drew the SECRET ORIGINS Issue.
Count me as one of those readers who had no idea Grant Morrison didn’t create Dorothy Skinner.