Doom Patrol #119 (1968)
by Arnold Drake & Bruno Premiani
cover by Bob Brown
That is a very 70s cover for a 1968 comic.
We begin with a happy Robotman, so you already know something is wrong.
Being damaged on the first page, that’s a record even for him!
He’s STILL happy, though.
That’s because Robotman has gone full hippie.
Totally normal behavior towards a friend who just found peace. Even if Robotman IS more than a little annoying.
You’re not fooling anyone, Negative Man, you just want to find his dealer.
Robotman is a pacifist AND Madame Rouge is no longer speaking in a ridiculous accent? No wonder the series ends two issues later, those are some end-of-time signals!
Once we meet Robotman’s new guru, he’s probably now how you imagined him.
Yeah you can’t convince me this guy isn’t on ALL THE DRUGS EVER MADE.
If it’s a scam, it’s not a very profitable one.
I’m not a Buddhist, but I can’t find references to this ancient pre-Buddhist. So that’s either a matter of how it’s transliterated, or Arnold Drake is making this up.
Even if it’s made up, at least Chief is showing SOME respect towards this guy’s beliefs.
Negative Man, on the other hand, is being a dick.
So he sneaks back near the building to take a peek, receiving a very un-Buddhist ass-whooping.
Why the heck did he go in person when he can send his energy-self at the speed of light???
Joke’s on you, guys, he’s from the DC Silver Age… if THAT hasn’t crushed his mind, nothing will.
The guru then mentally tortures him into being afraid of anything green.
Very Clockwork Orange of him. That’s a 1971 movie so I might be off, but it IS based on a 1962 book… I wonder if Drake was inspired by it.
Meanwhile Mento is training with Beast Boy. And botching it, of course.
Then the father of Beast Boy’s girlfriend shows up to inform hm that she can’t make it to the date.
Beast Boy is convinced that it’s because he’s racist against Green-Americans.
What you’d expect from a superhero: stand up for his son and reassure him that he doesn’t treat him any different because of his skin color.
What you get from Mento: guess.
Elasti-Girl is against this of course. Although I am a bit bothered that neither of them seems to have really considered whether Beast Boy WANTS to stop being green!
Concerned for Beast Boy’s well-being, Elasti-Girl is willing to have the guru be his teacher.
And then he hypnotizes her into… uhm…
…thinking she’s a baby…
…that gets candy from Iron Man???
So, uhm… if he can hypnotize the Doom Patrol to be completely in his control, why does he need to make them fear anything?
As for why he needed to turn Elasti-Girl into speaking with baby-talk… I have some suspicions.
You might think the green thing was to set up a fight with Beast Boy… but no, it was about some green jewels the guru wants to steal.
See what I meant about the guru’s plan? If he can control Robotman THIS MUCH, why couldn’t he just command the others to just kill each other?
Heck he JUST needs Elasti-Girl for this!
But at least she snaps out of it in time.
She’s still a bit too much into the baby-talk thing.
At least the guru shouldn’t be TOO hard to fight if they’re beaten his control.
Or not.
There’s a twist to the guru: he’s the reason Madame Rouge just went evil again!!!
And that’s the depressing end. They don’t even catch the guru.
Historical significance: 8/10
I don’t think the guru ever shows up again. But Madame Rouge becoming evil again will be important for both the finale and much later a Teen Titans storyline (which I’ll briefly talk about, since it’s kind of the epilogue of the Doom Patrol).
For obvious reasons, the guru’s involvement is always skipped in retellings.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
This was really, REALLY bad. They could’ve gone for something deep or something stupid, and instead went with something deeply stupid.
The guru’s plan makes absolutely no sense, and worst of all having THIS as the epilogue of Madame Rouge’s journey is plainly insulting.
Times Robotman has been damaged: 27
Issues when Robotman is never damaged: 20
Interesting letters: this is a serious series, guys!
So serious.