Doom Patrol #107 (1966)
by Arnold Drake & Bruno Premiani
Continuing the extended origin of Negative Man.
Who might just be the first adult superhero ever to live with his mom.
He’s looking for a job, and the first offer comes from DOCTOR DEATH.
I am disappointed by the fact his name is not really Doctor Death, though.
Because come on, a bad guy with an unrealistic ominous name who works with super-science despite the medieval look? How could I not love it?
The second offer is a little less attractive, since he would basically be paid to be a guinea pig.
Although one paid 20,000 dollars a year, which in 2025 would be over 194,000 dollars PER YEAR.
The third job would be his old one… but nobody wants to work with a radioactive pilot.
For the same reason, his mother is having trouble keeping renting the place.
So Negative Man accepts the offer from Doctor Death… who has created a force field that melts everything that touches it, so he wants Negative Man to test if it can also block energy.
Yes it can… but just barely.
This is all just to make sure Earth is protected against alien invasions.
Except literally TWO PANELS LATER we discover he actually wants to MURDER THE PLANET.
He puts Negative Man into a lead-lined prison, but for once somebody remembers that’s a really hard thing to do.
Too bad Doctor Death has already sent the signal to activate the force field… and that Arnold Drake has very weird ideas about science.
Because a plot point is that Negative Man is able to outrace the signal because “air offers less resistance than a copper cable”, which is THE EXACT OPPOSITE of reality!!!
You don’t even need to know anything about science to figure this out: if wires had higher resistance, WHY WOULD WE EVER USE THEM???
Traveling at the speed of light, Negative Man is able to sabotage all the force field emitters across the planet.
And so we end with Negative Man refusing to work with Doctor Death… and presumably not even calling the police about this.
Doom Patrol #109 (1967)
by Arnold Drake & Bruno Premiani
Having saved the world, Larry’s new mission is to fix the lights in his mother’s house.
He’s still looking for a job, and he’s hired as a pilot by Fat Kraven to BOMB A VOLCANO.
Not really sure why he’s THIS upset about the fact that other pilots failed, though.
Even Fat Kraven is having second thoughts.
Except not all is what it seems, as during the flight he discovers a device that was supposed to make his instruments fail.
Apparently this volcano is SO sensitive that it can be triggered by planes flying too close.
Sounds legit.
He does manage to complete the mission by doing it without the engine running.
You might have thought that Fat Kraven was the one sabotaging the plane… but no, it was Doctor Death all along. And no, there is no foreshadowing.
And that’s already the end!
Historical significance: 0/10
This isn’t the last we see of Doctor Death, but he’s only significant for this serial.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
AIR WORKS BETTER THAN WIRES and a volcano that is both sensitive enough to explode if a plane gets too close but that can be shut off by bombing.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
The scenes with Larry’s human adventures definitely hold up better, as you could do them today… but everything else sucks. Doctor Death has SOME potential as a villain, but he really doesn’t belong to a more intimate serial like this one.