Doom Patrol #90 (1964)
by Arnold Drake & Bruno Premiani
cover by Bob Brown
Chief, I know the team switched to new costumes last issue, but you should still recognize them!
We begin with the team learning that Madame Rouge was released from prison on a technicality.
We then see Elasti-Girl playing with some tigers like they were kittens.
Remind me again why it’s so horrible that she has powers?
Speaking of Madame Rouge, she agrees to have a gorilla operate on her.
The experiment is a success, and Madame Rouge has shapeshifting powers now.
Not sure why the Brain didn’t run the same experiment on Monsieur Mallah. Wouldn’t the ability to make him look like anything but a gorilla help?
It’s so weird that this series feature both a character named Elasti-Girl and a DIFFERENT character with elastic powers.
The Doom Patrol is later called to deal with a damaged dam. They may be considered freaks by the general public, but they think they’re useful freaks.
And then Elasti-Girl throws Robotman off the dam.
Which is a bigger problem than you’d imagine: Robotman might be waterproof, but he’s too heavy to swim and he has a limited supply of oxygen.
And then Elasti-Girl arrives late to the party. What, you mean to tell me that *gasp* she wasn’t the one trying to drown her teammate?
She continues to be the MVP of this team. First she saves Robotman in a rather spectacular fashion…
…and then she fixes the dam all on her own!
As you probably guessed, the Elasti-Girl that tried to drown Robotman was actually Madamee Rouge in disguise, and now she’s disguising herself as Robotman.
Wait, if she’s a shapeshifter why exactly does she need a mask and makeup!?
Fantastic job, Rouge. I really can’t keep you and Robotman apart.
The Doom Patrol is then called to help some miners trapped in a cave-in.
Robotman is the one to go into the mines, and he’s taken down by an explosion.
Which is of course the perfect opportunity for the switch with the impostor.
So Madame Robotman tries to murder the rest of the team with an adorable mini-blowtorch.
I still don’t quite get the nature of Negative Man’s energy form. It’s constantly shown to be able to carry things, so it must be solid, but it’s also made of radiation.
They figure out that the real Robotman is still trapped in the mine. You would think Negative Man would have the best power to find him, but Elasti-Girl is once again the one to do all the work.
You’d think she should also be able to rescue the miners without maiming Robotman’s body AGAIN.
I give a lot of crap to Chief because he can be just. The. Worst.
But I have to admit this is a rather clever solution to the impostor problem.
(although you’ve probably figured out its weak spot)
I sure hope the Brotherhood of Evil is behind all these incidents, otherwise that is one seriously unsafe city.
I was under the impression that Larry lost consciousness whenever Negative Man leaves his body, but apparently he’s just paralyzed. Which is kind of worse!
And it’s exploited by Madame Negative who takes his place.
But surprisingly she can’t just kil him! This aspect of the character will be explored in depth in future issues: despite being part of the Brotherhood of Evil, Madame Rouge is not completely evil.
Yet.
I guess one of the reasons why Elasti-Girl gets the spotlight SO often is that it allows Premiani to deliver such gorgeous artwork.
Future issues will give Madame Rouge a split personality, so in retrospect the fact that she couldn’t kill Negative Man is the influence of her good side.
That certainly makes more sense than the actual explanation given.
And now we are at the climax: the team is back together, and they have to recite their codewords to identify themselves.
Except it turns out that Negative Man is NOT the impostor: it’s Chief!!!
Once the switcheroo is exposed, Madame Chief showcases why she didn’t really need those extra steps when she impersonated Robotman.
Take a guess on who deals with her.
Madame Rouge gets away, and once the team rescues Chief they explain what happened.
That was another clever twist, and he’s correct in pointing out that all these guys refer to each other by they civilian names with extreme consistency.
Although for next time I would suggest covering the only weakness of your plan, Chief: you should ALSO have a codeword.
You’d expect the Brain to be angry at Madame Rouge for failing, but nope! All he wanted was just a proof of concept, really.
Historical significance: 8/10
Madame Rouge will keep her elastic powers for the rest of her career.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
It was extremely low until that insanity about Rouge’s random weakness.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
Extremely solid. Just introduce the split personality now instead of later and you can basically do the entire story without changing much.
Times Robotman has been damaged: 6
Issues when Robotman is never damaged: 6