Doom Patrol #89 (1964)
by Arnold Drake & Bruno Premiani
Elasti-Girl is the second Doom Patrol member to get her solo adventure.
Instead of returning to her acting career, she’s using her fame for charity.
The program is helping orphans of the Korean war (!!!), including this kid who’s had it really, really rough.
The kid’s adoptive parent is missing, so she’s asked to help finding him.
Weird choice to ask Elasti-Girl to be the detective, but sure.
So she flies to a battlefield in Korea. (!!!)
Good thing the Korean War ended without aaaany lingering tensions in the regions, or this could’ve caused problems.
She DOES find a potential escape from the battlefield that the adoptive father might have used, but shockingly she’s not given every single detail by the authorities.
Infiltrating into the hospital’s records doesn’t help her much.
I’m confused about the timeline here. They say this guy was a patient at this hospital for 10 years, during which he suffered amnesia… but if he’s been in the hospital for this long, when did he adopt the Korean boy? The kid doesn’t look older than ten!!!
Also he clearly suffers from PTSD. While it’s obviously not named as such, having this concept in a 1964 story is REALLY ahead of its time.
Back in the States, she eventually DOES find the guy.
Yeah send a giant woman to surprise the man with severe PTSD, that’s not going to make him nervous or anything.
At least she recognizes this.
Although maybe stop him BEFORE he gets into the dynamite storage?
Sneaking inside, Elasti-Girl has to defend herself…
…and SOMEHOW turn a pair of glasses into a projector? Uh?
Preeeeetty sure that’s not how micro-film works.
And that cures the guy from his psychological wounds, because you can’t expect a 1964 comic book story to be THAT ahead of its time.
Historical significance: 9/10
The kid will actually become a very important part of the Doom Patrol series because…
Historical significance: 0/10
…no I’m just messing with you, we never see him again.
Silver Age-ness: 1/10
The micro-film doesn’t necessarily factor in, but the very casual use of hypnosis and amnesia is typical.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
For a 8 page standalone story, it’s not that bad. You could easily build up on this, but it’s a VERY simplistic look at all the concepts used.