Showing posts with label Doom Patrol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doom Patrol. Show all posts

Saturday, June 24, 2017

The DC Bloodlines Podcast: Eclipso-- Hero and Villain in One Man!



Look for us on iTunes, ShoutEngine or the Internet Archive, where you can also directly download an art-tagged MP3.



The show returns as part of a multi-blog/podcast crossover covering the 1992 DC Annual event Eclipso: The Darkness Within by offering a detailed account of the first three decades of the villain's career derived from numerous print and online sources. Created by Bob Haney and Lee Elias in 1963, Eclipso appeared in House of Secrets for 19 issues before moving on to guest roles in Justice League of America, Metal Men, Green Lantern, Adventure Comics, Outsiders, The Phantom Stranger and more! See the misadventures of Bruce Gordon, Mona & Simon Bennett as they combat the super-villain!

#BestEventEver Eclipso

  1. Eclipso: The Darkness Within #1

    ♦ Chris Is On Infinite Earths

    2. ♦ Professor Alan's Comic Book Reading Journal


  2. Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #1

    ♦ Resurrections-An Adam Warlock Podcast Episode 61


  3. Green Lantern Annual #1

    ♦ For the Non-Discerning Reader


  4. Detective Comics Annual #5

    ♦ For the Non-Discerning Reader


  5. Superman Annual #4

    ♦ For the Non-Discerning Reader


  6. Justice League America Annual #6

    ♦ Professor Alan's Comic Book Reading Journal


  7. The Demon Annual #1

    ♦ Professor Alan's Comic Book Reading Journal


  8. The Flash Annual #5

    ♦ Coffee & Comics Podcast


  9. Action Comics Annual #4

    ♦ Professor Alan's Comic Book Reading Journal


  10. Wonder Woman Annual #3

    ♦ Diana Prince is the New Wonder Woman


  11. Green Arrow Annual #5

    ♦ Professor Alan's Comic Book Reading Journal


  12. Robin Annual #1

    ♦ Chris Is On Infinite Earths


  13. Hawkworld Annual #3

    ♦ Pop Culture Palace Presents


  14. Deathstroke: The Terminator Annual #1

    ♦ Diana Prince is the New Wonder Woman


  15. The New Titans Annual #8

    ♦ Diana Prince is the New Wonder Woman


  16. Justice League Europe Annual #3

    ♦ Resurrections-An Adam Warlock Podcast Episode 62


  17. Batman Annual #16

    ♦ Professor Alan's Comic Book Reading Journal


  18. L.E.G.I.O.N. '92 Annual #3

    ♦ I'm the Gun


  19. The Adventures of Superman Annual #4

    ♦ Professor Alan's Comic Book Reading Journal


  20. Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2

    ♦ I'm the Gun


Spill Some Blood!!!* *across social media only.
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 11:53 AM 0 comments
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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

2014 "Fan-Casting DC's DOOM PATROL" by Ryan Daly



Ryan "Count Drunkula" Daly of the Black Canary blog Flowers & Fishnets has played casting director for a Warner Brothers Doom Patrol film! I mostly like his picks, though I did successfully talk him into recasting Steve Dayton. Check out the heroes and villains casting sheets!

Count Drunkula Casting Department
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 5:21 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, October 24, 2013

Justice #11 (June, 2007)



Hal Jordan waxed philosophical about his foe Sinestro while providing narration for this issue. "Thanks to Sinestro, I was given a taste of what it would be like to rule everything. Thanks to my enemy, I will now never become anything like him... I don't need to be the greatest anything anymore. I just want to help my friends. And my world." I'm not sure if that was meant as a rebuttal against "Emerald Twilight" or if it reinforced it. All in all, it would really only take another random blow to the head to send Hal off in any given direction anyway.

The big siege progressed. Metallo tore apart Platinum while the Man of Lead continued fighting Black Adam. Parasite decided that he needed to "end this," so he grabbed Adam's foot to steal his powers, then swiped the kryptonite heart out of Metallo. Bizarro was grappling with the Man of Lead, affording Parasite the opportunity to rip through "Superman's suit" to discover Lead had actually helped to conceal Captain Marvel. The power of Shazam slammed Bizarro into Parasite, then the Big Red Cheese gave Hal Jordan the order. Iron's armor over Jordan had concealed the fact that Hal was wielding Sinestro's lost spare yellow power ring (that had been lent to Grodd but stolen by Metamorpho) through a filter of blue kryptonite. The blue K immediately took out Bizarro, while Captain Marvel crushed the piece of green K Metallo thrived on.



Ross had fixed the incorrect Platinum symbol on Plastic Man's armor to shift it to Tin, but it was never explained how Gold could pretend to be Green Arrow and cover Superman at the same time. Anyway, the shiny gold mummy quasi-Shazam Superman was attacked by the Parasite. Black Adam thought Captain Marvel liked seeing him weakened, but Billy was too innocent to enjoy another's suffering, though he was willing to choke Adam until he said the magic word. The ensuing lightning bolt conveniently struck Parasite on its way to removing Adam's powers. Plastic Man contained the Riddler in his fleshy mass while Tin (absent his familiar stutter) separated to cage Parasite. It seemed from his demonstrated pomposity that Ross and company had confused Tin with Mercury, who the Flash was still wearing, at least until he was used to gag Teth-Adam.

Green Arrow had delivered Hal Jordan's power ring to John Stewart, who by the spoken narrative grace of Jordan had been allowed access to Hal's incredible power as Green Lantern to free the teenage super-heroes from the control of Brainiac's nanotechnological worms. The same tech briefly retook the Leaguers made vulnerable by their release from the Metal Men "armor," but John Stewart promptly liberated them. Hal Jordan is so awesome for allowing his Negro acquaintance to save the day (but not allowing him any lines of his own, heaven forbidding such impropriety.)



Yellow Lantern Hal Jordan continued to match Sinestro with the same type of power ring, openly acknowledging that should he falter, John Stewart and the Justice League would surely avenge him. In response, Sinestro offered the scintillating bon mot "Shut up. Shut Up. Shut-the-hell-up!" Does Korugar even have a concept of Hell? When in doubt while writing Green Lantern dialogue, always try to hear Nathan Fillion saying Hal lines and Vincent Price saying Sinestro ones. Jordan and Sinestro tapped out their power source and switched up to mano-a-mano. Jordan beat Sinestro bloody, claiming that it was not vengeance he sought, but justice. Then both men fell through the top of a black city-sphere, and John Stewart apparently laughed off-panel as he returned Jordan's power ring so he could save himself and Sinestro.

The villains present on the main scene were either shut down by force or through the disabling of Brainiac's influence. That left the previously hostage supporting casts to mingle with their heroes, or in John Stewart's case, to get stuck with Tom "Pieface" Kalmaku, Carol Ferris, and Hal's brothers. The Flash and Iris West had a sweet if inhibited WASP pseudo-embrace, while Superman and Lois Lane had a big ol' sloppy wet P.D.A. Supergirl looked on from a distance as Lana Lang and Jimmy Olsen milled about. Captain Marvel was oddly separated from Mary and Junior, preferring Zatanna's company (though who wouldn't?) Rita Farr held Robotman's brutally battered severed head.



The Super Friends followed Brainiac to Toyman's world, where Superman took the fight deep into the heart while everyone else tore apart duplicates of Brainiac in a somehow self-serious spread. Zatanna then teleported everyone but Superman to Scarecrow's creepy 19th century European faux city, though Green Lantern proved capable of taking it all on his own. The Indian girl from last issue was there, and her hands were already starting to hurt...

"Chapter Eleven" was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite. After wasting all those early issues on individual attacks and a couple on the back end on big fights, these guys are having a heck of a time trying to tie the plot threads together. At least Elasti-Girl is consistently prominent in the crowd scenes, thanks to her stature.

Continue the story through these character-specific posts:
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 2:34 AM 0 comments
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Friday, October 18, 2013

Justice #10 (April, 2007)

Click To Enlarge


Previously in Justice

An Indian woman wrote her parents about the wonderful city run by a super-villain that she had run away to live in, and mentioned the differences between each villain's haven.

The seemingly triumphant Legion took to formal dress and toasted themselves in a building whose architecture recalled the Hall of Doom. The Atom was detected as a spy in their midst, and turned out not to be the only one, as armored heroes rushed the hall. Violence ensued. The Flash/Mercury used Plastic Man/Platinum to super-speed bind some villains. A Captain Marvel bound up in golden bandages (thought it was Metamorpho at first) and a Lead-plated Man of Steel clashed with Black Adam and Bizarro. Green Lantern paired off with Sinstro, and actually, most of the matches were entirely predictable.

The mind-controlled sidekicks of the main heroes were called in by the Legion as reenforcements, but were met outside the hall by the Doom Patrol. Robotman was torn to pieces by Mary Marvel, and Beast Boy fared little better against Kid Flash. Negative Man challenged Captain Marvel Junior as Elasti-Girl stood tall against Batgirl and the Teen Titans while wearing a mini-skirt. However, once Larry Trainor was forced to return his negative form to his corporeal body, Rita was overwhelmed by the Marvel Family. The Joker had managed to insert himself into the city, stole Robotman's severed head, and detonated bombs he'd planted all over town.



Platinum (Again? Spread thin?) and Gold pretended to cover Green Arrow and Black Canary, but that duo was secretly teleported into a sewer tunnel by Zatanna. Once there, they were attacked by Clayface (again,) who was contained by Green Arrow's "shadow," Elongated Man. Once the deception was detected, Gold and Platinum tangled with Parasite and Metallo, 'Tina ending up worse for wear. Superman knocked Toyman about while keeping a choke hold on Bizarro, but then Lead taunted Solomon Grundy and Kal-El took the brunt of the resultant punishment.

Green Arrow insisted that Black Canary save her sonic powers for a planned moment of truth, but once the pair located the supporting cast hostages, Ollie was left to deal with the possessed Supergirl. Dinah argued against Ollie firing a kryptonite arrow at the Maid of Might, a discussion super-hearing easily allowed Kara to act upon. Supergirl dodged the arrow, which struck John Stewart in the chest. As it turned out, all went according to plan, since the arrow actually had a power ring on its tip. Green Lantern declared "You're not killing any super-heroes today, Supergirl. You're going to help us save the world. Just like always.

"Chapter Ten" was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite.

Continue the story through these character-specific posts:
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Friday, October 11, 2013

Justice Volume Two (2007)



Superman was being held down by Solomon Grundy, while Metallo killed the Man of Steel slowly with radiation from his kryptonite heart. Bizarro and Parasite looked on, until lightning crossed the skies, and an unseen force began to attack the villains.

In no time, the Power of Shazam was at Superman's disposal. Captain Marvel had answered Kal-El's distress signal, and now offered a helping hand. Superman was too sick to hold himself up, and Bizarro had recovered, so the Big Red Cheese flew them both to safety. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor teleported to the scene to save Parasite from the kryptonite (he'd absorbed Superman's weaknesses with his strengths) that he replaced in Metallo's chest cavity. Bizarro rejoined the motley crew.

Dinah Lance walked into her bedroom to find her lover Oliver Queen buried under a fleshy mass, and with green arrows seemingly buried in his head. Whether this was from the Scarecrow's nightmare gases or Clayface's shifting form, an ear-splitting Canary Cry shook the facade loose. Ollie Queen yet lived, and shoved the sparking end of a busted lamp into Clayface's electrocuted hide.The villains fled, and a tearful Black Canary held her shaken man. Dinah wondered why her cry hadn't hurt Ollie, until he removed his earplugs. You see, Clayface had turned himself into a blond Dinah to trick Queen before the attack, not realizing Lance was naturally a brunette. Ollie figured he might be needing more than one form of protection, if his Pretty Bird was indulging in amorous role-play...

Green Lantern Hal Jordan had been forced through a Boom Tube by Sinestro and left in a starless, uncharted area of space. His power ring couldn't get him back home, so he asked it "How much longer before your charge runs out and I die?"



Superman guided Captain Marvel to the Batcave. None of the active Leaguers were answering his calls, so some reservists like the Captain had been notified. The Dark Knight was angry that Superman had compromised him, but Marvel assured, "I would never tell anyone about this place. Which is really cool, by the way." Marvel thought it might help to transform back into his normal self of kid reporter Billy Batson, but Batman just complained about the noise and magic lightning bouncing around his headquarters, not to mention questioning the kid's experience with "crime and loss." Billy politely blew off the Caped Crusader's ignorance, while Superman cold decked his friend. The Man of Steel was too weak for it to be a killing blow, but he gave it all he had, since Batman had palmed some kryptonite. X-ray Vision revealed that Batman was full of mind-controlling mechanical worms, and Superman soon realized he was similarly compromised. Alfred Pennyworth was too, as he covered Billy's mouth with one hand and threatened to slice the boy's throat with the Batarang in the other.

Lex Luthor cast black marbles into a body of water, and from out of it emerged ebony spheres the size of cities. This was Braniac's doing, and though one super-villain would inevitably betray the other, for now everything was going according to mutual plans.

Billy's heel slammed hard into Alfred's foot as he broke loose of the butler's grip. Superman pegged the manservant in the brow with a flung coffee cup, while with one magic word, Captain Marvel was restored. Alfred and the Batman were tied up. Next, Superman asked Marvel to throw him into the sun, in order to burn out the worms...



The powers of the gods allowed Captain Marvel to try to talk Superman out of the prescribed course of action while traveling through the vacuum of space. Wordlessly, the Man of Steel made it clear he was more afraid of his infestation making him the man who killed Captain Marvel than vice versa, so the Big Red Cheese threw Superman into the sun.

Hal Jordan was mildly amused to finally encounter a portion of space(?) the Guardians of the Universe knew nothing about, but not too much under the circumstances. His power ring only had seven hours worth of charge remaining, and he was potentially lost forever. Green Lantern decided to convert himself into electronic impulses stored within his ring, perhaps indefinitely.

"This involvement of Captain Marvel was unforeseen," noted Brainiac to Lex Luthor and Grodd. The Super-Gorilla seemed the most irritated by the party crasher, and was given permission to send the pseudo-prophetic nightmare shared by the Legion of Doom to Black Adam in order to increase their numbers.

Ablaze with solar energy, the Man of Tomorrow was restored. On learning that Superman had rid himself of a worm-like bodily invader, Captain Marvel offered Mr. Mind as a suspect. Just as the pair were reaching the JLA Satellite, it exploded in front of them. Captain Marvel asked if Superman detected any trace of Red Tornado in the debris...



John Stewart told Zatanna when he arrived at Ferris Aircraft Company, and asked that she thank Elongated Man for calling him in. On the property, Stewart met with Hal Jordan's sometimes girlfriend Carol Ferris and sidekick Tom Kalmaku. Stewart was searching for Hal, but the best idea "Pieface" could offer was pointing to the sky. "Thanks. That narrows it down."

Hal Jordan knew that it was Sinestro who had "killed" him via Boom Tube, but tried to move on with his everlasting illusion of life. Simulations of Coast City and its residents were constructed, but they were hollow things, and Green Lantern wondered how long he would wait before allowing space to take him...

An emaciated Flash continued to run across the globe, surely doomed to die from exhaustion...

Brainiac was aware Aquaman's body had been found, but it served its purpose of distracting the League, since Lex Luthor had failed to assassinate the super friends. Of course, Brainiac himself hadn't found in the Sea King's brain what he was looking for, so it was up to Gorilla Grodd to initiate a new phase in the trio's plans. Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Mary Batson, Freddy Freeman, Jean Loring, Carol Ferris, Steve Trevor, John Stewart, Dick Grayson, Wally West... all targeted...



Once again, the Wisdom of Solomon trumped any thoughts in Superman's head. Captain Marvel flew as close to the wayward Flash as he could, and with one magic word, magical lightning shook the Scarlet Speedster out of his uncontrollable race toward death. Superman caught Billy Batson before any harm could come to him, then gave him space for the power of Shazam to restore Captain Marvel. Getting thrown into the sun had burnt up the Man of Steel's wallet, so Earth's Mightiest Mortal came to the rescue again, offering his only ten bucks to feed the Flash at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Hal Jordan was already feeling like death in a self-centered world of his own making. However, his power ring refused to restore his physical form for such an end. "Your essence has been converted into an electrical impulse that has been stored within the ring... You will now live forever. Alone."

In Shazam's lair within an abandoned subway tunnel, Black Adam covered Mary's mouth, and threatened to kill her if Freddy said a word...

Superman arrived at his Fortress of Solitude, greeted by fellow heroes awaiting him...

In an Arabian desert, the Flash broke up Captain Cold's mini-harem. "You tried to kill me. And that means you tried to kill everyone I hope to save until the day I die. That's a lot of people." Cold should have pointed out that if he had succeeded, the Scarlet Speedster still would have saved everybody he saved until the day he died, but since he didn't die, he might ought to consider swapping a chemistry class for some remedial English. Instead, Cold drew a replica pistol made of ice, which Flash totally fell for, so maybe he needed another police detective class, too. Captain Cold froze up a hall of mirrors, and when that didn't work, created sculptured duplicates of himself. Failing yet again, Captain Cold was run to the Fortress of Solitude.



Still trapped in his power ring, Hal Jordan argued with simulations of his brothers about the benefits of lacking fear, and where his adventuring ways landed him.

Batman, having interrogated Captain Cold, learned all about the prophetic nightmares that motivated the villains to action. Black Canary wondered if the Legion of Doom thought they were doing the right thing, but Batman explained that the villains wouldn't have tried to turn the situation to their advantage to lord over potential survivors if their hearts were truly in the right place.

Supergirl, Batgirl and Commissioner Gordon were all captured by Legion forces.

Hal Jordan had regressed to childhood, which is why he wished to heed the command of his parents not to talk to the Stranger who had paid him a visit. "So there you are, Hal. I've been looking everywhere for you." The Phantom Stranger then helped Hal with some self-realization psychobabble about not trying to remake the real world in his image/with great power comes great moderation/how the League helps Hal check his head/yadda yadda. The important thing was the the Stranger brought a power battery and a direction home, so Green Lantern could try to look cool saying his oath in a painted splash page.

All the heroes were together at the Fortress of Solitude, except John Stewart, who got himself kidnapped by the mind-controlled kid sidekicks of other heroes (mostly the Teen Titans and the Marvel Family.)

"Justice, Vol. 2," collecting issues #5-8 of the 2005 mini-series, was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite.

Posted by Diabolu Frank at 3:28 AM 2 comments
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Friday, May 31, 2013

The Doom Patrol in Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues

Click For More!


A few months back, we spotlighted the blogger Ross' 2010 The Brave and the Bold: The Lost Issues: Batman and The Doom Patrol. In revisiting his swanky, fan-ficy pad, it seemed only right to throw up links to the rest of his DP-themed posts... ...More Lost Team-Up Issues...
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 12:00 AM 0 comments
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Friday, September 14, 2012

Dragon*Con 2012 DC Cosplay Obscura Gallery by Shag Matthews

Click To Enlarge & Expand


The Irredeemable Shag did his usual bang-up up job taking snaps of all the costumed players at one of their biggest venues in the continental United States, Dragon*Con. This is evidenced by the hundreds and hundreds of pictures available in his flickr gallery, which he was kind enough to share with a host of his fellow bloggers. Aside from the Huntress seen above, and characters spotlighted at other blogs today, there weren't very many photographed who have been regularly featured here at DC Bloodlines. While Anj rends his garments and gnashes his teeth over the sorry Beowulf cosplay representation (told you ya should have covered Amethyst, bub,) I thought I'd offer up some odd commentary and feature a few of the least famous characters here.



One of the really keen changes this year was the increased visibility of African-American cosplayers. This convention is in Atlanta, after all, so it's awesome to see folks like Static, XS, Lightning, Vixen, Cyborg, Green Lantern John Stewart, and Aqualad on the scene. More than that though, after recent criticisms in the industry media about a lack of color-blindedness among cosplay critics, there were tons of black fans taking on white heroic roles here. Obviously, Jericho above was at most half-serious with that enormous blond Afro, but there were plenty of Batmen, Catwomen, Supermen, and Wonder Women of color owning the roles of the most powerful and popular characters in comics. Gender-bending and the differently-able also embraced nerd Halloween with gusto, regardless of a canon DC themselves have thrown out the window.



That said, DC Comics needs to give us Black Orion for real. I've long championed an African-American Captain Marvel, but Shazam! We got a little asshole white kid to replace the little nimrod white kid from the previous continuity, and the Big Red Cheese is still just Superman with static and a sleazy grin. Orion is the son of Darkseid, one of the most powerful entities in creation, and that suit is well complimented by the darker skin tone. I think fans would have a much easier time accepting a race change here than with many other characters, and a revived Fourth World would benefit from greater diversity than cringe-inducing '70s "progressive" notions.

Click To Enlarge & Expand


I fell hard for the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents after reading the short-lived Deluxe series, followed by back issues of the cheeky Tower Comics. The properties, like Milestone and Red Circle, seem to be partitioned from the universe proper while still interacting timidly with it. Like a taxi driving one man Church of Scientology, the late John Carbonaro claimed to own the franchise and sued away any dissenters (of which there were many in the mid-80s.) I wonder if DC bought the property the way Todd McFarlane bought Miracleman, because aside from reprints and a modest stab at their own take, you don't see these guys integrating into the New 52. I don't think anyone with deep enough pockets to stare down DC lawyers will bother with a property disputably in the public domain if DC never does boffo business with them, so it's almost like the Agents were purchased for storage like Marvel's Ultraverse. Anyhow, notice that Dynamo, NoMan, Lightning, Menthor, and the villainous Iron Maiden have their little team clique off to the side of the photo. Freudian?

Click To Enlarge & Expand


Finally, we have Bumblebee, who never did much for me as the Wasp of the Titans. I liked her as a more tragic figure in the Doom Patrol, but the main reason to close out with this pic is that the cosplayer is just so damned cute! Dig the specs! Not all the commentary has to be heavy. Thanks to Shag for the pics, and to the Superhero Costuming Forum for setting up these photo shoots every year!

Dragon*Con 2012 Cosplay Galleries by Shag Matthews
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 1:00 AM 2 comments
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Monday, July 23, 2012

2010 The Brave and the Bold: The Lost Issues: Batman and The Doom Patrol



Thanks to an announcement at the Aquaman Shrine, I was directed to The Brave and the Bold: The Lost Issues, "Featuring Batman and the greatest stars from DC, Marvel and beyond! All covers are created with MS Paint." A cool idea with a progressively better execution, Ross offered Batman & the New Doom Patrol early on. My favorite mock-up covers tend to be by a single artist, to help maintain the illusion, as occurred here with all Jim Aparo reference. After thoroughly scratching his Batman itch, Ross retitled his blog Marvel Two-in-One: The Lost Issues, which featured our team's original line-up in 2011's The Thing and The Doom Patrol. Don't miss it!

...The Lost Team-Up Issues...
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 1:00 AM 0 comments
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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Doom Patrol #9 (June, 2010)



The beast left with the brick, nearly taking Father Rocky's hand with it. Robotman pursued, thrusting his arm down the beast's throat and retrieving the brick. Back at the airfield, Larry Trainor revealed that he had been practicing a technique in which he released his Negative Man form just enough to cover his physical body, allowing him to fight the pan-dimensional contractors. The new trick was not enough, as soon Larry, Rita, Cliff and Danny the Brick were at the mercy of their surveyor.

The Doom Patrol continued to play pass the brick, with Danny introducing itself to Rita, and Farr being freaked out about it. Finally, Robotman threw the brick across Oolong Island, where Crazy Jane carried Danny to a pleasant enough point for it to reorganized itself into "Danny the Bungalow." Danny then fired an imposter brick out of its fireplace back to the airfield.

The surveyor determined that due to this dimension's constant Crisis events, it was too stable to build upon and expect a profit. The dimension was condemned to use strictly for refuse dumping. The contractors then took their counterfeit brick and left.

Believing the matter closed, Jane and company wandered back to where the Doom Patrol were staying. An unwanted visitor then appeared before Danny with a "POP!" Ambush Bug and Cheeks the Toy Wonder had arrived to take up residence.

"Thick as a Brick" was by Keith Giffen, Matthew Clark and Ron Randall, with inker John Livesay. They offered a snazzy looking Bug without a line of dialogue, though he did wear a button emblazoned with the optimistic "Sales Bump." Not a bad storyline, but I think it would have been more entertaining in one issue, rather than in two.

Brave New World
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 12:00 AM 1 comments
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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Doom Patrol #8 (May, 2010)



Locked onto a JLA distress beacon, the Doom Patrol and their Black Lantern foes were teleported into the thick of a Blackest Night battle. Eventually, the matter was settled, and the Patrol flown back to Oolong Island. After having been cleaned up and his right arm replaced, Robotman explained it all philosophically to his friend Dusty. Cliff expressed his hard-earned comfort with being a robot, while Dusty congratulated him on how he had handled his life, plus let slip her sexual desire for Gar Logan. Larry Trainer told Cliff that he believed he was being stalked by a pelican. Cliff paused, and simply said with a gentle hand on Larry's shoulder, "Never change, man."

Rita Farr girded herself for a final confrontation with her ex-husband, Steve Dayton, who had been "skulking around" in her head as Mento. She didn't know Dayton Manor had been packed up and moved, plus an explosion alerted her that Elasti-Woman was needed elsewhere.

Father Davis couldn't get Crazy Jane released from quarantine on his own, and their friends Niles Caulder and Cliff Steele were in no position to help. Jane held out the brick in her hand to the padre. "If you build it, he will come... Danny the Brick." It used to be Danny the Street, but "Mandatory gentrification. They came, they saw, they appropriated. Gentrifiers. Pan-Dimensional Contractors.



The Meta-Movers' plane and all its contents were impounded by the Oolong guardswomen. An explosion blew out the back end of the plane, and some sort of blue cybernetic beings emerged. "We are missing a brick... Retrievable Resources Amendment 01-024-B: All raw materials are to be recycled via reconfiguration; this in order to minimize projected profit margin outlay to cover material shortages... We are short a brick." They all wore a button with an "MSE" logo.

Not only had they appropriated Danny the Street, but they served an eviction notice to all life on our plane of existence. To enforce this, they set some sort of massive cybernetic hound on the Doom Patrol. Negative Man could not affect it, and the beast ripped through Elasti-Girl's hand like flesh-toned pudding. Robotman tried to fight it off, and ended up dragged to the hospital. There the beast cornered Father Rocky, who was holding a brick that read "I have always relied on the kindness of strangers."

"Eviction Notice" was by Keith Giffen, Matthew Clark and Ron Randall, with inker John Livesay. It had the same problem as many Giffen scripts, over-complicating the plot with obtuse dialogue that alienates general audiences. Everything revolves around people with conflicting agendas arguing with one another, which is appropriate for a story that's partially about urban renewal issues like the unfairness of eminent domain. That is so much smarter and more worthwhile a discussion than most comic books offer, but it's buried under a lot of folderol, and none of it is the sort of thing to maintain a large audience. Thanks to consistent, energetic inking, you can hardly tell the two pencil artists apart, so at least the book looked like a bestseller.

Brave New World
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 12:23 AM 4 comments
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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Doom Patrol #7 (April, 2010)



Father Davis tried to council Niles Caulder as he recovered from his terrible injuries in the hospital, but the Chief just talked circles around him. Madam President Veronica Cale was also peeved with Caulder over his various infractions against Oolong Island, and placed him on house arrest under the guard of her all female force.

Thayer Jost, the corporate sponsor of a previous, largely forgotten 2001 incarnation of the Doom Patrol, was now looking into other avenues. Think super-villainy, beginning with Dr. Amanda Becket, better known as Botfly.

Oberon had apparently been doing well for himself. He was running "Meta Movers," which specialized in the boxing and transport of paranormal materials. He also had a full head of thick brown hair atop his overgrown white sideburns and shoulder length locks. Currently, his team was relocating the contents of Dayton Manor. A looking glass inside peered into another dimension where Danny the Street had been co-opted to devastating effect by a realty corporation.

A battered woman was found wandering the beach of Oolong and taken to the hospital. Father Davis was asked to see her. She refused to relinquish the brick that she was carrying, and offered her only name as Jane. "'Crazy' is an adjective you apply at your peril. Ouch. That came outer harsher than it sounded in my head. Crazy Jane. Okay. I can live with that. Can Cliff come out to play?"



A derelict just looking to enjoy a hamburger in "Podunk" Lowry, Nevada was put out by police surrounding the diner. Negotiations went nowhere, so the derelict sent his fellow patrons out the door before tearing the place apart. The man had become a multi-story combination of a dinosaur, living crystal, and a tree trunk/tentacle. The cops he didn't kill were roasted when stray bullets hit the gas pumps. A woman with a porcelain face and elaborate Victorian-via-Stevie Nicks dress had been watching from afar. Silently, she invited the nude derelict into a stretch limo for a cell phone conversation with Thayer Jost. "Dr. Sven Larsen, A.K.A. the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. We'll have to do something about that name." Some entity had secretly taken possession of Jost, and it had a spirit of brotherhood...

"While You Were Out..." was by Keith Giffen, Matthew Clark and Cliff Richards, with inker John Livesay. The Doom Patrol were also back on the final page, but that's better explained next issue. This was a cool "woo-- machinations" issue, the only flaw being the disparity between Clark's sweet pages and the hot mess that was Richards'. The latter were likely produced in a heated rush under deadline pressure, so no shame in saving someone else's ass.

Brave New World
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Top 10 Doom Patrol Covers

It would have been easy to do a top 25 Doom Patrol cover countdown. Hell, 50. Something like 75% of the covers to Doom Patrol volume 2 aren't just among the best of the 1990s, but could be validly held up as museum quality works of art. Someone could devote an entire blog just to critiquing individual covers in depth. Beyond the avant guard Vertigo material, the DP has inspired some truly remarkable covers for the super-hero genre, and have rarely bothered with outright bad pieces. Trying to sort through it all seems a harrowing proposition, and given my limited exposure to the material between the covers, I don't feel qualified for that level of analysis. For the sake of my sanity and to make a point, I decided to stick to ten of the most eye-catching and best representative images of the team itself, with commentary on why out of all possibilities, I selected these options.

Dishonorable Mentions

Doom Patrol #3 (October, 2004)


Despite his professed love for the team, John Byrne projected lighthearted Silver Age sweetness and Bronze Age hokey melodrama at a team that seemed to be bitter, queer and creepy from its earliest days. This cover represents a complete rejection of anything Vertigo-tinged and the embrace of the appearance of the most blandly off-brand of super-teams. This looks like one of those covers Byrne did for small press operations during the black and white boom, cannily incorporating a lack of interior color into the crumby costume design. I especially dislike Nudge's "edgy" fishnet stockings, Negative Man's gnarly skeleton form and the big dumb grin on Rita's face. At least characters like Grunt and Vortex were comparably awful to prior team additions. Byrne did offer a couple of fun cover spins over his run though, #8 and #13.

Doom Patrol #8 (May, 1988)


What kind of person looks at a team or art of this caliber and says, "mmm, gimme some of that?" Friggin' hideous, and Erik Larsen drew several more like it.


Honorary Mentions

Secret Origins Annual #1 (1987)


I feel bad for slagging on Byrne earlier, as he's a fine artist who in his prime offered several lovely team covers, like 1986's Official Doom Patrol Index #1 and #2. Have you ever seen such well kept graveyards or specters so clearly prepared for hand holding and a few rounds of "Kumbaya?" This is of course exactly the problem, since a "Doom Patrol" should never seem so well adjusted and clean cut.


My Greatest Adventure #80 (June, 1963)


Not their greatest cover, but certainly their first!


Doom Patrol #1 (December, 2001)

Reflecting the new team in Robotman's dome and his dire assessment of the group from jump was novel. The final cover of this volume did a Maguire riff, duplicating the basic image with Robotman confirming the title's predicted doom. The run also did a nice job of recalling the Vertigo years on #3, plus a soft jab at revisionism with #13.


10) The New Teen Titans #13 (November, 1981)


George Perez is one of the most gorgeous, shiniest artists in comic book history. Therefore, he is one of the worst possible fits for the Doom Patrol. Check his slick cover for 1982's DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #19 and tell me that isn't Anyteam, U.S.A. Perez is swell at soap opera, but the DP are a troubled lot with a disconcerting quality that Perez is too pleasant to convey. However, this was a key issue in returning the DP to readers' minds, and Robotman's dangling body warding off snoopy kids is a previously unseen variation on the DP grim tableau.


9) Doom Patrol #89 (August, 1964)


The debut of the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, the kind of bizarre menace that defined the DP and set the standard for the demented threats to come.


8) Doom Patrol #5 (February, 1988)


Steve Lightle is a favorite cover artist of mine, and the first five issues of this series featured rare interior art by the man. However, the book was clearly intended to treat the team like an X-Men knock-off when DC was already knee deep in the same. Lightle was a perfect choice for the book at a time when he was forced to draw hideously gaudy New Mutants rejects, and even his wraparound cover for the debut issue made a silk purse out of a generic battle scene. I feel the graveyard is where the DP's heart really lies.


7) Doom Patrol #86 (March, 1964)


The first issued comic book bearing the Doom Patrol title, and the first appearance of Monsieur Mallah and the Brain. Does any cover better represent '50s B-movie mad science than a French guerrilla gorilla and a brain in a jar? Only if you threw in a gigantic insect of some kind, and maybe a flesh-eating animated inanimate object. Simon Bisley did a cool ape, as well.


6) Doom Patrol #120 (August, 1968)


This one loses points for being a tad forced and sappy, but your teammates/family turning their backs on you after you've literally fallen to pieces is messed up. That one enlarged eye and Cliff's anguished cries earn points back.


5) My Greatest Adventure #82 (September, 1963)


There are lots of covers with Robotman in some state of disrepair, but the implied ultimate sacrifice and the degree to which he's melted put this image over the top. That one crimson eye staring at the reader and a skull so deeply caved in that Cliff's brain must be boiling in its pan are deliciously gut-wrenching.


4) Doom Patrol #13 (October, 2010)


Matthew Clark produced a couple dozen attractive covers for volume 1, 2, 3, 4 5(?), but this was the only one to sneak into the top ten. #1 and #7 are relatively conventional but still slightly askew team shots, but #18 is Byrnesque in its commercialization. On the other hand, this fractured image of Rita Farr's face foreshadows the revelations within, and prove that she's psychologically and physiologically damaged enough to reside with the freaks out of more than just pity, but instead true kinship.


3) Challengers of the Unknown #48 (March, 1966)


There are whole host of covers in which the DP interacts with other super-heroes/teams, such as the wedding of Rita and Steve Dayton in #104 or battling the JLA at various points. That's typical group activity in comics. Becoming a "grim burial squad" for the Challengers, complete with a setting son and a robot seemingly on the verge of (non-emo Red Tornado) tears, is so DP. Also, the Challengers are about the only DC team with a comparable mortality/casualty rate, making it extra apropos.


2) Showcase #94 (September, 1977)


This works on multiple levels. It's a new Doom Patrol debuting in a different anthology title. The original DP was as much a product of the '60s visually as these guys were in the '70s. There's Robotman carrying his own rusted husk to the mass grave of the original team. While on the surface more conventional, the new DP was doomed to even greater failure and far more permanent deaths than the first team. Finally, this cover set the standard for DP launches opening on a dour, pessimistic note. There is no trumpeting the arrival of a glorious new incarnation, but instead a second wave stepping over the corpses of the first with similarly dim odds of survival.


1) Doom Patrol #121 (October, 1968)


This is how you end a series. Whenever someone points to Jean Grey as the first major death in comics, they need to be reminded that an entire super-team was snuffed out twelve years earlier, with Rita Farr staying dead about seven times longer than Phoenix, and the readers themselves were to blame.

Their Top Covers of the 1980s
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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Doom Patrol #6 (March, 2010)



Negative Man is Larry Trainor. That's his story, and he's sticking to it. Test pilot for the military's own space shuttle, the K-2F. Bird flew too high without enough radiation shielding, and crashed back to earth. A rescue chopper was then downed by an energy wraith emitted from Trainor. Larry didn't remember much, but he woke up wrapped in chemically treated gauze to keep the radiation he had absorbed from contaminating others. This came courtesy of Doctor Niles Caulder, who eventually secured Trainor's release after months of playing specimen for military scientists. Larry had lied about his Negative Man projection being a one-time thing, refused to live under Caulder's supervision, and wasted a year of his life bumming around. Directionless, unable to find work, and dependent on the chemical wraps that arrived by mail wherever he went, Larry finally gave in. After the third proposition, Trainor joined the Doom Patrol, as the death-seekers jumped from one dangerous mission to another. It finally caught up to them.

One day, the Negative Man became a Negative Woman, and joined an all-new Doom Patrol. Later, the Chief turned up alive, and hijacked that unit for his now clearly bent schemes. The Negative form left Valentina Vostok and rejoined with what it thought was a clone of Trainor created by the Chief. Larry continued with an ever more surreal incarnation of the Patrol, before realizing that his skin was the color of another race under his bandages. As it turned out, the Chief had found a brain dead individual named Thomas Munroe, pumped in some of Trainor's old genetic material from his government tests, and drawn the Negative Man to this body. For a time, "Larry" thought that the Negative Man had gained its own sentience, but as it turned out the semblance of personality was just bits of Munroe's brain still firing.



Amidst this madness, the Negative Man's personality began to dissolve into an hermaphroditic "Rebis." That was very much its own thing, too involved to get into here. Eventually, the body of Phillip Sloan became the latest host for the Negative Man, once again arranged by the Chief. The Negative Man passed on joining a Doom Patrol incarnation under "bona fide corporate bigwig Thayer Jost," even with Cliff Steele's urging. Later, at the same Sundollar Coffee, Steele successfully recruited Negative Man by saying Rita Farr would be back from whatever hereafter she'd been blown to all those years ago."What choice did we have? It was Rita... We loved her like the little sister we'd never wanted... Without Rita, we were freaks for hire. With her, we were the closest thing to family Larry'd ever known. How pathetic is that?"

The more things changed, the more they had stayed the same. What is the Negative Man? Is "Larry Trainor" still relevant? "She really, really likes Larry and I really, really like Rita, so Larry it is. Elephant in the room? What elephant?"

"Negative Incentive" was by Keith Giffen, Matthew Clark and Livesay. I don't know enough about the Doom Patrol to know how much Giffen salvaged or trampled over past continuity, but as presented it made sense to me. It was nice to have such sweeping events laid out in so palatable a fashion, and the slightly nutty, often snarky Negative Man worked better in my mind with context.

Brave New World
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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Doom Patrol #5 (February, 2010)



Black Lantern Cliff Steele managed to rattle Robotman's cage briefly, but ended up smashed to pulp. "Ain't a part'a any'a our heads the Chief ain't screwed with. Compared t'him... you clowns're rank amateurs!" Meanwhile, the Negative entities merged and entered Black Lantern Negative Woman, until her body was destroyed by the emergent Negative Man. "Connection Severed."



The singularity proved helpful to the Chief, following his order to seal Black Lantern Celsius in a force field before the pair teleported far from her wrath. Meanwhile, Elasti-Girl was trapped under rubble, unable to reduce her size without being crushed. Oolong Island's all-female troops tried to arrest Black Lantern Tempest, and while he was distracted, Rita gobbled him up and spit him out. Elasti-Girl was sick of being defined by jackass men, and pulling herself free, vowed never again. Black Lantern Tempest continued to treat Elasti-Girl as willing rape bait, and dropped a tsunami to get her all wet.



Elasti-Girl realized she needed to stop thinking with her fists, and rejoined Robotman and Larry while crushing the Black Lantern Cliff Steele. The Chief ordered the group to a hangar deck, where the Doom Patrol lured the Black Lanterns through a teleportation device set up by Oolong security. However, the Patrol were caught in the same trap, while the Chief fell unconscious from injuries.

"Back In Black" was by Keith Giffen, Justiniano and Livesay.
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Saturday, July 30, 2011

Doom Patrol #4 (January, 2010)



The original Doom Patrol was believed dead, including the Chief. All that was his was assumed by his wife, Arani Desai, from "a marriage he'd dismissed but not divorced." As the temperature altering Celsius, she formed a New Doom Patrol in her own image. Joshua Clay was Tempest, who controlled the wind, but not his own emotional turmoil from a war his country never should have fought. Valentina Vostok was another willing participant as the Negative Woman. These were all people who had died, the doomed of the Doom Patrol.

Memory Download Complete...
RISE!


The living Doom Patrol returned to Oolong Island. Rita Farr had a mad-on for the Chief, who had clearly known Steve Dayton was still using her body, and kept it a secret. She didn't find Caulder in his office, instead encountering Black Lantern Tempest, a hateful zombie reanimated and empowered with an energy ring by a force of cosmic evil. "Loved you in 'Biker Chicks From Hell.' Would an autograph be out of the question? I'm a big fan." Que punny wind assault.

Black Lantern Celsius found Niles in his private lab, and after suffering an artillary barrage from Caulder's tricked out wheelchair, offered him a frosty kiss. In Niles Caulder's heart beat only avarice, and after years of loveless marriage, Celsius would finally have it for her own.

Cliff Steele had his mind transferred to a new Robotman body by Larry Trainor, very much reminiscent of NoMan, but seemingly reliant on direct contact with sophisticated machinery. The remains of his previous body were dumped in a mass grave with other scrapped Robotmen. The pair were then attacked by Black Lantern Negative Woman. Larry said, "Always wondered what that felt like." The two negative forms clashed, while Robotman must have used electronic sensors to recognize his own empty-headed corpse as Black Lantern Cliff Steele set upon him.

Dr. Tyme met with Father Rocky Davis, a nervous wreck since the Doom Patrol moved to Oolong Island. He was deluded into believing himself to be their archfoe, so Rocky humored him by arranging to give the message that there were no hard feelings. Their conversation was interrupted by an island-wide warning klaxon. Black Lantern Tempest was suffocating Elasti-Girl and tossing her enlarged form through buildings. The Black Lantern Corpsemen hungered for human hearts, and Rita had the "Biggest. Heart. Ever."

"Dead Reckoning" was by Keith Giffen, Justiniano and Livesay. There were no similarities in style with regular artist Matthew Clark, but Justiniano brought an edginess that suited this incarnation of the team and the subject matter of the story.

Brave New World
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Sunday, July 17, 2011

Doom Patrol #3 (December, 2009)



Brandenburg, Germany was coated in the ashes of people burnt out by contact with the singularity. Robotman used his G.P.S. and wireless connection to determine the singularity was on its way to Cottbus, population over a hundred thousand, and just 125 km outside Berlin. While the Doom Patrol had been left alone, they couldn't risk Dusty's life with a chopper ride, so Elasti-Girl walked the team across der Deutschland.

On Oolong Island, the Chief called Steve Dayton in for an intense meeting. "Your marriage to Rita was, to put it mildly, a debacle. Adopting Gar Logan was the only positive to come out of the union, and a questionable positive at that... Rita needed a semblance of normalcy. A mind-reading husband and a shape-shifting son does not constitute normalcy... Lurking in her head liked a cerebral stalker, ready to satisfy any desire as soon as that desire was given thought." Niles Caulder knew Mento had continued to psychically stalk Elasti-Girl, and used that knowledge to his advantage.

Robotman couldn't help but notice a stranded motorist who was the least bit bothered by a giant woman "lopin' along." Sure enough, it was the singularity, wondering why humans needed so many different forms of an internal combustion engine. Cliff tased him, and the body turned to ash. Thanks to his addiction to video games, Larry was able to explain that the electrical charge "shorted" the victim's brain, disconnecting the singularity long enough for the body to fall apart. The singularity landed in a bunch of Cottbus citizens, but was particularly interested in a German man with a metagene.



The Chief ordered Mento to take off his ridiculous helmet, pointing out that it was so silly looking because people would naturally assume Dayton had to use it to employ his powers. It was in fact an affectation to mislead people into believing he wasn't able to psychically probe them at any time...

The singularity needed to be in close approximation to its victims, so Robotman hoped the Chief could call in a speedster like the Flash to zap the population of Cottbus before its experiment progressed further. "Can't have that." The citizens attacked the Doom Patrol, while the singularity used its acquired "Telekinetic projection via Kirlian aura" to tear Robotman limb from limb.

Things were getting out of control. If Dayton acted, Rita would know that he occasionally took advantage of her mind and body psychically, and if he didn't, she would die. Elasti-Girl grew rapidly, blood shooting from her nose as Mento acted through her against the singularity. Its drones destroyed following psychic detachment, only the metahuman male remained, saved-yet-checked by the Kirlian aura. The host was escorted back to Oolong Island, impressed by Caulder's strategy. Rita was bloodied, teary-eyed, and massively pissed.

"Earth Science" was by Keith Giffen, Matthew Clark and Livesay.

Brave New World
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