Review by Win Wiacek

Under Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, Doom Patrol was anything but a conventional superhero series. A shock in Volume 3 was Rita Farr, former film star and now Elasti-Girl agreeing to marry ethically dubious millionaire Steve Dayton, sometimes Mento.

‘Blood Brothers!’ introduces domestic disharmony as Rita steadfastly refuses to be a good trophy wife, resuming the hunt for Mr. 103 with the rest of the DP. Her separate lives continue to intersect, however, when the elemental assassin is hired to wipe Gar Logan and his freakish allies off the books. The back-up section shifts focus onto ‘The Private World of Negative Man’, recapitulating Larry Trainor’s doomed flight and the radioactive close encounter that turned him into a walking mummy. Even after being allowed to walk amongst men again, the gregarious pilot finds himself utterly isolated and alone.

‘The War over Beast Boy!’ begins an epic arc as Rita and Steve attempt to separate Gar Logan and his inherited money away from evil guardian Galtry. The embezzler responds by commencing a criminal campaign inadvertently aligning him with the Doom Patrol’s greatest foes. Already distracted by the depredations of marauding automaton Ultimax, the hard-pressed heroes swiftly fall to the murderous mechanoid as Rita is banished to a barbaric sub-atomic universe.

‘Kid Disaster!’ sees Mento diminished and despatched to rescue Rita whilst Galtry’s allies reveal their true nature before ambushing and killing the entire team… Almost.

Despite only Professor Niles Caulder and Beast Boy remaining, our exceedingly odd couple nevertheless pull off a major medical miracle: reviving the heroes in time to endure the incredible attack of alien colossus ‘Mandred the Executioner!’

The Beast Boy saga wraps up as Galtry, Mandred and the Brotherhood marshal one last futile attack before the ‘Trial by Terror!’ finally finds Logan legally adopted by newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Dayton. Sadly, it’s a prelude to a titanic extraterrestrial invasion heralding the arrival of ‘Zarox-13, Emperor of the Cosmos!’

The awesome overlord and his vanguard Garguax make short work of the Fabulous Freaks and, with all Earth imperilled, an unbelievable alliance forms. Unbelievably, the uneasy teaming of the DP with The Brain, Monsieur Mallah and Madame Rouge as ‘Brothers in Blood!’ results in no betrayals and the last-minute defeat of the invincible aliens.

With Negative Man’s early days dealt with, untold tales of Beast Boy begin as ‘Waif of the Wilderness’ shows toddler Gar contracting dread disease Sakutia in deepest Africa. Thankfully his millionaire doctor parents have a radical treatment saving their child and granting him metamorphic abilities. The shocks aren’t over as they subsequently lose their lives in a river accident.

The final story pits the team against a malevolent mechanoid one-man army in ‘Who Dares to Challenge the Arsenal?’ but the real drama manifests in a subplot showing Caulder seeking to seduce schizophrenic Rouge away from the lure of wickedness and malign influence of the Brotherhood of Evil.

Neglected for decades, the sheer weirdness and disturbing psychodramas implicitly underpinning the World’s Strangest Superheroes were a delight for the cool readers at the fringes during the 1960s, but apparently needed maturing decades for the mass of society to catch up and catch on. Don’t miss out again…

More great adventure follows in Volume 5, although the material from both is now more readily available in thick paperback as either Doom Patrol: The Silver Age Volume 2, or Doom Patrol: The World’s Strangest Heroes Volume 2. In oversized hardback the entire series is collected as Doom Patrol: The Silver Age Omnibus. If you can track it down, the stories are reprinted in crisp black and white in the second Showcase Presents The Doom Patrol.