Review by Win Wiacek

In 1963 traditionally cautious comic publishers at last realised superheroes were back in a big way and began reviving and/or creating a host of costumed characters to battle with and against outrageous menaces and dastardly villains. Thus, the powers-that-be at National Comics, later DC, decided venerable adventure-mystery anthology title My Greatest Adventure would dip its toe in the waters with a radical take on the fad. Still, infamous for cautious publishing, they introduced a startling squad of champions with thematic roots still firmly planted in the B-movie monster films of the era that had not-so-subtly informed the parent comic.

No traditional team of masked adventurers, this cast comprised a robot, a mummy and an occasional fifty-foot woman, joining forces with and guided by a vivid, brusque, domineering, crippled mad scientist. They would fight injustice in a whole new way.

This stunning hardcover collection displays how they did just that under Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, collecting the entire run from 1963 to 1966. Drake collaborates with Bob Haney on the origin story, and thereafter guides their destiny himself.

That origin story sets the tone. It depicts how a mysterious wheelchair-bound scientist summons three outcasts to his home through the promise of changing their miserable lives forever. Competitive car racer and professional daredevil Cliff Steele had died in a horrific pile up, but his undamaged brain had been transplanted into a fantastic mechanical body. Test pilot Larry Trainor had been trapped in an experimental plane and become permanently irradiated by stratospheric radiation, with the dubious benefit of gaining a semi-sentient energy avatar which would escape his body to perform incredible feats but only for up to a minute at a time. To pass safely amongst men, Trainor had to constantly wrap himself in unique radiation-proof bandages. Former movie star Rita Farr was exposed to mysterious gases which bestowed a terrifying, unpredictable and, at first, uncontrollable ability to shrink or grow to incredible sizes.

The outcasts are brought together by brilliant but enigmatic Renaissance Man The Chief, who sought to mould the solitary misfits into a force for good. He quickly proves his point when a mad bomber attempts to blow up the city docks. The surly savant directs the trio of strangers in defusing it, and no sooner had the misfits realised their true worth than they were on their first mission…

Drake’s approach was offbeat, but especially enhanced and elevated by the drawing skills of Italian cartoonist/classicist artist Premiani, whose highly detailed, subtly humanistic illustration made even the strangest situation dauntingly authentic and grittily believable. Time and experience has proved how mature and hardcore Drake and Premiani’s take on superheroes was.

This material was previously available as five volumes of The Doom Patrol Archives (start with Volume 1), and in black and white as two volumes of Showcase Presents The Doom Patrol. The first two-thirds have subsequently been split over two paperbacks titled Doom Patrol: The Silver Age Volume 1 and Volume 2. Follow the links for greater information about individual stories.