Review by Frank Plowright

In Lazarus Planet a magical storm enveloped the Earth. It created some new super powered people and altered the existing powers of others. As far as Unstoppable Doom Patrol is concerned, they’re mopping up the misfits, the folk who’ve been transformed into less photogenic identities.

Dennis Culver’s choice is to reconcile the many different incarnations the Doom Patrol have had. The core membership is the classic 1960s team of Elasti-Girl, Negative Man and Robotman. Beast Boy’s now a Teen Titan, so the perky new Beast Girl is introduced. Disgraced former team leader Niles Caulder is sidelined while one of Crazy Jane’s 64 co-existing personalities substitutes as Chief. The team are supplemented by new characters, primarily Degenerate who strengthens in the presence of negativity, and a supporting cast drawn from their previous incarnations.

While other threats manifest, their greatest problem, albeit unknown for some while, is their old foe General Immortus, while Peacemaker and his military allies have ideas about bringing the team under control.

There’s a cleverness to Unstoppable Doom Patrol. Culver continually references the past as means of establishing the team’s weird credentials, which are amplified by the unease more standard superheroes have in dealing with them. The outright strange and unsentimental stories Culver conceives are drawn by Chris Burnham as if straight superhero adventures, echoing Bruno Premiani’s approach to the original series without duplicating the style. It’s really attractive and impressive art, with the same applying to David Lafuente’s fill-in chapter giving the background to the main cast, although Lafuente’s pages are more stylised.

Consistently imaginative at fusing together very different people yet getting under the skins of them all, Unstoppable Doom Patrol is a captivating read, all the more impressive for being largely set-up. One ongoing plot draws to a close over seven chapters, but more remain outstanding. Sadly, though, promising “The Doom Patrol will return” seems to have been premature. There’s more than enough here, though, for any Doom Patrol fan to enjoy.