Review by Win Wiacek
In 1963 DC/National Comics converted a venerable anthology-mystery title into a fringe superhero team title, introducing a startling squad of champions with their thematic roots still firmly planted in the B-movie monster films of the era. That aesthetic subtly shaped the progression of the strip, which throughout a six-year run made the series one of the most eerily innovative and incessantly hip reads of that generation.
No traditional team of masked adventurers, the cast comprised a robot, a mummy and a 50-foot woman in a mini-skirt, united with and guided by a brusque, domineering, crippled mad scientist, all equally determined to prove themselves by fighting injustice their way.
This monochrome tome spans March 1966 to the Doom Patrol’s radically bold demise in the September/October 1968 final issue. It’s a landmark run that truly deserves better dissemination, and eventually received it as Doom Patrol: The Silver Age Omnibus. Some content is also in Doom Patrol: The Silver Age Volume 2, and it was previously seen in Doom Patrol Archives Volume 3, Volume 4 and Volume 5.
These creepy costumed dramas were especially enhanced by the superb skills of Italian artist Giordano Bruno Premiani, whose comfortably detailed, subtly representational illustration made even the strangest situation frighteningly authentic and grimly believable.
As such, he was the perfect vehicle to squeeze every nuance of comedy and pathos from the captivatingly involved and grimly light-hearted scripts by Arnold Drake who always proffered a tantalising believably world for the outcast heroes to strive in.
Highlights include a 1960s rarity as the Doom Patrol meet fellow outsiders the Challengers of the Unknown battling murderous shape-shifter Multi-Man and his robotic allies as they seek to unleash a horde of zombies from a lost world upon modern humanity. There’s also a highly unexpected wedding, and final issues in which the changing tastes of the turbulent mid-1960s were addressed head-on. The creators embraced psychedelic counter culture in a clever tale of supernatural power, brainwashing and behaviour modification.
However, it’s the daring series climax that lived long in the memory. Captured and facing death, the Doom Patrol are offered mercy if they abandon their principles and allow Madame Rouge to destroy a village of fourteen complete strangers in their stead. At a time when comics came and went with no fanfare and cancelled titles seldom provided any closure, the sacrifice and death of the Doom Patrol was a shocking event. Nothing like it would be seen again for decades – and never again with such style and impact.
Even the mercilessly exploitative many returns of the team since can’t diminish that incredible impact, and no fan of the genre or comic dramas in general should consider their superhero education complete until they’ve seen these classics.
