Doom Patrol (Morrison-Case era)

I used to be a comic book fanatic back in the 90s. I was introduced to the medium of comic books as serious artform and storytelling/commentary by my younger brother who first had me read the infamous "Watchmen" book(s), and then the first dozen issues of Neil Gaiman's "Sandman". The first made me realise that comic books were more than just the Archie and Jugghead fluff for kids, the latter made me realize that I was in fact almost addicted to the form. However it took one long road trip to Atlantic City in a cramped car with a broken heart (the very first real time!) and almost the entire run of the Grant Morrison and Richard Case era Doom Patrol (late 80s-early 90s).




Left to Right: Rebis, Cliff, and Crazy Jane

Doom Patrol began in the 60s just before the Uncanny X-men, and yet people still think that the original Doom Patrol was sort of the DC offshoot of the Marvel now-succeful franchise. Actually if anything of the sort is to be mentionned, perhaps the resemblance is closer to the Fantastic Four than the X-men, but I digress. Anyway, the original Doom Patrol were a team of "misfits", three freaks of accidents brought together by a wheelchair-bound leader to fight crime and threats usually too "weird" for the more conventional heroes. Robotman (Cliff Steel), Elastigirl (Rita Farr), and Negativeman (Larry Trainor) were recruted by Dr Niles Coulder to be called the Doom Patrol, and at first they were your rather very conventional and semi-straight-forward 60s super-heroes. They went through a few changes, and even got re-booted in the early-mid 80s as a bonafide superhero team. However when DC comics were about the launch their Vertigo sub-line, Grant Morrison asked if the team could be effectively "killed off" so he and Richard Case could start "all-over" with a brand new team. Only Cliff and "The Chief" (Dr Niles Coulder) are the characters which appear in virtually all versions of the Doom Patrol up to that time.

Anyway, Vertigo comics were made to be directed at more "mature" readers and titles like Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Sandman, and such were already in the staple, with other additions like Shade The Changing Man joining in on the fun. Morrison's take of the Patrol was basically a return to the trio format of the 60s, with Cliff still being trapped inside his robot body, Larry Trainor being re-visited by the negative spirit and merging him with a female Doctor to create Rebis, a sort of hermaphrodite composite, and Crazy Jane who has over 50 different personalities, all of which with its own super power.

The first story arc for Morrison and artist Richard Case started off perhaps in a more straight-forward linear fashion (up to a certain degree) but things quickly took a turn for the weird, and the weirder, exploring a host of themes both bizarre and personnal, all the while presenting trully original characters and situations, with Cliff being the most "normal" person in the whole of the storyline.

It's really hard to describe the Doom Patrol of that era in any way which would make sense, and even in those days, the title stood out for being quite off the beaten path. It's peers such as Sandman and Hellblazer for example, remained more "dark" that flat-out weird, and maybe the audience of the era weren't ready for the Doom Patrol's own brand of psychedelic, psychotronic non-adventures. However the title went on for a couple of years before Morrison left, to be replaced by Rachel Pollack who did a fine job continuing the odd and weird, but never quite capturing the "grandeur" of Morrison's world.

Anyway with the world changing in the 90s and onwards, such blatantly off-the-beaten-path oddness became  socially accepted and with the advent of the interweb age, the Doom Patrol found a new more receptive audience even if the post-Rachel Pollack reboots were nothing more than the typical super hero comic book attempting to re-vitalize the title but never quite being able to find its niche. People have written quite elloquently about the Morrison years of the title and you can find more detailed and professionally written prose about the series online. But for my little blog here, I just wanted to mention how this series, the Morrison/Case era of the Doom Patrol, remains to this day my all-time favorite comic-book. I tried desperatly for years afterwards to find other comic book titles to replace the void the the DP was decommisioned due to lack of sales, but nothing ever quite came close to that special place.

As to why it touched me in such a profound way? Is it any surprise that the D.F.S. (https://www.discogs.com/artist/282405-Dogged-For-Sympathy) logo is an old-school type of robot, not unlike that of Cliff Steel's Robotman? Of that many of those A.K.A. inc. albums and songs were inspired by situations, scenarios and phenomenaes from the stories? Or that the logo of Wreck Age Recordings itself seems so familiar? I think that the comic book just spoke to me in a way which I could not fully understand (and still don't) but caught me at a crutial time. I was very fragile and receptive to weidness, having been only recently exposed to mind and perception altering substances which allowed me to appreciate alternative viewpoints and untraditional concepts. I was just beginning to discover a whole different universe of underground music via the DIY tape network culture, and was open to fill myself up with new ideas, morals, and expériences. The Doom Patrol took me on a wild and indescribable ride which felt as though it was written just for me. I still have all those single issues of that original run, as well as the re-printed graphic novels. Maybe I am overdue for a visit!