This week, one of my all-time favorite concepts returns in a new monthly series. For those of you 
keeping score, my favorite concept ever is a guy dressing like a bat and punching clowns, but a close second is a team of freaks led by a mad scientist in a wheelchair. And for the record, we’re not talking about the X-Men. Nope, these guys actually predate the famous mutants, although without all the merchandising and movies. Such is the fate of the Doom Patrol.
keeping score, my favorite concept ever is a guy dressing like a bat and punching clowns, but a close second is a team of freaks led by a mad scientist in a wheelchair. And for the record, we’re not talking about the X-Men. Nope, these guys actually predate the famous mutants, although without all the merchandising and movies. Such is the fate of the Doom Patrol.Doom Patrol 1 (DC) – Man, I love the Doom Patrol. They started out as the original team of freaks back in the 60’s, beating the X-Men to the punch. Led by wheelchair-bound crackpot Niles Caulder, the team included Robotman (a human brain transplanted into a robot body after a horrible accident), Negative Man (highly radioactive and wrapped in bandages, he could release an energy being from his body but it had to return in 60 seconds, or he’d die) and Elasti-Girl (Yes, the same name as Mr. Incredible’s wife. She could stretch and grow, but didn’t really have full control of when it would happen) – they were legitimately disturbing. Especially when Robotman would rip off bits of his own body to use as weapons. You don’t forget that kind of thing. The original series was gloriously insane, with villains like The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, and Mallah and the Brain, a talking separatist gorilla and a brain in a jar.
