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The Doom Patrol Archives #5
The Doom Patrol Archives, Vol. 5
They were outcast heroes, bound together by fate, led by their mysterious, wheelchair-bound Chief: Robotman, Elasti-Girl, Negative Man and Beast Boy. Their strange powers made them the object of fear instead of hero worship. In the 1960s, they were the most unusual super-team comic book readers had ever seen.
In this final volume collecting their original adventures, the team battles the Mutant Master, the Galactic Gladiator, the Black Vulture, and more before meeting one of the strangest ends any super-team has ever experienced!
208 pages, Hardcover
First published August 5, 2008
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62 people want to read
About the author
Arnold Drake
323 books10 followersArnold Drake was an American comic book writer and screenwriter best known for co-creating the DC Comics characters Deadman and the Doom Patrol, and the Marvel Comics characters the Guardians of the Galaxy, among others.
Drake was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.
Drake was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 22, 2023
Nice wrap up the original series. It's always fun reading these 60s and 70s era comics. Recommended
October 2, 2017
FROM 2009: It wasn't as good as the others, and then they all died at the end and I was super sad.
--
2017: What was wrong with you, Past Keith? This book is so good.
In his foreword, Tom Peyer vacillates on whether or not DP was good all the way to the end -- if it lost steam, or went out on top. I gotta say, obviously the latter. Some of the issues collected here are the best in the entire series. Take "The Black Vulture," in which the titular villain, looking like some kind of Will Eisner-designed version of Raptor from GI Joe, invades the Doom Patrol house with attack birds, until he is stopped by a tribe of Native American braves on horseback who come in through the front door, prompting Elasti-Girl to say "How you gettum here so fast?" to which the Doom Patrol's Chief responds that the tribal leader, White Feather, is a personal friend who teaches aerodynamics at Caltech.
I MEAN WHAT. WHAT. WHAT.
That same issue begins by showing a panel that reads, "If you missed the last issue, here's your crying towel," with an illustration of the Chief waving a hanky at the camera that reads NEW YORK METS.
BECAUSE WHY I DON'T KNOW I JUST MY GOD.
This book has Videx, Master of Light, who looks like a living 'Visible Man' toy except with creepy steampunk sunglasses. It has straight-up psychedelic covers and Robotman joining a Krishna cult and singing lamentations for the dead while praying on the floor of his bedroom. It has Negative Man swapping Robotman's brain between deadlier and deadlier robot bodies while they battle the Wrecker on a metal island in space. It has Elasti-Girl and Mentallo dancing at a go-go bar because holy crap.
And then the Chief's girlfriend, Madame Rouge, finds out that both the Chief and his nemesis, the Brain, have been mind-controlling her for most of the series. And SHE HIRES A NAZI SUBMARINE CAPTAIN TO KILL EVERYONE IN THE BOOK.
AND HE DOES IT.
I feel like it should just be common knowledge how freaking good the original Doom Patrol really was by the end. Between Drake's bonkers writing and Premiani's just sooper intense art, it's simply leagues beyond any other superhero comic from the time period, considering DC and Marvel both. I really don't think anything even comes close to it until Claremont's X-Men, which is not for another seven years.
It's so crazy good. It's so crazy good that I want to just ignore the Beast Boy backup story that ran across several issues, and is probably literally the worst DP story of the entire series.
Because other than that, this thing is damn perfect. And I don't know if that's too sad, even if it is a little, so.
--
2017: What was wrong with you, Past Keith? This book is so good.
In his foreword, Tom Peyer vacillates on whether or not DP was good all the way to the end -- if it lost steam, or went out on top. I gotta say, obviously the latter. Some of the issues collected here are the best in the entire series. Take "The Black Vulture," in which the titular villain, looking like some kind of Will Eisner-designed version of Raptor from GI Joe, invades the Doom Patrol house with attack birds, until he is stopped by a tribe of Native American braves on horseback who come in through the front door, prompting Elasti-Girl to say "How you gettum here so fast?" to which the Doom Patrol's Chief responds that the tribal leader, White Feather, is a personal friend who teaches aerodynamics at Caltech.
I MEAN WHAT. WHAT. WHAT.
That same issue begins by showing a panel that reads, "If you missed the last issue, here's your crying towel," with an illustration of the Chief waving a hanky at the camera that reads NEW YORK METS.
BECAUSE WHY I DON'T KNOW I JUST MY GOD.
This book has Videx, Master of Light, who looks like a living 'Visible Man' toy except with creepy steampunk sunglasses. It has straight-up psychedelic covers and Robotman joining a Krishna cult and singing lamentations for the dead while praying on the floor of his bedroom. It has Negative Man swapping Robotman's brain between deadlier and deadlier robot bodies while they battle the Wrecker on a metal island in space. It has Elasti-Girl and Mentallo dancing at a go-go bar because holy crap.
And then the Chief's girlfriend, Madame Rouge, finds out that both the Chief and his nemesis, the Brain, have been mind-controlling her for most of the series. And SHE HIRES A NAZI SUBMARINE CAPTAIN TO KILL EVERYONE IN THE BOOK.
AND HE DOES IT.
I feel like it should just be common knowledge how freaking good the original Doom Patrol really was by the end. Between Drake's bonkers writing and Premiani's just sooper intense art, it's simply leagues beyond any other superhero comic from the time period, considering DC and Marvel both. I really don't think anything even comes close to it until Claremont's X-Men, which is not for another seven years.
It's so crazy good. It's so crazy good that I want to just ignore the Beast Boy backup story that ran across several issues, and is probably literally the worst DP story of the entire series.
Because other than that, this thing is damn perfect. And I don't know if that's too sad, even if it is a little, so.
April 18, 2009
Go ahead and laugh, but this book made me very sad. There's nothing more depressing than watching a comic lose its sense of direction and just sputter out and die. When the Metal Men became hunted criminals that was sad, but watching The Doom Patrol commit suicide at the end of this book was messed up. More superheroes should kill themselves, it's an overpopulated field.
February 17, 2015
As mad as a box of frogs and in many ways more disconcerting than Grant Morrison's later incarnation. Beautiful Bruno Primiani artwork.And the ending...
March 12, 2017
This book collects the last eight issue of the epic Doom Patrol run from issues 114-121 and there's so much to commend the book.
The Madam Rogue storyline where the Chief reforms her briefly by removing the evil from her is a great story arc, with some unusual psychological imagery that really does build pathos leading right up to the book's ending.
The book finishes up Beast Boy's origin story and we get to see Elastigirl and Mento as adopted parents for Beast Boy, and how they try to help that very different boy survive in a difficult world. While there are some scenes that make modern reader. wince a bit, the family moments feel real and are quite touching.
The villains are mostly pure silver age. They're all okay but aren't quite as memorable as earlier villains like General Immortus, but they're still fun to read. A couple are quite relevant to 1960s life. One is a guru with suspect motives in a time when gurus were popular, even being followed by celebrities. The Wrecker in Issue 120 was a lot like many of the anarchists of the day. My favorite part of that story is that we get to see Robomen in a lot of robot stories.
And then there's the ending...It's gutsy, brave, and heroic. It's the end of the Doom Patrol and they do it in a way that feels true the team and the heroes they've become. It's a believable end to the journey that that began back in My Secret Adventure #80 from embittered outcasts to truly noble heroes. The end hurts because the writing was so good and the characters truly felt real. The only problem I had with the issue was the intro and exit lobbying for kids to buy comics to save the Doom Patrol. It was probably meant to soften the blow for young fans who originally read it, but it feels a little distracting all these years later.
Overall, Drake's Doom Patrol is an all-time classic Comics run. For Silver Age greatness, it's as solid as Stan Lee's work on Spider-man and Fantastic Four runs. Really a must-read for any comics fan.
The Madam Rogue storyline where the Chief reforms her briefly by removing the evil from her is a great story arc, with some unusual psychological imagery that really does build pathos leading right up to the book's ending.
The book finishes up Beast Boy's origin story and we get to see Elastigirl and Mento as adopted parents for Beast Boy, and how they try to help that very different boy survive in a difficult world. While there are some scenes that make modern reader. wince a bit, the family moments feel real and are quite touching.
The villains are mostly pure silver age. They're all okay but aren't quite as memorable as earlier villains like General Immortus, but they're still fun to read. A couple are quite relevant to 1960s life. One is a guru with suspect motives in a time when gurus were popular, even being followed by celebrities. The Wrecker in Issue 120 was a lot like many of the anarchists of the day. My favorite part of that story is that we get to see Robomen in a lot of robot stories.
And then there's the ending...It's gutsy, brave, and heroic. It's the end of the Doom Patrol and they do it in a way that feels true the team and the heroes they've become. It's a believable end to the journey that that began back in My Secret Adventure #80 from embittered outcasts to truly noble heroes. The end hurts because the writing was so good and the characters truly felt real. The only problem I had with the issue was the intro and exit lobbying for kids to buy comics to save the Doom Patrol. It was probably meant to soften the blow for young fans who originally read it, but it feels a little distracting all these years later.
Overall, Drake's Doom Patrol is an all-time classic Comics run. For Silver Age greatness, it's as solid as Stan Lee's work on Spider-man and Fantastic Four runs. Really a must-read for any comics fan.
June 24, 2019
And that finishes off the classic Doom Patrol series. And it's a really DARK ending for the time it was originally published. I give the creators kudos for actually doing it. Unfortunately, the other issues offered in this collection don't really live up to that spectacularly unusual ending. Lot's of silly shenanigans. I wish it had been a bit more absurd, but alas it's just silly.
May 26, 2022
This was a one-star book until the last story. Drake's writing really became obnoxious near the end of this series for all the cutsie-meta references he put into each issue, then turned that to a real advantage in the final issue of the series, also the final story in this graphic collection, so much so that I give this book an extra star.
August 10, 2021
Buen final, la Patrulla termina? Obvio que no, peor voy a fingir que aun no lo sé
Aunque no es memorable, tiene cierta epicidad
Aunque no es memorable, tiene cierta epicidad
November 8, 2013
A FANTASTIC Archives volume, this features the final adventures of the original Doom Patrol. Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani provide the stories, with some of the DP's weirdest foes seen outside the Grant Morrison series thirty years later. The final issue with the sacrifice of the team can still pull on the ol' heartstrings even today.
Highly recommended reading!
Highly recommended reading!
September 16, 2013
This is really fun and light, despite the main tenet and name of the team. I would have taken a star off because some if it is a bit dated, but this one has the most amazing end of any comic ever.
September 7, 2015
The greatest superhero team of them all.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews