Doom Patrol: The Silver Age Vol. 1

Doom Patrol (1964) #86-95

by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, Bruno Premiani (Artist)

Out of the Silver Age of Comics came a very different comic book team, featuring a new breed of superheroes. Cast out of society due to their deformities, the Doom Patrol were a group of misfit loners not blessed, but cursed, with unnatural powers. These human oddities—Elasti-Girl, Negative Man, Robotman and the Chief—save the world one strange case at a time.  See them take on such equally bizarre villains like the undying criminal mastermind General Immortus, shape-shifting Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, the Brotherhood of Evil and more!  Doom The Silver Age Volume One kicks off Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani’s beloved series with tales from My Greatest Adventure #80-85 and The Doom Patrol #86-95.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Comic Book, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Science Fiction

374 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Arnold 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.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow what a great blast from the past. Rereading these Silver Age comics sure bring back memories I had as a kid finding that next issue in the series in the drug store comic spinner rack. Great collection and a fun rad. Recommended

[The Lion's Share · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a silver age comic so it’s very old fashioned and therefore a bit dull. It’s only worth reading for the reminiscent factor and gives good background on the characters who were the first team of the doom patrol.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this volume; it was a fun read, but sometimes it almost seemed like a dated parody of itself.

At heart, these are stories about four misfit heroes who form a sort of unlikely family to combat bizarre threats with bravery, quick thinking, and nonsensical super-science. Starting out as strangers, unlike the already-close members of the similar Fantastic Four, creates more drama and the occasionally-hinted-at love triangle (or, um, parallelogram?), but ultimately the closeness between the four is kept to the level of playful banter and occasional innuendo. I suspect that's as much as can be expected from a silver age comic series.

The volume isn't without flaws, including some rather dated stereotypes and general oddities. For example: I may have to re-read the volume again, but it seems like there are only two female characters -- ever, in the entire series. And while the heroic Rita Farr, Elasti-girl, is ahead of her time in the world of comics, there are still those eye-rolling moments of, "I'm late for the red alert because I was getting my hair done!" Ugh. There's a certain predictability in each story arc that's both comforting and frustrating, but the oddly clever ways that they defeat unusual adversaries kept me reading.

[Petr Nakasharal Fabián · Rating 3 out of 5]

Má to svoje kouzlo ale přece jenom silver age všeobecně nestárne dobře. Tohle není výjimka.

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silver Age shenanigans. Very off-beat and fun to read.

It's been pointed out by others, that these heroes seem to be cursed more than gifted with their powers, and are more prone to brooding than even Ben Grimm.

They also face off against some trippy villains. At some point, it occurred to me that this was not so much ahead of its time as it was a throw back to the weird old Golden Age of mad scientists and genius gorillas.

Silly side note: Rita Farr is HOT!

Ready for volume two, whenever it arrives.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining, but very Silver Age-y, superhero title. Although the Doom Patrol has been compared to the X-Men (which premiered around the same time), they feel a lot more like the Fantastic Four. It's probably their even weirder foes, like Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, that are the best part of the series. The reset to status quo at the end of each story does rankle once or twice, though, especially the lack of consequences for a certain someone in the last story. (B+)

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than I expected. Marvel's influence was obvious, but this series still offered some interesting insight and wrinkles to the superhero formula.

[Zack! Empire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off a bit slow and rocky. It takes time for them to settle on the idea of just having the Doom Patrol go up against the weirdest and wildest idea's they can think of. Strangely, my favorite part of this book was the idea that the Doom Patrol live in a mansion outside of a small town. I just liked the idea of seeing them showing up at the local "coffee shop" (which is really just a part of the grocery store where you can sit down) to have a cup, when a dinosaur shows up!
Like a lot of silver age comics, it gets really repetitive, so I recommend you space out the reading.

[Christopher M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection. It's from the Silver Age of DC, but written in the Mighty Marvel Manner, so they're a colourful team of heroes who argue a lot and treat their powers as disabilities they try to cure. There is a lot of invention apparent in the main characters themselves - I've never seen another hero with powers like Negative Man - and the increasingly surreal villains, but the plots lapse into a formula quite quickly and the "world that fears and hates them" idea the author accused the X-Men of stealing quickly falls by the wayside. They don't patrol a lot either!

[Jason Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories are so corny, but I really enjoyed reading them. So imaginative and original.

[Logan Muha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully imaginative, grippingly weird, and shockingly mature and sophisticated when it wants to be, these classic Doom Patrol tales are full of surprises at every turn. It’s hard to read this without becoming strangely attached to the childlike whimsy of our four heroes and their ludicrous villains.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find a lot of Golden and Silver Age comics pretty unreadable, but DP is genuinely a lot of fun. Best if you read in smaller chunks because there's still a lot of the repetition that defines this era of comic storytelling.

The DP just loves each other so much though!

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is some of DC’s best Silver Age stuff. The Doom Patrol were always weird. Subsequent writers just turned up the dial.

[Gaël Sauvajon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great origin stories

So glad to have bought this anthology after watching Seasons 1, 2 & 3 of the TV series! Can't wait for more of either!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not amazing, but it was fun! I'm a fan of the show but haven't read any of the comics, so it was interesting to see where Doom Patrol originated.

[Norman Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a typical Silver Age title--nothing too serious or violent, but enough weird science fiction to keep it interesting. Having recently finished the Doom Patrol TV series, I was surprised at how much content of these early adventures made its way into the series, as it was my understanding that it was more based on Grant Morrison's run much later. But even in the first story, we have Immortus, and in later stories there is the Brotherhood of Evil and Madame Rouge, all important characters in the series. The origins of the Doom Patrol members is pretty close to what we saw on TV, too. One of the bigger deviations is that Larry Trainor's Negative Man can only survive for exactly 60 seconds outside of Larry's body--but how did they know this? Just one of many hand-waving mysteries that readers shouldn't think too hard about, I suppose. One of the silliest foes in this volume is Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, who somehow can transform at will into anything--too bad we didn't see him in the series! The art by Bruno Premiani is solid, if not too exciting.

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always really enjoyed the Grant Morrison '90s run of Doom Patrol, so I figured it was time to go back to the original and see how these misunderstood weirdos first developed. And it turns out the early stories are... okay. They might have seemed a bit more novel or outre back in the early '60s when they were first published, but judged by today's standards they're a bit flat and clumsy. You can see them trying to take a cue from the more human-scale, conflicted early Marvel heroes (in fact, they debuted at the same time as the very similar X-Men), but they lack the pop of the Kirby/Lee approach as well as the campier, cartoonish qualities of other Silver Age DC offerings. That said, there are some fun stories and characters throughout here - a starting point for something even stranger and more interesting.

[Stavo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Los personajes siguen siendo fantásticos, y es casi inevitable sentir cariño por ellos
Me ha gustado especialmente el número en donde el jefe cumple años, y los miembros de la Doom Patrol van en busca de regalos para el, es algo completamente emotivo

Cliff sigue siendo el personaje mejor desarrollado del equipo, a quien más se le ha explorado su crecimiento como persona.

Los villanos narrados aquí son igual fantásticos, la hermandad del mal es bizarra y divertida de leer, en especial Madame Rouge, el número en donde obtiene sus poderes es genial
De igual manera, el hombre mineral animal vegetal es tan absurdo y entretenido en mismas proporciones.

El problema es que los números son muy infantiloides, no existe un verdadero peligro para los héroes y los problemas los resuelven con mucha facilidad

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit, if I hadn't watched Doom Patrol on DC universe I wouldn't had much interest in this series. Having said that, I quite enjoyed some of these issues. Some were a but silly, but others quite good.

[Sarospice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! These stories hold up! The Doom Patrol are a fun group with a unique Bond and inventive adventures. I absolutely love this version as well as their villains The Brotherhood and A V M man. Loved it!

[Jaime Guzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Chief, Elasti-Girl, Negative Man, and Robotman form the team that is known as Doom Patrol.
These classic stories have nicely done art and well written tales.
Compared to the JLA The Silver Age volumes I enjoyed these stories and art much better.
I will definitely pick up volume 2.

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure Silver Age fun! Great art, great writing, very Marvel-esque in some ways, though a firmly DC title.

[Grzegorz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wyraźnie widać upływ czasu iograniczenia konwencji (chociaż i tak lepiej od sporej części ówczesnego DC) Dalej da się zobaczyć to jak kolejne wersje mogły wyewoluować stąd

[Greg Trosclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superfun 60's weirdness from comics strangest heroes.

[Sophie Carbone · Rating 4 out of 5]

AVM Man and Madame Rouge were definitely my favorite in this volume! Immortus got kinda old after a while. But it’s always great to see Dr. Tyme!!

[Al McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading these for the first time, had no idea Premiani’s art was so good. And the yarns are corkers.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silver Age DC is far zanier than what Marvel was doing. The Doom Patrol was a clear cut inspiration for Marvel's X-Men.

[Robert Kimberlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely great. I grew up reading Silver Age and Bronze Age comics. To me, they are the best. The Doom Patrol volume one was fantastic. Great stories and characters. Stan Lee sure liked to copy a lot from DC Comics.
Bob K.

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love some silver age adventures. This is quite fun with some Stan Lee inspired soap opera elements to the characters.

[Egghead · Rating 3 out of 5]

DC making theirs
Marvel like: weirdies galore,
hep jokes, extra angst!