Showcase Presents: Doom Patrol, Vol. 2

Showcase Presents: Doom Patrol #2

by Arnold Drake, Bob Brown (Illustrator), Various (Illustrator)

Over 500 pages of offbeat super-hero action are collected in this value-priced volume!

This fast-paced volume introduces The Doom Patrol, one of comics' strangest super-teams. Led by their wheelchair-bound chief, Niles Calder, three outcasts of society -- Negative Man, Elasti-Girl and Robotman -- take the qualities that make them freaks and become heroes. Together, the trio would take on bizarre menaces including General Immortus, The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man and The Brotherhood of Evil!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

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

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are all the Doom Patrol!

[tony dillard jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alright, look, the events of this book took place over 50 years ago. So if it's a spoiler for you, I'm sorry. But in order to fully capture my feelings, I'm going have to let some details slip.

Reading this, the second and final volume of Showcase Presents The Doom Patrol, was very bittersweet. Knowing that the main members of this team were slated for death by the very last page was like a little sad time bomb getting closer and closer to mortality with the completion of every page.

There are some joyous times in the book. The marriage of Rita Farr and Mento. The adoption of Beast Boy. The Sam and Diane romance between the Professor and the evil Madame Rouge. Those were great moments in not only Doom Patrol but DC Comics history.

I also rather enjoyed the origin back-story features of Robotman, Negative Man and Beastie. But where's Elasti-Girl's history? Where's Niles Caulder's story? Where's Mento's first days? Okay- Caulder's origins are explored some in the Robotman and Negative Man's 'miniseries'. But the leader of The Doom Patrol is too much of a mystery.

Those of you who've read the later series of Doom Patrol know that yes, nobody ever really stays dead in the world of comics. And we'll one day see more of Caulder's backstory revealed. But it just wasn't explored here.

A great series that went in some pretty zany directions. It was classic DC and I loved it.

Too bad this was just so darn sad of a collection!

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

written by Arnold Drake; illustrated by Bruno Premiani with some covers by Bob Brown, Sal Trapiani, and Joe Orlando: The World's Strangest Heroes, at least of the Silver Age of Comics, return for more weird adventures. The permanent addition of young Beast Boy and boring middle-aged "fifth richest man in the world" Steve Dayton, aka Mento (but definitely not The Fresh Maker) don't improve things for the Doom Patrol. Oh, well.

With a shocking-for-its-time final issue. And a surprising number of scenes in which either the Chief or the entire Doom Patrol toss back some booze. Robotman, Elastigirl, the Chief, and Negative Man are always a hoot. And the Chief really can be a dick sometimes. Arnold Drake wasn't as dab a hand at funky faux-hipster dialogue in the Stan Lee Manner, but he was an extraordinary creator of truly bizarre monsters and villains (the Mutant Masters are an especial favourite of mine). Bruno Premiani depicts it all with an admirably matter-of-fact style, though the changes of the late 1960's to comic-book story-telling does allow him a lot more freedom to 'open up' into larger panels and full-page spreads. Recommended.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, after an initial great start with the first volume, this got pretty silly, pretty quickly. And it was all down hill from there. Yes, I still enjoyed it, but the "comedy" got a bit too over-the-top for my tastes. It was still entertaining and enjoyable, but the quality of the writing just got progressively juvenile instead of, what I was hoping for, increasingly absurd.

[Jason Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked Volume 1 of the Doom Patrol, and this one's no different. In fact, in many ways they built upon and made it better.

The best parts were the conflicted character arcs. (mild spoiler alert) Like Mento and Elasti-Girl getting married, he wanting a retired superhero/housewife, she liking the doom patrol. And then they adopt Beast Boy, not sure if they like having a random teenaged adoptee as newlyweds. And the love affair between the leader of the DP (nickname for the Doom Patrol, a lot of forced lingo by Arnold Drake, but its humor is kind of charming), the chief starts dating a "reformed" villain woman from the Brotherhood of Evil, Madame Rouge.

The relationship stuff actually maintains suspense in the comic, as well as making the reader root for certain outcomes.

The villains are a little cookie cutter, a lot of aliens and giants and scientists with specific (REALLY specific, like a guy who's invisible and can use only light based powers) specific powers, but the character dynamics and at least the bland threat of danger are good enough to keep me engaged.

And as I mentioned parenthetically before, Arnold Drake has a funny sense of humor for a 60s comic book guy, makes for funny banter in the descriptions, as well as more organic dialogue than you might expect.

The ending of the series is published here (no spoilers), parts of it are daunting ,parts of it are confusing and seem like mixed signals, but it definitely gives the entire series more a modern edge, like Arnold Drake wasn't beholden to rules about what to do in a comic.

All in all, a great series, underrated, with a sharpness to the writing not seen in other comics of the period, the JLA, Green Lantern, Flash, etc.

50/5 (only have 5/5 on this website)

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doom Patrol was an odd book for the publisher. DC heroes were more of the bland do-gooder types who just smiled, did something impressive with any superpowers they might have, and then sit there while their girlfriends told them they weren't as much of a man as their superhero alter ego. The Doom Patrol, on the other hand, is not made up of handsome people, but rowdy folks who bicker, crack wise, and actually have ongoing storylines. It reads more like a Marvel book, except Elasti-Girl was way too competant to be any of Stan Lee's usual heroines. This volume finishes up the original run of the Doom Patrol, with regular allies Mento and Beast Boy helping out against regular villains The Brotherhood of Evil (here's a hint: large, mysterious figures tend to turn out to be Monsuier Mallah in disguise).

This series is noteworthy for the final issue that actually killed the team off. The issue in question was recreated partially in a recent episode of the animated "Batman: The Brave and the Bold", down to the Patrol's dialogue.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

a black and white collection of The Doom Patrol #102 through #121, back in 1966-1968. Writer Arnold Drake had a tongue-in-cheek approach to those comics which makes the book hold up better than plenty of others (while occasionally offending based on stereotypes of the time about Native Americans and you know, women). And artist Bruno Premiani was like no other in comics, with a distinctive approach to body English and perspective which was a joy to revisit. Strangely, there seemed to be an editiorial decision made around issue 114 to tell simpler stories with bigger panels, fewer characters, fewer words, and crazier plots. So when the final issue came, and the Doom Patrol became the only superhero group to die and basically remain dead to this day, there is less regret than would have been if the deaths in issue 108 had been permanent. Here's to Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, the Chief, Mento, and Beast Boy, who gave us a wild comic book ride for a short time.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad these were reprinted because they never really made it into the 1970s in their classic form. There were other incarnations of this group, of course, but generally speaking if you started reading comics in the late 1970s you missed out on affordable versions of these until the Showcase line came along.

[Mike McDevitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey, listen up, you finks! It's another volume of the warped capers of four fabulous freaks. While 'Dawn of Justice' may have fizzled and flopped, you might just find super-types with some emotional resonance in here! Say hello and good-bye to Niles, Cliff, Larry, & Rita- The Dandy DP!

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get the color Archives if you can. The art does become a bit dull without the color.

However the stories are still wacky fun. The ending is crazy. Worth checking out.