Doom Patrol

The Doom Patrol is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The original Doom Patrol first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80 (June 1963), and was created by writers Arnold Drake and Bob Haney, along with artist Bruno Premiani. Doom Patrol has appeared in different incarnations in multiple comics, and have been adapted to other media. The series' creator suspected that Marvel Comics copied the basic concept to create the X-Men, which debuted a few months later. Doom Patrol is a group of super-powered misfits whose "gifts" caused them alienation and trauma. Dubbed the "world's strangest heroes" by editor Murray Boltinoff, the original team included the Chief (Niles Caulder), Robotman (Cliff Steele), Elasti-Girl (Rita Farr), and Negative Man (Larry Trainor); Beast Boy (Garfield Logan) and Mento (Steve Dayton) joined soon after. The team remained the featured characters of My Greatest Adventure, which was re-titled Doom Patrol as of issue #86 (March 1964). The original series was canceled in 1968 when Drake killed the team off in issue #121, last of that series, (September–October 1968). The team did not return until 1987, after writer Paul Kupperberg killed most of the new team during the Invasion! event. Beginning with issue #19 of the second volume of Doom Patrol, Scottish comic writer Grant Morrison transformed the title into a much more surreal and bizarre story that explored topics of mental health, gender identity, and sexual discovery in an abstract manner. Morrison's run garnered critical acclaim, and the mature themes of their stories led to the comic being integrated into Vertigo Comics.