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From SCIFIPEDIA
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The Doom Patrol is a fictional superhero team owned by DC Comics. It first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80 (June, 1963), and became so popular that the book was retitled "The Doom Patrol" by the 86th issue. Its creators were Bob Haney, Arnold Drake, and Bruno Premiani. The series ended in issue #121 with the apparent death of the entire team by a climactic explosion.
The Doom Patrol was made up of an unhappy lot of super-powered beings who considered themselves freaks. Wheelchair bound scientist, Niles Caulder (referred to as "The Chief") brought them together to give their life new purpose.
The original roster was:
Robot Man - Cliff Steele, who was in a tragic car accident. Caulder put Cliff's brain into a robot body to give him a kind of life. Robot Man's body was very durable and strong. Whenever his body is damaged, they just build him a new one. His brain seems to always survive.
Elasti-Girl - Rita Farr, a popular Hollywood actress, who was exposed to unusual volcanic gas while filming in Africa. The gas gave her the power to shrink and grow at will. By the time Rita learned to control her powers, her acting career was ruined.
Negative Man - Larry Trainor, A pilot who was accidently exposed to a radioactive field in the atmosphere when piloting a test plane. This experience leaves him radioactive himself, but also gives him a strange superpower: the ability to release a negatively-charged energy being from his body. The being appears as a shadowy glowing silhouette and can fly, pass through objects like a ghost, and make solid objects explode. It is under Trainor's control, but must return to him within 60 seconds or risk fatal consequences. While it is active, Trainor's body lies helpless. Also, Trainor is so radioactive, that he must wrap himself in protective bandages or risk poisoning those around him. As a result, he looks like a living mummy.
Later on, the heroes Mento and Beast Boy were to join the team.
In wheelchair and attitude, the Chief and the Doom Patrol remind some people of Charles Xavier and the Marvel Comics' X-Men. The two groups were created the same year, so the facts do seem to suggest that this is a case of great minds thinking alike, rather than people using each other's ideas. For the record, the premier of the Doom Patrol is dated three months earlier than X-Men #1. Also, there are some important differences between the two groups. Caulder has developed over the years as a more cynical character than Xavier, and the Doom Patrol all got their powers by tragic accidents rather than by being born with a mutation like the X-Men.
For years it was thought that only Robot Man survived the explosion that ended the orifinal series. Despite the tragic ending of their first series, most of the Doom Patrol seems to have survived one way or another, and most recently Elasti-Girl was brought back to life through cloning by Caulder. Over the years, the group has had many incarnations and series runs, most notably a strange version in DC Comic's Vertigo adult fantasy line.
The Doom Patrol has no on-going series being published as of 2008. They were shown to be still active in the Infinite Crisis limited crossover series. Still, their pathos and humanity have made them a fan and creator favorite, and they are bound to return in their own series eventually.
Adaptations
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