Doom Patrol: The Best Silver Age Marvel Comic That DC Made

The year is 1963. A major comic book publisher releases a title about a group of heroes led by a mysterious wheelchair-bound genius. They have amazing powers, but are shunned by society. Their freakishness and noble purpose strengthens their bond as a family, although they do bicker and fight among each other. They battle giant robots, evil geniuses, and entities with freakish powers that rival their own. What title am I talking about?

Partial credit for answering “X-Men,” but I’m referring to the fabulous freaks of DC’s Doom Patrol. The similarities between the two series are remarkable, and it certainly wasn’t unusual for comic book creators in this era to borrow from one another. Arnold Drake and Bob Haney, the original writers of the series, were known admirers of the early issues of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four. At the time, DC was the biggest publisher of comic books, but were suffering from the waning popularity of superheroes. They still owned the million-dollar intellectual property of Superman, Batman, and other golden age heroes. But, early-1960s DC stories were stiff and stale. They relied on wacky situations instead of interesting characters. Superman or Batman would get into an absurd situation, everything would be resolved by the end of the issue, and the status quo would return until the next wacky adventure.

In 1961, Fantastic Four #1 permanently changed the nature of superhero comics. In a classic example of greatness being achieved by a guy trying to get himself fired, Stan Lee took his assignment of emulating DC’s superhero books, and wrote a story that he wanted to write. One that had characters with flaws – they bickered, experienced personal growth, and acted like actual human beings instead of backdrops for the situation of the month. Marvel didn’t become a success overnight, but they started gaining a lot more traction in the market compared to when they were churning out quick and simple horror and sci-fi stories. This new method of storytelling really caught on with readers who were looking for a little more sophistication in their superhero stories.

Two of these readers were currently employed at DC Comics – Arnold Drake and Bob Haney. They picked up an early copy of Fantastic Four from a stack of research materials and were blown away. They went to their editor with a renewed passion, wanting to tell these kinds of character-driven tales. And of course, they were turned away.

It took two years, but eventually they got their way. In 1963, a generic adventure title called My Greatest Adventure was waning in popularity and heading for cancellation. Arnold Drake was brought in to save the title by converting it to a superhero format. With the help of artist Bruno Premiani and his fellow writer Bob Haney, Drake created the Doom Patrol to fill that need. 

Here, Drake had the creative freedom that he wanted to create a DC comic in the Marvel manner. The title was already headed for cancellation, so how could he screw it up? Instead of square-jawed and noble heroes, he created a team of freaks that went on trippy adventures and were shunned by society. Characters grew and changed with each issue, and were defined by their relationships with each other. This wasn’t exactly new – Lee, Kirby, and Ditko had already been doing this for a few years with Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. But this was a relatively new development for DC.

In a remarkable coincidence, the first issue of X-Men was published just a few months after the Doom Patrol’s debut. I already mentioned the similarities above. We may never know if Stan Lee blatantly ripped off the premise, or if this was just another example of similar creators arriving at the same conclusion independently. Either way, I think it’s telling that both the Doom Patrol and the X-Men have both experienced a boom in popularity after experiencing a relatively quick cancellation in their original runs. The 1960s weren’t ready for this kind of absurd and/or allegorical storytelling, but modern audiences are hungry for it.

While Grant Morrison’s run of this title rightly gets the lion’s share of critical acclaim, I think the silver age run deserves some accolades as well. The amount of character development and risk-taking was highly unusual for a DC comic of this time period. It didn’t really work for its time and place, but the issues do hold up over time in ways that other silver age titles don’t. Plus, this series planted the seeds for the excellent runs that Morrison and Gerard Way have published more recently. In fact, Arnold Drake stated that Morrison’s run was the only one that truly captured the original intent of the series (alas, he did not live long enough to see Way’s run). This series was also a first step in the Marvel-ization of DC. They moved away from the stiffer, situation-based stories, and actually let their characters grow organically. This led to better stories for fans, and a real sea change in the growth of comic books as a serious literary medium.