THE DOOM PATROL #86 (formerly MY GREATEST ADVENTURE); March 1964; DC Comics;
Murray Boltinoff, editor; featuring the DP versus "The Brotherhood of Evil!"
in a story written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Bruno Premiani (the team
that created nearly all of the Silver Age DP stories). On the cover, the four
members of the Patrol watch, fascinated, a TV screen (low-tech-- black and
white) showing two of their enemies, a disembodied brain in a mechanical
life-support setup and a gorilla carrying a submachine gun and wearing a bandolier
of bullets. "This is the ultimate mission for which I created you-- the
destruction of the Doom Patrol!" the brain says through its mechanical voicebox.
"Summon the others!" "Yes, master, I will obey!", the gorilla responds.
Review by Bill Henley
The prominent appearance of the Doom Patrol-- and their archfoes, the
Brotherhood of Evil-- in the past two weeks' animated Teen Titans TV episode,
inspired me to pull out for this review the first encounter between the Patrol and
the Brotherhood. It's also the first issue of DOOM PATROL under its own
title. For the previous six issues, the DP had been the lead feature in the
former sci-fi/fantasy anthology title, MY GREATEST ADVENTURE. Evidently DC
decided the DP were popular enough to carry their own title. Besides, the title
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE was kind of awkward for a comic featuring an ongoing
series. If you figure that "My" refers to the protagonists of the book, the
Doom Patrol, then the implication is that the DP adventure in each succeeding
issue has to be "greater" than all the ones before. That would be quite a
challenge for any creative team.
Instead of a standard splash page, the opening page of the story is a
four-panel set of "capsule biographies" of the DP members. Rita Farr, we are told,
saw "her brilliant Hollywood career ended" when "strange volcanic fumes"
gave her to power to expand and reduce her body. "In a world that fears the
mysterious and unknown, Rita, now called Elasti-Girl, became an OUTCAST!"
(Nonetheless, I always figured Rita got a better deal than the three male DP
members, since she was neither crippled nor freakishly disfigured. A later story
tried to redress the balance by establishing that the volcanic fumes that
gave Rita her powers also shortened her lifespan. But not much was ever done
with that idea.) Larry Trainor became radioactive from "unidentifed solar
rays" but gained the power to "release Negative Man, a radio-energy being that
moves at the speed of light! But Larry, too, is an OUTSIDER!" (No, that's a
whole different team, and it didn't come along for a couple of decades yet.)
Cliff Steele, once a "wealthy international daredevil", saw not only his car
but his body "totaled" in a racing accident, and only his brain survived to
be transplanted by a "brilliant surgeon-inventor" into "a hulking metal and
electronic form"-- Robotman. "Thus was born another-- HUMAN EXILE!" Finally
we have The Chief, the wheelchair-bound genius who "preserved" Robotman and
brought the three DP members together under his leadership. "But of him,
almost NOTHING is known! Now, these four exiles from the human race dedicate
themselves to protecting the world that had once rejected them!" A conventional
splash page appears on page 2, on which a giant red robot with a man riding
in its transparent head holds the more compact Robotman in one fist and is
preparing to seize the Statue of Liberty from its pedestal. Elasti-Girl,
parachuting onto the scene, is astounded by the chutzpah of "the Brain, the
guiding spirit of the Brotherhood of Evil" "IT'S THE MOST BRAZEN THEFT IN
HISTORY!"
As our story begins, The Chief wheels himself around the halls of the DP's
headquarters calling peevishly for his three colleagues; "Where IS everybody
around this blasted place?" Each of the others, it seems, is engaged in a
different mysterious mission. Larry Tranor releases Negative Man and sends him
flashing at lightspeed around the world to Egypt, where he grabs a chunk of
rock from atop the Great Pyramid (and puzzles tourists who think they have
seen lightning in a cloudless sky). Rita Farr goes shopping and is told by a
jewelry salesman there is no time to get the item she has picked engraved, to
which she replies, "I'll take care of it myself!", and, back at HQ, she
shrinks herself to tiny size to engrave infinitesimal lettering on a tie clip.
Robotman, on the other hand, is frustrated; "Rita and Larry, with their
fantastic powers, will create wonderful gifts! How can I compete when I've got
nothing but these clumsy metal hands?" The next day, at the team's dinner table,
the three present The Chief with a birthday cake. They don't know if it's
actually his birthday, since The Chief has kept all such personal information a
secret, even from the DP, along with his original identity; but they've
decided to declare this day his brrthday. Larry's gift is a model of the Sphinx
carved from his piece of the Great Pyramid. (The Egyptian ministry of
antiquities might not be as appreciative of Negative Man's bit of vandalism as The
Chief is.) Rita's gift is the tie clip engraved in tiny print with The
Chief's attributes spelling out his nom de guerre-- Courageous, Heroic,
Intelligent, Exasperating, Fighter The leader is touched as well as amused by Rita's
inclusion of "exasperating". Finally, Cliff reveals his gift. Attempting to
crib a trick from Superman (though this isn't mentioned in the story),
Robotman took a big lump of coal down into the depths of a hot spring in an
attempt to use the combination of volcanic heat and the super-pressure of his
robotic hands, to squeeze the coal into a diamond. Unfortunately, it turns out
Cliff squeezed a little too hard. "But I'll cherish that diamond DUST
forever!", The Chief assures him. Following the party, The Chief reflects (with a
tear glistening at the corner of his eye) that by coincidence it really was
his birthday...while Rita hints that she'd like to see the inside of Negative
Man's metal-walled living quarters, but the hint is rebuffed. Alone inside
his room, Larry mutters that if Rita actually knew why he wears bandages and
lives within metal walls, "SHE'D NEVER WANT TO LOOK AT ME AGAIN!"
But enough with the festivities and soap opera.... the action is about to
begin,as military authorities discover that two sealed train cars containing a
secret, sealed cargo have been stolen. The news dismays The Chief, for the
contents of the cars were one of his own inventions, intended to aid the first
astronauts on the moon, but now destined to be put to more nefarious use.
In Part 2, "The Trail of the Terrible Titan!" the giant red robot, manipulated
by a man inside its transparent forehead, begins seizing cars on a bridge
and bending the bridge itself into ruin. The robot, calling itself Rog, goes
on to commit other acts of seemingly motiveless destruction, such as wrecking
oil wells. "That big bozo hasn't stolen a thing! All he's done is give a
bad name to us robots!", Cliff Steele gripes. Landing a small plane on a dam
Rog is attacking, the DP come face to face (so to speak) with Rog and discover
that the human driving him is one "Mr. Morden, a one-man crime wave! So
he's the one who stole Rog!" (Much later, the name "Mr. Morden" would be given
by writer J. Michael Straczynski to an even more sinister character on the TV
series BABYLON 5.) Under Morden's control, Rog fires a heat-ray from its
"face", melting a wing of the DP's plane; but, warned of this ability by The
Chief, Larry releases Negative Man who extends his 'body" around Rog's head,
blocking the deadly beam. Elasti-Girl then expands herself to give Rog the
chance to pick on somebody its own size. One might still wonder how the flesh
and blood Rita would fare in hand-to-claw combat against the metallic Rog....
but we won't find out just now, for Rog seizes Larry Trainor and Robotman in
its claws and Morden threatens to crush them if Rita attacks. You'd think
Robotman might not crush that easy, but the human Larry Trainor is certainly
vulnerable enough, and a stymied Rita is forced to make a deal that Rog and
Morden will be allowed to escape if Cliff and Larry are released. "For the
first time, the Doom Patrol must retreat!"
"Next day, at an exclusive girls' school in Paris," we find the beautiful
though severe-looking Madame Rouge teaching a class in the irregular French
verb "avoir". But when she receives a message from her "cousin Rog," she
quickly dismisses class in order to engage in far more irregular doings, ushering
Mr. Morden into the presence of The Brain, head of the Brotherhood of Evil
"the most powerful crime syndicate in the world." Still blindfolded to keep
secret the way into the Brotherhood's secret sanctum, Morden engages in some
flattery, saying he is "proud to stand before the most notorious human of all
time." But when his blindfold is removed, even he is shocked to learn that
the word "human" is debatable, while the name The Brain is all too literal--
for that is all that is left of the criminal mastermind, preserved in liquid
and tended by machines. "Is this some morbid joke?" No, says The Brain; his
body died, but his assistants "preserved my genius-- my BRAIN!" Duly
impressed, Morden offers the giant robot Rog as his "membership fee" for joining the
Brotherhood. The Brain accepts, but points out that Morden and the robot
only fought the Doom Patrol "to a standstill". "ONLY? No man ever did that
well against those fabulous freaks!" The Brain admits this, but says that when
Morden and Rog face the DP again they will need the aid of another member of
the Brotherhood, Monsieur Mallah, who has been waiting in the shadows.
Morden is skeptical that Mallah will be of any help, until the Monsieur steps into
the light and is revealed as a gorilla, gifted by The Brain with
genius-level human intelligence along with his natural strength and agility. Recovering
his poise from another shock, Morden apologizes, and the urbane anthropoid
replies, "No apologies necessary! Between us, we shall bring an end to the
Doom Patrol-- and earn you full membership in the Brotherhood of Evl!"
Soon, Morden, Rog and Mallah are sent off by The Brain to commit "the most
fantastic crime ever committed!" And what are the Doom Patrol doing in the
meantime? The Chief's "giant computer" has deduced not only that the goal of
Rog's crimes is to win membership for its master in the Brotherhood of Evil,
but has narrowed down their next infamy to three possibilities. And so,
Robotman is set to guard one of the likely targets-- the Statue of Liberty. He
hits the jackpot, as out of a fogbank Rog appears, using a pair of motor
launches as "water skis". As Rog reaches to pull down the giant statue, The
Chief, watching by television, realizes, "He's out to pull the most brazen theft
in history-- so he can ransom it back for millions!" He summons Larry and
Rita to join Robotman in carrying out "Plan #3". While Negative Man flashes to
the scene and again blocks Rog's heat beam, Cliff attaches a plastic
explosive device to Rog's foot. But apparently Rog is better built than even its
creator The Chief realized, for the bomb only twists its metal foot a bit. And
with sixty seconds past, Negative Man must return to Larry Trainor to save
his life. Fortunately, Elasti-Girl arrives on the scene by parachute and,
growing to giant size, she lands a mighty kick on Rog's "face" which disables
its heat-beam. While giant robot tangles with giant lady-- literally, snarling
Rita in her own parachute lines-- Monsieur Mallah emerges from Rog's head
and takes on Robotman. Rog grabs for the statue, but Rita gains the upper hand
over the robot at last, lifting it over her head and hurling it to the
ground, smashing the glass head from which Morden controls the robot. A defiant
Morden warns that Rog has planted a time bomb at the base of the statue, and
Robotman seizes the bomb and attempts to smother it with his metal body. But
when the bomb fails to go off, the DP realize that it is a decoy, a ruse to
enable the Morden and Mallah to escape. Back at DP headquarters, The Chief
notes that at least they spoiled the Brotherhood's plan, but that Larry Trainor
nearly paid a high price for the partial victory, since he kept Negative Man
out of his body almost long enough to kill him. "I'm okay now, except for a
nasty headache!" Larry insists, but a solicitous Rita urges him to take
fewer risks; "If anything happened to you, I don't know what I-- I mean, WE'D
do!" But back in his metal room, Larry is still convinced that if Rita saw his
unmasked face, "SHE'D RUN FOR HER LIFE!" "What is Larry's grim secret?",
the final caption asks. "How will the Brotherhood of Evil strike back? Don't
miss the next sensational DOOM PATROL issue!"
The back pages of the issue are filled by "A Medal for Go-Buggy 3!", billed
as a "Doom Patrol Special", but obviously an inventory story left over from
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE. Within a few issues, the book would feature
full-length DP stories or backups about individual DP members. But in the meantime
this story drawn (and signed) by Howard Purcell tells the story of Major Reed,
an astronaut who upon splashdown in the space capsule Go-Buggy 3, is caught
in the vicinity of a Pacific nuclear test and transformed into a bizarre
semi-humanoid tornado creature. Rescued, Reed is returned to the United States
and presented to the world as a hero-- though he must remain hidden inside
Go-Buggy 3 until a cure can be found. But is it actually Reed? No! In
actuality the man who underwent the strange transformation is Capt. Toji Nagawa, a
long-lost Japanese naval officer stranded on the remote island. Overcoming
the real Reed, Nagawa is the one who potentially menaces the United States in
his powerful tornado-form. Resorting to drastic measures, the real Reed
paddles a floating log to the area of another nuclear test (a lot of those lately,
it seems) and allows himself to be transformed into another tornado-creature
so that he can return home and battle Nagawa. The two of them battle
undersea and in midair until suddenly, fighting near the top of the Washington
Monument, they both suddenly revert to human form. Thinking Reed and his
tornado-adversary have both perished, military authorities are about to pin a medal
on his space capsule in his memory. But the ceremony is disrupted when the
real Reed, appears, along with a defeated Nagawa in tow, having somehow
managed to get both of them down from the top of the monument. The general in
charge is pleased to pin the medal on Reed himself instead of his spacecraft, and
Reed expresses the hope that on his next mission, Go-Buggy 4 "tosses me into
a nice, safe orbit!"
The DP story is reprinted, I believe, in volume 1 of DC's hardcover DOOM
PATROL ARCHIVES (is there a second volume yet?) The current rebooted DOOM
PATROL series features a similar subplot of doomed love between Rita Farr and one
of the DP members -- but in the Byrne series, it is Robotman she is attracted
to. (But in the original series, she wound up sometime later marrying
neither Negative Man nor Robotman but Mento, the millionaire with a helmet that
gives him psychic powers-- who wound up replacing The Chief as DP leader in the
animated Teen Titans episode.)
Murray Boltinoff, editor; featuring the DP versus "The Brotherhood of Evil!"
in a story written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Bruno Premiani (the team
that created nearly all of the Silver Age DP stories). On the cover, the four
members of the Patrol watch, fascinated, a TV screen (low-tech-- black and
white) showing two of their enemies, a disembodied brain in a mechanical
life-support setup and a gorilla carrying a submachine gun and wearing a bandolier
of bullets. "This is the ultimate mission for which I created you-- the
destruction of the Doom Patrol!" the brain says through its mechanical voicebox.
"Summon the others!" "Yes, master, I will obey!", the gorilla responds.
Review by Bill Henley
The prominent appearance of the Doom Patrol-- and their archfoes, the
Brotherhood of Evil-- in the past two weeks' animated Teen Titans TV episode,
inspired me to pull out for this review the first encounter between the Patrol and
the Brotherhood. It's also the first issue of DOOM PATROL under its own
title. For the previous six issues, the DP had been the lead feature in the
former sci-fi/fantasy anthology title, MY GREATEST ADVENTURE. Evidently DC
decided the DP were popular enough to carry their own title. Besides, the title
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE was kind of awkward for a comic featuring an ongoing
series. If you figure that "My" refers to the protagonists of the book, the
Doom Patrol, then the implication is that the DP adventure in each succeeding
issue has to be "greater" than all the ones before. That would be quite a
challenge for any creative team.
Instead of a standard splash page, the opening page of the story is a
four-panel set of "capsule biographies" of the DP members. Rita Farr, we are told,
saw "her brilliant Hollywood career ended" when "strange volcanic fumes"
gave her to power to expand and reduce her body. "In a world that fears the
mysterious and unknown, Rita, now called Elasti-Girl, became an OUTCAST!"
(Nonetheless, I always figured Rita got a better deal than the three male DP
members, since she was neither crippled nor freakishly disfigured. A later story
tried to redress the balance by establishing that the volcanic fumes that
gave Rita her powers also shortened her lifespan. But not much was ever done
with that idea.) Larry Trainor became radioactive from "unidentifed solar
rays" but gained the power to "release Negative Man, a radio-energy being that
moves at the speed of light! But Larry, too, is an OUTSIDER!" (No, that's a
whole different team, and it didn't come along for a couple of decades yet.)
Cliff Steele, once a "wealthy international daredevil", saw not only his car
but his body "totaled" in a racing accident, and only his brain survived to
be transplanted by a "brilliant surgeon-inventor" into "a hulking metal and
electronic form"-- Robotman. "Thus was born another-- HUMAN EXILE!" Finally
we have The Chief, the wheelchair-bound genius who "preserved" Robotman and
brought the three DP members together under his leadership. "But of him,
almost NOTHING is known! Now, these four exiles from the human race dedicate
themselves to protecting the world that had once rejected them!" A conventional
splash page appears on page 2, on which a giant red robot with a man riding
in its transparent head holds the more compact Robotman in one fist and is
preparing to seize the Statue of Liberty from its pedestal. Elasti-Girl,
parachuting onto the scene, is astounded by the chutzpah of "the Brain, the
guiding spirit of the Brotherhood of Evil" "IT'S THE MOST BRAZEN THEFT IN
HISTORY!"
As our story begins, The Chief wheels himself around the halls of the DP's
headquarters calling peevishly for his three colleagues; "Where IS everybody
around this blasted place?" Each of the others, it seems, is engaged in a
different mysterious mission. Larry Tranor releases Negative Man and sends him
flashing at lightspeed around the world to Egypt, where he grabs a chunk of
rock from atop the Great Pyramid (and puzzles tourists who think they have
seen lightning in a cloudless sky). Rita Farr goes shopping and is told by a
jewelry salesman there is no time to get the item she has picked engraved, to
which she replies, "I'll take care of it myself!", and, back at HQ, she
shrinks herself to tiny size to engrave infinitesimal lettering on a tie clip.
Robotman, on the other hand, is frustrated; "Rita and Larry, with their
fantastic powers, will create wonderful gifts! How can I compete when I've got
nothing but these clumsy metal hands?" The next day, at the team's dinner table,
the three present The Chief with a birthday cake. They don't know if it's
actually his birthday, since The Chief has kept all such personal information a
secret, even from the DP, along with his original identity; but they've
decided to declare this day his brrthday. Larry's gift is a model of the Sphinx
carved from his piece of the Great Pyramid. (The Egyptian ministry of
antiquities might not be as appreciative of Negative Man's bit of vandalism as The
Chief is.) Rita's gift is the tie clip engraved in tiny print with The
Chief's attributes spelling out his nom de guerre-- Courageous, Heroic,
Intelligent, Exasperating, Fighter The leader is touched as well as amused by Rita's
inclusion of "exasperating". Finally, Cliff reveals his gift. Attempting to
crib a trick from Superman (though this isn't mentioned in the story),
Robotman took a big lump of coal down into the depths of a hot spring in an
attempt to use the combination of volcanic heat and the super-pressure of his
robotic hands, to squeeze the coal into a diamond. Unfortunately, it turns out
Cliff squeezed a little too hard. "But I'll cherish that diamond DUST
forever!", The Chief assures him. Following the party, The Chief reflects (with a
tear glistening at the corner of his eye) that by coincidence it really was
his birthday...while Rita hints that she'd like to see the inside of Negative
Man's metal-walled living quarters, but the hint is rebuffed. Alone inside
his room, Larry mutters that if Rita actually knew why he wears bandages and
lives within metal walls, "SHE'D NEVER WANT TO LOOK AT ME AGAIN!"
But enough with the festivities and soap opera.... the action is about to
begin,as military authorities discover that two sealed train cars containing a
secret, sealed cargo have been stolen. The news dismays The Chief, for the
contents of the cars were one of his own inventions, intended to aid the first
astronauts on the moon, but now destined to be put to more nefarious use.
In Part 2, "The Trail of the Terrible Titan!" the giant red robot, manipulated
by a man inside its transparent forehead, begins seizing cars on a bridge
and bending the bridge itself into ruin. The robot, calling itself Rog, goes
on to commit other acts of seemingly motiveless destruction, such as wrecking
oil wells. "That big bozo hasn't stolen a thing! All he's done is give a
bad name to us robots!", Cliff Steele gripes. Landing a small plane on a dam
Rog is attacking, the DP come face to face (so to speak) with Rog and discover
that the human driving him is one "Mr. Morden, a one-man crime wave! So
he's the one who stole Rog!" (Much later, the name "Mr. Morden" would be given
by writer J. Michael Straczynski to an even more sinister character on the TV
series BABYLON 5.) Under Morden's control, Rog fires a heat-ray from its
"face", melting a wing of the DP's plane; but, warned of this ability by The
Chief, Larry releases Negative Man who extends his 'body" around Rog's head,
blocking the deadly beam. Elasti-Girl then expands herself to give Rog the
chance to pick on somebody its own size. One might still wonder how the flesh
and blood Rita would fare in hand-to-claw combat against the metallic Rog....
but we won't find out just now, for Rog seizes Larry Trainor and Robotman in
its claws and Morden threatens to crush them if Rita attacks. You'd think
Robotman might not crush that easy, but the human Larry Trainor is certainly
vulnerable enough, and a stymied Rita is forced to make a deal that Rog and
Morden will be allowed to escape if Cliff and Larry are released. "For the
first time, the Doom Patrol must retreat!"
"Next day, at an exclusive girls' school in Paris," we find the beautiful
though severe-looking Madame Rouge teaching a class in the irregular French
verb "avoir". But when she receives a message from her "cousin Rog," she
quickly dismisses class in order to engage in far more irregular doings, ushering
Mr. Morden into the presence of The Brain, head of the Brotherhood of Evil
"the most powerful crime syndicate in the world." Still blindfolded to keep
secret the way into the Brotherhood's secret sanctum, Morden engages in some
flattery, saying he is "proud to stand before the most notorious human of all
time." But when his blindfold is removed, even he is shocked to learn that
the word "human" is debatable, while the name The Brain is all too literal--
for that is all that is left of the criminal mastermind, preserved in liquid
and tended by machines. "Is this some morbid joke?" No, says The Brain; his
body died, but his assistants "preserved my genius-- my BRAIN!" Duly
impressed, Morden offers the giant robot Rog as his "membership fee" for joining the
Brotherhood. The Brain accepts, but points out that Morden and the robot
only fought the Doom Patrol "to a standstill". "ONLY? No man ever did that
well against those fabulous freaks!" The Brain admits this, but says that when
Morden and Rog face the DP again they will need the aid of another member of
the Brotherhood, Monsieur Mallah, who has been waiting in the shadows.
Morden is skeptical that Mallah will be of any help, until the Monsieur steps into
the light and is revealed as a gorilla, gifted by The Brain with
genius-level human intelligence along with his natural strength and agility. Recovering
his poise from another shock, Morden apologizes, and the urbane anthropoid
replies, "No apologies necessary! Between us, we shall bring an end to the
Doom Patrol-- and earn you full membership in the Brotherhood of Evl!"
Soon, Morden, Rog and Mallah are sent off by The Brain to commit "the most
fantastic crime ever committed!" And what are the Doom Patrol doing in the
meantime? The Chief's "giant computer" has deduced not only that the goal of
Rog's crimes is to win membership for its master in the Brotherhood of Evil,
but has narrowed down their next infamy to three possibilities. And so,
Robotman is set to guard one of the likely targets-- the Statue of Liberty. He
hits the jackpot, as out of a fogbank Rog appears, using a pair of motor
launches as "water skis". As Rog reaches to pull down the giant statue, The
Chief, watching by television, realizes, "He's out to pull the most brazen theft
in history-- so he can ransom it back for millions!" He summons Larry and
Rita to join Robotman in carrying out "Plan #3". While Negative Man flashes to
the scene and again blocks Rog's heat beam, Cliff attaches a plastic
explosive device to Rog's foot. But apparently Rog is better built than even its
creator The Chief realized, for the bomb only twists its metal foot a bit. And
with sixty seconds past, Negative Man must return to Larry Trainor to save
his life. Fortunately, Elasti-Girl arrives on the scene by parachute and,
growing to giant size, she lands a mighty kick on Rog's "face" which disables
its heat-beam. While giant robot tangles with giant lady-- literally, snarling
Rita in her own parachute lines-- Monsieur Mallah emerges from Rog's head
and takes on Robotman. Rog grabs for the statue, but Rita gains the upper hand
over the robot at last, lifting it over her head and hurling it to the
ground, smashing the glass head from which Morden controls the robot. A defiant
Morden warns that Rog has planted a time bomb at the base of the statue, and
Robotman seizes the bomb and attempts to smother it with his metal body. But
when the bomb fails to go off, the DP realize that it is a decoy, a ruse to
enable the Morden and Mallah to escape. Back at DP headquarters, The Chief
notes that at least they spoiled the Brotherhood's plan, but that Larry Trainor
nearly paid a high price for the partial victory, since he kept Negative Man
out of his body almost long enough to kill him. "I'm okay now, except for a
nasty headache!" Larry insists, but a solicitous Rita urges him to take
fewer risks; "If anything happened to you, I don't know what I-- I mean, WE'D
do!" But back in his metal room, Larry is still convinced that if Rita saw his
unmasked face, "SHE'D RUN FOR HER LIFE!" "What is Larry's grim secret?",
the final caption asks. "How will the Brotherhood of Evil strike back? Don't
miss the next sensational DOOM PATROL issue!"
The back pages of the issue are filled by "A Medal for Go-Buggy 3!", billed
as a "Doom Patrol Special", but obviously an inventory story left over from
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE. Within a few issues, the book would feature
full-length DP stories or backups about individual DP members. But in the meantime
this story drawn (and signed) by Howard Purcell tells the story of Major Reed,
an astronaut who upon splashdown in the space capsule Go-Buggy 3, is caught
in the vicinity of a Pacific nuclear test and transformed into a bizarre
semi-humanoid tornado creature. Rescued, Reed is returned to the United States
and presented to the world as a hero-- though he must remain hidden inside
Go-Buggy 3 until a cure can be found. But is it actually Reed? No! In
actuality the man who underwent the strange transformation is Capt. Toji Nagawa, a
long-lost Japanese naval officer stranded on the remote island. Overcoming
the real Reed, Nagawa is the one who potentially menaces the United States in
his powerful tornado-form. Resorting to drastic measures, the real Reed
paddles a floating log to the area of another nuclear test (a lot of those lately,
it seems) and allows himself to be transformed into another tornado-creature
so that he can return home and battle Nagawa. The two of them battle
undersea and in midair until suddenly, fighting near the top of the Washington
Monument, they both suddenly revert to human form. Thinking Reed and his
tornado-adversary have both perished, military authorities are about to pin a medal
on his space capsule in his memory. But the ceremony is disrupted when the
real Reed, appears, along with a defeated Nagawa in tow, having somehow
managed to get both of them down from the top of the monument. The general in
charge is pleased to pin the medal on Reed himself instead of his spacecraft, and
Reed expresses the hope that on his next mission, Go-Buggy 4 "tosses me into
a nice, safe orbit!"
The DP story is reprinted, I believe, in volume 1 of DC's hardcover DOOM
PATROL ARCHIVES (is there a second volume yet?) The current rebooted DOOM
PATROL series features a similar subplot of doomed love between Rita Farr and one
of the DP members -- but in the Byrne series, it is Robotman she is attracted
to. (But in the original series, she wound up sometime later marrying
neither Negative Man nor Robotman but Mento, the millionaire with a helmet that
gives him psychic powers-- who wound up replacing The Chief as DP leader in the
animated Teen Titans episode.)
