Well, here's a cheery little page for Monday morning.

From Doom Patrol #1, written by Paul Kupperberg, pencils by Steve Lightle, inks by Gary Martin. Barring any appearances in Crisis or anything, I think this was the first Doom Patrol comic I ever read. And it does a pretty good job of recapping the first two versions of the team: the original and better-known with Elasti-girl, Negative Man, and Robotman; and version 2.0 with Celsius, Tempest, Negative Woman, and an uglier model of Robotman.

Fortunately, by this issue Cliff was back to his usual look. Celsius, who had claimed to be the wife of the Chief, Niles Caulder; reforms part of the team after finding the wreckage of his wheelchair. The original foursome sacrificed themselves to save a small town; with Robotman being salvaged and rebuilt later; but Celsius believed her husband survived as well. (The island is described as being in the Caribbean this issue, I believe most versions put it as being off Newfoundland or something.)

Surveying the area underwater, Cliff finds Rita's body...which seems to put the lie to a C.I.A. agent's claim to Negative Woman that "we searched that area with tweezers," if they didn't find the Chief's wheelchair or Rita's giant corpse...

The Doom Patrol makes the Suicide Squad look like longterm employment: among other members, Celsius, Negative Woman, and Tempest are all dead; and appeared as Black Lanterns. Still, with few exceptions, the team to me is Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-girl. I do wonder if they could add an established DC hero, though...