Friday, June 25, 2010

The Chief told them "Happiness Brigade" was taken...


Although I didn't get all of DC's Silver Age out of the quarter bins last time, I did get a new copy of the Doom Patrol's issue, which is probably my favorite. Even though the DP are ostensibly depressed freaks, they have a better sense of humor and probably more fun than the entire Justice League.

This time around, the Injustice Gang having stolen the bodies and identities of the Justice League; Batman organizes a smear campaign against the 'League' in the hopes of preventing them abusing the people's trust. Batman's idea fails--he and the Flash are unable to damage the Flash's reputation, and they switch back in time to catch the flak themselves--but the Doom Patrol gets attacked in the street, because they're complete hard-luck types.

Superman, in Lex Luthor's body, gets the DP involved by 'accidentally' leaking info about Lex's cache of anti-JLA weapons; and they have to fight their traditional enemies General Immortus and Garguax for them. "Anti-JLA weapons" is a bit of a misnomer, since the weapons are darn effective against the Doom Patrol, but they'd probably do a number on you, too.

I love this version of the Doom Patrol, though: far bigger-hearted than they'd ever let on. They have a brief appearance in the concluding chapter, Silver-Age 80-page Giant #1, which we may have to take a look at later...

From Silver Age: Doom Patrol #1, "The War of the Super-Weapons!" Written by Tom Peyer, pencils by Bachan, inks by Ray Kryssing.

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