Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
(Part Two)
Dr. Niles Caulder's intent was as straightforward and elegant as it was praiseworthy: to gather together a powerful assemblage of "freaks" (self-styled or otherwise) who would -- by thwarting disasters both natural and man-made -- show an otherwise cruel and uncomprehending world that even the most outcast and unloved of its number were worthy of a portion of its respect (if not admiration outright).
His chosen catspaws for this endeavor -- now code-named "Robot Man"; "Negative Man"; and "Elasti-Girl" -- lived up to his every expectation... and exceeded them, in repeated conflicts with the villainous likes of menaces of such world-threatening pith and measure as "General Immortus" (an undying septuagenarian and military strategist supreme); "Mr. 103" (an all-but- indestructible shape-shifter); and "the Brotherhood of Evil" (a gathering of similarly "freakish" individuals, banded together under the black auspices of the Chief's polar opposite: the malign entity known only as "the Brain").
One of the team's most legendary adventures was a multi-issue crossover with DC's other self-appointed watchmen of the darker "fringes" of that particular storytelling universe: the resolutely fearless foursome of professional "death-cheaters" known as THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN (see cover, accompanying). It is, certainly, one of the most fondly remembered tales in the entirety of the DOOM PATROL canon, and -- as much as any of them -- is well worth the careful reader's seeking out in the form of "back issues," as a result.
Another essential storyline (a sub-plot, in this instance, which quickly snowballed into an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink multi-parter... and culminated in an actual wedding, for one DPer in particular) was the tempestuous, on-again-off-again romance between Rita Farr and the slightly megalomaniacal multi-zillionaire "Steve Dayton" -- the latter whom was so thoroughly obsessed by the comely heroine that he actually assumed the (putatively) super-heroic identity of "Mento," solely in order to impress the woman of his dreams and garner favor in her eyes.
That said stratagem was the right one cannot -- no matter how ludicrous or brain-damaged it may very well seem, reducedto flat prose -- be effectively gainsaid, given the results: Rita Farr officially became Rita Dayton with issue #104 of THE DOOM PATROL. (Although -- as the accompanying panel illustrates -- not without two of her erstwhile teammates [fearing, perhaps, the loss of their surrogate "mommy figure," as a result of said nuptials] attempting to lodge a spanner or three in the works, beforehand).
I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment or two, at this juncture, to lavish as fulsome a measure of praise as possible upon the talented Mr. Bruno Premiani: the DOOM PATROL artist of record, and one of the most (undeservedly, in my estimation) under-appreciated storytelling craftsmen of his day.
Stating, blandly, that the Italian-born Premiani could flat-out draw is rather like stating that Muhammed Ali knew a little something or other about the science of pugilism. In a medium increasingly given over to freakish and pointless distortions of the human anatomy, and jumbled page and panel layouts which no accompanying codex of captions and word balloons may render sufficiently explicable or enjoyable (I'm thinking of such modern-day parvenus as Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld, here), Mr. Premiani's subtle and meticulous mastery of body language and facial nuance simply grows more (comparatively) invaluable by the hour.
In addition: he was also, inarguably, blessed with one of the keenest and most unsparing eyes for dramatic compositionas has ever graced the comics medium. A Premiani-crafted cover literally assaulted the reader from its nesting place on the comics "spinner racks" of the day.
Taking absolutely nothing away from Arnold Drake's adult and masterful plotting, dialogue and/or characterization -- his, too, is a contribution sorely missed, in these slapdash, comics-as- commodities times -- I dare say that Mr. Premiani's one-man show on the artistic duties, re: THE DOOM PATROL (the gentleman was his own inker, as well as penciler) were as responsible as any other single element in the title's having assumed nigh-legendary "cult" status amongst the comics readership of today.
Of course... that still leaves us with the single most memorable and oft-analyzed issue of THE DOOM PATROL left to consider, at this point.
The one where DC Comics -- ever the innovators -- took the heretofore unprecedented step of actually killing off an entire character franchise.
Issue #121: the DPers had just been isolated and immobilized (by a series of cunning technological, power-sapping "countermeasures") on a remote island by two of the Patrol's longest-lived and most implacable of foemen: the Nazi-like "Captain Zahl" and the seductive and traitorous "Madame Rouge."
Zahl made the following offer to the helpless and incredulous heroes: "I have identical bombs hidden in two separate locations. The first one is secreted within a tiny hamlet of fourteen retired Maine fishermen. All of them are aged; helpless; and of no use to the larger congress of human society whatsoever.
"The second one is situated directly underneath you.
"I will now detonate one of these devices... and you four are going to tell me which one.
"Demonstrate your cowardice and selfishness -- once and for all; for all the world to see -- by telling me you'd willingly sacrifice fourteen withered old men in order to save your own miserable, mutated skins."
(The Captain, you see, was pre-judging the Patrolers by his own wretched, rodent-like standards, in this instance. He despised our heroes precisely because they were self-styled "freaks" who -- nonetheless -- had shown the world that the outcast and the disenfranchised, too -- however much despised, initially -- could, nonetheless, merit admiration and respect. )
As the accompanying page amply demonstrates... this was one of the most singular and egregious miscalculations in all of Comic Book Super-Villain History.
The Captain, alas, chose this signal instance to remain true to his venomous word. The fateful plunger was depressed... and -- just that quickly; with precisely that much finality -- the "fabulous freaks" of the Doom Patrol were summarily executed.
It was nearly a decade and a half later that later writers Paul Kupperberg and Marv Wolfman -- within the pages of SHOWCASE and THE NEW TEEN TITANS, respectively -- managed to convincingly resurrect the noble Cliff Steele, at least, to his customary semblance of half-life, once more. And -- just under a decade after that -- that the talented Grant Morrison took a brand-new interpretation of the venerable DOOM PATROL concept even farther than the good misters Drake and Premiani had ever been able to conceive, in a series "run" that remains one of the two or three undisputed high-water marks of the late 1980's...
... but those are other stories, for another time. 
MONSTERS, HEROES AND GOOD/BAD MEN
PAGE ONE (The Silver Age DOOM PATROL)
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