Secret Origins Annual 1 (1)

Secret Origins Annual 1

1987

The Secret Origin of the Doom Patrol!

by Paul Kupperberg, John Byrne, Albert T. De Guzman, Carl Gafford, Robert Greenberger

30 pages

Robotman breaks into the Doom Patrol’s old headquarters in Midway City. The security system does not believe that he is who he claims to be. He tells it his origin story, those of his teammates (the Chief, Negative Man, Elastigirl), of how they all came together, and of how they died.

Soldiers armed with high tech weapons try to apprehend Robotman. They are following orders given to them by Valentina Vostok, aka Negative Woman. She relates the story of the second incarnation of the Doom Patrol, their individual origin stories, how they met Robotman, and how they became a team.

Robotman talks briefly to Valentina and then leaves the old building and heads off down the street.

Thoughts

This story was very wordy. I wanted to enjoy it more than I did. Reading it was a bit of a slog. There was too much narration for someone like me who already knew much of the Doom Patrol's history up to this point. I’ve read all of the original run of the Doom Patrol. It comes as no surprise to me that this story was a primer for the latest New Patrol comic book series which launched soon after this annual was released. 

There is a four page text piece by Joey Cavalieri, following this story, that gives some behind the scenes details about how and why the Doom Patrol was getting a new comic book series in 1987.