Doom Patrol (1964) 113

Doom Patrol (1964) 113
Aug 1967

Who Dares to Challenge the Arsenal
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

Robotman, Elasti-Girl, and Negative Man battle a robotic villain, the Arsenal. The Chief tries to cure Madame Rouge of her evil ways using high tech devices and without telling her what he is up to. Once again this seems creepy and invasive. The only added twist is that the Brain and Monsieur Mallah discover what the Chief is up to and do what they can to keep her on their side, also by using high tech devices without telling Madame Rouge.

The Diamonds of Destiny
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

Young Garfield Logan tries to survive in Africa on his own. The village witch doctor has other ideas and hires a couple of European men to kill Gar.

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That's it for the 4th of 5 volumes of the Silver Age adventures of the Doom Patrol. What stands out about this collection of stories is the move to long form story telling. Each issue of the comic book has its own arc but there are also some ongoing story threads flowing through this collection. The first is the custody fight for Garfield Logan (Beast Boy) and the second (which isn't resolved in this collection) is the ongoing story of the Chief and Madame Rouge. Both stories show potential but neither of them is a great story. The best moments are still the comedic ones.

I don't think I enjoyed this volume as much as the last one. I don't have any notes about the Doom Patrol Archives Volume 3 but I did talk about it on Episode 59 of Dave Talks Comics. There's just one more volume of the Doom Patrol Archives to go. I have it but I will probably take a break before starting to read it. Hopefully it will be a much shorter break than I took between volumes 3 and 4.

Doom Patrol (1964) 112

Doom Patrol 112
Jun 1967

Brothers in Blood!
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

The Doom Patrol teams up with the Brotherhood of Evil to fight Zarox-13. Robotman isn’t buying it but the Chief makes him the Patrol’s envoy to the Brotherhood’s HQ. The Brain pretends likes he wants to form an alliance with the aliens in order to learn how they plan to destroy the Earth.

The Chief uses truth serum on Madame Rouge and gets her to reveal her origin story. She tells him of how the Brain saved her life and in the process destroyed all goodness in her. That’s as far as this part of her story goes but there are hints that there will be more in the next issue. There is something wrong here. The Chief using truth serum on Madame Rouge, and lets be perfectly clear here he slipped her a mickey and then interrogated her. There was no consent given. I guess she's a villain so he can justify it that way but it still stinks.

The best part of the story as always is Robotman getting reckless and punchy. He spars with first Monsieur Mallah and then Zarox-13


Wait of the Wilderness
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

A retelling of Beast Boy’s origin. Hard to tell if the lingo Gar uses at the beginning of the story is supposed to be taken seriously or is Drake’s way of laughing at the way some kids talked in 1967.

Doom Patrol (1964) 111

Doom Patrol 111
May 1967

Zarox-13, Emperor of the Cosmos!
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

Aliens come to Earth, led by Zarox-13, intent on conquest. The Doom Patrol encounter them in the Arctic. The heroes make like they aren't what they seem to be. Negative Man acts infantile, Elasti-Girl grows big and pretends to be his mother, and Robotman pretends to be his toy robot. They have him fooled but then Garguax shows up and blows their cover. This part of the story I liked. It was so ridiculously silly.

Monsieur Mallah and Madame Rouge show up at Doom Patrol headquarters but they aren't looking for a fight. There are more hints that Madame Rouge has a thing for the Chief. They want to ally themselves with the Doom Patrol to oppose the alien alliance of Garguax and Zarox-13.

Neg Man's Last Road!
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

Larry tries to help a bunch old folks but he unwittingly does something much worse: he helps Dr. Death. These Negative Man stories do nothing for me. I understand that Arnold Drake was trying to add something with these backup up stories but they fall flat. It's almost (but not quite) funny how bad these stories are.

Doom Patrol (1964) 110

Doom Patrol 110
Mar 1967

Trial by Terror
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

The Chief's analysis of the Brotherhood of Evil's actions in the previous issue reveals that Madame Rouge is in love with Negative Man. In their next fight with the Brotherhood, which takes place at the 1964 New York World's Fairgrounds, Negative Man floats the idea and gets slapped by Madame Rouge. Clearly the Chief made a mistake. What isn't clear is how Larry Trainor can get a black eye but that's the result of Madame Rouge's slap to his face.

Mandred escapes from the basement where the Doom Patrol imprisoned him last issue. They fight him once again. In the end he flies away.

The Galtry story comes to a happy conclusion as the Doom Patrol thwarts Galtry's latest attempt to gain custody of Gar in court. Rita and Steve adopt Gar.

A decent story with some fun moments. My favorites are the ones that involve the verbal sparring of Robotman and Negative Man. This isn't the end of the Brotherhood of Evil but I think that's it for this ongoing story.

Doom Patrol (1964) 109

Doom Patrol 109
Feb 1967

Mandred the Executioner
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

Beast Boy returns to Doom Patrol HQ with his deceased teammates. They miraculously come back to life after they are put in a deep freeze chamber which the Chief calls the Life Cabinet.

The Chief analyzes the weapon that was used to "kill" the Doom Patrol and finds that the power level was only set to 50%. He suspects that one of the members of the Brotherhood of Evil secretly sabotaged the plan to kill the Doom Patrol.

A fake funeral is staged for the Doom Patrol. The team prepares for the next thing the Brotherhood sends, this time with the intent of killing the Chief. Mandred the Executioner is that thing. He proves to be a formidable opponent who takes down Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, and Mento. It all comes down to Beast Boy who uses his  shapeshifting ability to knock Mandred senseless.

Mandred was created by Garguax, who also created the androids that the Doom Patrol fought in the previous issue. What I found most interesting is the fact that Mandred is created from the remnants of the androids who are melted down to form him. It reminded me of something from the mind of Jack Kirby, along the lines of Arnim Zola's creations in his earliest appearances.

Flight into Fear
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

Larry tries once again to live a normal life. He takes a job flying s dangerous mission for a rich man and is almost killed. Dr. Death shows up once again, he seems intent on seeing to it that Larry fails at his stated goal. What is his problem? Who is he? He has to live for more than just seeing a good man fall.

Doom Patrol (1964) 108

By Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani
Dec 1966

Kid Disaster

Part 1 - Mento arrives in the sub atomic world and rescues Elasti-Girl

Part 2 - Robotman and Negative Man are captured by Ultimax (aka the Brain) and Garguax. Mento suffers the same fate at the hands of Abu Hallam (aka M. Mallah).

Part 3 - Elasti-Girl is captured by Madame Rouge. The Chief sends Beast Boy after the Doom Patrol but he arrives just in time to find them all dead.

There are a few humorous moments here but this isn't great writing. The title doesn't make much sense. I understand that they probably didn't want the title to give too much away but still…

I like the ongoing story that has flowed through these past 3 issues and continues for at least one more. Drake and Premiani lose points because some of the chapters (like this one) feel incomplete but they get massive points for attempting such a story in this scale in the mid-1960s.

Doom Patrol (1964) 107

By Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani
Oct 1966

The War Over Beast Boy

Steve Dayton hires an investigator to dig up dirt on Galtry, Gar's corrupt guardian. Galtry is successful at blackmailing his associates into keeping their mouths shut and not disclosing anything.

Robotman, Negative Man, and Elasti-Girl battle Ultimax, a robot villain. In the midst of the fight he hits Elasti-Girl with a shrinking ray that causes her to shrink uncontrollably small, down to the atomic level. She finds herself in a sub-atomic world where she is sentenced to death. The king there offers to pardon her only if she will marry him.

The Chief, with some help from Robotman, Negative Man, and Mento, devises a cure for Rita's shrinking problem. Mento, her husband, shrinks down to the sub atomic level to find her.

Not quite the wacky romp that I like but there's definitely an element of the silly in this story.

The Race Against Dr. Death

Negative Man, in his pre-Doom Patrol days, has to stop Dr. Death. Only Negative Man's speed is able to beat the villain to the punch and destroy his weapon that threatens to destroy the Earth. This definitely feels sillier than the last installment in the early adventures of Negative Man.

Doom Patrol (1964) 106

By Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani
Sep 1966

Blood Brothers

Mr. 103 returns and teams up with Gar's legal guardian, Mr. Galtry. 103 is the muscle and the brains of the operation. Galtry is writing the checks.

The Chief thinks he has found a weakness in Mr. 103 and a way to exploit it. The Doom Patrol use the chief's latest device on Mr. 103 it doesn't stop him in his tracks. Instead it freezes him in the form he has taken, which happens to be radioactive. 103 panics, afraid that he will decay into nothing. He promises to turn himself him in if they will help him. They help him but he breaks his word and runs off. As he scampers away Mr. 103 inadvertently lets drop that Galtry is the one who wanted hired him to kill them. The story ends with Steve Dayton hiring a detective to look into Galtry.

The Private World of Negative Man

The origin of Negative Man as told in shocking detail!

The goofiness of the first story is matched by the gruesomeness of the second one. Love how silly the fight between Mr. 103 and the Doom Patrol gets. There's a little bit of marital strife between Rita and Steve. He doesn't want her gallivanting off with her Doom Patrol buddies. He only shows up to help fight Mr. 103 because he wants his wife back.

It should probably come as no surprise that I preferred the first story to the second one. Both hint at continuing story lines but only the first one had the wackiness that I love in Silver Age Doom Patrol stories.