What's that you say? You've never heard of it? Them?
Don't feel bad. It's a fairly deep dive into the comic realm of DC Comics to have heard of Doom Patrol. They're about as well known as The Challengers of the Unknown.
Who?
Moving on.
A team of misfit super-monsters that live in a mansion and occasionally, reluctantly, save the world, who are lead by a super-smart scientist in a wheelchair, created in 1963.
Sound familiar? Yep. Sooo much shared DNA with X-Men it ain't funny. It's either proof that the universe only has so many ideas in it or out and out idea thievery. Doom Patrol was first published as a feature in "My Greatest Adventure" in June, 1963 and X-Men #1 hit stands in September that same year.
I don't really think that X-Men is a rip-off, but just one of those synergistic things that happen in entertainment, like the year that Fox, Marvel and DC summer blockbusters ALL had the heroes being manipulated by a villain, leading to a big hero vs. hero fight (X-Men Apocalypse, Captain America - Civil War and Batman V Superman - Dawn of Justice, all summer 2016) but you never know.
Either way, DC Comics has been publishing this lesser known X-Men-ish team on and off for more than 50 years, even if you've never heard of it. Then, inexplicably, they decided to make a tv show from it.
Doom Patrol has had a tiny television presence, guesting on a couple of DC cartoons over the years. Blink and you've missed them. I gotta say, when I heard it was going to be turned into the second (after the very nice Titans) live actioner from the new DC streaming service, I was...underwhelmed.
However.
One of the great things about being totally under everyone's radar as a created entity is there's about zero expectation of what shape you'll take in your first fully realized incarnation on tv. No preconception equals pretty much total freedom to be as unconventional as your source material.
I don't know a lot about Doom Patrol but I do remember from the one or two comics I own where they appear that they tend to deal with the weird, off model bits of DC's universe. In short, they clean up the messes that are too minor or too unbelievable for Batman and Wonder Woman to tackle.
My favourite parts of the CW Universe of Arrow, The Flash and The Legends is the occasional moment of WTF when they break out one of DC's storehouse of crazy villains like 9 foot tall half man, half shark King Shark or the telepathic, talking Gorilla Grodd. Yay! Love me some out there, loonie, over the top villainy.
Doom Patrol the TV show has gone there. The Big Bad, Mr. Nobody (Alan Tudyk) is a guy who's body has shattered into various fragments and who actually meta-narrates a couple of the episodes. Awesome. Throw in a dimension vomiting donkey (you read that right), henchmen made from dead skin and unsent mail (you read that right, too) and my new favourite non-hero, Crazy Jane and her 64 personalities (each with its own unique super-power, btw) and you have about the most batshit crazy sorta-super-hero show I've ever seen.
How batshit? Yeah. I give you (seriously, this is a real DC character, been around about as long as the Doom Patrol itself) Animal Vegetable Mineral Man. Yeah, you read that right, really. Dude has the powers of animals, vegetables and minerals, usually showing up as a dude with a head that is half human, half full sized dinosaur, one wooden leg, one crystal leg, one veggy arm and one dino-clawed arm. Seriously.
The live action guy? Almost exactly that but with two separate heads, 'cuz half and half would just be too weird...
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