Sometimes, the biggest joys in comic are the ideas so goofy that they’re sublime… like a guy with half a dinosaur for a head. Your Major Spoilers (Retro) Review of The Doom Patrol #89 awaits!

THE DOOM PATROL #89

Writer: Arnold Drake
Penciler: Bruno Premiani
Inker: Bruno Premiani
Colorist: Unredited
Letterer: Stan Starkman
Editor: Murray Boltinoff
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: 12 Cents
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $100.00
Release Date: June 4, 1964

Previously in The Doom Patrol: The editorial copy called them The World’s Strangest Heroes, and the members of the Doom Patrol were likely to agree. Cliff Steele, Robotman, had his body literally shattered in an auto accident, leaving him little more than a brain in a steel can. Rita Farr, once an actress of some note, found herself a malleable woman. Test pilot Larry Trainor was wrapped in bandages like a mummy to keep the radioactive creature inside him from wreaking havoc. Led by The Chief, a genius wheelchair user, they were honestly pretty bitter about fighting for a better world, but their villains were even more outré than the heroes themselves.

Pulled out of a moving plane by Negative Man, Dr. Sven Larsen is a little bit starstruck to meet the Doom Patrol, especially since he was a student of The Chief in his pre-superhero life. Now that he’s a hotshot scientist, Larsen has come to the states to demonstrate his newest scientific principle: The creation of artificial life out of basic amino acids! As the Doom Patrol watches, he bombards a vat of material with “lightning synthesizers” straight out of the 1933 Frankenstein, but forgets the sailor’s rule of “one hand for the boat, one hand for me.”

This issue, only the team’s 10th appearance, debuts their iconic red-and-white uniforms for the first time, replacing the dull green coverall and/or dress that Larry and Rita had worn in previous issues. The new uniforms look great, thanks to Bruno Premiani, who also visualizes bizarre transformations for the rampaging Doctor Larsen. Shifting his shape and composition, Larsen provokes Robotman to ask whether he’s animal, vegetable or mineral, inadvertently coining the villain’s name and making him the only villain named for the works of Gilbert & Sullivan until The Mikado arrived in 1986.

The ever-shifting Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man switches from sulfur to a mobile tree to a duck to diplodocus, shifting and changing at all times, which brings me to the one big disappointment of this issue: The wonderful multi-limbed creature seen on the cover (actually drawn by Space Ranger creator Bob Brown, rather than Premiani) never actually appears in the issue. Indeed, I’m not sure that it ever appears anywhere, even though it’s how I always imagine him, and how he appeared in I. Still, the transitional forms we get are pretty cool, especially the giant tarantula that forces Elasti-Girl to once again use her growing powers.

Monitoring the situation, The Chief realizes that Larsen is out for revenge against him, still nursing his college grudge, which gives him the chance to use his new stasis gun against the rampaging A-V-M Man, freezing the creature in mid-pounce.

Once again, Premiani’s art is the star, but I also appreciate the clever touches of Arnold Drake’s story, stuffing a lot of incident into its 16 pages. This issue also features a backup story wherein Elasti-Girl goes on a solo mission to help a young man from a war-torn country get back to his adoptive father, which is not only a cute story, but features her using her shrinking power extensively. Many times, modern stories forget that Rita does more than just grow giant. The Doom Patrol #89 doesn’t suffer from that problem, making clever use of its protagonists’ relatively random collection of abilities, with strong art from Premiani and an above-average story (plus the new suits!), earning 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. If you’ve never checked out this weird corner of Silver Age DC or have only heard of the Doom Patrol as “X-Men knockoffs”, I recommend you give it a chance. it’s good stuff.

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