BHOC: DOOM PATROL #99

This issue of DOOM PATROL was another that I purchased at Ed’s Coins and Stamps in the Sun-Vet Mall on a Saturday when my grandparents had taken me there. Ed had a big chunk of DOOM PATROL back issues, a group that I was fascinated by, and so I had started by buying #100 and working my way forward. On this trip, however, I chose to also start going backwards, for reasons that will eventually make themselves clear. This particular issue is noteworthy in that it features the first appearance of Garfield Logan, Beast Boy. In just a couple of years, the cost of this issue would skyrocket a bit after the character became a part of the wildly-popular New Teen Titans under the codename Changeling. So I was fortunate to get it when I did.

As usual, both stories in this issue were written by Arnold Drake, who had conceived the group as something of a response to the sorts of more character-forward stories he saw Stan Lee building over at rival Marvel. As opposed to the typical DC super heroes, the Doom Patrol members were all reacted to as freaks and oddities, and they suffered from their own individual hang-ups and hardships concerning their powers and place in the world. Regular artist Bruno Premiani wasn’t in evidence this month–I’m not sure why he skipped this issue, whether it was a typical scheduling problem or else something more. But Bob Brown, who was at the time also illustrating CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, stepped in for the month to spell him. Brown’s art was straightforward and fine, but it lacked the idiosyncrasies of Premiani’s pages, which at their best lent DOOM PATROL a kind of fever dream reality. This would have been a very different strip if Brown had drawn it regularly.

The new villain in this opening story, Bug Man, isn’t really much of anything noteworthy, just another costumed villain who uses robot insects to commit his crimes. The real crux of the story revolves around Larry Trainor, Negative Man. He’s grown jealous of his other self, the radioactive genie that sprints from his body to accomplish awesome feats while Trainor himself collapses to the floor in a limp heap. Trainor is desperate to prove himself, so much so that he refrains from dispatching Negative Man to help Elasti-Girl and Robotman deal with an assault from the Bug Man, resulting in the team getting clobbered. It’s a weird but completely understandable hang-up for Larry to have; he was probably the Silver Age super hero that most people would least like to become.

This opener is two chapters long, so at the break point, this half-page ad for an 80 Page reprint issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ran. And I instantly wanted it. it would take me years and years before I finally was able to get a copy, and by that point I think I already owned copies of at least two of the stories collected in it in other places. But that didn’t matter–i was still happy to finally get it.

The Patrol Postscripts letters page also runs relatively early in this issue, between the opening and second chapters of the lead story. Editor Murray Boltinoff preferred to run excerpts from a variety of letters rather than do the standard letter/answer style that most other DC editors followed. I wasn’t a huge fan of this approach as a reader–it felt too much like cherry-picking to my younger self. Anyway, among the assorted correspondents here is James Van Hise, who would go on to publish a bunch of books and magazines about comic book history in the years ahead. Here, he’s offering copies of issues #82-96 for sale or trade. Murray featured a regular trading post area in his issues for a time.

In the end, everything works out fine and Trainor comes to accept Negative Man once more–but not before his reticence causes Elasti-Girl to be captured by the Bug Man and imprisoned in a steadily-shrinking cube that forces her to reduce her size further and further. The Chief is forces to head out in his weapons-laden “action chair” and mount a one-man rescue attempt in response to this development, giving him a rare spotlight as a physical combatant. By the time this issue saw print in 1965, the pendulum was already beginning to swing on DOOM PATROL, shifting it away from pathos and tragedy and more into poppy antics and brash energy. I’ve always felt that the earliest issues of the series were the best as a consequence of this. Still, Larry being jealous of himself is a great idea for a character conflict and remains memorable.

It’s the back-up story that introduces Beast Boy, and writer Drake pretty clearly intends or him to be a somewhat more realistic depiction of a teenager than what was typically found in the comics of that period. Or at least, what Drake thinks a depiction of a typical teenager might look like. The story opens with Beast Boy having paid a visit to the Patrol’s headquarters, trashing the place. The DP were out when this happened, but the following night when Beast Boy returns, they’re all waiting for him. But using his weird ability to transform himself into any animal he can envision, he’s mostly able to stay one step ahead of them in an extended chase sequence before he’s finally caught. Beast Boy sees himself as a fellow freak, and he wants to sign up with the team. But the Chief, Larry, Cliff and Rita are a bit dubious given Beast Boy’s obvious youth.

Another half-page house ad runs at this point spotlighting a trio of upcoming DC titles, all of which in their own way were attempting to tap into the zeitgeist of the moment. Jerry Lewis began to expand its cast from the titular comedian to include other recurring characters such as Witch Kraft, Metamorpho was another attempt to bring some personality to a DC hero although the series quickly became so broad that it verged on self-parody, and Teen Titans attempted to connect with young readers on their own level–or at least the level that middle aged writers and artists thought the kids of the 1960s were at.

Beyond the fact that Beast Boy had an awesome shape-changing power, his most notable attribute was that he was completely green-skinned, a condition that made living a regular life an impossibility, as we see on this opening page of the second chapter. For no really well articulated reason, while he cannot conceal his chartreuse appearance, Garfield has been keeping his ability to become animals a secret from everyone–which comes in handy when he wants to transition to being a freak super hero. I have to say, I loved the fact that the Doom Patrol typically rode around not in a spaceship or a a Batmobile, but rather a regular old convertible. As promised, the Doom Patrol take him along on a caper where they’re protecting the crown jewels of the Duchy of Dusenberg, which is attacked by masked thieves wielding high-tech weapons.

In the fight that follows, Beast Boy gives a good accounting of himself. But he’s so egotistical and overbearing that the Doom Patrol isn’t really sure that they want him around on a regular basis. One gets the impression that either Drake or editor Boltinoff felt the same way, so at the end of the story they turn the question over to the audience to write in and support the return of the character. As this happened in the very next issue, it doesn’t seem like this request for affirmation truly had any bearing on whether Beast Boy would be coming back. And there was still plenty more that Drake had to reveal about his new creation. In a very real way, Beast Boy became the driving force of the series for the next year at least.

And there’s one more half-page ad before the end of the issue, one promoting a particularly noteworthy SGT ROCK story in OUR ARMY AT WAR. At the time, it wasn’t typical to find a black character in the pages of a DC comic–and in fact, Jackie Johnson’s appearance in this ad represents the only dark-skinned face in this entire issue. The page also runs one of the filler strips that Murray Boltinoff’s brother Henry provided for DC for several years, a little gag page to serve as a palate-cleanser from whatever the main features had been.