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[[File:11340_20051122042316_large.jpg|frame|<small>Robotman desperately attempts to make sense of this issue's plot.</small> ]]
{{quote|'''Tempest''': You shot your imaginary friends? With what?
'''Dorothy Spinner''': An imaginary gun! What else?|''The Doom Patrol''}}
In 1963, [[DC Comics]] published a book with a new kind of superhero team: the Doom Patrol. They were loners, misfits, mistrusted by the public, and led by a genius in a wheelchair. Despite obvious similarities, this team actually came out several months before the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] were published by the [[Marvel Comics|distinguished competition]], which has led to accusations of plagiarism. The Patrol first appeared in ''"My Greatest Adventure''" #80 (June, 1963) and continued appearing in subsequent issues. With #86 (March, 1964), the book was renamed after the team. While the X-Men eventually flourished in the [[The Seventies|1970s]], initial sales of ''Doom Patrol'' died down and the original series ended quickly when the writers decided to go out with a [[No One Could Survive That|bang]] and [[Kill'Em All|kill them all off]]. The last issue was numbered #121 (September-October, 1968).
[[Not Quite Dead|It didn't quite stick]]. Over a decade later, the team was relaunched, with all new characters reminiscent of the older ones... and it turned out Robotman survived because he was everyone's favorite anyway. The second version of the Patrol appeared in ''"Showcase''" #94-96 (August-December, 1977). Sales were not good enough to get them a new title, but they went on to become regulars of the DC universe, receiving guest appearances in titles featuring [[Supergirl]], the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]], and [[
''
Since then there have been a few subsequent revivals which reverted the series back to a traditional superhero comic. John Arcudi wrote an unsuccessful series turning them into Corporation superheroes. John Byrne did a [[Continuity Reboot]] that was ill-fated to begin with and [[Canon
The team got [[A Day in
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[All Just a Dream]]: Used as a [[Framing Device]] during the [[
▲* [[All Just a Dream]]: Used as a [[Framing Device]] during the [[Grant Morrison (Creator)|Grant Morrison]] run to introduce an [[Affectionate Parody]] ([[Pastiche]], really) of '60's ''[[Fantastic Four]]''.
* [[Artificial Limbs]]: Cliff Steele
* [[Beyond the Impossible]]: Relative to the rest of the DC universe, the Doom Patrol and their foes step into this territory ''frequently''.
* [[The Blank]]: The Fact and Yankee Doodle (both parodies of The Question)
* [[Blob Monster]]: The most recent series reveals {{spoiler|Rita}} can degenerate into this. {{spoiler|She's become so elastic that prolonged periods without seeing/picturing her original form (like while asleep) result in her becoming an amorphous mound of... stuff}}.
* [[Brain In
* [[Brain Uploading]]: This happens to Cliff after his original brain is crushed by the Candlemaker.
* [[Breakfast Club]]
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: The final arc of the 2009 series is "resolved" when {{spoiler|[[Ambush Bug]] tells the villain of the arc that the book is being canceled to make room for [[The Flash|Flashpoint]] tie-ins.}}
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Willoughby Kipling is one for [[John Constantine]].
* [[Compensating for Something]]: Oh, dear ''God'', the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131108020846/http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article59.htm Codpiece!]
* [[Cursed
* [[Dark and Troubled Past]]: Subverted in Rachel Pollack's run. In #83, the False Memory gave Coagula fake memories of being joint-raped by her "husband and his friend". Kate spends the rest of the issue trying to figure out when it happened until Dorothy manages to bring her back to her senses. Kate is outraged that the False Memory believed she was giving Kate's life more "meaning" by making her think she was sexually violated when she was a teenager.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Flash Forward is soon nicknamed Negative Man by his teammates for his icy temperament.
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* [[End of the World Special]]
* [[Fan Service]]: Elasti-Girl. Her [http://whysoserious.wikia.com/wiki/File:Elasti-Girl_01.jpg gigantic upskirts] and [http://whysoserious.wikia.com/wiki/File:Elasti-Girl_Naked_Confused.jpg wardrobe problems].
* [[Follow the Leader]]: At one time the Patrol acted as a school... [[X
* [[Four-Temperament Ensemble]]: The original team is one of these.
* [[Genius Cripple]] / [[Evil Cripple]]: The Chief
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** Mento falls here, too, especially if he's in one of his less-than-sane periods.
* [[Intangible Man]]: Negative Man (later Rebis) can make their "negative spirit" leave their body and do things. Except it can't leave for more than a minute, or else they will die.
* [[Kill'Em All]]: Almost every version of the Doom Patrol ends with almost all of the main team dead, in a coma, etc., as a way to make room for the next writer to do what he wants.
**Grant Morrison did not do this, however. Aside from the Chief, who had died already, everyone just walked into the sunset, so to speak.
* [[Knight of Cerebus]]: The Candlemaker, who, even in light of the many instances of [[Kill'Em All|mass character death]] and a truly wild [[Rogues Gallery]], remains one of series' most horrific villains ''ever''.
* [[Knights and Knaves]]: {{spoiler|The expansion of Orqwith can only be stopped by the solution to one of these puzzles.}}
* [[Magic Floppy Disk]]: Cliff's whole personality and memories apparently fit in a couple of floppies.
* [[Menstrual Menace]]: Dorothy Spinner's first menstruation causes her imaginary friends to try to force her to wear "red, bloody shoes." The comparisons to ''[[The Wizard of Oz (
* [[Mindlink Mates]]: Coagula and Robotman
* [[Name's the Same]]: Elastigirl from ''[[The Incredibles]]''.
* [[New Powers
* [[Order Versus Chaos]]: The Doom Patrol is normally on the side of Good Chaos and opposed to (kind of) Evil Chaos (the Brotherhood of Dada) and Evil Order (the Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.) However, {{spoiler|when the Brotherhood of Dada returned, though, the Doom Patrol didn't try to stop them}}.
* [[Parental Incest]]: The more traumatic part of Crazy Jane's origin
* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: Every incarnation, but most notably Fever, Kid Slick, Freak, and Negative Man II, who were relatively normal but faced difficulty working as a team.
* [[Reality Warper]]: Dorothy Spinner
* A species of [[Retcon]] yet to be assigned taxonomy, inverting [[Remember the New Guy?]] and related to [[Multiple Choice Past]], in which Rachel Pollack retcons Crazy Jane out of existence through the introduction of a character called "The False Memory", who displays Crazy-Jane-like powers plus the ability to create false memories, and who instructs the protagonists to "remember me in the Doom Patrol all these years". The reference to "false memory syndrome" appears to [[Writer
** This move was so unpopular that it is apparently [[Canon
*** Was it really? From the way I read that issue, the False Memory had used her abilities to insert herself into the team and had just been screwing with Cliff's memories of Jane. In that same issue Cliff had finally explained the circumstances as to why he left Jane and Danny the World.
** A more obvious, if [[Mind Screw|wild]] example is the recontextualization of the group's origin by [[
*** Another from Giffen was retconning the Byrne reboot so all versions of the Doom Patrol, including Byrne's, are in continuity.
* [[Rubber Man]]: Elasti-Girl. Also their enemy, Madame Rouge.
* [[Serial Escalation]]: Especially Grant Morrison's run.
* [[
* [[Shout-Out]]: Danny the Street is named for Danny laRue (Rue is French for "street"), a well known British drag queen.
** Crazy Jane's "manager" personality is named Driver 8, after
* [[Signs of the End Times]]:
** As [[Rewriting Reality|reality begins to merge]] with [[Eldritch Location|Orqwith]] -
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* [[Split Personality]]: Crazy Jane has ''64'' of them.
** And yeah, Larry, Eleanor and the Negative Spirit do go through a bit of the same when they turn into Rebis. One scene shows him reading ''[[When Rabbit Howls]]''.
* [[Southern-Fried Genius]]: Flash Forward from the 2001 revamp is a poor kid from the rural parts of Alabama, who dropped out of school in the sixth grade. Though he's basically the smartest person on the team, and the others aren't exactly morons themselves.
* [[Stepford Smiler]]: Elasti-Girl is given this trait in a team-up story with [[The Flash]]. We're told that since she used to be a glamorous movie star, being turned into a "super-powered freak" was especially hard on her, and she smiles constantly in order to "look pretty" and keep others from being afraid of her. She has no idea that it actually has the complete opposite effect.
** This isn't brought up again in any other DP story; [[Word of God]] says that it took place during the team's early days (post-Byrne reboot) when Rita was still getting used to her new life.
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* [[That Man Is Dead]]: Rebis, who is a combination of Larry Trainor and a nurse. Cliff still refers to him/her as "Larry," even though Rebis denies being Larry Trainor anymore.
** Roughly played with in the Giffen series, which reveals Larry * has* been dead since the accident that turned him into Negative Man. Since then, it's been the N-Man entity in a variety of clones. But the N-Man isn't sure he's not Larry sometimes. Or something. The whole thing is sorta fuzzy for now.
* [[Took a Level
* [[
* [[Transvestite]]: Danny the Street
* [[Two Guys and
* [[Welcome to The Real World]]: It is heavily implied that the final issue of Grant Morrison's run takes place in the real world. Aside from the fact that this world apparently has no superheroes, it also has the same colour scheme as {{spoiler|the last issue of Morrison's [[
** Unless the Animal Man story was just [[All Just a Dream|a peyote trip]].
* [[Values Dissonance]]: When it turned out Monsieur Mallah and the Brain were in love, the reaction of most people was "OMG, they're gay! That's disgusting!" Never mind the fact that one's an ape and the other a brain in a jar, it's the fact that they're the same gender that they found offensive.
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