A university library at which I have borrowing privileges just doubled down on procuring DC Archive Editions. I picked up "The Doom Patrol, Vol. 2." I had never read the Silver Age comic before -- I tried the reboot years ago, but didn't get much out of it. I knew the Doom Patrol primarily through the Wolfman/Perez Titans.

The rig comic is great!

--The art is very strong. Premiani can do faces, action, humor . . .

--Each of the main characters has a discernible personality, which is a serious weakness of much of the silver-age JLA writing. Robotman is a fun precursor to Cyborg with the propensity of a Metal Man to get destroyed once per issue.

--Rita is one of the best-written women in comics in the early 1960s. None of this weepy "I'm just a girl" stuff. She has great command of her powers. She can do romantic plotlines, but she isn't trapped in them.

--Quite a strong rogues' gallery. I knew the BoE, of course -- Mallah is a fave rave of mine. I really like Dr. Tyme's power and the crazy Plastic Men of Garguax. Am I correct that the look for the Talons of the Court of Owls is taken stitch-for-stitch from The Claw in DP #94? (He has raptors that wear little metal helmets and drop mini-grenades. Heh.)


Things that hold up less well:

--Mento is a fun foil, but he has absolutely the worst hat ever in comics. Wow, it's terrible.

--The Chief is pretty much Deus-ex-Machina Man.

This is absolutely worth a look if you have not read it.

I'm actually very interested in reading the classic Silver Age Doom Patrol, unfortunately though all their Showcase editions are out of print and I haven't been able to convince my self to take the leap and buy their 50 dollar Omnibus.

But he has to call Silver Age Tech Support for his best ideas...