And here we go again with yet another quick look at DC's 1988 INVASION! tie-in because the words, "Please, God, make him stop!" mean absolutely nothing to me. This time it's the Doom Patrol before it went all batshit insane when Grant Morrison took over the writing chores.
Paul Kupperberg's 18 issue run on the DP is very forgettable. In fact, his final two issues which dealt with the alien invasion are the most memorable ones in his entire run. He brought back Niles Caulder, the Patrol's leader, and killed off Garguax, the DP's joke of an adversary. I mean seriously, this guy is a threat?
The aliens laughed at him. Who wouldn't? Offended by the treatment from the invasion force, Garguax called for a truce and allied himself with the Doom Patrol. Together with Aquaman, Aqualad, the entire Atlantean army and the Sea Devils, the good guys (and Garguax) won back control of the Arctic. With the alien threat gone, Garguax goes back to threatening the Patrol:
But Niles Caulder has an ace up his sleeve. He personally calls up the President of the United States, if you please, and asks the President if he could borrow the use of one of America's secret 'Star Wars' satellites for a few minutes. He'll give it back, he promised.
With an SDI satellite in his command, Niles Caulder points it towards Garguax's ship and:
Bye-bye, Garguax!
And that's basically it. There was a lot of punching under water and on the ground between the DP and the aliens and Garguax's scantily clad Furies but it's Garguax's ship getting lasered to pieces is what I fondly remember. Man, that guy was annoying.
And with that Paul Kupperberg gave way to Grant Morrison and the rest is history.
3 comments:
The pre-Grant Morrison issues weren't that bad. It had good art by Steve Lightle, Erik Larsen, and Graham Nolan.
'sides, Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol is way overrated.
"'sides, Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol is way overrated"
How dare you! You take that back! You take that....aw, alright. You have a point. But Morrison's totally crazy take (for that time) made me stay on the title. The surreal stories he wrote just clicked with me. Kupperberg just brought out the DP's old foes...and I found them boring. Except for Mallah. I love talking gorillas.
Aw c'mon. Them old Doom Patrol villains ain't the bad. Who doesn't love General Immortus or the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man?
*snicker*
And yes, I've read the entire Morrison run on Doom Patrol and found it wanting with the exception of the issue where Monsieur Mallah tried to install the Brain's brain in Robotman's body. Hilarious!
My favorite early Morrison work is still Animal Man. :-)
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