doom patrol

Review by JD Piche, RCRs Producer and Pop Culture expert, follow him on Twitter at @misadventurer

2014’s Guardians of The Galaxy was a big roll of the dice for Marvel, giving some very deep bench characters with, not the greatest publication history, their own feature film. After countless Bat, Spider and Supermen, Super Hero fatigue seems to be a real thing. However both Marvel and DC have extensive rosters of heroes, villains and everything in between, that could keep the industry fresh with new content for years to come. The DC Universe App launches their second live-action series, DOOM PATROL, on Friday, February 15th, and its the best thing out of DC in years.

Doom Patrol was originally referred to as “The World’s Strangest Heroes,” comprised of Robotman, Mister Negative, Elasti-Girl, and The Chief, in the series they’re joined by Crazy Jane and Cyborg. We got an early peek at Doom Patrol in an episode of Titans, Beast Boy was originally a member of Doom Patrol but moved over to the Titans during that episode, and for the series, they recast The Chief from Bruno Bichir, for Timothy Dalton. Most of the first episode, we follow Brendan Fraiser as Cliff Steele, a star stock car driver, whom after an accident, wakes up in a metal shell, years later. The Chief recovered what he could from the scene of the crash and attempted to save Cliff’s life, however, all that he could save was Cliff’s brain. Joining Cliff is Larry Trainor (voiced by Matt Bomer), one of the greatest test pilots the US had ever seen, who while flying an experimental jet, he passed through some cosmic radiation and wound up picking up a non-corporeal stowaway, which caused his plane to crash and he survived, deformed and burned. Rounding out the core team is Rita Farr (April Bowlby) a silver screen starlet from the fabulous 50s, that, while on location in deepest darkest Africa, she fell into a river and fell under some kind of curse, when she was pulled from the water her features began to sag, as if she were melting, she inevitably was discovered by The Chief, the prototype for Charles Xavier, a wealthy man in a wheelchair, with a genius intellect and penchant for collecting outcasts. Crazy Jane, played by Orange is the New Black’s Diane Guerrero, a woman with 64 personalities each with different and distinct superpowers, and a much less powerful when compared to the Movie version, Cyborg played by Joivan Wade round out the show’s team.

The Doom Patrol, don’t actively patrol for Doom, with the exception of Cyborg, they’re all pretty much homebodies, scared of how the world would view them as monsters.

The most delightful part of the show is, at least the first handful of episodes, are narrated by the bad guy, Eric Morden, who goes by the apt, Mr. Nobody. After asking a Nazi scientist to experiment on him, and he was for all intents, disintegrated, Nobody is an omnipotent near-godlike evil version of Doctor Manhattan from the Watchmen. Phenomenal Cosmic Power and no moral compass. Best of all he’s played by the delightfully arch Alan Tudyk, who gets to flex his Baddie muscles, he’s extra-planar, breaks the 4th wall more times than Deadpool and looks like he escaped from a Tron movie.

Doom Patrol is required viewing.

10/10

#DCUDoomPatrol series premiere on February 15, only on #DCUNIVERSE

About Doom Patrol
DOOM PATROL reimagines one of DC’s most beloved groups of Super-Heroes: Robotman aka Cliff Steele (BRENDAN FRASER), Negative Man aka Larry Trainor (MATT BOMER), Elasti-Woman aka Rita Farr (APRIL BOWLBY) and Crazy Jane (DIANE GUERRERO), led by modern-day mad scientist Niles Caulder aka The Chief (TIMOTHY DALTON). Each member of the Doom Patrol suffered a horrible accident that gave them superhuman abilities, but also left them scarred and disfigured. Traumatized and downtrodden, the team found their purpose through The Chief, coming together to investigate the weirdest phenomena in existence. Following the mysterious disappearance of The Chief, these reluctant heroes will find themselves in a place they never expected to be, called to action by none other than Cyborg (JOIVAN WADE), who comes to them with a mission hard to refuse. Part support group, part Super Hero team, the Doom Patrol is a band of superpowered freaks who fight for a world that wants nothing to do with them.

Based on DC characters originally written and drawn by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani #DCUDOOMPATROL premieres February 15. New episodes weekly, only on DC Universe.

DC Universe is a first-of-its-kind digital experience designed for DC fans. #DCUniverse Join Now at: https://yourdcu.com/meetthedoompatrol