Doom Patrol ran from 1989 to 1993 (issues #19–63), published by DC Comics, and it is Morrison’s most consistently inventive work — a sustained experiment in narrative surrealism that uses the superhero format as a delivery mechanism for ideas drawn from Dada, surrealism, situationism, and postmodern philosophy.
The Doom Patrol, as Morrison inherited them, were already outcasts — superheroes defined by disability and trauma rather than power and confidence. Morrison pushed this further, assembling a team that included Crazy Jane (a woman with 64 personalities, each with a different superpower), Rebis (a hermaphroditic fusion of man, woman, and negative energy being), Danny the Street (a sentient, teleporting, transvestite street), and Cliff Steele (a human brain in a robot body, the team’s most “normal” member).
Their enemies are equally extraordinary. The Brotherhood of Dada are supervillains who reject reason and embrace absurdity — they steal a painting that absorbs reality and take the Doom Patrol inside it. The Scissormen cut people out of reality with their scissors. The Cult of the Unwritten Book seeks to bring about the end of the world by reading a book tattooed on a person’s skin. Each storyline is a different exploration of how language, image, and narrative construct reality — and how that construction can be disrupted, subverted, or destroyed.
Collecting Doom Patrol (Morrison run)
Key issues: #19 (Morrison’s first issue), #42 (Flex Mentallo debut).
Market values:
- Doom Patrol #19, NM: $20–$60
- Complete Morrison run #19–63: $200–$600
- Omnibus hardcover: $75–$150
- Trade paperback collections: $15–$25 each