HOTW- Beast Brat, er, Boy!

From Wiki: As a young child, Garfield Logan lived with his scientist parents in Africa, who were developing "reverse evolution" to bring back extinct creatures. He received a certain amount of abuse from his parents, consequently becoming increasingly reclusive. Garfield contracted a rare illness called Sakutia, which is lethal to every species except the West African green monkey. To save his life, his father used an untested science experiment to change him into a West African green monkey for 24 hours so that the virus could die out. The serum had the unintended effect of permanently turning his skin, eyes, and hair green and granting him the ability to metamorph into any animal of his choice, which also shared his pigmentation.^[8] His parents later died in a boating accident; to this day, Garfield believes he could have prevented their deaths.^[6] After he is rescued from two kidnappers who forced him to use his powers to help them in their crimes, Garfield is left under the care of a court-appointed guardian, the despicable Nicholas Galtry.^[9] Galtry realizes that his embezzlement from the Logan estate will be exposed when Garfield reaches maturity and receives his inheritance, and thus plots to kill Garfield.^[10] The villains he hires to kill Garfield are stopped by the Doom Patrol; Elasti-Girl and her husband Steve Dayton expose Galtry's embezzlement and adopt Garfield. Garfield later joins the Doom Patrol. His uniform includes a purple cowl, and he takes the code name Beast Boy.^[11]  Me again:

Xenorama #32

Here's the next cover! This is the biggest issue ever, at least in page count.  It's over two hundred pages and nicely illustrated by comics from my own collection.  Some of the covers show the wear and tear from over 50 years of age.  It features many of my favorite heroes and monster from that same range of time.  I included a few runs of the various books that flowed together, but usually I picked one story from whatever subject I was talking about.  The biggest problem I had was in limiting my selections to just a few stories, and saving some for the next time I want to write about comic books and comic book accessories.  Because I am almost sure that this will happen again.

Doom Patrol #123

I bought this issue of the Doom Patrol in early 73 (though I seem to remember it being quite warm, weird) and I got it because it was a sequel to this story, which I had gotten in the previous month or so.  I had really enjoyed this "new" group of heroes.  The villain was really cool too.  It was a neat time in DC Comics history, since they were reprinting all sorts of comics I had never seen before, like this, the Metal Men and some early Legion of Super Heroes.  To a kid that loved super teams and seeing new and different heroes this was a great thing.  You never knew what you would find in a spinner rack back in those days.

Doom Patrol #122

this is the first Doom Patrol comic book I ever bought.  I didn't know at the time it was a reprint.  it showed a team of heroes I had never seen before battling a villain who was part dinosaur.  that was just too much for my 7 year old brain, and I bought the issue in a second.  I went home and read it for the rest of the afternoon.

being a new fan, I didn't quite get the dialog about Rita making them some new outfits, as I hadn't seen the original ones.  nor did I notice the similarities to the Fantastic Four- the genius leader who is rarely seen (the Chief), the girl who can change her size (Elasti-girl), the man who can fly at astounding speeds and is made of energy (Negative Man) and the grumpy strongman (Robotman).  some fans see the similarities to the original X-men, which are also there, but I see far more similarities to the FF.

Titans season four

this was my first complete Titans episode, way back when I still had cable tv.  I liked it OK back then, mostly because I love the Doom Patrol, as you can see here. 

these two episodes are not quite as good as the one of Brave and The Bold, mostly because Mento is a real disagreeable sort of leader.  that changes by the second part, but still, he makes 00s Batman look reasonable.  it's nice to hear them call each other by their real names though, I must say.

and where's the Chief?  anyway, the Brotherhood of Evil are the main villains in this final season, which I have enjoyed half of so far.  you know, me, the more heroes the better!

here's the REAL Elasti-Girl tromping on tanks.  it's a really cool shot in the show.  they did seem to not know she could also shrink herself down though.  well, I am sure they knew it, just chose to not display that power.

The Last Patrol

From The Brave and the Bold season 2, episode 16.

as most people know, I love the Doom Patrol. I even watched the episode of the Teen Titans that featured them just to see them animated.  (as of this writing, I don't care for the Titans cartoon and it's faux anime look, but I won't say it's bad as I keep having to change my views on such things recently).  I've written about them a few times in here already, but I had not planned on writing about this particular episode of the show.

that is, until I watched it.  I had wondered with the title just what the storyline would be.  I really hoped it would not be what I thought it was.

right away we find out the DP has disbanded, due to some mysterious circumstances fighting General Zahl in  Paris.

that name didn't make me feel any better about the possibleoutcome of this episode, I'll tell you what.

of course, this does have Batman added to the mix, and they do it properly.  The Brain and Monsieur Mallah show up (The Brain now looking quite like a Dalek) and we also see the Mutant Master, the Arsenal and my favorite, the A-V-M Man. 

that was all a treat.  however, as the story progresses and when the true enemies appear, I knew what was going to happen.  just like in the final issue of the original one (plus Batman and minus Madame Rouge of course) Zahl captures our heroes and has them make a choice.

it's an incredibly touching episode, and I'd rank it right up there with any episode from Batman: The Animated series as far as excellence. yeah, this show is all fun and giggles.  not.

Doom Patrol, v. 2

yes, more about the Doom Patrol.

I read my first comic about them as a reprint (issue 122), their first battle with the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man.  he was part dinosaur on the cover.  combine that with a team I'd never seen before and anyone surprised I bought it?

I bought the issue again, the reprint, that is, as it holds sentimental value for me.

I had no idea about any of these heroes, nor that it had been about five years since new adventures had been created.

anyway, I bought the first Showcase of the DP, and it's good, but they really get going in this second and last set of stories. 

there are loads of continued plotlines, but they don't take over the main stories, which is a real plus.  I would like to read the Flash/DP team up, that sounds pretty cool.  this is a highly unusual DC book though, as it's far more like a Marvel at the time (though falling flat on it's face with words like "kookie" and "freakniks" and the like). 

I'm really enjoying it.

Haters

the final act of a three part story (including a crossover with Challengers of the Unknown #48) has our heroes battling Multi-man and the Challenger-Haters.

called "The Haters" here, in March of 1966.

it also features yet another version of Atlantis, which by my count has to mean there were at least seven different versions floating about Earth 1 in the 50s and 60s.

it's a good story, one I wish would have been completely included in the recent Doom Patrol Showcase v. 2.  we only get the DP stories, and not the Challengers one.  nor do we get the BNB team up with the Flash, but that's a different story for a different column.