The Doom Patrol are back with a new 'Dawn of DC' title called Unstoppable Doom Patrol from writer Dennis Culver and artist Chris Burnham. And while the team have always been a few shades off from standard superheroes, their new concept goes even further, turning them into the superhuman first responders of the DC Universe.
With a mission mandate of "saving the DC Universe by saving the monsters," the new Doom Patrol is geared toward finding newly burgeoning metahumans and helping them adjust to their powers before they become perceived as threats by other superheroes.
Newsarama had the chance to speak with Culver and Burnham about what's new with the Doom Patrol, digging into the team's new concept, new look, and new headquarters, all of which are carefully designed to fit the overall idea of a team of helpers first.
"It started off as Dennis' idea to make them a kind of super EMT team rather than a straight up superhero team that like, runs in and beats people up," explains series artist Chris Burnham, who worked to refine the overall look of the new Doom Patrol and his members from those initial sketches. "For them, the first thing first is to solve the problem, rather than to necessarily beat up the monster first."
"So rather than the superheroic red, we've got a yellow and orange sort of look," he continues. "Hopefully they seem somewhat more like an EMT or an ambulance squad than a straight up superhero team."
Series writer Dennis Culver expounds on the concept behind the new Doom Patrol and their mission, explaining how the team might intervene when a situation arises.
"When you become a metahuman in the DC Universe, you may not necessarily become a superhero. Sometimes something monstrous happens to you," Culver explains. "Say you're a monster and the Justice League arrives on the scene to get you under control. Your best bet is you wind up a STAR Labs, which is a laboratory - not the best option."
"You could wind up in Arkham where you either become a worse villain or become the victim of one. And in the worst case scenario for a metahuman in the DC Universe, in my mind, is the Suicide Squad where the put a bomb in your head and become a weapon for the government, you're being used and exploited," he continues.
"The Doom Patrol distinctly knows that those are bad options, and they're not happy about it," Culver adds, "so they want to provide another alternative, where they're saving the world by saving the monsters."
Along with the new mission, the Doom Patrol also have a totally new headquarters called The Shelter, which is built out of an old missile silo in Kansas - which DC fans will know as the location of Superman's Earth hometown of Smallville.
"We've got a new base for the Doom Patrol that's based out of an old missile silo," explains Burnham, who drew an old-school, comic-style, double-page spread showcasing a cutaway of The Shelter and all its contents. "I've always loved looking at cutaways. Dennis really loves them, so he threw this into issue two."
Once new metahumans are at The Shelter, the Doom Patrol and their staff then set about helping that person adjust to the changes in their bodies and their new powers - right down to employing none other than Flex Mentallo as their resident physical therapist.
"If you suddenly have tentacles for arms, in a lot of comics it's just a really neat power that you suddenly have," says Culver. "But if you think it through, suddenly you've gotta learn to tie your shoes. You have to learn to brush your teeth all over again. There's a lot of things that need to happen."
The Shelter itself will debut in Unstoppable Doom Patrol #2. Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1 goes on sale March 28.
Unstoppable Doom Patrol is just one of the new titles coming out of Dawn of DC.
