First Strike: The Invasion! Podcast Ep.32: Doom Patrol #18

It's the end of the Doom Patrol as we knew them! Before they crawl from the wreckage, they must deal with Invasion fall-out. Unlike other heroes, the DP can never catch a break! Siskoid and Bass not only discuss Doom Patrol #18's Invasion Aftermath tie-in, but the team's publication history.

Listen to Episode 32 below (the usual filthy filthy language warnings may apply), or subscribe to First Strike: The Invasion! Podcast on iTunes!

Relevant images and further credits at: First Strike ep.32 Supplemental

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13 responses to “First Strike: The Invasion! Podcast Ep.32: Doom Patrol #18

  1. Thanks for the coverage as the Doom Patrol has been one of those properties that I have loved for a long time.

    I am old enough to remember seeing the house ads for the Shiwcase 94 Issue. And I can remember being blown away by the image and the team logo. But also there was something about the name … DOOM PATROL … that was cooll. I was a little kid but that ad grabbed me enough that I dough out that issue off the rack and even bought the others!

    Not knowing the original DP at all, I loved this crew and followed them somewhat through DCCP, Superman Family, and here and there.

    When the second volume was announced, I was in. Doom Patrol and Steve Lightle! Easy buy. But the initial arc didn’t grab me and I was, well, a different reader. So I didn’t continue buying.

    I did however get DP#19 off the shelf having noticed the ‘new format’ and the rumors of a bold ne direction and I was hooked. As you describe Siskoid, that book came out at the perfect time for me. Everything about it, the trippiness, the intelligence, the characterization was like gold. It worked tremendously, although some later stories just seem too weird.

    I dropped the Pollack stuff shortly into her run when it seemed like echoes of Morrison. I missed the Arcudi run. I knew enough to stay away from Byrne. But he th Giffen tun and the current run are delightful. I eventually cobbled together this Kupperberg run from dollar boxes and like it mostly for Lodestone and some of the early Larsen looks. And now that I am older with a bit more income, I went out and bought the original stuff in archive form and love those too.

    As for this issue, I applaud Kupperberg for being willing to clear the decks by killing, maiming, or limboing his babies. Kudos for being a good teammate!

    One last thing. It is definitely Gar-goo-ax. And he has always seemed like an alien Sidney Greenstreet to me. So I always read his lines with the occasional grunt or harrumph Greenstreet put in his lines in the Maltese Falcon.

    Thanks for letting me prattle on. For the Secet Origin fans, I recommend the Power Girl, Creeper, and Karate Kid episodes.

  2. Very much liked Siskoid’s recounting of his Morrison journey. It’s similar to mine, as Morrison’s Animal Man and Doom Patrol became college must-reads for me. That carried me through The Invisibles, his JLA run (which was mixed), and everything that followed. I fell off the Morrison wagon at some point, don’t recall when. But I felt like Morrison’s work was a little too in love with itself. I’ve tried Multiversity, his Batman run, and some of this other series, but nothing’s clicked for me. Even All-Star Superman didn’t sing for me the way it seems to have for everyone else. No clue.

    As for Doom Patrol itself, I went back to read the pre-Morrison books recently. Mixed bag, kids.

  3. I always wondered about these transitional issues of DP. I bought the first few due to the lovely LIghtle art, but I quickly bailed. Didn’t pay the book much mind until Loose-leaf Who’s Who began, and then I was floored by how WEIRD the DP’s entries were. I do remember digging the Danny the Street mixed-media entry by Tom Taggert. Who didn’t want a Doom Patrol action figure? I never got into the Morrison stuff. Honestly a bit too out there for me, but I appreciate its warm fuzzy place for a lot of folks.

    I think your comparing the DP to the FF is very valid…but it still brings the team and the original X-Men in close proximity to one another. Really the original X-Men were basically the FF with the personality mix jumbled a bit and spread across more characters. Marvel even advertised the team as such “in the grand tradition of the Fantastic Four” just as they tried to make another Spider-Man with Daredevil.

    Fun episode and great discussion as always!

    Chris

  4. Pretty thorough coverage and very impressed by Siskoid’s long-term enthusiasm and Bass’ newcomer excitement.

    I wish everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the mostly forgotten John Arcudi/Tan Eng Huat volume 3 of the team. Without any hint of slavishness to the earlier runs, it explored the corporate exploitation of the Doom Patrol brand with humour and flare. Most impressively it introduced a whole new team to hang with Robotman and made them all compelling.

    Thanks for playing that very old (re-Young Animal) promo for Waiting For Doom!

  5. This was my first episode of the First Strike podcast…and I liked it! I really liked it! I had checked out the beginning of this volume of the Doom Patrol series, having been intrigued by the group since I discovered them in the New Teen Titans. However, this version didn’t grab me, not even with the really nice art by Steve Lightly in the beginning. So, I had completely missed this issue, and thus, didn’t get just how inclusive Grant Morrison was in using all of the threads laid out by this finale and “Invasion” in general. Also, yeah, I never read a single issue of New Guardians, as “Millennium” just irritated me even back then.

    1. Also: thanks for tipping me off to “Titan Up the Defense.” Along with “Fantasticast,” “Waiting for Doom,” this Network (and more!), I’m developing a serious Podcast problem….

  6. I have mixed feelings about this era of the Doom Patrol. I’d never even heard of them before New Teen Titans #16, so I didn’t have a lot of expectations for Volume 2. But the concept intrigued me and the art looked good. So I’m in the minority of thinking, “this isn’t bad. Sure, it’s not *great*, but it’s not bad.” It even had some surprises, like Erik Larsen taking over the art. Larry Trainor free-of-Negative-Man doing some really bad things to get the power back, very surprising behavior for a superhero character. Still have a soft spot for Lodestone and Hot Hands.

    But boy, this issue was so unmemorable. A finale for a creative team and changing the status quo should be more emotional. But I just got nothing from it. There weren’t even that many shakeups to be had. Celsius and Negative Woman were it. The big hit comes in “Invasion! #3” instead, so Kupperberg didn’t really even do his own finale. A similar thing happens in other books, and it’s just as flat there.

    Finally, this run suffers by comparison when Morrison-Case take over, and table-flip the Doom Patrol concept, and create the standard by which the team is compared from then on! Who could have seen that coming?

    That said, you guys were still more than fair about this issue, and I’m also a fan of the Morrison run. I freely admit, I probably didn’t “get” it all the time, but when I did, it was golden. A great time to be reading comics.

    Side note: Mr Hix’s love of DP Volume 3 has infected me, and I wish Comixology would come through with those issues. They sound awesome.

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