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Comic Book / Unstoppable Doom Patrol

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Unstoppable Doom Patrol is a seven-issue miniseries by Dennis Culver and Chris Burnham, published by DC Comics. It is the latest iteration of DC's Doom Patrol, and a sequel to Gerard Way's Doom Patrol (2016), published under Young Animal.

In the wake of the events of Lazarus Planet, in which many previously-normal humans were given superhuman abilities, the Doom Patrol has been put back together to gather as many of the newly-empowered people as possible and offer them refuge. There are changes, however; after decades of abuse and manipulation, Niles Caulder is no longer the Chief, serving only in a largely-ceremonial advisory capacity, and the title of Chief now falls upon Kay Challis, formerly Crazy Jane. There is also a new therapy regime, with Flex Mentallo and Elasti-Woman running physical therapy to train new recruits to control their abilities, while newcomer Dr. Syncho looks through their psyches to find any mental health issues. Investigations into the supernatural are conducted by the Grave Minders, under Willoughby Kipling. Most of the actual fighting is now done by the Chief, longtime member Robotman and Elasti-Woman, and newcomers Degenerate, Beast Girl, and Psylo-Simon.

Meanwhile, the US Government has taken an interest in the revitalized team, and has assigned General Blanche and Peacemaker to keep an eye on them.


Unstoppable Doom Patrol provides examples of:

  • Actually a Doombot: When the Doom Patrol confront Brian McClane, he turns out to be a robot double when Degenerate attempts to tear him apart.
  • Adaptational Sexuality: Issue 4 hints at Larry being a closeted gay man, much like his TV counterpart. He mentions that he's used the Negative Spirit as an excuse to avoid really addressing anything about his personal life for years, the same way he used to throw himself into his work as a test pilot.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: The similarities between the Doom Patrol and the X-Men are strengthened in this series by the team going on a mission to protect and counsel a population boom of metahumans. The second issue has them fighting off giant killer robots apparently designed to police metahumans, much like the sentinels.
  • Ambiguous Gender: It's never revealed whether Worm is male, female, or nonbinary.
  • Appropriated Appellation: Degenerate calls himself that because it was the name given to him by the people at Metagen.
  • Armed with Canon: The miniseries chooses to disregard Kate Godwin and Dorothy Spinner being brought back from the dead in DC Pride 2022, instead having them still be deceased. The end of the miniseries even involves the villains digging up Dorothy's corpse.
  • Atrocious Alias: Robotman and Guy Gardner aren't impressed that a metahuman consisting of a Starro probe merging with its human host chose to call himself "StarBro".
  • Body Horror: Poor Metawoman ends up a horribly mutated blob when she tries to adapt herself to take on the entire Doom Patrol at once.
  • Body Surf: In his therapy session with Dr. Syncho, Cliff mentions a theory that he's actually a metahuman with the power of a "quantum consciousness" that maintains continuity between all the bodies he's had. This even includes the period of time the Cliff on the team was a fictional counterpart brought to life.
  • The Bus Came Back:
    • Issue 6 features the return of several characters who hadn't been seen in years; Goldilocks, Dr. Inside Out, Lady Tiger Fist, Gemini De Mille, Veiniac, The Quiz, Willoughby Kipling, Lucius Reynolds, Lotion the Cat and the Candlemaker.
    • The finale issue features the return of Danny the Street, in ruins in the Bleed, as well as the Batwoman Who Laughs.
  • Call-Back:
    • Issue 2 features Cliff visiting the grave of Dorothy Spinner, who died back in the early aughts. No one seems to have told the team Dorothy (and Coagula) have been alive since DC Pride 2022. The same issue also reveals that Willoughby Kipling has absorbed several members of the Young Animal era team into a new team called the Grave Minders.
    • In issue 3, Guy Gardner recalls his one previous encounter with the Doom Patrol, when they dealt with the Painting that Ate Paris. The same issue has Larry recalling his frustrations at Cliff's refusal to call him Rebis back when he was merged with Dr. Poole.
  • Cerebus Call-Back: The third issue refers back to the Morrison era when Larry was merged with Dr. Poole as Rebis. During that time, Robotman kept calling Rebis "Larry." Here, Larry makes it clear that he hated whenever Cliff did that and even if he's not Rebis anymore, it was still deadnaming. Cliff apologizes.
  • Da Chief: This time around, Kay Challis is the new Chief, having created a new alter that specializes in team management.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Dr. Syncho can channel a collective of five fifth Dimensional intelligences; Jxchn, Eylhm, Rez, Raz, and Yzd. They're called J.E.R.R.Y. for short.
  • Fusion Dance: At the end of the miniseries, General Immortus uses the resin he took from the Brain to conduct a ritual that merges him with the Candlemaker.
  • Jerkass: Degenerate's powers are fueled by negativity, making him bigger and stronger the more mean-spirited he is. He refuses to shrink back down to normal size, so he's an asshole all the time, regularly punching holes in walls.
  • Killed Off for Real: The first issue sees the Doom Patrol's longtime enemy The Brain being killed by his companion Mallah, who now serves General Immortus.
  • Mind Hive: Dr. Syncho channels five fifth dimensional beings as part of her therapy sessions with patients.
  • The Mole: In issue 2, the Worm is sent by Peacemaker to infiltrate the Doom Patrol. They aren't the actual mole, though, it's actually their pet worm Velvet.
  • Mythology Gag: The final issue's cover features the caption "Is this the end of the Doom Patrol?", alluding to how the cover of the original series' final issuenote  that killed off the original team read "Is this the beginning of the end of the Doom Patrol?"
  • Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Defied in the first issue, which opens with the Doom Patrol fighting a company experimenting on a metahuman in Gotham. Batman chafes at their intervention, but gets brushed off as not making enough effort to insure the safety or well-being of metahumans. Issue 3 has Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner discuss this and how they're stepping on a lot of toes, with Guy thinking they're not so bad if they stood up to Batman. The same issue has Robotman attempt to shake off the pursuing Green Lanterns by cutting through Smallville, reasoning that they'll stay out of Superman's home turf. It doesn't work.
  • Survivor's Guilt: Jerry suggests that Rita's constant fear of the other shoe dropping stem from her guilt that she keeps dying and coming back from the dead, whereas a number of her teammates have not.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Beast Girl is a mix of past members Beast Boy and Dorothy Spinner, having a bestial appearance like Beast Boy but having emotional-control powers like Dorothy. Her backstory is also a mix between the two, as she comes from an abusive home like Dorothy, but also gained her current appearance from the activation of her powers like Beast Boy.
  • Take That!:
    • In issue 1 the Chief dismisses Batman admonishing the Doom Patrol for operating in Gotham City, saying his methods of sending them to Arkham or S.T.A.R. Labs is ineffective at best and dehumanizing at worst. They'll go wherever they're needed to give a vulnerable population support to live with their new powers and protection from exploitation, and they don't want or need permission from a Control Freak like him to do it.
    • In issue 2, Caulder's memos looks suspiciously like the notorious info-dumping pages from X-Men: The Krakoan Age. The Chief crumples one of them up and tells Niles to stop sending them because she's not going to bother to read them anymore.
    • Also in issue two, when Willoughby Kipling, Lotion the Cat and Lucius Reynolds are shown together, Kipling shoots down Reynolds' suggestion that they name their faction Doom Patrol Dark.
  • There Are No Therapists: Subverted; not only is there a facility therapist, Dr. Syncho, but she's also metahuman as well, averting All Therapists Are Muggles.
  • Touched by Vorlons: Some metahumans the team finds have their powers activated through direct contact with paranormal forces. StarBro is a Rogue Drone from the Starro hive because assimilation activated his metagene. Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man tried to spread his powers to others and in one victim it not only stuck, but she developed greater powers than his own.
  • Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Beast Girl's powers first emerged when she got lost in the desert and ran into some coyotes. Unable to run because of a sprained ankle, she yelled at the coyotes to leave her alone, and then her powers kicked in and caused them to flee.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: The third issue has Larry call Cliff out on how he repeatedly deadnamed Rebis back during the Morrison era.
    Larry: We kept asking you to call us Rebis but you kept calling us Larry.
    Cliff: That bothered you?! Why didn't you say something?
    Larry: Every time we said our name was Rebis we were saying something.
  • Willing Channeler: Dr. Syncho is a metahuman therapist that can channel five fifth dimensional beings in her mind to help her perform therapy sessions with her patients. The process warps her head to have all six of their faces.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: In issue 5, Caulder is kidnapped by Brian McClane, the head of Metagen Inc., who tells him that he's a huge fan and that he built Metagen around Caulder's catastrophe theory and has been working to implement it on a nanomolecular level. Caulder is horrified, as he conceived those theories during a psychotic break and has since realized how much damage he did to the original Doom Patrol with his experiments.

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