Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

The Doom Patrol Archives Vol. 1

By Leroy Douresseaux
January 10, 2004 - 15:21

The stories contained in The Doom Patrol Archives Vol. 1 are the silly and fanciful stuff usually found in Silver Age comics. Structurally sound from the point of view of plot, the stories all suffer from poor script writing, but they have the kind of wild fantasy that would be lost in today's jargon laden comics, where getting the science right supercedes fun.

However, the real treat of this volume, which reprints early comics featuring The Doom Patrol DC's version of the X-Men, (My Greatest Adventure #80-85 and The Doom Patrol #86-89, when the title changed), is the fine art by the late Bruno Premiani. Reportedly a huge influence on cover artist god, Brian Bolland, Premiani art was a combination of mainstream or magazine style illustration and concise affecting, line work. This art, from mid 1963 to mid 1964, is certainly some of the finest Silver Age comic art published.

Combined with the inclusion of several Bob Brown covers, The Doom Patrol Archives is a collection of significant sequential art, less important as a DC nostalgia book, and more important as an example of the skilled craftsman who labored in comics industry obscurity.

[INCONSEQUENTIAL, NOTEWORTHY, IMPORTANT, ESSENTIAL]

Leroy Douresseaux is a comic book writer and critic based in Louisiana.

Last Updated: November 29, 2025 - 16:51