37 Years Ago, Grant Morrison Revitalized DC’s Weirdest Team

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Grant Morrison is a highly influential figure in comic book history. While they’ve worked with most major US comic companies, some of their most celebrated work was done at DC Comics. Morrison is known for revitalizing iconic characters and teams, and significantly impacting the comic book industry. They first gained prominence in American comics in 1988 as part of a wave of British creators. Their breakthrough work was Animal Man, which transformed a relatively obscure character into a modern classic.

I was so excited when Grant Morrison started working on Doom Patrol! After their amazing run on Animal Man, DC gave them another Silver Age character that hadn’t quite taken off, and it was brilliant. Morrison didn’t try to fix the Doom Patrol, they just leaned into how wonderfully strange the team already was, and it totally worked. Their run is now considered one of the best comics ever made, and it completely revitalized the series for me and so many others.

Morrison’s Doom Patrol Showed Everyone What the Doom Patrol Should Be

The Doom Patrol first appeared in June 1963 in issue #80 of My Greatest Adventure. The team – Robotman, Negative Man, and Elasti-Girl – was made up of individuals granted powers through tragic accidents. Led by the Chief, a scientist who used a wheelchair, they fought some of the strangest villains imaginable. Created by Arnold Drake and Bob Haney (who thought the X-Men took inspiration from the Doom Patrol), the creators aimed to make the most unusual superhero comic possible. The team enjoyed many strange adventures over the years, ultimately concluding with a final mission that seemingly resulted in their deaths.

Look, DC really dropped the ball with the Doom Patrol back in the ’80s. They tried to make them a typical superhero team, and it just didn’t work – fans loved them because they were so wonderfully bizarre! There was one attempt at a comic that fizzled out before the Crisis event, and another was heading that way when they thankfully gave the book to Grant Morrison. He was the one who finally got it. With a story called “Crawling From the Wreckage,” Morrison dove headfirst into the team’s inherent strangeness, and it brought them back to the delightfully weird place where they truly belonged.

In the storyline “Crawling From the Wreckage,” a revamped Doom Patrol faced off against the enigmatic Scissormen, beings who erase people from existence, all while battling personal struggles. Robotman grappled with his lost humanity, often referred to by his real name, Cliff Steele. Larry Trainor, as Negative Man, formed a unique bond with Dr. Eleanor Poole, resulting in the creation of Rebus (back in 1989!). This arc also introduced Crazy Jane, a deeply traumatized woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder, whose alters gained powers following the detonation of a Dominator gene bomb during the Invasion! event. The Chief returned, and Joshua Clay, formerly known as Tempest, transitioned into the team’s doctor.

Morrison’s work on Doom Patrol powerfully explored the effects of trauma and the importance of finding connection and acceptance, particularly among those who feel like outsiders. The book resonated deeply, and Morrison is widely considered a master of team dynamics, with their vision for the Doom Patrol specifically lauded by industry veteran Arnold Drake. Importantly, Morrison began to incorporate and normalize queer themes into their storytelling, a significant step for an industry that hadn’t always been inclusive. Rather than reinventing the team, Morrison pushed the Doom Patrol to its fullest potential, ultimately creating a groundbreaking comic that had a lasting impact on the medium.

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2026-02-16 22:11