From: dhenry@plains.NoDak.edu (David R. Henry)
Subject: Re: X-Men & Doom Patrol
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 06:51:27 GMT
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network

>Compare the X-Men to Doom Patrol:
>A group of misfit super-powered people (one of whom is labeled at some point
>a mutant), led by a man with great mental powers who is confined to a
>wheelchair.  One of their first battles were with the Brotherhood of Evil.

Yes, and the X-Men fought the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants very early on, too.
Likewise, Xavier and Caulder were both orginally able-bodied men who were
injured by one of the first villains they crossed paths with.

>The Doom Patrol first appeared in an issue of My Greatest Adventure, cover
>dated one month before X-Men #1.  This is too close for coincidence, yet too
>close for a copy.  There may have been some cross-pollination of ideas, but
>since nobody's sued in 30 years, we can assume there was not any direct
>plagiarism.

Well, maybe you should check out your syntax. It's *never* too close for
coincidence, by definition! Anyway, this issue was brought up in the pre-
letter column in Doom Patrol #1 (pre-Morrison and Case, of course), and the
then editor remarked on the similarities between teams, leaders, and their
purposes, and pointed out, much like you, that apparently nobody really
did steal anything, it was just coincidence. Or synchronicity, depending on
your view of it. :-)

But consider the times. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had just revitalized the
superhero field with the Fantastic Four -- the first superhero book, if you
can trust Stan's history of it, to get actual *letters* about how much the
fans loved it. DC was trying to get back in, but Marvel had the ball and
was running with it. There were already basic near-cliche forms of the then-
new and shocking "angst" hero:  the family (FF), the confused teenager
(Spider-Man), and so on.

An obvious choice to tap into this "self-aware" type of hero, who suffers
from real-life social handicaps, would be to have one who suffered from a
real-life physical handicap. Probably the most socially-appealing way of
doing that in the early 60s was by using a man in a wheelchair. For obvious
reasons, a man in a wheelchair couldn't be the best focus for an adventure
book -- and just having him being able to turn into a Captain Marvel-type
character by "Shazaming!" wouldn't be fair, because then he really wouldn't
be handicapped, would he?

So, since he couldn't be the actual adventurer, maybe he could be the
advisor to the adventurers, the wise sage who instructs and guides them.
And, since the by-now-leader figure was created with an idea to try to see
how superhumans would adjust to physical handicaps, maybe the idea of his
team would be a place for "physically-challenged" paranormals to be trained
and given shelter.

I don't think it's all that amazing, both the Doom Patrol and the X-Men
having such similar initial forms, given some of the other things that can
happen in a lifetime...

>The Doom Patrol went through about 20 issues of My Greatest Adventure, which
>was then retitled to Doom Patrol and then were REPRINTED in that title for a
>number of months. (Hmm)
>
>The New Doom Patrol came out some time later, originally in a couple-issue run
>of Showcase, starting with issue... 94!

...although those are darned interesting parallels. Almost makes me want to
trot back out my Cloak and Dagger are Viral Book-killer proof, just for
fun...

>
>As David Letterman says, Hard... to Believe.

"I'm still working on the pronunciation." --Richard Darwin
-- 
David R. Henry - Rogue Fan Club - "I have a pullchain in my head." -- RIII
My mind is a jackal.--Richard Darwin // What was the question? --Kate Bush
"All you of Earth are IDIOTS!"-P9fOS // Thanks... for the memories.--Rogue
dhenry@plains.nodak.edu * ud137927@ndsuvm1.bitnet * ud137927@vm1.nodak.edu
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