"The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Menace" Doom Patrol #89

The DP get some much-needed, cooler superhero togs in this issue (Well, Negative Man and Elasti-girl do, Robotman doesn't wear clothes, just black trunks. And I suspect they're just paint.), and a really funky new villain. The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Menace or AVM Man for short.

Once a friend and rival of the Chief's, the AVM Man is a brilliant scientist who has unlocked the secrets of the prime material from which all life developed. Staging an accident during a laboratory demonstration (do these really happen? I've never been to one of these, but they happen in old comics all the time. I mean, I've been to COSI -the science museum, not the patisserie- many times and NEVER have I witnessed any scientists, mad or otherwise seeking the origins of life, or irradiating helpless spiders or anything. ) Sven Larsen turns himself into the AVM Man with the power to change his form into anything animal, vegetable or mineral.

Bent on revenge for a wrong he believes the Chief has done him, AVM Man attacks the members of the Doom Patrol. Turning into a giant man of lead, he attempts to encase Negative Man's radioactive energy form. Robotman saves negative man, but AVM Man turns into a giant dandelion and blows away. Later he turns into a swarm of gnats and attempts to enter Robotman's ear canals in an effort to reach his human brain.

In a final showdown, AVM Man becomes a giant tiger and launches himself at Elasti-girl, only to be zapped by the Chief's "Anti-Decay Ray" which "halts all changes in living cells." It freezes the AVM Man as a tiger and prevents his ever-fluid form from continuing to move and change. I don't know why he can't just continue to attack as a giant tiger, but whatever. Irony-of-ironies, the ray is the very idea which Sven Larsen accused the Chief of stealing from him years ago, and is the very reason Larsen is seeking revenge.

A few notes: This issue contains one of the very few instances in which the chief involves himself in front line combat. Personally, I think any comic book in which a bad guy turns into a dandelion and blows away to escape capture is awesome. One more thing... should Robotman's brain really be accessible directly from his ear canals?? Shouldn't he have died in a much earlier issue if that were the case?

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who are the "Strangest Heroes" of All?

So it goes like this: In September, 1963 Marvel Comics published X-Men #1 with the byline "The Strangest Super-Heroes of All!". Back in June 1963 DC comics published My Greatest Adventure #8o which debuted a new Super Team, the Doom Patrol with the byline "The World's Strangest Heroes!"

The X-men featured five teenage heroes with unwanted powers who answered to a mysterious leader in a wheelchair. A man named "Professor X". The Doom Patrol were three heroes with unwanted powers who answered to a mysterious leader in a wheelchair. A man named "The Chief".

There has been some controversy over the similarities of these two super-teams for the last 46 years. DC says Marvel, in essence ripped off the Doom Patrol, citing the wheelchair-bound leader and unwanted powers. Also, the DP fight the Brotherhood of Evil and the X-Men fight the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Marvel says that the Doom Patrol was just a rip-off of Marvel's Fantastic Four.

After all, there are FOUR of them and four members of the Doom Patrol. Negative Man is a little like the Human Torch, Robotman is similar to the Thing, The Chief has Mr. Fantastic's intellect, while Elasti-Girl is like the Invisible Girl but with a power sort of like Mr. Fantastic's...

Of course, if DC ripped off Fantastic Four creating the Doom Patrol, then Marvel certainly ripped off DC's Challengers of the Unknown when creating the Fantastic Four.

The Challengers were four men brought together by fate, united by a common accident (the crash of an experimental plane) who team up to combat, well, the Unknown. They even wear matching purple jumpsuits not unlike the spacesuits worn by the FF in their first appearance. Of course, Challengers was originally drawn by FF artist extraordinaire, Jack Kirby, so no big shock that the two books would look similar.

Another great similarity between the Doom Patrol and the X-Men is that both titles were cancelled due to poor sales. Of course, in the 1970's, the X-Men came back in a HUGE way with the New X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #1.


The Doom Patrol also staged a come-back, but with far less success. But, fear not, DC managed to rip off the New X-Men with the New Teen Titans.

The Teen Titans were reinvented as an angstier group of young people, many of whom were not so keen on having super powers. Heck, even Doom Patrol alumnus Beast Boy (No relation to X-Men's Beast) joined the New Titans.

Not to be outdone, the good folks at Marvel brought us The New Mutants a comic about the teenage mutant students who were training to be future X-Men. The New X-Men, after all were no longer teenagers.



The thing is, folks- comics companies, writers and artists have ALWAYS ripped each other off. From Sub-Mariner to Aquaman. From Superman to Captain Marvel. From The Flash to the Whizzer...

Personally, I'm just glad I live in a world where I can read and enjoy reprints of BOTH the Doom Patrol and the X-Men