The First 10 Members of the Doom Patrol, Ranked by Power

Doom Patrol launched for DC Comics in 1963. This was the same year Marvel Comics introduced the X-Men, and both teams share a lot in common. Doom Patrol debuted in My Greatest Adventure #80 (1963) by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, and Bruno Premiani, when a genius man in a wheelchair put together a team of super-powered outcasts that could never fit into society and turned them into superheroes. The team opened with a small core lineup of four members before it added more in the late 1960s, the post-1977 Showcase revival, and the Grant Morrison Vertigo era. This then led Doom Patrol to their appearance in their own DC Universe streaming series (which moved to HBO Max) that made them a hugely popular cult favorite.

From their debut in 1963 to Grant Morrison’s experimental stories in the 1980s, here is a look at the first 10 members of Doom Patrol, ranked by power.

10) The Chief (Niles Caulder)

Much like how the X-Men had a man in a wheelchair leading the team, Doom Patrol did as well. However, Niles Caulder is nothing like Professor X when it comes to power. While Professor X was confined to his wheelchair, he remained one of Marvel’s most powerful psychics. Niles had no powers, but was instead a paraplegic who was a genius-level inventor who built the tech that helped drive the team. Grant Morrison also revealed that he caused many of the accidents that gave the heroes their powers, making him a master manipulator as well.

9) Dorothy Spinner

Dorothy Spinner debuted in Doom Patrol Vol. 2 #14 (1988) by Paul Kupperberg and Erik Larsen as the team’s ninth official member. She was an orphan with ape-like features who was bullied her entire life and ended up being raised by her own imaginary friends after being denied formal schooling. However, those imaginary friends are her power, as she can bring them to life, and while some are helpful, others are monstrous in nature. Thanks to her psychic powers, she is more powerful than Niles, but falls short of other members, with her fragile mental state making the psychic constructs less than reliable.

8) Crazy Jane (Kay Challis)

Crazy Jane debuted in Doom Patrol Vol. 2 #19 (1989) by Grant Morrison and Richard Case, and she was the 10th official member of the team. However, she has become one of the most popular members and was part of the Doom Patrol streaming series. Jane lives with dissociative identity disorder caused by severe childhood abuse, and she possesses 64 distinct alternate personalities. Each of her 64 alters has a unique superpower, with examples being retractable claws, teleportation, flame control, and more. She is the most versatile member of the team, but she can’t control which personality is in control, so her powers are also the most random.

7) Negative Woman (Valentina Vostok)

Negative Woman debuted in Showcase #94 (1977) by Paul Kupperberg and Joe Staton, which made her the eighth official member of Doom Patrol. She was a Soviet Air Force lieutenant colonel and cosmonaut who stole an experimental jet and defected, crash-landing on the island where the original Doom Patrol had died. The Negative Spirit that once inhabited Larry Trainor’s body bonded with her, and she gained the ability to fly, phase through matter, possess objects or beings, and transport across dimensions. Negative Woman is more powerful than Crazy Jane because the Negative Spirit is a stable, on-demand combat asset with a known power ceiling.

6) Celsius (Arani Desai)

Celsius appeared in Showcase #94 (1977) by Paul Kupperberg and Joe Staton, joining the team at the same time as Negative Woman. She was rescued in Calcutta by a young Niles Caulder, whose immortality serum amplified her ability to control her core body temperature. Celsius generates and projects extreme heat (like The Human Torch) or extreme cold (like Iceman), with martial arts training from a Himalayan monastery. She is stronger than Negative Woman because her direct elemental control allows her to output more raw damage for as long as needed, on a level greater than many of her teammates.

5) Negative Man (Larry Trainor)

Negative Man is a founding member of Doom Patrol, debuting in My Greatest Adventure #80 (1963). He was a test pilot who flew his experimental aircraft through a radioactive field in Earth’s upper atmosphere and merged with the entity later called the Negative Spirit. This allowed him to release the Negative Spirit from his body for 60 seconds at a time. The Spirit could fly, phase through matter, possess people and objects, project bursts of energy, and travel between dimensions. This means that Negative Man can remain hidden and send the Negative Spirit out to launch devastating attacks while remaining safe himself.

4) Beast Boy (Garfield Logan)

Beast Boy debuted in The Doom Patrol #99 (1965) by Arnold Drake and Bob Brown, making him the sixth member to join the team. This was 15 years before he was a founding member of the New Teen Titans. Garfield Logan contracted the lethal Sakutia virus as a child in Africa, so his father injected him with an untested serum derived from the West African green monkey, which saved his life but turned his skin green and gave him animal-form shapeshifting. Doom Patrol adopted him onto the team when they found he was unable to fit in, thanks to his skin color. His ability to change into any animal that has ever lived on Earth makes him immensely powerful, as this could include elephants, dinosaurs, and bears.

3) Elasti-Girl (Rita Farr)

Elasti-Girl debuted in My Greatest Adventure #80 (1963), making her one of the founding members. She was an Olympic gold-medal swimmer turned Hollywood actress. After she was exposed to volcanic gases while filming in Africa, she gained the ability to grow to skyscraper height or shrink to inches. She had complete control of her size, and she could shrink to such a tiny level that she could even explore microscopic universes. The size she can grow to dwarfs even what Beast Boy could do as an animal, giving her a much higher power ceiling.

2) Robotman (Cliff Steele)

Robotman was a daredevil race driver whose body was destroyed at the Indianapolis 500. Niles Caulder transplanted his brain into a robotic body engineered to keep him alive, giving him superhuman strength, durability, speed, and stamina. He was also given a weapons system, including electromagnetic feet and heating coils built into the hands. He has fought Cyborg on even ground, has torn bodies apart, and survived attacks that would have killed most of his teammates. His durability is sustained across every fight, and he is Doom Patrol’s tank hero.

1) Mento (Steve Dayton)

Mento was the fifth member to join the Doom Patrol, debuting in Doom Patrol #91 (1964). He was the fifth-richest man in the world, and he designed his own psionic-amplification helmet to try to impress Elasti-Girl with manufactured superpowers. While wearing his helmet, Mento possesses telepathy, psychokinesis, intangibility, and limited mind control. It seems weird to see him topping the list, but his helmet has shown it is powerful enough to challenge cosmic-tier enemies. Later runs showed him losing his mind to the helmet’s feedback, which shows how much power it actually channels.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

10 Best Aquaman Storylines in DC Comics, Ranked by Impact