Unstoppable Doom Patrol Creative Team Previews New Leader, Team, and Purpose

The Doom Patrol is carving out an all-new space within the greater DC Universe, and it all begins in Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1. Unstoppable Doom Patrol is a six-issue mini-series from writer Dennis Culver, artist Chris Burnham, and colorist Brian Reber, and it shakes up the Doom Patrol's status quo considerably. Not only is there a new Chief leading the group, but the team is welcoming in two new members who contain skills that will be quite handy and yet cause delightful chaos within the group. ComicBook.com's Matthew Aguilar had the opportunity to speak with Culver and Burnham all about the new series, including the newest additions to the team, the group's new purpose, and how that puts them on the frontlines at a critical moment in time for metahumans.

Unstoppable Doom Patrol brings in two all-new characters, but there's also a new Chief leading the team that fans will certainly recognize. This change brings in some fresh energy while also evolving a fan-favorite character at the same time, and should help move the whole group forward in interesting ways.

"Well, I wanted there to be a clearly defined leader, and striking on the idea of having one of Jane's alternate identities be the Chief, I thought was really cool, where we got to still use the Chief name, but kind of lean away from Niles Caulder," Culver said. "Because I feel like the Niles Caulder is a d***, that story's been told over and over and over with the Doom Patrol, and it's like, 'Well, what if someone else was a d***?' And so we've got a new Chief."

The first all-new character is Beast Girl, who you can't help but love almost immediately. "So I know it's not technically a new character, but it is, right? And so it was kind of neat bringing that, and that alone made the dynamic interesting," Culver said. "And then it was like, 'Well, what if we had a Beast Girl', and then 'How do you make that character?' And that's where Burnham really shined. He loves drawing a lovable, cute character, and he nails her design so much. And I think as he started drawing her, her voice became louder to me and I started realizing 'Oh, this character could be a lot of fun.' And then she has this power to terrify people, but no matter how terrifying she tries to look, she's still this cute little thing, and I think that's a neat contrast."

As for the next new member of the team, Degenerate is the complete opposite of Beast Girl, both in power set and personality. "And then Degenerate. Like you said, the Doom Patrol is kind of curmudgeonly. They're bristly. I was like, 'Who would be the guy that would piss them off?' And that's kind of where the idea of Degenerate came from. His power only works if he's a d***. The meaner he is, the stronger he gets. So he has to be mean in order to make his power work, and once I added him to the mix, I think that it made everybody feel really cool and interesting as they bounced off of each other. I'm excited about it. I love the team. I love the soup that we've made," Culver said.

There's plenty of superhero action within the first issue, but there's also significant substance too, including some poignant scenes between Robot Man and Degenerate, and scenes like these are some of Burnham's favorites. "That's one of the most fun things to do is how do you take these weird-looking monsters and try to wrench emotion from them. It's basically the whole point of my job and my favorite part of it. So I'm glad it works," Burnham said.

Burnham's also thrilled to see their new creations being brought to life by other artists. "It's cool to add something new to the world that will hopefully get picked up, One super exciting thing is watching all the variant covers come in and seeing other people draw our designs. Just makes it so much more real to me. It's like, 'Oh, this comic is actually going to be published.' Hopefully, many thousands of people will pre-order this comic. But yeah, super excited to see those other amazing artists draw those characters, and just know that it's real and that we're adding something new and exciting to the DC universe is just super, super exciting," Burnham said.

Unstoppable Doom Patrol quickly carves out a unique space within the larger DC Universe, giving them a compelling purpose that also expands their reach and points of contact with the many other heroes (and villains) occupying the world. It's a scary time for metahumans, and the Justice League isn't really equipped to address that problem, but the Doom Patrol is perfectly suited for the job.

"Some of it is happy accidents too," Culver said. "Just getting the Chief and Batman talking in my head, and you start looking at the Justice League and you realize the only person who has the classic meta gene with the Metahuman setup is the Flash, and no one can catch him. All the other Metahumans in the DC universe end up in places like the Suicide Squad with bombs in their head. It's kind of dangerous if you're a Metahuman in the DC universe because not everybody gets to be gifted. Not everybody gets to be a part of the Justice League, and it's like that core seven of the Justice League, most of them aren't. There's a couple, Hal and Bruce. They've got gadgets and everybody else is kind of gods and Atlanteans and all these different things. So that was kind of a neat thing to stumble into as we figured it out and felt our way around with that."

"And then I just wanted their mission to be proactive in the way they go about handling Metahumans. I wanted it to be really different from any other kind of superhero or super team in the DC universe. And over the pandemic, we started rethinking about how the police operated, and it was like that whole idea with defunding the police was looking at ways of restructuring and changing how they approached crime," Culver said. And it's like, 'What if I took that idea and took it to a bigger level?' And that's kind of where saving the world by saving the monsters kind of developed from that."

Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1 hits comic stores on March 28th.

Are you excited for a new era of Doom Patrol? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things comics with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!