Titans season 1, episode 4, “Doom Patrol,” officially brought Gar onto the team, but mostly functioned as a backdoor pilot for DC Universe’s upcoming Doom Patrol show (for which I am now officially hyped).
I’ll have to confess that prior to this episode, I didn’t know too much about the Doom Patrol. Which, all things considered, isn’t all that strange, seeing as they’re a mostly obscure superhero team that debuted in the ’60s and though they’ve have had a few runs — including one headed by Grant Morrison, and a more recent one through DC’s Young Animal imprint that was written by Gerard Way — they never really quite caught on in the mainstream.
But hopefully DC Universe’s live action show will change that because I really enjoyed meeting this strange, sad little found family.
This episode introduced us to Chief, Robot Man, Elasti Girl and Negative Man, a group of tragic misfits to whom I already want to give huge hugs.
(Well, everyone except for The Chief. I’m still not quite sure what to make of him.)
Let’s delve into the episode, which made me want to hug Rachel, gave me some good ass Dick x Kory vibes and furthered my suspicion of scientists with god complexes.
Meet the world’s strangest heroes
DC’s tagline for Doom Patrol was that they were “the world’s strangest heroes” — and in comparison to most of DC’s biggest and most popular heroes, they certainly live up to the name.
Saved from either death or experimentation by the extreme medical miracles practiced by The Chief, Larry Trainor (aka Negative Man), Cliffe Steel (aka Robotman) and Rita Farr (aka Elasti-Girl) are now superhuman misfits who live in a gigantic mansion in the middle of nowhere for fear of being ostracized and persecuted by a general public who could never understand them.
They’re a little bit like the Fantastic Four (another foursome with someone who could stretch, a big guy who is irrevocably physically changed, an arrogant scientist with a god complex and someone who can release energy from his body) meets the X-Men (a paraplegic leader with a team of superpowered misfits), a found family group of individuals whose powers are as much as curse as they are a gift.
Here, we meet them while they’re still in the early part of their superhero journey, still hiding away from the world that will certainly fear them and likely hate them.
However, despite not being able to see them save the day or save the world, we see how much they care for one another and how much they care about helping Rachel and Gar — Rachel by offering her a home and place to stay without any judgment and Gar by pushing them to leave the mansion and find his own path and life outside of their sequestered mansion.
As a backdoor pilot for their own upcoming show, the episode did a great job of briefly introducing us to the members of the team and making us want to see more of them. I came into this episode knowing very little about Doom Patrol, but came out of it wishing that the episode were longer and reading all I could about the upcoming show.
I also bought a hefty stack of Doom Patrol comics from DC’s Young Animal imprint to get myself fully caught up and familiar with the team, so that new show can’t come quick enough.
Introducing Gar Logan as the newest member of the team
I’ve been wanting to see more of Ryan Potter’s Gar Logan/Beast Boy since we first saw that little glimpse of him in the Titans pilot, so I was glad that we were finally treated to nearly a full episode of him this week.
The last few episodes laid out the origins of Kory, Rachel and Dick, but we’ve been given very little backstory about Gar. “Doom Patrol” allowed us to see the tragedy in Gar’s last few years while also giving us the origin of his ability to shapeshift. Currently, it seems like he can only change into a tiger — a result of his affinity with the animal — but as the seasons (because we’re already renewed for a season 2, y’all!) go on, I’m sure he’ll find that he can change into any animal at will.
And while he’s clearly found a place to stay with the Doom Patrol, his immediate (hopefully continued platonic, because that real life age gap between the two actors is not the business) connection with Rachel allows him to leave the stifling environment on the mansion and find a new family.
Ryan Potter does a great job of playing Gar as an easygoing and caring young man who nonetheless is ready to step up to the proverbial plate when it’s go time. Despite obviously being afraid of The Chief, he’s ready to throw down the minute that Chief starts pulling his megalomaniacal routine with Rachel.
I’m excited to see him officially join the team and am looking forward to see how he interacts with Dick and Kory.
Kory is exactly what Dick needs
As Titans went into last week, the Dick that is first taken in by Bruce Wayne is an angry teen out for revenge on the criminals who killed his parents. What Bruce Wayne offers him is a different way — a way to fight for justice, rather than for vengeance.
But while we don’t know the full story of why he left, we do know that somewhere along the way, the fight for justice became more twisted and brutal, the means no longer justifying whatever end they were working towards.
The Dick that we see in Titans is brutal and hard, someone who is unsure of his place in the world and who he is if he isn’t Batman’s Robin. He wants desperately to be different from his mentor — alone, dark and terrifying — but finds himself falling into those same patterns over and over again without a way to get out.
Kory represents one of the ways that he’ll get out of it. She’s someone who doesn’t shy away from his gruff exterior or the darkness within him, but also doesn’t enable either. She pulls Dick back when he goes too far and then gently — but firmly — calls him out for doing so. She may not know much about herself right now, but she’s read Dick exactly for everything that he is and every way that he needs to change.
And because of her influence and the way in which she’s able to easily lay out how wrong and damaging — for himself and others — his current way of thinking and living is, he’s then able to be the type of person that Rachel so desperately needs to hold herself together and away from the darkness.
And the award goes to…
- ‘Hero’ that creeped me out the most: The Chief. Science is awesome, but scientists in comic books (even the ‘good’ ones) are frequently not. Chief is no exception. While he did save all the members of the Doom Patrol, I’m curious as to his motivation for doing so — was it altruism or simply to satisfy his own ego? I hope the Doom Patrol show delves more into it.
- Best moment of comic book magic: You’re really telling me that all four of the Titans team fit into Dick Grayson’s tiny ass car? I don’t believe it.
- Best badass Kory moment: She had a lot of them, but her giving Dick the truth about what’s eating him up inside basically led to him telling Rachel that he wouldn’t leave her. I’m 100% down with Kory laying down truth bombs and changing Dick Grayson’s whole mindset.
- Doom Patrol member most likely to break my heart: Robotman. First off, I have a fondness for Brendan Fraser, who voices the character and will play him in flashbacks. Secondly, being unable to touch, taste or feel anything, when he obviously so desperately wants to, breaks my heart. I’d give him all the hugs if I could.
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