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"Oh look, the little green one. How nice... a family reunion."
- The BrainOriginally aired: September 24, 2005 Written by Rob Hoegee
Directed by Michael Chang
When Beast Boy's former team THE DOOM PATROL is in trouble, the Titans must embark on a daring mission to save them. Beast Boy explains that this can only mean one thing: the Doom Patrol's greatest foes are back. THE BROTHERHOOD OF EVIL has returned.
Xander Berkeley as Mento
Judge Reinhold as Negative Man
Peter Onorati as Robot Man
Tara Strong as Elasti-Girl
Glenn Shadix as The Brain, Monsieur Mallah
Xander Berkeley - voice of Mento - also provided the voice of Warp in HOW LONG IS FOREVER?
Story Editor/Writer Rob Hoegee on the Doom Patrol: “I think we wanted to keep the classic Silver Age DC Comic team. We didn’t necessarily go retro with them, but they may be a different style that what people are expecting them to be. Amy [Wolfram] and I looked at the old archives to get a sense of who they are. But Doom Patrol is only a small part of the overall season. But they really came to life once we got the voice actors in the studio. That really put the polish on them. We’re really happy with the way they came out. They ended up being a lot of fun. I think we were able to give them some depth and some nuances in terms of how they relate to our characters – especially Beast Boy.”Story Editor/Writer Rob Hoegee on the Beast Boy flashback: “Well, I think we decided as the series evolved… if there’s any time to get in origins and backstories, this would be the time. We know everyone now. And we do deal with Beast Boy’s past, his family and where he came from. But as an extension of him and his evolution as a person. It became a way to show him growing up. And it doesn’t overshadow everything else that’s going on [in season five]. “
This episode was partially inspired by the comic book tale, "The Quest for the Killers of the Doom Patrol" which was published in NEW TEEN TITANS #13-15 [1981-1982]. In that story, the Titans team-up up with Mento and Robotman to avenge the Doom Patrol - and finally confront the Brotherhood of Evil. In this episode, the team finds Robotman injured and hung up by jungle vines with the warning sign; That image is an homage to the cover of NEW TEEN TITANS #13. See the cover image by clicking here.Doom Patrol makes their animated debut in this episode. A team of freaks and misfits, the strange team was established during the Silver Age of comics in MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #80. The team was composed of: Robot Man [a man’s brain saved from death and placed in a robot body]; Negative Man [a bandaged man composed of pure energy]; Elasti-Girl [a beautiful woman who can grow as well as shrink in size]; and the Chief [their mysterious wheelchair-bound leader]. Mento [a man whose mental prowess is enhanced by a powerful helmet] later joined in DOOM PATROL #91 [1964]. Mento was immediately smitten with Elast-Girl and joined their adventures in an effort to woo her.
Beast Boy met the team (and made his first appearance) after they gathered in DOOM PATROL #99 [1965]. He became their junior member - long before he joined the Titans - in DOOM PATROL #100 [1965]. Elasti-Girl and Mento married [DOOM PATROL #104] and later adopted Beast Boy in DOOM PATROL #110 [1967]. Beast Boy wore a mask while a member of the Doom Patrol - as seen in the flashback sequence.The Brotherhood of Evil first appeared in DOOM PATROL #86 [1963]. The Brotherhood was a powerful international crime syndicate whose inner circle comprised the Brain, a disembodied human brain preserved in a special fluid; Monsieur Mallah, a gorilla given superhuman intelligence through the Brain's surgical techniques; and Madame Rouge, an elastic villainess gifted with extraordinary disguise skills. The Brotherhood of Evil battled the original Doom Patrol numerous times before Rouge was finally driven insane after one of the Brain's experimental surgical operations. Allying herself with General ZahI, another of the Doom Patrol's enemies, Rouge turned against her comrades and tried to kill them.
The Brotherhood of Evil was later revived in NEW TEEN TITANS #13-15 [1981-1982]. Brain and Mallah survived her attack and remained in hiding for the next several years while scouting for new super-villains who could help them rebuild the Brotherhood. From Saint-Tropez, France, came Emil LaSalle, a.k.a. Warp; from London, England, came Angela Hawkins Ill, who called herself Phobia; from Haiti came Jean-Louis Droo, better known as Houngan; and in East Berlin, Germany, the Brain found Otto von Furth - Plasmus.
For more information on the comic book versions of the characters - including many images - visit titanstower.com's meeting room page.
The Doom Patrol makes its animated debut in this outing - and its an intriguing take on the characters. The writers really took the name of the team to heart: The Doom Patrol seem to view every mission as a suicide mission. It's an interesting premise for a super-hero team. I particularly enjoyed Negative Man's casually-depressed line readings.Stylistically, The Doom Patrol shines. They get their very own retro-cool 1960s spy theme. Their oddball appearances and freakish tics of the Doom Patrol and the Brotherhood work amazingly well in the Teen Titans universe.
The Doom Patrol does suffer from a characterization standpoint in this episode. Mento seems unnecessarily harsh - and the rest of the Doom Patrol don't exactly greet Beast Boy as a long-lost surrogate son. It all works by the time we get to part two, however. But viewing part one alone makes the Doom Patrol seem a bit callous. Grade: B
provided by John The Artist