I thought the Year One Doom Patrol cross-over was great also...

When Cliff was tying up an unconscious Madame Rouge with her own elastic body, did the artist draw her with a Princess Leia (first movie) hairstyle in that panel?

^ Yup, certainly looks that way...

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Whatever one's opinion of Morrison's DOOM PATROL, it is a very interesting case study in what fans -- DC fans, at any rate -- are prepared to accept as long as it is "in continuity".

To hop back a point or two, I do see some comparisons (I guess) between the original Doom Patrol and the X-Men...and the FF...and the Avengers.  The original DP portrayed a dysfunctional team that almost spent more time arguing than fighting the bad guys.  That was very Marvel-ish, at the time.  That is one reason DP is my favorite DC group book.

One of my favorite bits was in a story where Rita went out with "the boys" to solve a crime, but had to leave them around 5 PM so she could return home to cook food for Steve, who just happened to be the 5th richest man in the world.  And sure enough, a panel or two later she is pulling something out of the oven, while wearing heels, a dress, and an apron.  It was a laugh out loud moment because the preceding issues had pretty much set Rita up as the most powerful or perhaps the most resourceful member of the DP.

I'm not sure if DC comics were slightly satirical or just so straight laced that it seems that way, 40 to 50 years later.

I just started reading through some of the original Doom Patrol stories in the SHOWCASE format. I'm enjoying Bruno Premiani's artwork and find it interesting that Rita gets so much on-screen action. Seems to fly in the face of the minimizing treatment of women in other Silver Age material.

Rita Farr is by far and away my favorite lady superhero. There's no way to quantify the genius of Drake and Bob Haney in deciding not to do a Giant Man, but a Giant Woman. So Rita is the literal heavyweight of the DP, a powerhouse, and she's a giant beautiful woman. You can respect her amazing abilities and leer at her gorgeous sexuality, which not many superheroines can elicit. Really.

I think the point of the Rita being a dutiful housewife is somewhat satirical, in approach, but Drake is serious about what Rita believes her responsibilities as a wife to be.

Which, to me, makes her even more appealing. She's trying to be normal despite her powers and Drayton's wealth. She's rebelling against both external forces in the marriage with Drayton.

Now, what I never liked was Rita being smitten with Drayton to begin with, but that's because it's so true: she's American royalty ie a Hollywood actress who expects a handsome wealthy man to court her. Pretty much the ideal of any girl of the 1960s, written by a man who lived at a time when women couldn't expect much better.

So Rita is still a cutting edge hero in any medium. While Marvel was treating Sue, Wanda, and Jean as fainting fluttery flakes, DC had Rita. They also had Wonder Woman, but Rita is a product of the America of the 1960s instead of a cypher like Diana who "became" the 1960s, 1970s, ect as culture changed.

It kills me, because I know Paul Kupperberg pops in, and I love the man and know how he resents how he resurrected the DP, but you have to wonder What If? where the DP is involved.

I know the DP probably wouldn't have returned at all without Kups and Joe Staton, but I'm just talking here:

Don Heck, Don Newton, Rich Buckler and Mike Grell are all working at DC in 1977, when SHOWCASE 94 introduces the new DP.

Walt Simonson has just started, but he probably isn't "ready" for a DP title.

One aside: If only the revival had happened a couple of short years before, Jack Kirby is still at DC, kicking around, shunted from one project to the next.

Really intriguing to think about is Jose Garcia-Lopez. Can you imagine? I hate to think about how great his DP comic might have been.