Doom Patrol #19
Doom Patrol #19 marks the beginning of one of the most formally adventurous writer-takeovers in DC history: Scottish writer Grant Morrison replaced Paul Kupperberg starting here, steering the title away from conventional superheroics and into deeply surreal territory that engaged with mental health, gender identity, and trauma in ways largely unprecedented in mainstream American superhero comics. The issue also introduced Crazy Jane — a character with dissociative identity disorder whose 64 distinct personalities each possess a separate superpower — bringing a level of psychological specificity and human complexity rarely seen in the genre at the time. Just as significantly, DC stopped submitting the title to the Comics Code Authority beginning with this issue, removing the censorship constraints that had shaped the previous 18 issues and enabling the darkness and strangeness Morrison's run required. Those creative conditions planted the seeds for the Vertigo imprint and influenced the wave of mature-readers genre comics that followed throughout the 1990s.
In "Crawling from the Wreckage," Grant Morrison and Richard Case dive into the fractured psyche of Cliff, confined in a mental hospital where Will Magnus pays a haunting visit. As Magnus introduces Cliff to another patient, Kay Challis, the threads of the Doom Patrol begin to unravel—Niles shares his ambitions with Joshua, while Larry’s isolation in a distant hospital takes a darker turn, drawing the Negative Spirit into a strange alliance with him and his nurse, Eleanor Poole. Cover by Richard Case and Carlos Garzón.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 11 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
CGC 9.8 ▾ $350 3 listings
Raw / ungraded ▾ $3.17–$84.99 7 listings
More listings for this title
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
After sales on Paul Kupperberg's initial 18-issue run declined to the point where he was removed from the book, DC brought in Grant Morrison in hopes of salvaging the title. At Morrison's request, Kupperberg agreed to use the DC crossover event Invasion! to write out the characters Morrison did not want — including Celsius, Lodestone, Karma, Scorch, and Tempest — so that issue #19 could begin with a stripped-down roster. Morrison's editorial strategy was to return the book to what he called the 'freewheeling weirdness' of the early Arnold Drake stories, while pushing the content well beyond what any Code-approved book could sustain. Editor Robert Greenberger oversaw the transition, with penciller Richard Case and inker Carlos Garzón providing all art including the cover.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Crazy Jane (Kay Challis), created by Grant Morrison and Richard Case; she has dissociative identity disorder with 64 alternate personalities, each possessing a distinct superpower.
- First issue written by Grant Morrison on Doom Patrol (vol. 2); he would continue the run through issue #63 and the Doom Force Special (1989–1993).
- Cover date: February 1989; story title: 'Crawling from the Wreckage, Part 1 of 4'; pencils by Richard Case, inks by Carlos Garzón, colors by Michele Wolfman, letters by John Workman, edited by Robert Greenberger.
- First DC issue published without Comics Code Authority approval starting with this issue, a deliberate editorial decision that removed content restrictions from the run.
- The Scissormen — interdimensional beings from the city of Orqwith who speak in cut-up dada-style language and literally cut people out of reality with scissor-hands — are first mentioned (though not yet seen) in this issue.
- Crazy Jane was inspired by Truddi Chase's autobiography When Rabbit Howls, which Morrison acknowledged in the afterword to the first collected edition.
- Kupperberg cooperated with Morrison's transition by using the Invasion! crossover to remove unwanted characters, leaving the core roster of Robotman (Cliff Steele), Niles Caulder (The Chief), and Larry Trainor for Morrison to rebuild around.
- Collected in Doom Patrol, Vol. 1: Crawling from the Wreckage (Vertigo trade paperback, 2000, ISBN 978-1563890345, collecting #19–25); later reprinted in the Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison Omnibus (2014, ISBN 978-1401245627, collecting #19–63 and Doom Force Special). An early printing of the trade omitted three subplot pages later restored.
Cast · 4 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Inferno #5/1991 (1991), Doom Patrol #[1] [1992 Edition] (1992), Doom Patrol #1 [2004 Edition] (2004), Lo Mejor de Vertigo #1 (2005), Vertigo Book #63 (2006), The Doom Patrol Omnibus #[nn] (2014), Doom Patrol #1 (2016)
Key issues in Doom Patrol
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.