Doom Patrol #35
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeDoom Patrol #35 is the hinge issue that opens Morrison's most celebrated creative chapter on the series, delivering two of the most conceptually daring characters in DC history in a single issue. Danny the Street — a sentient, teleporting, gender-nonconforming piece of urban geography who communicates through shop-window signs and speaks in the queer argot of Polari — arrived as a wholly original statement about identity, community, and otherness at a time when mainstream superhero comics had almost no language for such ideas. Flex Mentallo, introduced here as an amnesiac vagabond in Danny's Perpetual Cabaret, pushed Morrison's practice of treating comic-book ephemera as mythic raw material: the character is a literal incarnation of the Charles Atlas bodybuilding advertisements that peppered decades of American comics, given consciousness and reality-warping muscle power. Together, these two debuts signaled that Morrison's Doom Patrol was operating on a frequency entirely its own — part superhero book, part surrealist manifesto — and both characters have remained touchstones in discussions of LGBTQ+ representation and postmodern storytelling in comics ever since.
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The issue was written by Grant Morrison and drawn by regular series collaborator Richard Case, with inks by John Nyberg, colors by Daniel Vozzo, letters by John Workman (credited in the issue under the pseudonym W.H. Pratt), and editing by Art Young under executive editor Dick Giordano. The cover was painted by Simon Bisley. It arrived at a moment when Morrison had already established a surrealist, Comics Code Authority–free direction for the title starting with issue #19, and #35 marks the opening chapter of what DC would collect as the 'Down Paradise Way' arc. Morrison has spoken in interviews about lacking the contemporary vocabulary — words like 'genderqueer' or 'non-binary' — when creating Danny, reflecting how the character was ahead of the cultural conversation it would eventually help shape.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Danny the Street (created by Grant Morrison and Richard Case): a living, sentient, teleporting street that communicates through window signs and posters, often in the queer slang of Polari, and serves as a sanctuary for outcasts; the character's name is a nod to British drag entertainer Danny La Rue.
- First appearance of Flex Mentallo (created by Grant Morrison and Richard Case): introduced as a shaggy amnesiac in the audience of Danny's Perpetual Cabaret; the character is a deliberate parody of the Charles Atlas 'Insult that made a Man out of Mac' bodybuilding advertisements long printed in American comics.
- First appearance of Sara Furness, Danny the Street's human contact and friend.
- Story title: 'Down Paradise Way.' Cover date: August 1990. Interior credits — Writer: Grant Morrison; Penciller: Richard Case; Inker: John Nyberg; Colorist: Daniel Vozzo; Letterer: John Workman (as W.H. Pratt); Editor: Art Young; Cover artist: Simon Bisley.
- The issue was published without Comics Code Authority approval, consistent with Morrison's full run beginning at issue #19, which freed the creative team from content restrictions.
- Cliff Steele (Robotman) is depicted back in his original body after Monsieur Mallah and the Brain destroyed his previous one, while Dorothy Spinner works with Joshua Clay on controlling her power to manifest imaginary friends into reality.
- The issue is collected in Doom Patrol Vol. 3: Down Paradise Way (2005 trade paperback, issues #35–41), in Doom Patrol: Book Two (2016 trade paperback), and in the Grant Morrison Doom Patrol Omnibus (2014, collecting issues #19–63 and the Doom Force Special).
- Flex Mentallo's appearance in this issue directly seeded a 1996 four-issue Morrison/Frank Quitely miniseries; DC Comics was subsequently sued for trademark infringement by the Charles Atlas company, but prevailed in court on a parody/fair use defense. Both Danny the Street and Flex Mentallo were later adapted for the live-action Doom Patrol television series (DC Universe/HBO Max).
Cast · 9 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Vertigo Visions: Artwork from the Cutting Edge of Comics #[nn] (2000), Doom Patrol #3 (2005), The Doom Patrol Omnibus #[nn] (2014), Doom Patrol #2 (2016)
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