Doom Patrol: The Origin of Mr. Nobody

[alicemacher]

Of all the absurdist foes the Doom Patrol faced during Grant Morrison's run, my favourite without question is the abstract champion of nonsense Mr. Nobody, not the least because his origin is among the strangest you'll find in a mainstream comic.


8 pages of 24 from Doom Patrol vol. 2 #26. Art by Richard Case and John Nyberg.

Mr. Nobody gathers a select group of four outcasts with bizarre powers, and tells them his story.


















Mr. Nobody explains that neither "good" nor "evil" are relevant for the new world he and his team will soon create. A world reflecting, as they do, the absurdity of existence itself. "The Brotherhood of Evil is dead!" he says...

Comments

[captainbellman]

I wonder if Alex Hirsch read this comic when he was a wee lad...

[katefan]

Man, I thought this was one of the greatest comic runs ever. It was so weird and fun to read and at the time for me such a departure from a lot of the stuff I was reading.

[icon_uk]

It took me an issue or two to warm up to the Morrison Doom Patrol, which was just SO nuts, even from Morrison (Who I already knew of from Zenith in 2000AD and Animal Man) but I was a quick convert, and the sheer loopiness of the Brotherhood of Dada was an important part of this.

[jlroberson]

I got my first issue in Halley's Comix in Chicago because the owner, the legendary Sung Koo(you know him from Alex Ross cameos) told me he could sell me this comic in three words:
BROTHERHOOD
OF
DADA

And he was right.

[tcampbell1000]

Interestingly, the last line seems to be a quotation from a real Dada poem-- "es schliesset der Pfarrer den Ho-hosenlatz rataplan rataplan"-- though translations vary. I can't decide whether that's more appropriate than some nonsense Morrison just pulled off the top of his head, or less.

[alicemacher]

Cool. Thanks for the reference, T.

I'd assumed it was in fact just some gibberish Morrison generated either through automatic writing or some sort of cut-up technique à la Burroughs, given how often such deliberately nonsensical dialogue pops up throughout his run.