Days 1571 - 1574 were The New Teen Titans #28 - 31, February - May 1987. They feature Cliff in much the same way the earlier issues did, as a guest from Gar's past who helps the Titans on one of their adventures. Cliff gets torn to bits, just like he used to every second issue in the original series, and, strangely, his head is attached to Cyborg's body in the last issue, which somehow helps the team take down Brother Blood. These issues were interesting in that they chronicle probably a total of a half hour or so of time, basically the whole of Brother Blood's "resurrection" and their takedown of him. Kind of cool to see such a minute dissection of a superhero battle. Also, it appears that Mento is crazy again and trying to kill Gar. So it goes.
Today's issue, however, was really fantastic. It opens with a take on the original team battling their old foe General Immortus. I"m trying to figure out if it's actually one of their original adventures or if it's a new one, and if so, where in the chronology it fits. Anything with Gar has to be after issue #100. Guess I'll just have to go back through them - *sigh* ;)
The present tense story, however, features Cliff telling Gar he's retiring, that he's had enough of the weirdness of the superhero life. Though Cliff is often written as a race car driver, he's originally meant to be something of an adventurer, and racing cars is simply one of the things he did. But now he's tired of the adventure, and is thinking of settling down on a ranch. An attack by Mr.104, an old foe of the Patrol, further cements Cliff's plans to retire. The irony of this is that his issue is just a few months younger than the first issue of the 1987 Doom Patrol series, and must have surely been in the pipeline by the time this comic went to print. Despite my misgivings over his tenure on the title, Paul Kupperberg has to be given props for his ardent desire to keep this team alive. The Patrol inspires this kind of loyalty from those who love it, I think.
I spend a lot of time thinking about what I would do if I had the kinds of powers that my favourite superheroes have. I sometimes worry about whether I'd be a hero or a villain. With the Doom Patrol, regardless of era, I always feel like that's much more what I'd be like: In a constant state of healing, but with hearts in the right place.
"Burn, Robotman! Feel yourself burn!"
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