How would you make the Doom Patrol sell?

[Trey Strain]

I don't have any ideas there. What do you folks think could be done?

[sluggo]

acknowledge how goofy it is and jump in 100%

The team is ultimately put together by a crazy guy who arranges these events to turn this innocent people into meta-humans, so play with that idea. Make the Chief a little crazy and disillusional. He is sending the team on missions that have no real purpose but he is claiming saved the world etc...

[Flash Gordon]

Bring in Gerard Way to follow up Morrison and give us an epic in the vein of UMBRELLA ACADEMY.

[Trey Strain]

Putting particular writers on a title is a Band-Aid. A good one can get a title rolling and gain it some attention, but that's not a solution.

[Sharkey]

From DC's perspective?

Good marketing, talk about it in the back of the more mainstream titles.

Perhaps some well-written and naturally done cameo work from the main characters in other big books. None of that "editors note" nonsense though, that can be relegated to the back of the title. Perhaps a "Who's Who?" of the upcoming Doom Patrol? Say for example Robotman had a cameo in Justice League, give a brief bit of background about him with a picture at the back of the comic and if people want more they can check out Doom Patrol.

Also, don't just market it up until release and then effectively ignore it afterwards. Talk about what's happened in the most recent story arc and encourage new readers to jump in!

[Trey Strain]

From DC's perspective?

Good marketing, talk about it in the back of the more mainstream titles.

Perhaps some well-written and naturally done cameo work from the main characters in other big books. None of that "editors note" nonsense though, that can be relegated to the back of the title. Perhaps a "Who's Who?" of the upcoming Doom Patrol?

That's good but what would you change about the content?

[Sharkey]

I'd use the Doom Patrol to tell someone really surreal Silver Age style stories. Certainly really bonkers that plays around with traditional superhero tropes.

Edit - I would probably either add in Bizarro or at least have it cameo.

[Flash Gordon]

Putting particular writers on a title is a Band-Aid. A good one can get a title rolling and gain it some attention, but that's not a solution.

Not really interested in anything outside of what Way does with these characters. Looks bloody brilliant, and I hope for a long run.

Loved Morrison's Doom Patrol, but that was HIS run. This will be equally expressive and personal, I think.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Putting particular writers on a title is a Band-Aid. A good one can get a title rolling and gain it some attention, but that's not a solution.

The ideas it takes to come up with a 'solution'? Writers make those. And some are more suited to coming up with ideas for a specific kind of title than others.

If I had to mainstream it, as you'll accept no other option, I'd keep the core (Robotman, Negative Man, Elastigirl, Beast Boy) and add in a handful of more notable types that'd fit in like Doctor Fate (a version possessed by the helmet) and Element Girl, and have them deal with the 'fallout' of the major superhero stuff - the people infected when a supervillain's virus got out before the Justice League shut it down, the interdimensional portals left open from aborted invasions, that kind of stuff. You could tie it into events that way easily enough.

[M@Bowers2014]

Really all DC needs to do to make DOOM PATROL sell is put an A+ creative team on the title. End of story.

[Trey Strain]

Really all DC needs to do to make DOOM PATROL sell is put an A+ creative team on the title. End of story.

And then they go away and it doesn't sell any more. THAT'S the end of that particular story.

And cleverer marketing is fine, but you have to change something about the content.

[Zero Hunter]

I don't know because the Giffen run was great and no one bought it because most people just are too stupid to read a good book.

[Trey Strain]

And if "mainstream" means "stay in print," then yes, that's what I mean.

[DevilBat66]

I would fill the team full of plucky teenaged heroines of varied ethnicities and sexual orientations. Maybe have one or two race swapped legacy characters too.

[Sharkey]

The ideas it takes to come up with a 'solution'? Writers make those. And some are more suited to coming up with ideas for a specific kind of title than others.

If I had to mainstream it, as you'll accept no other option, I'd keep the core (Robotman, Negative Man, Elastigirl, Beast Boy) and add in a handful of more notable types that'd fit in like Doctor Fate (a version possessed by the helmet) and Element Girl, and have them deal with the 'fallout' of the major superhero stuff - the people infected when a supervillain's virus got out before the Justice League shut it down, the interdimensional portals left open from aborted invasions, that kind of stuff. You could tie it into events that way easily enough.

I'd read that, like a weird mop-up crew to do the jobs no-one else wants to do.

Other than that, Doom Patrol from what little I've read of it just isn't mainstream comic material nor would I want it to be.