Lanterns Episode 6 may have quietly answered a question about the DCU that fans weren’t necessarily asking yet. During the episode, John Stewart says there is “no Superman” in Midway City, a seemingly straightforward line that becomes considerably more interesting when viewed through the lens of DC Comics history. Midway City is one of the locations most closely associated with the Doom Patrol, and that immediately raises the possibility that the new DCU’s version of the city may not have the team that comic book readers expect to find there.
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It is tempting to take John’s comment as confirmation that the Doom Patrol simply doesn’t exist in this universe, but the reality is a little more complicated. Lanterns has established something about Superman’s presence in Midway City, but that doesn’t necessarily tell us what happened to Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Woman, and the rest of theteam. There have been many members of the Doom Patrol, we’ve decided to rank them according to power. Still, the episode may have revealed something important about where fans should—and shouldn’t—expect to find them.
Midway City Has Always Been Connected to the Doom Patrol
For anyone wondering why a single mention of Midway City has turned into a Doom Patrol theory, the answer goes back to the team’s comic book history. Midway City has been a significant location for the Doom Patrol for decades. The city has also been associated with Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Doom Manor, the team’s headquarters in many stories, has traditionally been located there as well. That makes the decision to bring Midway City into the new DCU potentially more meaningful than simply giving the characters another fictional American city to mention. DC has a lot of invented locations, but some carry considerably more baggage than others, and Midway City happens to come with a particularly strong connection to one of the publisher’s strangest superhero teams.
There is, however, an important difference between acknowledging that history and importing it into the new DCU. James Gunn’s DCU is not simply recreating the comic books page for page, and there is no reason to assume that every character historically connected to a particular city automatically exists there. The Doom Patrol has also gone through numerous interpretations over the years, with different members, origins, and circumstances, making the team one of the easier DC properties to reinvent. That flexibility matters here because Midway City can exist in the DCU without the Doom Patrol being based there, just as the Doom Patrol could theoretically exist without being based in Midway City. In the comics, Doom Patrol has been revitalized before.
“No Superman” Doesn’t Mean “No Doom Patrol”
John’s “No Superman” comment is certainly worth paying attention to, but it doesn’t actually say what some interpretations of the scene are suggesting. Superman’s absence from Midway City only establishes that Superman isn’t there. But there could be other superheroes lurking within. That distinction becomes particularly important with the Doom Patrol because the team has never been defined by its connection to Superman. If anything, the Doom Patrol has traditionally occupied a much stranger corner of the DC Universe, dealing with threats and situations that are often far removed from the world of the Justice League. Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Woman, and the Chief aren’t necessarily the sort of heroes who would need to be publicly associated with a major city in the same way Superman would be.
Nothing in Episode 6 explicitly identifies the Doom Patrol, either. There is no confirmation that Doom Manor exists, no mention of Niles Caulder, and no direct reference to any of the team’s most recognizable members. That means the episode hasn’t actually provided the piece of information that would be needed to definitively declare the Doom Patrol absent from the DCU. At the same time, the lack of a reference is notable because Lanterns is clearly beginning to establish the larger superhero world surrounding its central story. As more cities, heroes, and institutions become part of the show’s version of the DCU, viewers naturally begin to wonder which familiar pieces of comic book history survived the transition. For now, the Doom Patrol is simply one of the pieces that remains unconfirmed.
That uncertainty leaves DC Studios with quite a few options if it eventually decides to introduce the team. There’s also been another Lanterns rumor that has fans on edge. The Doom Patrol could exist somewhere else entirely, operate in secret, or even have a completely different history from the one readers know. One thing’s for sure, those heroes’ fate is still up in the air—and hopefully, not doomed.
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