In 1963, comic book readers were introduced to a team of strange heroes with wild powers who were led by a man in a wheelchair. This team was unlike anything anyone had seen before, and then a few months later, The X-Men #1 came out and from that moment on, the Doom Patrol was pushed into second place.
And while DC's team of misfits has never been as popular as Marvel's Merry Mutants, they've still done pretty good for themselves, including having their own critically acclaimed and Emmy nominated TV series. Perhaps if the Ohio-based team of weirdos was a little smarter, they could break out to the blockbuster movies too, but fans are more than happy with their wild and wacky show on HBO Max.
8 Cliff Steele Is As Thick Headed As His Metal Head Suggests
Cliff Steele, better known as Robotman to some, isn't a very smart man. He threw away a successful NASCAR career to drink and sleep around on his wife and ended up getting himself - and his wife - killed. Now trapped in a cyborg body, Cliff is constantly confused, always two steps behind everyone else, and still trying to figure out how the internet works, but he has learned from his past mistakes and is working to be a better person, which includes spending time with his grandson and helping Crazy Jane deal with the many people that exist inside her.
7 Dorothy Spinner Is Smarter Than She Seems
The young but not actually so young daughter of Dr. Niles Caulder, Dorothy Spinner has the ability to bring her imaginary friends to life which caused some issues for the Doom Patrol and the world. And while Dorothy's childish size and looks may make people think she isn't very bright, she has a hundred years of living to call on.
Dorothy is innocent and naive, but she isn't dumb, as the opening of Season 3 showed viewers. While no one else had any clue how to deal with the Candlemaker, Dorothy handled the creature with relative ease.
6 Rita Farr Is Smart Enough
A once-famous actress turned into an Elasti-Girl, Rita Farr may have an old-fashioned way about her, but she knows what's up and what needs to be done. Farr isn't the person any of her teammates would call on for mechanical or mathematical solutions, but she is the one they look to for some kind of leadership.
Farr's bossy nature as a movie diva, mixed with her strategic mind, has made her the de facto leader of the Doom Patrol and even helped her lead a small revolution within the halls of the Bureau of Normalcy.
5 Crazy Jane Is Pretty Smart, Depending On Who Is In Charge
With dozens of personalities, and with each personality having its very own superpower, Jane is certainly the most powerful member of the Doom Patrol, and aside from some of the more innocent personalities, every version of Jane is at least of average intelligence., but one personality, Secretary, has the power of superintelligence. Thanks to this, Jane can call on facts and information she otherwise wouldn't know, and most of the team wouldn't know.
Of course, Jane needs to bring Secretary to the surface for that power to come into play, and while Secretary has made a number of appearances on the series, they are always brief, so the power rarely gets used as well as it could.
4 Larry Trainor Has The Pilot Smarts
Being a test pilot takes a lot more smarts than movies and TV shows usually make it look like, and being a member of NASA's Mercury space program takes even more. Larry Trainor has the quick wits to deal with just about any emergency that comes up, and as a member of NASA, he clearly has the mathematical smarts to know a lot more than the average person. Of course, a lot of Larry's knowledge is pretty old these days. It doesn't look like the bandaged hero known as Negative Man has kept up with the advances in science over the years.
3 Laura De Mille May Be The Smartest But It's Too Soon To Tell
New to Season 3, Laura De Mille - also known as Madame Rouge - is a time-traveling shapeshifter who has ties to Niles Caulder. Just how good or evil Laura is remains to be seen, just like how long she'll be a member of the team, but what is clear is that Laura is quite a bit smarter than just about everyone on the Doom Patrol even though she doesn't have all of her memories. What is known is that Laura once helped run the Bureau of Normalcy and is at least smart enough to see that the Doom Patrol needs to do more than just sit around making fart noises.
2 Cyborg Is Clearly Too Good For The Doom Patrol
As mentioned early in the series, Cyborg is a true blue superhero who hopes to one day join the Justice League, but for the time being he's kind of slumming it with the Doom Patrol. Unlike the rest of the team, Cyborg wants to be an active member of society that helps the common good by using his abilities to make the world a better place. And thanks to his connection to Grid, as well as his natural smarts, the hero has the ability to do just that.
Still, Cyborg has found himself drawn to the Doom Patrol, partly as a way to anger his dad, but also because like him, the team is a group of misfits who were drastically altered without their permission. Cyborg is certainly smart enough to see that the residents of Doom Manor are his family, even if Cliff keeps making fun of him.
1 Dr. Niles Caulder Is The Evil Genius Behind It all
It was Dr. Niles Caulder who turned Rita Farr into Elasti-Girl. It was Dr. Niles Caulder who gave each of Jane's personalities powers. It was Dr. Niles Caulder who turned Cliff Steele into the Robotman. A mad scientist at heart, Niles Caulder has found ways to pervert science and create things that should never have existed. Was it evil of him to do these things? Most certainly. But it also took a lot of brains to not only set everything up, but to make it all pay off. Niles may have paid the ultimate price for his dishonest and manipulative ways, but there's no denying the man was a once-in-a-lifetime mind.
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