The Unseen Grant Morrison - The Legion of the Strange

Post date: Dec 30, 2011 5:2:2 PM

Another little seen gem from the vast Deep Space Transmissions archives, here are three pages of character designs for March 1992's Doom Patrol #53, 'And Men Shall Call Him... Hero!', an affectionate Stan Lee-Jack Kirby Fantastic Four homage heavily riffing on both the Galactus Trilogy and the classic 'This Man... This Monster'.

The Doom Patrol are reimagined as the Legion of the Strange for this 'imaginary story' issue, teaming with the Mighty Mystics (The Phantom Stranger; John Constantine, the Dick Van Dyke-esque cockerney Hellblazer; Doctor Thirteen, the Multiple Man; and the ever lovin' Mister E, the Malleable Medium) against the Galactus-like Celestius and his herald, the Living Guru.

Complete with overcooked captions in the Stan Lee style, fake footnote references to past issues and a 'Secrets of Man-Hattan Island' back-up feature, it covered much of the same ground as Alan Moore and company's 1963 series for Image, published almost exactly a year later in April 1993. The interior art for the issue was handled by Ken Steacy, with the character designs, as seen below, provided by Morrison himself.

The Mighty Mystics returned in one chapter of 1999's Books of Magic Annual #3, a kind of 'Crisis on Infinite Tim Hunters' jaunt through parallel realities. Written by Mark Millar with some nice artwork by Phil Jimenez, it featured Tim Hunter as Hellspawn - Robin to to John Constantine's Batman - and a very laboured parody of Marv Wolfman and George Perez's New Teen Titans. (Thanks to @dieFALKENATOR for reminding me this exists!)

The pictures are taken from the Comic Art Fans page of one Allan Richardson, whose collection includes loads of Doom Patrol and Flex Mentallo originals and is, by any gauge, incredible. As usual, if anyone objects to this stuff being here, please get in touch.

Click the pictures for the larger versions.