Doom Patrol

History
First of all, let's get to the meet of the matter. How did they start? The Extranormal Operations Taskforce was created in early 2003 and would later become the Department of Extranormal Operations, aka: the DEO. Everyone back then knew that Wonder Woman was the big deal in that group, but she wasn't the only superpowered agent of the DEO... In fact, when the task force was initially created they had a Division Office of Operative Metas specifically designed to be run by metahuman agents... but in those days, with the meta-crisis still so young and so much paranoia among the meta community at being outed, the DEO was hard-pressed to find recruits for this office.

Niles Caulder was an exceptionally gifted scientist for STAR Labs and a former FBI agent. One day, a gorilla that had been part of their research escaped confinement and caused havoc in the lab. In the chaos, the gorilla caused an explosion which crippled Niles and engulfed his lab partner in flames. Niles barely was able to escape the destruction, dragging himself to a blast door and sealing the lab, trapping his burning partner and the violent gorilla to their fates among the burning lab and poisonous vapors.

After this traumatic event, Niles decided he was done with the private sector and went back to working for the government, hoping to use his genius to help the world (perhaps also feeling responsible for the death of his partner whose body was recovered with a cracked open skull and missing a brain, assumed to have been consumed by the ravenous gorilla). The DEO recruited him as an agent despite his inability to walk and asked him to use his knowledge to find other superpowered agents to form a team with him as their handler as the Chief of the Division Office of Operative Metas.

First up, was Cliff Steele, a racecar driver whose body was badly burned in an accident. However, despite his body being destroyed, Cliff had a meta-gene which allowed his brain to repair itself and continue living despite his body's destruction. Niles had apparently deduced this and using his connections at STAR Labs, Niles was able to get Steele's brain housed in a heavily armored robot body and gave him the oh so clever name of Robotman.

Niles then went on to recruit an Olympic swimmer turned Hollywood starlet Rita Farr whose meta-gene had activated while on location filming her third big motion picture, causing her to grow to abnormal sizes. Due to the metahuman trend being relatively new, Rita found herself blacklisted and only found Niles to be supportive. With Niles' help, Rita is able to further master her abilities and learns to shrink and transform her body with an elastic-like degree. Niles again uses his impressive mind to come up with "Elasti-Girl" for Miss Farr.

Larry Trainor was an Air Force pilot, just out of training, when he and his wingman Highball were to provide escort for an experimental shuttle being tested. In the course of the flight, there was some sort of interference caused by the shuttle's exhaust and while trying to correct his instruments, Larry drifted into the radioactive exhaust. After landing, Larry was admitted into a military hospital where he was found to be horribly disfigured and radioactive as his meta-gene had activated to guarantee his survival. Upon hearing of Larry's plight, Niles made contact and had special bandages created to ease Larry's pain and discomfort and absorb his radiation, allowing him to return to society. Once he felt he could trust Niles, Larry also explained that he had discovered his ability to leave his body behind as an energy being but for only short durations. Niles helped Larry to expand this time considerably.

After a short period of time, Garfield Logan, a young boy who had received a Martian blood transfusion and had later developed green skin and the ability to transform into animals (which were also green) joined the team. Prior to being rescued by the Doom Patrol and the Martian Manhunter and his deputy, Garfield had been under the spell of the self-proclaimed Queen of Bialya who kept the boy as a pet and court executioner, forcing him to devour her enemies in front of her.

Needless to say, Garfield and the other team members all had undergone severely traumatic events. So, Niles contacted a colleague of his from Gotham's division STAR Labs, a psychiatric researcher named Steve Dayton, whose studies at Arkham had helped him develop an experimental therapeutic device. When Niles saw this device in action, he asked Steve to develop a weaponized, mobile prototype for use in the field. Eventually Steve joined the team as "Mento".

Steve continued his psychiatric consulting and later brought on some young recruits who had had previously worked with to help them get a grasp on their mental disorders brought on by meta-gene activation. These teens were: -Kay Challis--a schizophrenic whose multiple personalities had caused her meta-gene to become unusually agitated, causing each of her personalities to develop a different powers and allowing her to join the Doom Patrol as "Crazy Jane" -Shyleen Lao, an unstable pyrokinetic calling herself "Fever" -Mi-Sun Kwon, a powerful psionic with anger management issues called "Nudge"

Much later on, the Doom Patrol was released from public service during the aftermath of the Jason Todd death and public sentiment calling for the government to quit sponsoring programs that put children and untrained civilians in harm's way. But the Doom Patrol did not disband, instead becoming a private team of heroes, funded by Niles' own private fortune. Sure, there were some cutbacks and the team looked as though they operated on a shoestring budget, but they persevered and in 2009, were again sponsored by the DEO under the management of their new director, Mr. Bones.

Mr. Bones had Niles add some Titans-trained professional to the roster to enhance the team's legitimacy, bringing in Bumblebee and Herald.

Most recently, the team has set up their office on Danny the Street and made the living street a member of their team. While the Doom Patrol was setting up their offices, Ambush Bug, a neighbor from down the street, stopped by with his new wife Tough Bunny. Bug told Niles that she needed to join a real superhero team due to her embarrassing him by running with the crew she was with at the time. Niles saw the potential in the peculiarly strong woman and agreed, even offering Bug a place on the team, which he declined on account of "the Justice League will be giving me a call any day now." Still, Bug's been known to hang out in the team's base and even occasionally tag-along on missions, so he's become an honorary member.

Links and References

 * Appearances of Doom Patrol
 * Team Gallery: Doom Patrol
 * Membership of Doom Patrol