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Grant Morrison Run
Another trope that came to serious prominence in Grant Morrison's run, in which nearly every single arc featured an explicit reference to another work weaved into its very premise, sometimes even noticed by the characters.
- General:
- The team makeup of Morrison's run resembles the main characters of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Dorothy Spinner is Dorothy (obvious), Robotman is the Tin Man (also obvious), Rebis is the Scarecrow (with his bandages standing in place of straw), Crazy Jane is the Cowardly Lion (she has wild hair and her arc involves overcoming her traumas) and the Chief is the Wizard (he holds power over the team but doesn't take an active role on the field, is quite morally dubious and is depicted as a head, sometimes a floating one, following his decapitation). You could even stretch it a bit and say that Danny is the Yellow Brick Road, in that he's literally a road that actively takes the team where they need to go.
- Crazy Jane is based on Truddi Chase, author of When Rabbit Howls. The name "Crazy Jane" itself has a history in a variety of sources, including Nicohlson and Yeats poems and a Richard Dadd painting. Most of her numerous personalities are named after poems or songs, such as those of Sylvia Plath (several) or R.E.M. (Driver 8).
- Danny the Street is named after the famous Irish Drag Queen Danny La Rue ("la rue" being French for "the street").
- Issues 19-22:
- The Scissormen are a nightmarish reimagining of the Scissorman from Struwwelpeter, to the point that it quotes the Suck-a-Thumb chapter verbatim and shows a near-exact redrawing of the art from said chapter.
- The city of Orqwith, on the other hand, being a fictional city that's materializing into our reality due to a book recounting its history is lifted from Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.
- You can see The Beano in the background of the scene with the Monster Munch kid.
- Issue 25:
- Three of the manifestations of Dorothy's imagination are, again, taken from Struwwelpeter: Flying Robert, the Inky Boys and a (notably differently-designed) Scissorman.
- Continuing the Wizard of Oz theme, the red shoes Dorothy fears are revealed to be Ruby Slippers.
- Issues 26-29:
- Issue 26 is titled "Nowhere Man".
- Mr. Nobody's room has collected mass amounts of cultural detritus, including posters for The Osmonds, Bay City Rollers, an issue of Prez, a VHS tape of Speed Racer and many more.
- Mr. Nobody namedrops Empire Of The Senseless.
- Pentagon arc:
- The whole premise of the Pentagon's depiction in Doom Patrol is likely a reference to this particular line from the Principia Discordia. In Doom Patrol, it takes it literally.
[The Pentagon] also is the shape of the United States Military Headquarters, the Pentagon Building, a most pregnant manifestation of straightjacket order resting on a firm foundation of chaos.- The Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. are created by reading to the dead from Anyhow Stories, a real children's book. Several lines from it are directly mentioned, usually the scariest.
- Issues 49-52:
- "Nobody for President" was a real parodical presidential campaign, thought up by political activist and clown Wavy Gravy. Similarly, Mr. Nobody's "There!" bus and the Brotherhood being referred to as "zany pranksters" are parallels to Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and their Further bus.
- Although Mr. Nobody first showed up with the same design dozens of issues before he ran for president, it's probably worth noting that he heavily resembles the Mr. Nobody who was running for president in old Betty Boop short "Betty Boop For President". Both depictions also resemble a stylized illustration of turn-of-the-20th-century entertainer Bert Williams, whose biggest hit was a song called "Nobody".
- The character of John Dandy is a reference to an unused cover art from DC's archives, created for a comic that was never made. Morrison reimagined the character with only the single cover to go off of, and the cover itself was reused with virtually no modification for issue 51 of Doom Patrol.
Other Runs
Rachel Pollack
- Two of the earlier villains the Doom Patrol face are Foxfur and Crowdark, a reference to an obscure comic book called The Fox and the Crow.
- The cover of issue #1 and the first volume parodies the cover of The Velvet Underground & Nico, using a sticker of a gyro in place of a banana.
- In issue #10, when Agantha appears and then takes Lucius and his family to the Daemonsphere, the sound effect used both times is "VWORP", which in Doctor Who Expanded Universe comics is the sound effect used for a materialising or dematerialising TARDIS, originating in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip.
- In issue #11, the sad story of Haxxalon the Star Archer is a parody of the real-world situation relating to ROM Spaceknight, a moderately successful Marvel comic based on an unsuccessful toyline from Parker Brothers. Because Marvel did not own the character, they were unable to reprint the comic, or several other significant issues of other characters' comics that Rom had made guest appearances in, until a deal was finally done in 2023.
- Also in issue #11, Haxxalon's seemingly bizarre plan to marry Rita before having her and most of the other characters massacred by gunmen is a (by the 2010s) obscure shout-out to the notorious "Moldavian Massacre" subplot in Dynasty (1981).
- In issue #12, Margoth, the Evil Overlord of the Daemonsphere, is named in reference to Morgoth, the Satanic Archetype villain from Tolkien's Legendarium.
- In Weight of the Worlds issue #4, the Secret Spandex, an evil black Clingy Costume that corrupts its wearer, is a blatant parody of Marvel's villain turned anti-hero Venom.
- Weight of the Worlds issue #6, "Digital Justin", is titled after the pioneering 1990 CGI Batman comic Batman: Digital Justice.
