What’s worse than being doomed? Try being dead.
Doom Patrol, DC’s surreal HBO Max series featuring the famous team of damaged heroes, is currently filming its third season, which along with finally unwaxing our poor team (a year is a long time to be stuck inside a candle, guys) will apparently be adding some new characters to the mix. The show revealed some new additions today, including a pair that’s genuinely surprising—the Dead Boy Detectives.
The spectral sleuths will be brought to life by actors Ty Tennant and Sebastian Croft, who will be playing Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland, respectively. They were announced alongside their living friend Crystal Palace as well as some colorful recurring super-villains who may be familiar to fans of the Doom Patrol comics. You can read descriptions of the eight characters below…
EDWIN PAYNE played by Ty Tennant – Part of the Dead Boy Detective Agency. Dead since 1916, Edwin spent 80 years in hell due to a “clerical error” and has seen horrors no one could imagine.
CHARLES ROWLAND played by Sebastian Croft – Part of the Dead Boy Detective Agency. Affable, charming and dead since 1989, he always does his best to be chipper, but his death by hypothermia and neglect haunts him.
CRYSTAL PALACE played by Madalyn Horcher – Part of the Dead Boy Detective Agency. A cool, sarcastic teen who is also a psychic medium, her only friends are Charles and Edwin, the two dead boys who freed her from demonic possession.
MALCOLM played by Micah Joe Parker – Part of the Sisterhood of Dada. A quiet, sensitive and thoughtful soul who would often rather be invisible then face this unforgiving world.
SHELLEY BYRON aka THE FOG played by Wynn Everett – Part of the Sisterhood of Dada. Supposedly a deadly terrorist, Shelley is charming, seductive, poetic and a bit mad.
LLOYD JEFFERSON aka FRENZY played by Miles Mussenden – Part of the Sisterhood of Dada. A sculptor of strange life-like masks who is covered with tattoos and scars—the memories and injustices that immortalize his life. He is cryptic and stoic with a capacity for extreme devastation.
HOLLY aka SLEEPWALK played by Anita Kalathara – Part of the Sisterhood of Dada. A light-hearted ne’er do well, Holly knows where the best parties are. After a wild night of partying, she usually takes a nice long nap in the ice cream truck where she works, and if she is awoken mid-nap, there is hell to pay.
SACHIKO aka THE QUIZ played by Gina Hiraizumi – Part of the Sisterhood of Dada. An enigmatic germaphobe whose crippling phobias mask awe-inspiring powers.
For fans familiar with the characters, the debut of the Dead Boy Detectives will no doubt be exciting, even if the show it’s happening on likely probably the one that they expected. Edwin and Charles first made their debut in 1991’s The Sandman #25, written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by Matt Wagner and Malcolm Jones III, and have been a part of the overall Sandman universe since then. Yet, while the Dead Boy Detectives began as part of Gaiman’s seminal fantasy series, they didn’t stay there. They were a part of Vertigo Comics’ first crossover event, The Children’s Crusade, and eventually starred in their own series, in which their living friend, Crystal, was first introduced. Inspired by classic British boys’ adventure stories, the Dead Boy Detectives are exactly what they sound like—two young boys who died and now solve mysteries together as ghosts. Exactly how their story intersects with that of the Doom Patrol remains to be seen, but considering the other colorful characters we’ve seen on the series so far, they should fit right in.
In Grant Morrison’s acclaimed Doom Patrol run, the Fog, Frenzy, Sleepwalk and the Quiz are all members of the Brotherhood of Dada—a group that was formed by none other than Mr. Nobody, the fourth wall-breaking antagonist of Doom Patrol’s first season. They made their debut in 1989’s Doom Patrol #26, spinning out of the better-known Brotherhood of Evil. As for why the name’s been changed to “Sisterhood,” we’ll have to see, though it’s likely just a matter of the group now having more women than men. In the comics, the Fog wasn’t a woman, but a man known as Byron Shelley (we see what you did there, Doom Patrol!).
We didn’t think it was possible, but we’re now even more eager to see Doom Patrol return. But we want to hear what you think, DC fans! Are you read to get your ghost on with the Dead Boy Detectives? Are you excited to see some classic Doom Patrol baddies brought to life in live action? Share all your thoughts and speculation on Doom Patrol season three right now in the DC Community!
