Doom Patrol Season 3: Dead Boy Detectives Comic History & Powers Explained

Warning: SPOILERS for Doom Patrol season 3.

Edwin Payne (Ty Tennant) and Charles Rowland (Sebastian Croft) of the “Dead Boy Detectives” comics have been confirmed for Doom Patrol season 3. With their friend Crystal Palace, the duo will be joining the cast alongside the introduction of Michelle Gomez’s Madame Rouge. The show includes a full cast of people who were born a long time ago and the Dead Boy Detectives’ long in-universe history promises to add to that.

The finale of Doom Patrol season 2 left the series on a cliffhanger ending as Candlemaker and Dorothy disappeared into a fire while the Doom Patrol lay shattered and encased in wax. The season 3 trailer promises that the show will free the team from their waxy prisons but then move on to a whole new story. Dr. Niles Caulder (Timothy Dalton) and Dorothy are both notably absent from the main Doom Patrol season 3 trailer, and instead the sneak-peek includes many new faces and a new major plotline focused on Madame Rouge, the Brotherhood of Evil, and the Sisterhood of Dada.

With Niles and Dorothy gone, the show is likely to focus more on the character narratives of the main team that were set up in season 2. The apparent return of Willoughby Kipling (Mark Sheppard) and Danny the Street (now Danny the Ambulance) alongside the named introduction of the Sisterhood of Dada makes it clear that Doom Patrol is leaning into the supernatural and absurdist roots of the first season. However, who are the Dead Boy Detectives, and what might their presence mean for Doom Patrol season 3?

Who Are The Dead Boy Detectives?

The Dead Boy Detectives are Edwin Paine (Doom Patrol will change the character’s name to Edwin Payne) and Charles Rowland. Edwin Payne’s life story begins with his birth in 1901 and ends with his murder in 1916. While attending St. Hilarion’s Boarding School, England, a group of bullies attempted to sacrifice him in an attic to raise supernatural forces. His body was never found and Payne was taken to hell due to a clerical error.

Charles Rowland also attended St. Hilarion’s Boarding school, but not until 1990 when he was left as the only child still at the school over the winter break. During this time, the dead were cleared out of hell and returned to Earth. This included Edwin Payne, but also the bullies that killed him. The bullies attacked Charles, and while Edwin rescued him, he eventually succumbed to his wounds and died in the same attic that Edwin had. Death refused to take Edwin back to hell as she had already taken him once, and Charles refused to leave the attic without him. Ultimately Death let them be, and the two spirits left the attic to become a ghostly crime-fighting duo.

The two spirits are regularly in the company of the notably living Crystal Palace (Madalyn Horcher). Charles saved Crystal’s life when her mother was working on a performance art piece and afterward she goes to investigate the identity of her rescuer at St. Hilarion’s. After meeting the two spirits she begins to use her technological savvy and psychic abilities to work on investigations with them.

What Are The Dead Boy Detectives Powers?

Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland were both normal humans before their deaths. All of their powers come from the fact that they are ghosts. While such are powers are subject to some change depending on the writer and the medium, this can give them a wide range of abilities. At various points in the comics, they demonstrate the ability to fly, teleport, become invisible, pass through solid objects, and create an astral projection of themselves.

Dead Boy Detectives: Comic History Explained

Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland were originally created by Neil Gaiman (Good Omens, American Gods) and first appeared in “Sandman” #25, during the “Season of Mists” storyline. The concept combines tropes of kid detective stories like The Hardy Boys with a British tradition of boarding school stories. It is also possible that the characters derive inspiration from the 1969 British TV series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Since their first appearance, Edwin and Charles have appeared in several other storylines. In 2001 Ed Brubaker wrote a four-issue mini-series called “Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives” which saw the pair investigating the dead bodies of children that had begun washing up on the banks of the Thames. A twelve-issue run by Toby Litt and Mark Buckingham ran in 2014 and introduced the character of Crystal Palace.

Why Are The Dead Boy Detectives In Doom Patrol Season 3?

While the Dead Boy Detectives never appeared in any of the comics that Doom Patrol is based on, their presence in the series makes sense and the necessary lore has already been established. Doom Patrol season 2, episode 4, “Sex Patrol,” introduced the concept of ghosts to the show’s universe with sex ghosts being present throughout the rest of the season. With the apparent absence of Niles in Doom Patrol season 3 and a wider focus on the supernatural aspects of the show, introducing the Dead Boy Detectives to the mix will provide some rationale to the team that is still in keeping with the direction of the show.

The release of Doom Patrol season 3 and the appearance of the Dead Boy Detectives in the show is preceded by the news that HBO Max has commissioned a pilot of a TV adaptation of Dead Boy Detectives. Their cameo appearance in Doom Patrol could be working to set up the new show in a similar way to Doom Patrol’s own setup in Titans. So far it has not been confirmed whether Tennant, Croft, and Horcher will reprise their roles in the new series. This might suggest that the series will focus on the characters’ origins and have a younger cast, and precedence for recasting already exists as Niles Caulder was replaced between Titans and Doom Patrol.

About The Author

Faefyx Collington
(489 Articles Published)

Faefyx Collington (They/Them) is a senior features writer for Screen Rant. They’re a British writer of both fiction and non-fiction, focussing on science fiction, fantasy, and mystery for the former and on culture, gender, and current affairs for the latter.
Never content to settle to one thing, Faefyx is also a co-host and producer of the podcast and video series “Unramblings,” and can occasionally be found making music around the internet as well.
Having acquired degrees on both sides of the Atlantic, Fyx has settled (for the moment) in the southern United States where they live with their spouse and an entirely appropriate number of cats.

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