Titans Just Introduced [SPOILER] To DC’s Universe

In addition to presenting the classic line-up of the Doom Patrol, the latest episode of DC Universe’sTitans also introduced one of the Doom Patrol’s more recent and more obscure members: Fever. It is unclear at this time, however, if the character will be appearing in the upcoming Doom Patrol series or if their cameo in Titans was just an Easter Egg.

The main plot of “Doom Patrol” found a green-haired boy named Gar taking runaway Rachel Roth home to meet his adopted family. This included Cliff Steele (a former race-car driver whose brain was transplanted into a robot body), test-pilot Larry Trainor (who has to hide himself behind lead-lined bandages) and former actress Rita Farr, who has trouble keeping her face on and tends to start melting if she loses her focus. Rachel is invited to stay for dinner, despite there being a rule against having guests over, as “The Chief” who owns their mansion (i.e. genius doctor Niles Caulder) is away on business and not expected back until the next night. Unfortunately, The Chief arrives home early, interrupting dinner with an announcement that he has a patient.

Related: Titans: 8 Questions After (And About) Doom Patrol

The team quickly moves into action, as The Chief reveals that his patient is a young activist named Shyleen Lao. The Chief explains that a protest Lao had organized had turned violent and that the young woman had been soaked with liquid nitrogen after a tanker truck exploded near her. Somehow surviving contact with the freeing liquid, the doctors on the scene still wrote Lao off as a lost cause. Such diagnoses are a siren song to The Chief, however, who had devoted his life to treating those patients that other doctors wrote off as “doomed.”

Treating Shyleen Lao proves to be easier said than done, however. Despite being soaked in liquid nitrogen, her body was radiating intense heat and even the radioactive Larry Trainor found her too hot to handle. The serum The Chief developed did little to help Lao, causing her to begin convulsing as the temperature in the room began to drop suddenly. Only Rachel, using her own untapped powers of empathy and healing, was able to calm the panicking young woman and help her to stabilize.

In the classic DC Comics, the name of Shayleen Lao originally belonged to a member of the third incarnation of the Doom Patrol, which headlined a short-lived comic-book series which ran from December 2001 to September 2003. Going by the code-name Fever, Shayleen Lao was a metahuman with the power to control the flow of heat around her.  She was also able to control fire to a lesser degree, but had to wear special gloves in order to effectively utilize her powers.

It remains to be seen if Fever will be making a guest appearance in the new Doom Patrol series, after her cameo on Titans. It seems unlikely, however, given that she was never tremendously popular and was unceremoniously killed off with little fanfare in 2008. Fever also has not been listed among other characters from the Doom Patrol comics expected to appear in the new show, like Crazy Jane or Mister Nobody.

More: DC’s Titans Did Doom Patrol And Hawk & Dove The Wrong Way Around

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1836 Articles Published)

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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