

While working on the project, Caulder discovered that his mysterious benefactor was actually a villain named General Immortus. He gave her immortality on their wedding night and left her in a monastery in the Himalayas, sensing danger from his mysterious benefactor.Ĭaulder had been hired to develop a serum to increase a person's life span indefinitely. While volunteering for the Peace Corps in the 1960s in Calcutta, India, Niles Caulder met Arani Desai and the two fell in love. Near the end of their run, Morrison even revealed that Caulder had been responsible for the "accidents" that caused the original Doom Patrol members to gain their powers, since his personal philosophy is that true greatness comes through overcoming tragic events. 2 #19) they reimagined him as a cold, detached and somewhat mysterious individual. Niles Caulder's back-history seemingly remained intact following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths however, when writer Grant Morrison took over the Doom Patrol title (starting with vol.
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In issue #88 (June 1964), their third battle against Immortus forces him to tell the rest of the Patrol his back-story and real name, which suddenly and with no explanation becomes common public knowledge for the rest of the original 1960s series (even two "flashback" miniseries that ran in the back of the comic, detailing how Cliff Steele and Larry Trainor became "freaks" and were recruited by Caulder, casually used the name). In the early years of the Patrol, Caulder not only kept his true identity and appearance secret from the public even his team knew him only as the Chief. The incident inspired and reminded Caulder that a better life may come from surviving a tragic event, such as his own. Caulder eventually devised a plan to get the bomb out, but it cost him his ability to walk. Immortus responded by implanting an explosive device in Caulder's upper torso, which he could set off remotely, and any attempt to remove it while Niles lived would also detonate it. When the young scientist discovered the truth about his employer, he refused to continue the work. Ultimately, it was revealed that the benefactor was a man called General Immortus, who hired Caulder to create a chemical to replace the one that had been prolonging his life for centuries but was now failing. Thanks to the funding, Caulder succeeded in creating a chemical capable of prolonging life. Proving at a young age to be both a brilliant inventor and engineer, Caulder received funding from a mysterious benefactor. Ĭaulder developed an interest in creating better life at a young age. It is Caulder's genius that allowed the team members to survive (e.g., designing Robotman's body, devising Negative Man's medicated bandages), and helped grant their freakishness and amazing abilities. Caulder founded and organized the team called Doom Patrol to protect the innocent and fight crime, and to teach humanity to accept others who live as ostracized "freaks," who have been radically transformed from terrible accidents. Caulder uses his scientific knowledge to develop numerous inventions and innovations that have made him wealthy. Niles Caulder is a paraplegic with genius intelligence. Fictional character biography Pre-Crisis ĭrake has confirmed in an interview that his inspiration for The Chief was the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, specifically Sherlock Holmes' elder brother, Mycroft. According to Drake, the issue's co-writer Bob Haney was not brought on to the project until after the Chief was created. He first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80 (June 1963) and was created by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani. In DC Universe and Max's eponymous Doom Patrol series, he was portrayed by Timothy Dalton in the first two seasons and guest starred in a few episodes of the third season.

The Chief made his first live-action appearance on the DC Universe series Titans, played by Bruno Bichir.

Created by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, he made his debut alongside the other original members of the Doom Patrol in My Greatest Adventure #80 (June 1963). The Chief ( Niles Caulder) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, usually as the leader of the superhero team Doom Patrol.
