Danny the Street
Danny the Street is a fictional character appearing in comics of the DC Universe. Danny is a living and sentient piece of urban geography who can magically and seamlessly place themself in any urban landscape at will, without any disruption to their surroundings. They can freely interact with any other sapient being through various forms of visual printing within their proximity.
| Danny the Street | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Doom Patrol #35 (August 1990) |
| Created by | Grant Morrison Richard Case |
| In-story information | |
| Species | Sentient street |
| Team affiliations | Doom Patrol Teen Titans |
| Notable aliases | Danny the World, Danny the Brick, Danny the Island, Danny the Alley, Danny the Ambulance |
| Abilities | Teleportation, Molecular Reconstruction |
They were created by Grant Morrison and Richard Case and first appeared in Doom Patrol #35 (August 1990).[1] His name is a pun on drag queen Danny La Rue, as la rue is French for 'the street'.[2]
Danny the Street appeared on the first two seasons of the Doom Patrol television series for DC Universe and HBO Max.
Fictional character biography
Danny is a stretch of roadway who has long served as a home and haven for the strange, outcast and dispossessed. Danny possesses superpowers, including the ability to teleport by integrating into a city's geography; roads and buildings simply make room for them. Danny does this mostly at night, when no one is looking. Danny travels the globe, and sometimes beyond, happily seeking out people and communities in need of shelter, safety and community. Thus, it is possible to turn a corner on the way to work, and find oneself walking down Danny's roadway. Danny once teleported into the City Under The Pentagon[3] and can teleport into the wildernesses when needed.[4]
Danny's flamboyant personality and propensity for cross-dressing is evidenced when they line their street with typically masculine stores (e.g. gun shops and sporting goods stores) decorated with frilly pink curtains and lace. Danny speaks by altering their form. For example, Danny communicates with signs in their windows, messages on typewriters, and with letters formed from manhole vapor or broken glass shards. Danny speaks English, heavily flavored with Polari, a largely antiquated form of slang spoken among certain British subcultures, including some of the LGBTQ community. Bona to vada ("Good to see you") is Danny's favorite way of greeting friends. Danny's personality is based, at least partially, on British drag performer Danny La Rue. Danny is kind, compassionate, quick to joke and slow to anger. If pushed past their limits, however, they can even the score by manipulating their environment.[5]
Danny first came in contact with the Doom Patrol when they and their residents were attacked by Darren Jones and the Men From N.O.W.H.E.R.E.[1][6] Jones' obsession with normalcy and with enforcing his "1950s sit-com" worldview, made Danny an obvious target. The struggle took Danny to downtown New York City, where the Doom Patrol investigated the disturbance. They worked hard to protect Danny and his residents, but it was ultimately the members of Danny the Street's Perpetual Cabaret who defeated Jones. In addition to the Doom Patrol and the Perpetual Cabaret, Danny housed Flex Mentallo, protecting the hero during the mental breakdown that followed his first and only failure.
Evolution
Eventually, Danny left the DC Universe, and inhabited an alternate Earth. Pledging to protect and nurture the needy of all dimensions, they became Danny the World. Danny's friend, former Doom Patrol member Crazy Jane, later became a resident of Danny the World.[7]
In the pages of Teen Titans, during the One Year Later time-shift event in the DC Universe, a portal to Danny was seen in Dayton Manor; Crazy Jane was also seen through the portal.[8]
Danny was leveled in Doom Patrol Vol 5 #7 by Mister Somebody Enterprises. Crazy Jane managed to escape the destruction and fled to Oolong Island, carrying with her a brick taken from one of Danny's buildings which contained Danny's sentience - effectively making them Danny the Brick.[9]
The New 52
In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Danny is re-introduced in Teen Titans #3 (January 2012).[10] Danny becomes a full member of the team and as a teenager themself, spies for Red Robin.[11]
During the cross-over event "The Culling", Danny is presumed dead by the group. They find that Danny did not die and is on a mysterious island with them in Teen Titans #10, but he later dies during the strain of returning the rest of the group to civilization. It was suggested Danny survived as "Danny the Alley".
DC Rebirth
Danny shows up in DC Rebirth in Gerard Way's iteration of the Doom Patrol. Danny is revealed to have reverted to Danny the Brick and is now only able to make words appear on their surface. Danny the Brick tours the universe, carried by Crazy Jane. Danny the Brick and Crazy Jane then meet a man named "D" who uses Danny to kill a god. After this, Danny is able to become Danny the World; however, Danny does not pick up outcasts but instead creates their own citizens.
Danny makes their comic book character Casey "Space Case" Brink from Danny Comics become real to see what she would be like on earth. Danny later contacts Casey because the Vectra are hunting them, an evil alien race that wants to use them to make meat for fast food restaurants, and wants her to reassemble the Doom Patrol.[12] They contact her by becoming Danny the Ambulance. Casey and the Doom Patrol save Danny the World and defeat the Vectra, and Danny becomes a member of the new team.[13]
While Danny is acting as Danny the Ambulance, they still run the ever-growing Danny the World.
Powers and abilities
Danny the Street can teleport. They are a living pocket dimension that can incorporate more and more space as they gain more residents. They can create any conceivable thing (living or inanimate) as long as they have the strength.
In other media
- In Titans episode "Doom Patrol", the Doom Patrol mansion is located on "Danny Street".
- Danny the Street first appeared in the DC Universe live-action television series Doom Patrol's eighth episode, "Danny Patrol". Danny is described as a "sentient, genderqueer, teleporting street" who is on the run from the Bureau of Normalcy. In the episode "Frances Patrol", Danny leaves Cyborg and Crazy Jane a clue that leads them to Flex Mentallo. In the episode "Penultimate Patrol", Danny agrees to help the Doom Patrol locate the villain Mr. Nobody despite being afraid of him. In the episode "Ezekiel Patrol", Danny the Street is later captured by Mr. Nobody and manages to teleport the Doom Patrol to Doom Manor so that they can rescue Danny and the Chief's daughter from Mr. Nobody. After Ezekiel the Cockroach and Whiskers the Mouse exploded, Danny was reduced to a brick with the inscription "Danny Brick Co.". In season two, Dorothy Spinner first split apart and then repaired Danny's brick. She later turned it into a tire when Danny shares her sentiment.
- In the video game Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure typing "Danny The Street" into Maxwell's notebook will summon a living street, symbolizing Danny.
References
- Doom Patrol Vol. 2 #35 (Aug. 1990)
- Callahan, Timothy (2007). Grant Morrison: The Early Years. Lulu.com. p. 258. ISBN 978-0-615-14087-2.
- Doom Patrol Vol 2 issue 43
- Doom Patrol Vol 2 issue 61 and others
- Doom Patrol Vol 2 issue 36 and others
- Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
- Irvine, Alex (2008). "Doom Patrol". In Dougall, Alastair (ed.). The Vertigo Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 61–63. ISBN 0-7566-4122-5. OCLC 213309015.
- Teen Titans (3rd Series) #32, 35-37 (See here for more.) Archived 2007-12-18 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed December 20, 2007
- Doom Patrol #8
- Teen Titans #4: A Writer Makes Fun of His Artist in Print: see Booth's comment: "That was done to draw attention to Danny the Street. Who just teleported Bart and Solstice there from Antarctica. They showed up at the end of issue 3, and will appear again in issue 7 (I’m drawing them right now)." Accessed 3 January 2012.
- Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 343. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
- Doom Patrol #1
- Doom Patrol #5