[1] He originally wanted the series to be called "Missing Persons", with a line-up consisting of Antibody, the Blur, Man Power, Quicksand, Twilight, and Vice Versa.

[1] At the time that he conceived the "Missing Persons" skeleton concept, Gruenwald was working on the final issues of the Squadron Supreme limited series with penciler Paul Ryan.

The remaining 19 issues were widely criticized for the way the series branched off into an increasing number of unrelated plotlines and an almost overwhelming large cast, and Gruenwald himself admitted at the time that "D.P.

[3] The lack of a central plotline stemmed from the fact that Gruenwald did not plot the series more than one issue in advance.

The two compare their experiences, and O'Brien reads a classified ad for the Clinic for Paranormal Research, a facility designed to help individuals who have acquired strange abilities.

They are at first convinced of the clinic staff's sincerity and are enrolled into therapy group C, where they meet Walters, Beck, Cuzinski, Harrington, and Fenzl.

[5] O'Brien and Landers, the last two to arrive, find that their friends' memories have been modified not to remember their escape or the ulterior motives of clinic personnel.

O'Brien and Landers defeat Voigt and he disappears from the clinic,[6] although he later reappears to successfully run for President of the United States in 1988.

Without Voigt and his senior staff (Hackbarth is in a coma, memory-manipulator Charne was choked to death by an Antibody, and telepathic Speck was shot)[7] to surreptitiously maintain order, paranormals at the clinic soon form their own special interest groups/gangs (such as one composed of teenagers, and another of African Americans).

[9] By this time, most of the reformed therapy group C (along with a few other residents of the clinic) left to find Walters, who had run to Pittsburgh where his family had been caught in a major disaster.

The series grew to include several additional protagonists: Due to the multiverse traveling Exiles chasing Proteus, the team recruited D.P.7 just as they left the clinic along with Starbrand, Nightmask and Justice.

In the following battle, Proteus took over the body of Justice and fled their universe and the Exiles followed, leaving the team behind, but now aware of other paranormals.