Doll Man is a superhero first appearing in American comic books from the Golden Age of Comics, originally published by Quality Comics and currently part of the DC Comics universe of characters. Doll Man was created by cartoonist Will Eisner and first appeared in a four-page story entitled "Meet the Doll Man" in Feature Comics #27. He was Quality's first super-powered character.

Introduced in 1939, Doll Man is the first comic book superhero with the ability to shrink. He predates the more well known Ray Palmer (DC's Atom) and Hank Pym (Marvel Comics' Ant-Man) by two decades.

Quality Comics publication history

The secret identity of Doll Man, "The World's Mightiest Mite", is research chemist Darrel Dane, who invents a formula that enables him to shrink to the height of six inches while retaining the full strength of his normal size. He was the first example of a shrinking superhero, and also one of the few that was unable to change to a height in between his minimum and maximum sizes (though artists would fail to keep his scale visually consistent). His first adventure in Feature Comics #27 involves the rescue of his fiancée, Martha Roberts, from a blackmailer. He subsequently decides to fight crime and adopts a red and blue costume sewn by Martha. Years later, somehow Martha's wish to be able to join him in his small size comes true, and now possessing the same shrinking powers, she becomes his partner known as Doll Girl in Doll Man #37. He also has the aid of Elmo the Wonder Dog, a Great Dane who serves as his occasional steed and rescuer, and the "Dollplane", which was deceptively presented as a model airplane in his study when not in use. In his adventures published during World War II, Doll Man was also frequently depicted riding a bald eagle.

The covers of Doll Man's comics frequently portrayed him tied in ropes or other bindings, in situations ranging from being tied crucifixion-style to a running sink faucet, to being hogtied to the trigger and barrel of a handgun. The persistence of this male bondage motif in Doll Man comics among others can be contrasted with other comic books which historically portrayed women in positions of vulnerability and submission.

Doll Man was the lead feature of the anthology series Feature Comics through #139 (October, 1949), with Eisner writing the early stories under the pen name William Erwin Maxwell, and art contributed first by Lou Fine, and later by Reed Crandall. Doll Man's own self-titled series ran from 1941 until 1953, for forty-seven issues. After the cancellation of Doll Man, original stories involving the character were not published again for two decades.

Doll Man in DC Comics

===Darrel Dane===<!-- This section is linked from List of DC Comics characters: D -->

After Quality Comics went out of business in 1956, DC acquired their superhero characters. Doll Man and several other former Quality properties were re-launched in Justice League of America #107 (October 1973) as the Freedom Fighters. As was done with many other characters DC had acquired from other publishers or that were holdovers from Golden Age titles, the Freedom Fighters were located on a parallel world, one called Earth-X where Nazi Germany had won World War II. The team were featured in their own series for fifteen issues (1976–1978), in which the team temporarily leaves Earth-X for Earth-1 (where most DC titles were set). Doll Man was an occasional guest star in All-Star Squadron, a superhero team title that was set on Earth-2, the locale for DC's WWII-era superheroes, at a time prior to when he and the other Freedom Fighters are supposed to have left for Earth-X. Doll Man then appeared with the rest of DC's entire cast of superheroes in Crisis on Infinite Earths, a story that was intended to eliminate the similarly confusing histories that DC had attached to its characters by retroactively merging the various parallel worlds into one. This erased Doll Man's Earth-X days, and merged the character's All-Star Squadron and Freedom Fighter histories so that he is primarily a member of the Squadron, of which the Freedom Fighters are merely a splinter group. At his six-inch height, Doll Man retained the strength and athletics of a full grown man. In recent years, he have developed psionic powers, enabling him to levitate objects or destroy them with a mental blast. He has apparently aged a little, but not at all for decades, perhaps due to the mystic presence of Uncle Sam. Dane wears a special costume that changes size as he does. As Doll Man, he possesses a brilliant mind, as well as unarmed combat skills.

The second Doll Man has similar powers and access to high-tech equipment.

Other versions

  • Alternate universe versions of Doll Man makes a cameo appearance in Titans Secret Files #2.
  • An alternate universe version of Doll Man from Earth-10 makes a cameo appearance in 52.

In other media

Television

  • An unrelated Dollman inspired by the Puppeteer appears in The Adventures of Batman episode "Beware of Living Dolls".
  • The Darrel Dane incarnation of Doll Man appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Cry Freedom Fighters!", voiced by Jason C. Miller.
  • The Darrel Dane incarnation of Doll Man makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the Harley Quinn episode "Icons Only". This version is a Las Vegas performer who is killed by Starro during a fight with Rag Doll.

Film

The Darrel Dane incarnation of Doll Man makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Miscellaneous

  • The Darrel Dane incarnation of Doll Man appears in Justice League Unlimited #17.
  • An alternate universe incarnation of Doll Man, spelled Dollman, appears in Freedom Fighters: The Ray, voiced by Matthew Mercer. This version hails from Earth-X.

References