Secret Origins (1986) 8 (2)

Secret Origins (1986) 8

Nov 1986

Doll Man

by Roy Thomas, Murphy Anderson, David Cody Weiss, Carl Gafford, Robert Greenberger

Scientist Darrel Dane develops a formula that allows him to shrink from six feet tall to six inches tall. He does this with some help from Professor Roberts, his fiancée’s father. The formula drives him a little crazy at first but once he has calmed down he discovers that he is even stronger at six inches than he was when he was six feet tall.

Darrel discovers that same day that Martha Roberts, his fiancée, is being blackmailed by a thug named Falco. Darrel secretly tags along when Falco picks up Martha in his car. He jumps in and attacks Falco once he has heard enough to know exactly what is going on.

Thoughts

This 16-page story is an expanded version of a 4-page story that was published in Feature Comics 27 (Dec 1939). The creator of the original story was credited as being William Erwin Maxwell but has since been revealed to be the combined talents of Will Eisner and someone else who worked for Eisner, possibly Lou Fine. The original story can be found online at comic book plus dot com. All of the key plot elements in this version of Doll Man’s origin story were also in the original version. 

There is a note from Murphy Anderson at the end of the story in which he describes his memory of reading the first Doll Man story in 1939. 

This is a decent read, nothing outstanding but it gets the job done. Reading this story was not a laborious process. 

The Secret Origin of Secret Origins

Six letters positive from readers about Secret Origins 3 and 4. A couple of them point out something that I missed about the secret origin of Firestorm. This was the first time the origin story was told from the perspective of Dr. Stein. All prior versions of the origin story were told from the perspective of Ronnie Raymond. 

Roy Thomas wrote a few paragraphs about the publication history of Sandman. His uniform changed over the years. He was a regular in Adventure Comics and in All-Star Comics (as a member of the Justice Society). Simon and Kirby were one of the creative teams that wrote and drew Sandman. He didn’t have an origin story until Roy Thomas wrote the one that ran in Secret Origins 7.

Roy Thomas wrote a few paragraphs about the publication history of Doll Man. He was Quality Comics third most popular character behind Plastic Man and Blackhawk. He had his own comic book for a time in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in addition to appearing in Feature Comics. His fiancée eventually became Doll Girl, his partner in crime fighting.