Secret Origins #8

Secret Origins #8 (date)
title: "Doll Man"
writer/creative editor: Roy Thomas
pencils & inks: Murphy Anderson
letterer: David Cody Weiss
colorist: Carl Gafford

coordinating editor: Robert Greenberger
cover: Steve Lightle

Order of Appearance: Doll Man is the only Freedom Fighter to appear in this story

Supporting Character(s): Martha Roberts, Professor Roberts

Opponents: Falco the blackmailer

Overall Summary: 
Darrel Dane impetuously drinks a shrinking potion and becomes the 6-inch tall Doll Man. His first case is to rescue his fiancée from a blackmailer!   

Plot Summary:
Early one morning at the home of Professor Roberts, his daughter, Martha, receives a telephone call from a man who is blackmailing her. He is demanding more money from her, or he will send a letter of hers to her father and to her fiancé. She reluctantly agrees to pay again, and he tells her that he will pick her up at her house that night at 8 pm to collect. 

In the laboratory connected to the house, her fiancé, Darrel Dane, has arrived early to work on a mysterious chemical concoction. Darrel tries it on a lab rat that he caught in the barn, and it works! Professor Roberts is shocked to learn that this is what Darrel has been working on. While they are talking, the miniaturized rat leaps out of the large beaker where Darrel placed it, and it is promptly eaten by the Roberts' pet cat, Shere Khan.  

Darrel works on the formula a little bit more, taking Professor Roberts' suggestions on how to revise it. Afterwards, Darrel ignores the Professor's doubts (and scientific practice in general), and promptly drinks it! 

After only a moment, Darrel shrinks to approximately 6 inches tall. Quite proud of himself, he rips a bit of cloth from his lab coat and creates a loin cloth. Then he leaps up into Professor Roberts' hand, where they both realize that he no longer weighs as much as he had. Darrel suddenly gets upset by the professor's loud, giant voice, and also with the way that the professor is holding him. Darrel then leaps down to the floor again, only to be attacked by the cat. Darrel tosses the cat the same way he would if he was normal-sized. When Professor Roberts, concerned with Darrel's belligerence, attempts to take a closer look at him, Darrel pops up and knocks the professor out.  

Soon after, Martha enters the laboratory to get the men for breakfast and finds that her father is unconscious on the floor and that her fiancé is doll-sized. Luckily, Darrel has calmed down some. While he was waiting for the professor to regain consciousness, he ran some tests on himself and verified that he is stronger as a "doll man" than he was at normal size. However, he still comes on too strong to Martha, who, while also under the stress of dealing with the blackmailer, cannot deal with a diminutive fiancé and runs off. 

Darrel and Professor Roberts spend the day investigating exactly how or why the formula really worked, while Martha sews Darrel a uniform to wear. He is aware that Martha is still very tense, and not knowing of the blackmailer, thinks that she is upset at his potentially permanent size. He offers to let her out of their engagement. She rushes off, clearly upset. Moments later, a car drives up to the curb in front of the Roberts' home. 

Darrel looks out the window and thinks that the man picking her up looks suspicious, so he decides to hitch a ride on the back bumper of the car. The blackmailer, whose name is Falco, wants his usual amount. When Martha realizes that he actually has the incriminating letter with him, she frantically reaches for it, causing the car to swerve, knocking Darrel off of the bumper. Falco then offers the letter to Martha for $10,000. All Martha has left is $7,000, so Falco decides to take that, and to take Martha, too. Disgusted at the idea, Martha changes her mind and attempts to escape, but Falco chases after her. Martha trips and falls, just as Darrel grabs Falco by the shoe and busts into him. Darrel manages to get the letter and to send Falco running. 

Martha revives, and Darrel promptly hands her the letter, unread. Although Darrel is back to normal-size, Martha is more concerned about the letter. She explains to him that she wrote it to one of her older professors after they had had an affair. Darrel knows that it happened before they met, so he doesn't seem to care. Instead, he asks her permission to keep being "Doll Man," and she agrees. She tells him that in fact, one day she might want to try to be Doll Girl.....! 

Review: 

There is so much going on in this story, the first issue of Secret Origins that was dedicated to one of the Freedom Fighters. A lot of this issue was good, but most of it was, well, not so great. Shall we start with the good stuff first? 

I think the most charming thing about this story is the message from artist Murphy Anderson at the very end of it. He reaches out to the readers and tells us that Doll Man was specifically one of the reasons he wanted to become an artist. Here is his note in its entirety: 

As you can probably guess, the art is one of the good things about this story. Murphy Anderson is probably best known as an inker of Curt Swan on Superman, but he was an awesome penciller in his own right, too. The characters in this story are all individual, and except for a bit of wonky feline and rodent characterizations, I have no problems with the art. 

On the other hand, this is 16 pages of plot looking for a steady pacing. To be honest with you, I was never a fan of Secret Origins because I think too often Roy Thomas s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d a Golden Age eight-pager into a lot of fluff to double its length. Now, I haven't read the story in Feature Comics #27 that this issue's story is based on, but I DID read Freedom Fighters #10, which included the summary of this story in ONE page. Here it is in case you're curious: 

words by Bob Rozakis; 
art by Dick Ayers & Jack Abel

After reading this, my questions would include: how did Darrel and Martha and Dr. Roberts react to the success of the shrinking potion? What kind of homicidal blackmailer was threatening Martha? Why or how did Darrel decide to embark on a life as a crime-fighter? How did he decide to go from his "GI Joe" type outfit to his red-and-blue super-hero uniform? 

Unfortunately, after you read the story in Secret Origins #8 you really can't answer most of these questions! I was especially disappointed that there wasn't a bigger dramatic scene between Professor/Dr. Roberts and Darrel after the elder man awoke. (Darrel could have started off the conversation by apologizing for knocking him out, for one thing, which he never does!) Then there should have been a bit more drama when Martha learns that her boyfriend is six-inches tall. Instead, we get a throw-away line about her already knowing what he was working on. Later, there is no follow-up scene between them when Darrel offers to call off their engagement. Later still, Darrel returns to normal size and there is absolutely no reaction from either of them about it. 

What I'm saying with all these examples is that writer Roy Thomas has no sense of dramatic story-telling in this tale: all the would-be highlights are totally ignored. It's as if he isn't emotionally invested in these characters, and that they are simply pieces to move around. We all know that Darrel is going to end up being Doll Man, but why in the world would he be given a super-hero uniform to wear at this early juncture? With a cape!?!?! It just doesn't make any sense. 

Likewise, the blackmailing plot is tossed away with no explanation; why in the world would Martha have spent thousands of dollars on a love letter to a previous, older boyfriend? All Darrel has to say in response to it is to change the subject, saying that he hopes he can gain control of his shrinking by will power. Huh? Where in the world did THAT idea come from? This is an origin story; we're supposed to get an explanation about these things, not get comments tossed aside like they don't matter. This was a six-inch man who might have to be that size permanently!! If Roy can't see the drama in that, he's not trying. And clearly, he wasn't trying. 

Here is the text explanation regarding the history of Doll-Man: 

For another review of this story and commentary on it, please visit the Secret Origin Podcast, a podcast dedicated to every issue of Secret Origins hosted by my buddy Ryan Daly. The review of this story is the second half of this particular show (the first being about Shadow Lass, of course). Ryan's guest host talking about this story is Diabolu Frank. They have quite an entertaining discussion about this story, so check it out:  Secret Origins Podcast #8: Doll-Man

Best Moment

To me the best moment in this story is the scene where Darrel shrinks out of his clothes. 

I like the idea that his clothing would NOT shrink with him.

On the other hand....

Worst Moment

....The flip side, when Darrel actually returns to normal 

and his clothes miraculously STRETCH with him is incredibly stupid. 

Way to throw out all that good will you had earned earlier, Roy. 

In fact, all of the dialogue in this scene is awful. 

Freedom of Information

• The cover is by former (and future) Legion of Super-Heroes artist Steve Lightle, most likely because Shadow Lass is one of his favorite Legionnaires. 
• The lead feature is the secret origin of Shadow Lass, "The Shadow of the Past" by Paul Levitz (story), Tom Mandrake (art), John Workman (letters), Carl Gafford (colors), and Robert Greenberger (editor). 
• This story is based on the story "Doll Man" by William Erwin Maxwell that appeared in Feature Comics #27, December 1939. 
• Martha Roberts in this story is a brunette. However, in Freedom Fighters she was portrayed as a redhead. On covers of Doll-Man I have seen she is shown as either dark-haired or as a brunette. 
• Two books on Professor Roberts' bookshelf whose titles are visible are Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift and Theory of Atomic Particles by "Kurtzberger." The former of course features Gulliver meeting up with tiny Lilliputians. The latter is probably a reference to Terry Kurtzberger, a Roy Thomas created-character who became the reluctant super-villain Cyclotron in All-Star Squadron #21.  
• "Falco" is better known as the stage name of Johann "Hans" Hoelzel, an Austrian musician who had a world-wide hit called "Rock Me Amadeus" in 1985. 
• As mentioned in Roy's text, Martha did eventually become Doll Girl, from Doll-Man #37 through the last issue of his series, Doll-Man #47 (October 1953). 

The Freedom Fighters

assembled by Len Wein