| Doll Girl | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Quality Comics DC Comics |
| First appearance | (As Martha Roberts) Feature Comics #27 (December 1939) (As Doll Girl) Doll Man #37 (December 1951) (Unknown) Titans Secret Files #2 (October 2000) |
| Created by | Will Eisner |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Martha Roberts Donna Caprese |
| Species | Metahuman |
| Team affiliations | Freedom Fighters |
| Abilities |
|
Doll Girl is asuperheroine from theGolden Age of Comics, originally published byQuality Comics and currently part of theDC ComicsUniverse of characters.[1]
She first appeared as Martha Roberts inFeature Comics #27 (December 1939) and as Doll Girl inDoll Man #37 (December 1951).[2] A new version later appeared inTitans Secret Files #2 (October 2000).[3]
Martha Roberts was the daughter of Professor Roberts, who tutored his young protégé Darrel Dane in his home laboratory. During the summer of 1939, Martha was being blackmailed by a criminal named Falco over love letters she had written one of her former college teachers. After imbibing a concoction, Dane found himself shrunk to the height of six inches, but with his normal strength intact. Martha sewed him new clothes to wear, and he began to worry that he might never be able to regain his normal height.[1]
After refusing to pay Falco any more blackmail money, Martha was kidnapped by Falco and rescued by the "doll man". Finding that through intense concentration Dane could affect his height, he decided to begin to fight crime as theDoll Man, often assisted by Martha (who also became his scientific research assistant).[4]
Several years later, while wishing and concentrating about being able to shrink down to aid Doll Man, Darrel also was thinking about the same thing and suddenly, Martha's height and weight dwindled down until she was on the same scale as Doll Man. She began to team with Doll Man as Midge, the Doll Girl.[5][6] She fights "the Skull, the Druids, the Count de Grasso, and the houngan Dr. Voodoo.[7]
After Quality Comics went out of business in 1956, DC Comics acquired their superhero characters. Doll Man and several other former Quality properties were re-launched inJustice League of America #107 (October 1973) as theFreedom 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 aparallel world, one called "Earth-X" whereNazi Germany had wonWorld War II. The team were featured in their own series for fifteen issues (1976–1978), in which the team temporarily leaves Earth-X forEarth-One (where most DC titles were set). It was revealed during theFreedom Fighters series that Martha Roberts was now deceased on Earth-X, and Doll Man later encountered the Earth-One version of Roberts. The Earth-One Martha Roberts became a supporting character in the series and also guest-starred inTeen Titans #47 as a reporter.[8][9]
Following theCrisis 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, Doll Girl's Earth-X and Earth-One days were erased and her histories were merged as one.
InUncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #4 (February 2008), it is revealed that Martha is deceased, killed by cancer. She was unable to get medical treatment because of her small size.
A version of Doll Man and Doll Girl about whom little has been revealed briefly appeared inTitans Secret Files #2. This Doll Girl also had a cameo inWonder Woman (vol. 2) #174.
As Doll Girl, Martha can shrink through mental concentration to aheight of 5 and 1/2 inches. She retained her full-size strength and is a fair unarmed combatant. She can also pilot the small "flying saucer" that theduo used and was able to use other small vehicles as needed.[1]
InKingdom Come, the Doll Man/Doll Girl franchise is represented by a female character namedLiving Doll, wearing the Doll Girl costume, and is seen sitting onSuperman's shoulder acting as a sort of secretary for the Justice League. She is the daughter of the original Doll Man and Doll Girl.[10][11]
Based on comments byGrant Morrison, the 52's Earth-10 universe is not the pre-Crisis Earth-X.[12]