Baby Doll
From Batman Wiki
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| Baby Doll | |
| Real name: | Mary Dahl |
| First Appearance: | Baby Doll (Batman: The Animated Series Episode) |
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Created by: | Paul Dini |
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Affiliations: | Killer Croc |
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Abilities: | Baby appearance and height makes her hard to see in crowd she has various baby-based weapons (such as a rattle which shoots out a knock-out gas, or a gun hidden in a doll) |
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Portrayed by: | Alison LaPlaca, Larraine Newman |
Baby Doll was a Batman villain, first featured in the Batman: The Animated Series episode, Baby-Doll. After her first appearance, she was used a few times in other BTAS episodes (Most predominately in the episode Love is a Croc), but has yet to make a major appearance in any of the comics or other Batman media.
[edit] Fictional Character History
Mary Dahl was a female actor who was born with a rare disease which kept her from ever aging, meaning that she spent all of her life looking like a young baby. She became famous for a brief period when she played the title character in the TV sitcom "Baby Doll" (when she was 20, though she still looked like she was 5). She and the show were wildly popular, but the as the series got older, the ratings dwindled. In the final season, the producers of the show decided to add a new character; Baby Doll's cousin who was called Spunky. Baby Doll was angry at Spunky because she thought that he was stealing her spot light, especially on one occasion on her birthday episode, where she got her face pushed into her birthday cake by Spunky. Furious, she left the show in order to turn herself into a proper dramatic actress.
Her first role other than Baby Doll was in Macbeth. Unfortunately, the reviews for the play and her acting were terrible, ruining Mary's chances of becoming a popular actress. When her career went down the tubes, she tried to get Baby-Doll back on the air because it had been canceled when she left, but the networks turned her down. After that, Mary tried to get any job that came her way, but was always shunned and never got the role.
Without any jobs coming her way, Mary went through a rough, depressing period of her life where she realized that the only time when she had been truly happy was when she was in the show Baby-Doll, when she used to have a "family" in the show and was adored by millions of viewers.
Keeping her persona as Baby Doll permanently, Baby went around with her hired thugs and kidnapped all of the original cast of Baby Doll, bringing them together so that she get revenge on Spunky and her fellow cast members. She tied all of the actors up in the Baby Doll sets and bought along a Birthday cake. After pushing Spunky's head into the cake, she then got a stick of TNT, put it on the cake like a candle and lit it, planning to blow up the crew members.
Spunky ruined her plan by grabbing the TNT with his mouth and throwing it to the other end of the studio, throwing it far enough away that it exploded without hurting anybody.
Batman crashed into the room and revealed that the actor who played Spunky wasn't the actor but was actually Robin in disguise. After Batman and Robin had realized what Baby Doll was doing, they went to the actor, told him what was going to happen and the man let Robin take his identity. When Robin had been captured, he sent a radio signal to Batman who had traced it and found out where Baby Doll was.
While Robin releases the captives, Batman chases Baby into a nearby fair, and then into a Fun House. Inside the Fun House, Baby comes across a hall of mirrors. Within one of the mirrors, Baby sees herself as an adult. Knowing this to be fake, just as her character, Baby Doll, was, she shoots and breaks all of the mirrors before breaking down mentally and running out of bullets. When the Batman walks up to her, she goes peacefully, uttering her infamous catchphrase "I didn't mean to".
The next time we see her in a substantial role, it's a few years later. She's now the manager/concierge of a hotel but is frequently made fun of due to her condition and her history as a criminal. Feeling like an outcast, she sees a news report about Killer Croc and identifies with him because he too is an outcast due to a medical condition. She helps him escape from prison and the two form a criminal duo: Baby Doll as the brain, and Croc as the brawn.
Baby later found out that Killer Croc was cheating on her and planned to kill him in their next robbery. Croc, originally at a disadvantage, gained the upper hand and started a fight with her and Batman. During the fight, Croc was knocked out when a blast of hot water shot out of a pipe he had torn from the wall as a weapon, leaving him unconscious. Baby felt sorry for Croc and yet again goes peacefully when Batman came up to her.
[edit] Appearance
When Batman: The Animated Series was revamped, many characters were redesigned, as was Baby Doll. In her new form, Baby Doll still looked like a 5 year old, but now wore a new pink dress, had simpler hair and wore lipstick. You also couldn't see her underwear as much as you could in her old costume.
