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"I didn't mean to."

Baby-Doll was an ex-actress turned villainess.

History

Mary Dahl was an actress and star of TV program, Love that Baby, a famed TV sitcom made at Gotham Studios, as the character Baby Doll. Throughout her life she suffered from systemic hypoplasia, a rare disease which stunted her physical growth at age 5. While she did not appear to age physically, her mind was that of a fully grown adult woman. She also appeared to have graduated puberty although she did not grow taller, at times when she had a clear mind she spoke with a deeper voice than her "Baby Doll" persona. In the last season of the series, Dahl complained she wasn't getting enough exposure and abruptly quit. After leaving the show, she studied drama and trained to become a dramatic actress. Her first and only job as a dramatic actress was a rendition of Macbeth which was panned by the critics. Sometime after this, she attempted to revive Love That Baby and the studios turned her down. For 10 years, Dahl lived as a recluse.

Upon her 30th birthday, Mary Dahl's mind snapped. She started to act like, dress like, and even talk like and called herself Baby-Doll. With the help of her hired henchmen and her right hand woman Mariam, she kidnapped the former cast members in a convoluted attempt to restore her old TV-family, a time when she was happy. She even carried around a tape recorder to recreate the studio audience. She also intended to capture the main cast member from her last season, "Cousin Spunky", and torment and kill him in revenge for stealing the limelight from her. She also intended to blow up the cast with a cake rigged with dynamite, and intended for herself to be among the deaths. In an unguarded moment, she spoke in her real voice and admitted to how lonely she'd been after the show; then she snapped right back to "Baby Doll".

Batman and Robin intervened, with Robin switching places with Spunky Spencer and carrying a homing transmitter. After he was captured, Batman was able to locate Doll's hideout. After attempting to kill Batman, Baby-Doll escaped to a nearby amusement park. During the pursuit, she ended up in the house of mirrors and saw herself in a mirror, resembling how she'd look as an adult. Her knowledge that this was fake forced her to realize that her "family" was fake too. Breaking down in the face of reality, she destroyed every mirror with her firearm before losing all will to fight and fell crying at the life she'll never have. Batman consoled her before she was sent to Arkham Asylum.

Return to Crime

File:Baby-Doll rejoices.jpg

Baby-Doll, two years later.

Years later, Baby-Doll served her time at Arkham and got work as a hotel manager. While watching a news segment on Killer Croc's latest court appearance, Doll became attracted to Croc, as she believed both of them were kindred spirits, misunderstood, "different" and shunned by society. While being transferred from Arkham to State Prison, Croc was freed by Doll who staged numerous thefts near water to play up the strategic advantage to Croc.

Meanwhile, Croc planned to leave Gotham City with all the stolen gains and without Doll, who found this out and planned one last heist at Mid-River Island. She secretly planned to sabotage the Island's nuclear power plant and level Gotham and its inhabitants, including Croc and herself. However, Batman and Batgirl intervened to halt the countdown and subdued Croc before he could kill Baby-Doll. She was later sent back to Arkham.

Baby-Doll's doll-gun was kept by Batman and later displayed in the Batcave.[1]

Appearances

Batman: The Animated Series

The New Batman Adventures

References

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