Advertisement

Dolly Household

Dolly_Household,_Jessica_Drew_(Earth-616),_Magnus_(Sorcerer)_(Earth-616)_from_Spider-Woman_Vol_1_3_001

History

The Dolly Household was a two-floor house with a pitched roof and dormers on the upper floor, protruding from the roof. The ground floor had tall windows and doors, while the upper floor had smaller windows and a chimney. The house was in a green area, surrounded by bushes and a palm tree. It was the home of Mrs. Priscilla Dolly and her family,[3][1][2] as well as a number of lodgers who rented rooms there in the past.[1][2] Mrs. Dolly had become a collector of dolls[3] because her husband Nathan, a world-traveling[2][4] businessman[2] (and a doll collector himself)[5][6][7] always brought[2] or sent his wife a doll from each of his trips;[8][4] due to this, the house was brimming with dolls, which any visitor could not help but noticing;[3][9] still, when having the time to do so, it was not unusual for anyone there to take a moment to admire the collection.[8] The decoration was traditional, also including paintings and flower vases (thou sometimes the vases were empty).[2] Beyond that, the bedrooms were upstairs,[3][8] and the ground floor was used for social activities including meals.[10] The house had a telephone,[10] radio in several rooms,[3] and possibly a TV set.[2] Sometimes the light played tricks on people in the house, making them look more scary or more charming.[1]

After Nathan Dolly had obtained a magical doll, he attempted to become a supervillain under the alias Mr. Doll, but was defeated by Iron Man.[11] Deprived of the doll[12][4][13] (which is believed to have been then destroyed),[14] Nathan looked for new magicks to return to his evil ways,[15][4] but in his attempt, he accidentally transferred his life force to two 12-inch dolls at once.[12][4][13] With his consciousness permanently[7] trapped in the figures,[12][5][6][4][13] and his body dead,[12][5][6][4] Nathan mailed the dolls to his wife in the United States, purportedly to the family home.[12][5][6] Back at home, Nathan learned occultism until he discovered how to transfer his spirit into human-sized mannequins,[5][6][4] something he did with the help of Mrs. Dolly.[13] These two animated wooden mannequins simultaneously[12][16][17] were dressed similarly to the skull-faced figurines[18] and had magical powers,[5][6] including the illusory ability to appear human.[12] As Mrs. Dolly would have wanted to have children,[12][4] she created false pasts and identities for the mannequins, talking about her two adult sons, Jacob ("Jake") and William, while Nathan was officially presumed dead;[12][4][13] she lost her mind at some point and she came to believe that Jake and William were her real children;[12][4] in particular, she believed that Nathan had been an authoritarian father figure, keeping Jake and William in check, and that since Nathan had died, Jake and William spent too much time away from home and often argued among themselves.[2] Possibly to indulge her, Nathan played along with her fantasy[12][4] as they searched for a way to get a body for Nathan and a way for him occupied it.[12][5][6][4] Mrs. Dolly kept the original 12-inch figurines,[19][8] even though they no longer had any magic whatsoever,[12] in a drawer in her house,[19][8][4] because she believed that Nathan's spirit was still trapped in the figurines.[12][4]

The Brothers Grimm became costumed supervillains, committing crimes[3][5][6][4][13] that included robberies.[3] Jacob and William began working for the company Pyrotechnics,[1][4] and the Brothers Grimm collaborated with Pyrotechnics in a conspiracy in exchange for money.[20] Still, Mrs. Dolly rented her husband's old room, and other rooms in her house, to lodgers to raise more money, since Nathan's death she claimed that they were strapped for cash.[3] One of her boarders was Jonathan Drew, an English scientist who also worked for Pyrotechnics[1][4] and spent only a few weeks there.[1]

Drew's daughter, Jessica (secretly the superheroine Spider-Woman), traveled to the United States looking for her father and accompanied by her ally, the sorcerer Magnus. Since they both needed to rent cheap housing, Magnus used his magic to discover that the Dolly Household had rooms available at an affordable price, and they visited Mrs. Dolly,[3] who accepted them as tenants;[3][4][21] Jessica remained hidden from Mrs. Dolly, using her powers to climb the outer wall,[3] and would show up later.[1] Dolly rented Nathan's old den to Magnus, and another room to Jessica, which Magnus falsely said which was his niece.[3]

Jessica discovered shortly after that her father had been murdered by unknown persons and began to investigate.[3] Meanwhile, Magnus changed his hairstyle to a less bohemian style, and only then did Jessica introduce herself to Mrs. Dolly at the Household, to join during breakfast. Mrs. Dolly's supposed children also joined in, with Jake being charming. Mrs. Dolly explained that she knew another Drew, Jonathan, who had worked at the same company as her sons. Jake, however, did not seem to remember Jonathan Drew, and William said that he was in a hurry to leave, especially when Jessica showed interest in investigating her father's death. Jessica, disguised as Spider-Woman, followed William to Pyrotechnics,[1] where she had adventures but discovered nothing useful.[1][2] Meanwhile, at the Dolly Household, Magnus impressed Mrs. Dolly by making flowers appear in an empty vase, and Mrs. Dolly apparently interpreted it as a sleight of hand,[2] going so far as to recommend Magnus look for work as a stage magician;[19] however, Mrs. Dolly came to discover that Magnus was a real sorcerer, and that meant he could help her restore her husband's life-force into a human body.[12] Magnus eventually got a job performing in nightclubs.[19]

Meanwhile, Pyrotechnics was discovered to be involved in a conspiracy, and many of its leaders were arrested. The company could have been shut down, but,[20] although Jake and William worked there, both in their civilian identities[1] and as Brother Grimm,[20] they suffered no consequences. They were however not seen working there again. At some point, the Dollys obtained ownership of a theater,[10] the Playhouse,[12][22][4] and from then on Jake and William went there to work frequently. Mrs. Dolly was alone in the house, since, in addition to her children leaving, Magnus had gone out on business and Jessica left urgently when she learned that her boyfriend, Jerry Hunt, had been attacked and was in the hospital.[10] On the other hand, feeling safe because her tenants were leaving in a hurry, Mrs. Dolly occasionally picked up one of the Brothers Grimm figurines in her hands, thinking that Jessica and Magnus would notice nothing.[19] While Jessica waited at the Dolly Household for Hunt to pick her up for a date[8] (He had fully recovered from the previous attack),[10][19] she browsed through Mrs. Dolly's doll collection and[8] happened upon the small Brothers Grimm figurines in a drawer;[8][4] Mrs. Dolly saw her, but Jessica pretended not to have seen anything. Mrs. Dolly still decided to punish Jessica for being nosy. When Hunt picked up Jessica and introduced himself to Mrs. Dolly, she found that Hunt's fit, handsome body might be suitable for Nathan to control. The Dollys began a daring plan, with the Brothers Grimm following Jessica and Hunt to capture them[8] and take them to the Playhouse, where Mrs. Dolly was waiting[12][4] for a ritual in which Nathan's spirit would be transported into Hunt's body to usurp it.[12][4][13] As neither of them were proficient sorcerers, they needed Magnus to perform the ritual; and Mrs. Dolly was sure that they would not need to call him because he would detect the danger his protégée was in.[12]

Indeed, when Magnus returned to the then empty Dolly Household, he perceived traces of magic[8] due to the magical activity of the Brothers Grimm and preparations for the ritual,[12] but he decided that he did not have the ability to find the true source and He dismissed the problem, thinking it might be a residue of his own magic. Magnus went to bed, and then Mrs. Dolly's doll collection came to life and he went upstairs to her bedroom[8] to wake Magnus and tell him that Jessica was in danger, even giving him the address of the Playhouse. Sluggishly, Magnus failed to notice the weirdness of the situation; as soon as he realized that the dolls were alive, they stopped being so, and he concluded that his own sleeping mind had sensed the danger Jessica was in, and had subconsciously used magic to animate the dolls and thus notify him. Magnus dressed and rushed out to the Playhouse into the night.[12] At the Theater, Mrs. Dolly attempted to coerce Magnus into transferring Nathan's spirit into Hunt's body,[12][7][4] so Nathan would control of it,[13] but Magnus instead managed to destroy Nathan's spirit.[12][5][6][7][4][13] This caused the Brothers Grimm (Jake and William) to stop being animated and again be mere wooden mannequins. Mrs. Dolly, who had refused to believe that her children were her own fantasy,[12] suffered a mental breakdown;[12][21] Jessica and her allies[23] had her institutionalized[24][4][21] at Sunnyview Mental Hospital.[23]

Magnus decided to go to work in Las Vegas[24] (or at least that's what he said)[25] and, since Jessica could not continue living at the Dolly Household as a tenant, her boyfriend Hunt, who had to rejoin active duty as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, decided to leave his rented apartment to Jessica, since he had already paid for the next two months. Jessica stopped living in the Dolly Household,[24] which became uninhabited; however, she kept a copy of the keys.[9]

On one occasion, while Jessica was confronting the monster Waxman, who was pretending to be a handsome womanizer, she invited him to the Dolly Household to lure him into a trap where no innocents would be in danger. Jessica claimed that it was the house of her mother, who was visiting relatives at the time, and that the dolls, still displayed there, were her mother's collection. Jessica excused herself in a romantic moment to reappear as Spider-Woman and accuse Waxman of murder; Waxman threw a glob of organic mass at her and fled upstairs, where he hid in a bedroom and covered himself with the sheets to assume the form of Jessica (Not understanding that Jessica was Spider-Woman, she hoped to use Jessica's face to deceive to Spider-Woman and escape). When Spider-Woman found the fake Jessica, Waxman attempted to bury her in liquid flesh in the bedroom; but Spider-Woman released a bioelectric venom, cause all the substance to explode and to hit Waxman, melting him into a pool of inanimate slime. Believing she had killed Waxman, he flew out of the Household, so she could not see the flesh recovering in the bedroom[9] (Waxman apparently made a full recovery and left the Dolly Household).[26] After that visit to the Dolly Household, Jessica remembered Mrs. Dolly and went to visit her at the hospital.[23]

Points of Interest

  • Doll collection[3][8][9]
  • Jessica Drew's room[3]
  • Nathan's old den, rented as Magnus' room[3]

Residents

Trivia

  • When Nathan Dolly operated as Mr. Doll in New York City, he was seen using a "gloomy room" as a base of operations, apparently in the area, instead of the family home on the other coast.[11]

See Also

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Spider-Woman #4
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Spider-Woman #5
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 Spider-Woman #3
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23 4.24 4.25 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #2 ; Brothers Grimm's profile
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #2 ; Brothers Grimm's profile
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe #1 ; Brothers Grimm's profile
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe #5 ; Night Shift's profile
  8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 Spider-Woman #11
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 Spider-Woman #18
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Spider-Woman #9
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Tales of Suspense #48
  12. ↑ 12.00 12.01 12.02 12.03 12.04 12.05 12.06 12.07 12.08 12.09 12.10 12.11 12.12 12.13 12.14 12.15 12.16 12.17 12.18 12.19 12.20 12.21 12.22 12.23 12.24 12.25 12.26 Spider-Woman #12
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 13.8 New Avengers Most Wanted Files #1 ; Brothers Grimm's profile
  14. ↑ Marvel Saga the Official History of the Marvel Universe #11
  15. ↑ Avengers #182
  16. ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #2 ; Appendix: Brothers Grimm
  17. ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #8 ; Appendix: Mister Doll
  18. ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition #15 ; Brothers Grimm II's profile
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 Spider-Woman #10
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Spider-Woman #7
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #11 ; Spider-Woman (Drew)'s profile
  22. ↑ Iron Man #187
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Spider-Woman #19
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 Spider-Woman #13
  25. ↑ Spider-Woman #17
  26. ↑ Superior Octopus #1

More Information

More Fandoms
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
  NODES
Community 6
games 5
games 5
HOME 5
Note 1
os 21