The Dress Suit, Part 2

Let's see how Doll Man tackles the nightmare that is... The Dress Suit!

I find it vaguely interesting that everyone in this story immediately assumes the Dress Suit is an empty but animated suit, rather than, say, a nattily dressed Invisible Man.  I guess the concept of an Invisible Man is too far-fetched for a man who compress his own molecules by force at will.

"I'd better look sharp!'  Let's see how that goes:

CLOMP!

Yeah, you're in a blue unitard, Darrel; there's no way you can "look sharp" in comparison to a LITERAL DRESS SUIT.

See? I told you it was a horse in there.

Darrel Dane consistently forgets he could utilize his amazing power of being a six-foot tall man; well, he's committed to the bit, and so wallops the Dress Suit right in its lack-of-chest.

I just assume that's some sort of curtain tassel rather than a green witch's broom.

Then the Dress Suit reminds us why being doll-sized isn't the best possible defense.

The whole apartment is going to have little Dane-shaped indents all OVER the place.

Meanwhile, somebody DOES notice that Darrel never called the police and just how shady that is.

Dr. Roberts is an accomplished enabler.

I appreciate Martha's healthy skepticism of her boyfriend, which is refreshing for a Golden Age girlfriend. 

She's proactive, too. In a braver comic, SHE would be the main character.

Well, I guess WOMEN are good for calling the police, while a real MAN like Darrel Dane has surely already recovered and is hot on The Dress Suit's clompy trail.

Or perhaps he's lying as a crumpled heap of tiny broken bones near the desk the Dress Suit slapped him to.

"There not much the police can do", Darrel?  Other than save your stupid life.  Upon a moment of reflection, I am really impressed by the Dress Suit.  Most Doll Man villains just go "A Tiny man?! What even IS this?!" and get their asses handed to them by a wisecracking action figure.  But The Dress Suit didn't even waste time LAUGHING at Doll Man, it just kicked and smacked him around like, well, a DOLL. From the effects of which pummeling, the police try to revive Doll Man...

Imagine being badly concussed while someone is trying to give you a drink from a water bucket larger than your head.  It's not Darrel's finest hour.

Once awakened, Doll Man tells the police, "It was a headless ghost, who was really strong, and I have no intention of getting involved again."

Our hero.

I don't know who this detective is, but he is now my favorite Doll Man character.

"Hm? Dress suit? Weird. Any way, here's an ACTUAL CLUE."

Doll Man puts on his anti-reading glasses and reads the giant headline.

I can just hear the writer's pitch: 
"So, imagine Nikola Tesla as a ghost criminal."

The police make it clear to Doll Man exactly what they can do.

"Am I going too FAST for you, Doll Man?"

All this may be too fast for research chemist Darrel Dane, but it's red meat to Adult Jimmy Olsen, who appears as if by magic.

How is the newshound there so fast?  Was he eavesdropping in the hall?  Even Johnny Quick didn't get to breaking news this quickly.

"This is my chance to duck out!" Our hero.

I should just accept this Insta-Reporter at face value as a device to hurry the plot along, but I am still hung up on the sequence of events.  The only sensible sequence I can piece together is: 

• Martha sees murder;
• Martha runs home and reports such to her father and boyfriend;
• the boyfriend (Darrel "Doll Man" Dane) says he will call the police but doesn't and instead goes Dollmanning at the scene of the crime and gets his tiny patootie whooped by an empty dress suit;
• while Doll Man is laying in an unconscious heap of pain, Martha (wisely doubting that Darrel called the police) calls the police herself;
• the police come, find the corpse of the victim and the unconscious heap of Doll Man, whom they revive with the relative equivalent of a bathtub of drinking water;
• the police detective determines the suspect and motivation by simply reading the paper before Doll Man is even on his feet;
• this murder, um, goes on The Teletype--somehow? Which Reporterman reads and immediately shows up?

If this is correct, then The Teletype -- however THAT worked -- must have been faster and more efficient than the internet.

"How was I to know that being six inches tall and without police backup would wind up being a liability?"

Martha (love her) has no patience with Darrel's folderol and tries to angle herself a transactional favor in exchange for not reporting Darrel to the police for obstructing justice. But it turns out Darrel is ALREADY headed to prison...!

"Quiet, you two! RADIO BEMBA is on The Teletype!"

Martha may not be curious, but I am DYING to know what Flimsy Excuse (tm) Darrel was going to gin up for his trip to the State Penitentiary, which he really didn't have to mention to her at all.

Yeah. If a six-inch chemist couldn't stop the Dress Suit, what could a platoon of armed, uniformed, trained law-enforcements offices hope to accomplish?

How do you think Doll Man knew where Mr. Tate lived? The Teletype?

I wonder what Doll Man's plan is? Will he take Mr. Tate into his confidence so at to protect him better?

I...
well, I'm just not to say ANYTHING.

Aren't many heroes who do stake-out by hiding under the target's pillow. Let's see how that goes tomorrow.