The Dress Suit, Part 4

We last left Doll Man paying a social call (a Doll call, as it were) on Mr. Sordin, the only partner of Dagnam, Tate, Weamer, & Sordin who is as yet untouched by the Dress Suit rampage. I have long since forgotten exactly WHAT their business is, but I suppose it doesn't matter. Any more than the teletype aficionado who never showed up again mattered.

Quickly: a six-inch man shows up at your house and you need to offer him refreshments; WHAT DO YOU SELECT?  I'm think a raisin and a thimble of lemonade. Maybe a smushed up Ritz or some bread crumbs from the toaster.

But while Sordin is pondering the unanswerable riddle of what to serve a six-inch man, Doll Man spies the reflection of the Dress Suit in the mirror!

Does Doll Man risk another encounter with the CLOMPing feet of The Dress Suit? He does NOT. Instead...

he decided to kill the next victim himself!

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I guess!  "See, Dress Suit? I killed him FOR you! I did good, huh? Did you like that? Are we friends now? Please don't hurt me..."

Perhaps Sordin just has a VERY shallow butler's pantry.

Are you confused? Good.

Quite an engineer, indeed.

"For crying out loud" seems as good a reaction as any.  Mr. Sordin was a good enough engineer to design a suitanoid robot killing machine and instead of making a fortune working for DARPA or Boston Dynamics, he joined a brokerage firm? Criminals do the counter-intuitivest things!

But wait. It gets better.

And what lesson does this teach us?
NEVER believe something just because you read it on The Teletype.

So, from his Martha-avoiding excursion to the Penitentiary, Doll Man learned that Weamer wasn't dead? Oh, I see: THAT'S HOW DOLL MAN KNEW THE DRESS SUIT WASN'T ANIMATED BY THE GHOST OF WEAMER.  Not because "there are no ghosts" or "I'm professional scientist who should know better."  Well, at least we know why The Dress Suit went CLOMP CLOMP when it walked and was able to kick Doll Man's patootie so thoroughly; it's a big metal robot.

Um... an idea? To ... build a robot to kill his partners?  So, now he has to do all the work at the brokerage?  It's a financial firm, not a Tontine.

The Doll City Detective roughing up Mr. Sordin REALLY deserves a name by this point.

Um, yeah, this is getting more ridiculous. No more plot or back story, please.

Yeah, um, starting to lose the thread here, Doll Man. Time to take a bow and FIN out, like Speed Saunders would.

I'M NOT LISTENING ANY MORE LALALALALALALA

Notice I didn't even bother to address the absurdity that The Teletype confused being in a coma with being dead and then NEVER CORRECTED THE ERROR.  After all, this is a world where you can compress your molecules through force of will. Anyway, since Weamer's not dead and is now exonerated, I guess he wins the Tontine.

Happiest police force in comics!

So all's well that--

OMG ENOUGH ALREADY

Yeesh. Speed Saunders has to wrap things up in six pages, but you can tell Doll Man has to fill an ENTIRE QUARTERLY by his lonesome. So even after all that padding he has to tack on a Wryly Comedic Epilog, likes it's a Batman'66 episode: 

Well, at least the detective got a name.

At least we get see ball-busting Martha again; even if you are only six inches tall, she can STILL cut you down to size!

<comedic trombone>

This was the only appearance of The Dress Suit.  But the concept has been used, and more than once.  But none with quite the combination of panache and frisson possessed by The Dress Suit. Does it deserve a comeback? Who would it fight and why? Feel free to unleash your Dress Suit fanfic in the comments!