Dorothy Spinner was a member of the Doom Patrol with the ability to draw imaginary beings from her mind into the real world.
History
Dorothy grew up with a very difficult upbringing in rural Mid-western America, mainly due to her ape-like facial deformity which provoke bullying and repulsion from most other people that she encountered, but also due to her neglectful birth mother who openly told her that she regretted not aborting Dorothy when she was pregnant with her.[1] Dorothy was unable to go to school as her fellow children were afraid of her and so grow up in near total isolation. In this loneliness Dorothy developed many intricate imaginary friends to keep her company, who were also somehow able to teach her how to read and write. Over time Dorothy came to realise that her friends were no longer imaginary and had in fact come to life. Eventually some of the imaginary friends started to scare Dorothy with grisly fairy tales and so she shot them with an imaginary gun.[2]
After one episode of particularly intense bullying, Dorothy wished to a mysterious voice that her bully was dead and the very next day he was found brutally murdered. Dorothy was horrified at what she had done and swore to never make wishes again despite the insisting voice in her head.[3]
The Doom Patrol
When her parents realised they were no longer capable of keeping their daughter safe from her psychic powers they decided to call Niles Caulder of the Doom Patrol, who took Dorothy to the Patrol's new mountain-side base. There, Dorothy would largely be looked after by Josh Clay rather than Caulder himself.[4] Shortly after arriving, her powers would go haywire due to the interference of a reality altering device called the Materioptikon which had been stored in the Doom Patrol's base. This resulted in Dorothy's imaginary friends returning form the dead, which terrified her but with the help of Josh she was able to make peace with her imaginary friends when she realised they were trying to help her overcome her anxieties about starting puberty. After that incident, Dorothy began to mature a little and became slightly more comfortable in her skin although she still remained timid and easily scared.[5]
When the rest of the Doom Patrol relocated to Danny, a sentient crossdressing street, Dorothy would move with them and continue to develop control and understanding over her powers with Josh's help. Not long after moving on Danny, Dorothy was caught by the Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. when they were kidnapping the hero Flex Mentallo.[6] The pair were taken to the Men's lair underneath the Pentagon, known as the 'Antfarm', where they were hunted by the monstrous being called Telephone Avatar that was capable of harnessing the dead to build an army for the Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.. Before the Telephone Avatar could kill them, Flex tried to interrupt the source of its power by turning the Pentagon into a circle, which weakened the Avatar but did not stop it outright. At the last moment the dark voice returned to Dorothy's head in a vision and she told it she wished that her friends were all right. When Dorothy opened her eyes she saw that the Telephone Avatar had hung itself before it could kill her or Flex. [7]
After the events at the Pentagon, the voice became more persistent in Dorothy's mind so she sought Josh for help and identified the dark voice as an old imaginary friend of hers called 'Candlemaker. Fearing that the Candlemaker would get out of her head and kill everyone, she went with Josh to get help from the Chief in the Doom Patrol's Old Base but she suffered a severe fit upon arrival.[8] When Dorothy came to she found the base plunged into darkness and stumbled upon the body of Josh who had recently been shot dead. Under great pressure from the Candlemaker she wished to bring Josh back to life. While the Candlemaker fulfilled her wish it was also able to escape Dorothy's mind and immediately killed the resurrected Josh.[9] The freed Candlemaker went onto to slaughter masses of people, including several Doom Patrol members, in an attempt of global genocide, but was stopped when the Doom Patrol's remaining members and their allies, Willoughby Kipling and Doc Magnus, managed to sufficiently weaken the Candlemaker. In it's vulnerable state Dorothy was able to blow out the last of it's candle's, destroying the evil entity.[10]
Rainbow Estates
Following the heavy losses from their battle with the Candlemaker the Doom Patrol effectively disbanded. While most it's members opted to retire to Danny the World Dorothy decided to head out on her own to be part of 'the real world'.[11] This decision proved difficult for Dorothy and she still struggled to make any real friends due to her strange look. She fell back to conjuring her imaginary friends, but in doing so also triggered the appearance of strange, hostile spirits, based off pictures of African dancers from one of Dorothy's old children's books. This coincided with several dangerous and bizarre transformation in Dorothy's neighbourhood. With the help of Doc Magnus, she was able to reunite with former Doom Patrol members Cliff and the Chief, the later of whom had to be revied with nano-machines due to him having previously been decapitated by the Candlemaker.[12] The trio managed to stop the spreading transformations which were being caused by the Chief's rouge nano-machines which had gone unmonitored since his death. Realising they were all safer together, Dorothy and Cliff moved with the Chief to a rural house called Rainbow Estates.[13]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Reality Alteration: She has the ability to manifest her imagination into reality and make anything that she can imagine real. As a young girl, this means that her imaginary friends become real. These beings can survive as long as Dorothy is alive, although they usually only appear for a short time before Dorothy dismisses them.[14]
- Damn All: A father-like figure, with multiple eyes and a suit made of crosswords.[2]
- Darling Come Home: A traditional 1950s house wife, with a large framed light bulb for a head. Presumably she is Damn All's wife.[2]
- Flying Robert: A flying baby with a one-eyed balloon for a head. He is the son of Damn All and presumably Darling Come Home.[2]
- Pretty Miss Dot: A women in a pole-dot sweater with lipstick for fingers and a large metal dome for a face. She can shoot lasers from him lipstick fingers.[15]
- Cliff Steele: A fake double of Dorothy's real friend Cliff Steele that she summoned when the real Cliff was unavailable. The double is largely capable of everything the real Cliff is and even managed to successfully impersonate the real Cliff for several months without anyone realising.[15]
- Professor Caulder: A fake double of the Doom Patrol's leader Niles Caulder, that Dorothy summoned when lonely.[15]
- Mister Clay: Another fake double of Dorothy's real friend, Josh Clay. Unlike the Cliff and Niles doubles, Josh is incapable of speech and appears as he did at the moment of his death, with a bleeding gunshot wound in his chest and glassy eyes.[15]
- The Vegans: A trio of can-can like dancers that have goat like legs and wear tribal masks that form a protective wall and kick away any attackers.[16]
- Heart-of-Ice: A blue skinned woman dressed in a long purple gown who can summon large sheets of ice.[17]
- Baby Twig Lady: A miniature young girl dressed in twigs and leaves that can launch foliage out of her hands.[17]
- Paddle in the Sky: A large wheel of rotating hands holding oversized paddles that flies battering enemies.[18]
- Dark as the Morning: A shadowy, eyeless creature that has a large mouth of fangs and can fly in the air.[18]
- Mister Right-and-Cool: A skinny, shirtless young man with dark hair and leather clothing that Dorothy created to be Pretty Miss Dot's boyfriend.[19]
Weaknesses
- Monstrous Appearance: Dorothy was born with ape-like facial features, making her prone to bullying throughout her life.
- Power Instability: Dorothy can sometimes lose control of her imaginary friends, having them come into existence without her permission. This has a higher risk of happening while Dorothy is menstruating.[1] At other times they can be manifested entirely subconsciously and take on a life of their own without even realising they are imaginary.[20][14]
Recommended Reading
Related
- 70 Appearances of Dorothy Spinner (New Earth)
- 12 Images featuring Dorothy Spinner (New Earth)
- 2 Quotations by or about Dorothy Spinner (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Dorothy Spinner (New Earth)
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #82
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #25
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #60
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #23
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #31
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #43
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #44
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #55
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #57
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #61
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #62
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #65
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #67
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Who's Who in the DC Universe #10
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #64
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #66
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #72
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #68
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #84
- ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #14
  Doom Patrol member |
This character exists under the Vertigo Imprint which is intended for Mature Readers.Their continuity takes place within the context of Vertigo titles although they may cross over into regular DC continuity.