Costumed Crusaders' Courageous Carbon-Copies

A curious attribute of Earth-One as contrasted with Earth-Two is that many of its greatest champions were not unique, but were simply the most outstanding examples of larger legions of similarly clad costume crusaders. Examples of this amongst members of the Justice League were the Thanagarian Wingmen... of which Hawkman and Hawkwoman were a part, the Green Lanterns Corps... of whom Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan was a member, and the Kandorian Superman Emergency Squad led by Don-El, who protected the original whom they imitated. Then there were the imperfect duplicates of Kal-El / Superman in Bizarro Number One and his fellow Bizarro Supermen. It seems the sole exception to this principal on both worlds were the Wonder Women, who had similarly powered yet distinct fellow Amazonians.

However, upon closer inspection, the corresponding members of the Justice Society each also had larger organizations similar to themselves. Kal-L aka Superman was a member of the All-Star Squadron, with various caped crusaders inspired by him, including the diminutive Darrel "Doll Man" Dane who was his world's Don-El.

Likewise, there was the animated duplicate Supermen spawned by Funny Face, both the 2-dimensional version in movies and the 3-dimensional Flying Tiger who tormented his opposite number.

Similarly, there were the renegade minions of the Vulture King from Thanagar-Two. Centuries earlier, an advanced armada of these Wingmen had attempted to found a colony on Earth-Two, whom the armored avenger known as Silent Knight encountered during one of his adventures. Now seeking to recruit humans into his forces, the Thanagarian Vulture King and his lieutenants used a device known as the Electromizer (their version of the more benevolent device known as the Absorbacron developed on Thanagar-One), which temporarily even brainwashed the Amazing Amazon herself, Wonder Woman! Once defeated, these rogues of Thanagar-Two were placed in Earth prisons.

Finally, there were the Green Dragon Tong, formed by the first wielder of the emerald lamp named Chang… which eventually came into the possession of Alan "Green Lantern" Scott, of whom they would oppose (following a clash with Batman and Robin decades earlier). While the Tong did not possess power rings and batteries as had the Corps, a group of Green Dragon monks did possess the original green lantern and its meteor rocks for centuries, guarding it. A later group of synthetic aliens known as the Sinestro Corps briefly battled Alan Scott and Hal Jordan.

Mighty Mites' Magnificent Muscular Manuevers

Don-El, Captain of the Superman Emergency Squad, was like his first cousin Kal-El physically fit. And when he left the Krypton-like confines of Kandor, where he lived alongside his fellow survivors of his home world within the shrunken bottled city, Don-El likewise possessed superhuman abilities on par with his long-lost relative. This coupled with his moral fortitude and leadership skills made him a natural to chairman the Squad during their various adventures.

Darrel Dane, more famously known as Doll Man, was said to possess the strength of a normal sized man even while in his six-foot tall shrunken form. This made him one of the preeminent heroes of Earth-Two, and an early peer of Kal-L aka Superman. However, early in his career it became evident that Darrel had strength that went far beyond even that of a mortal man in a diminutive physical state. Was this due to the formula he invented, allowing him to alter his size at will?

At the very beginning, Dane and his mentor Professor Roberts hypothesize that it gave him the strength of twenty men. Among his mighty mite feats such as punching a massive whale, lifting and throwing massive boulders on a roadside, and bending iron bars in a prison cell! These are but a few of many examples during his costumed career.

Over time, Doll Man became adept at seemingly gliding on wind currents, undoubtedly propelled aloft by his legs giving him superhuman leaping ability not dissimilar to that possessed by the golden age Superman in his early days. And while Kal-L developed the ability to fly directed by mental will power, Darrel gained mind-over-matter or telekinetic powers. Originally using this ability to manipulate birds such as eagles to carry him through the air, he eventually was able to keep himself and others aloft and defy gravity... although with great mental strain.

Darrel Dane bore an uncanny resemblance to Clark Kent, the civilian men who wore blue spandex and red capes in their crime fighting identities. And given their close comradery decades after they were last together as members of the All-Star Squadron, it seems that Darrel was to Kal-L what Don-El was to Kal-El, miniaturize versions of the Men of Steel and tiny reflections of themselves.

Mighty Midgets Meet Mild Mannered Men

In the Bottled City of Kandor, residing within the Fortress of Solitude on Earth-One, is the last bastion of Kryptonian society. In this metropolis, shrunken decades earlier by the amoral alien android known as Brainiac, it was liberated from his grasp by Superman. Keeping it safe within his Fortress, Kal-El earned the gratitude of their citizens... so much so that when his alter egos of Superman and/or Clark Kent were in danger... they would come to his aid.

In order to accomplish this, they created two super squads for two specific purposes. The first was the Superman Emergency Squad, led by Kal-El's first cousin Don-El, a small group of Kandorians dressed like Superman. The other was the Superman Look-A-Like Squad, led by Vol-Don, comprised of a handful of Kandorian that look like Clark Kent and his friends at the Daily Planet.

On Earth-Two, as that universe's Kandor survived as a digitized version with Kara Zor-L's Symbioship, there wasn't the ability for those synthetic Kandorians to render aid to she or her cousin Kal-L. However, Kal-L in his Superman identity gained allies within the All-Star Squadron, which included his teammates in the Justice Society of America.

Two of the All-Stars mirrored the leaders of the Emergency and Look-A-Like Squads. Darrel Dane, also known as the Doll Man, was like Don-El a miniature version of Superman. Dave Clark, also known as Midnight, was like Vol-Don a crusading reporter. 

These two men met when the hero known as Uncle Sam recruited a select few mystery men to form his Freedom Fighters, with the intent of saving a hero-less parallel world known as Earth-X. Swept along with those heroes, Doll Man and Midnight ended up elsewhere, in the occupied France of that Earth, for a couple months. There, they fought occupying Nazi German forces, including the supervillain known as Baron Blitzkrieg.

Darrel and Dave would return to their home world, only to leave Earth-Two sometime later and move permanently to Earth-X. Similarly, when Kal-El finally succeeded in enlarging Kandor on the phase planet known as Rokyn, that world teleported to another universe. Amongst those Kandorians were Don-El and Vol-Don, along with their Squad colleagues.

Superman's Mini-Me - Times Two! The Story of Don-El and Darrel

Don-El and Darrel Dane were a pair of "Mighty Mites" and Superman lookalikes. 

Don-El was the son of Nim-El, who was the twin brother of Zor-El, himself the father of Kal-El. So Don-El was the twin cousin of Superman, although he survived not in a space ship sent directly to Earth-One but rather as an inhabitant of the shrunken bottled city of Kandor. Years later, Superman battled and defeated Kandor's captor, Brainiac, and housed the city within his Fortress of Solitude.

Don-El as  Captain of the Superman Emergency Squad, a team of Kandorians in miniature size who wore costumes of the famous Kryptonian and aided that caped crusader on occasion on their adopted Earth-One. In his first appearance, he adopted the alias of Super-Mite.

Darrel Dane was a chemist who decided to put to good use the shrinking formula that gave him various mental abilities and the power to shrink to 6 inches tall. Aided by his girlfriend Martha Roberts and her father, he became the crimefighter Doll Man. 

Doll Man had numerous solo adventures and, while attending the All-Star Squadron's first official meeting, first met his lookalike Kal-L aka Superman,  Eventually, Darrel became a member of the Freedom Fighters, leaving his native Earth-Two for a hero-less parallel planet known as Earth-X. Decades later, Kal-L and Darrel teamed up to help liberate that world. 

Don-El briefly had a psychotic breakdown, where he believe himself to be the actual Superman rather that his minatured stand-in. His cousin Kal-El created a scenario that helped Don-El to face reality and restore his sanity. Darrel and the Freedom Fighters briefly visited their homeworld of Earth-Two, then tried living on Earth-One on several months, where they were framed for crimes they didn't commit including an allegation of murder that almost led to Doll Man's execution!

Both heroes possessed superhuman strength and immense durability, Don-El due to his nature as a Kryptonian living on Earth under that world's yellow sun. While Don-El has miniature allies in Kandor with his Squad, Darrel faced only miniaturized menaces such as a Japanese soldier and an island filled with shrunken human subjects. In fact, Doll Man had a six-foot tall recurring foe named Tom Thumb who, like Earth-One's Mouse Man that battled Wonder Woman, was but a tiny man with no superhuman powers. Thumb originated from Midget Town, where several humans were shrunken to 6 inch height by Doctor Vargo, which Dollman, Batman and Robin each visited.

Don-El shared a paternal great-grandfather with Kal-El in Var-El, a scientist who discovered the means to teleport from Krypton-One to Earth-One. While on his adopted world, Var-El battled alien invaders, then disappeared. Darrel had a famous crimefighting grandfather during that same period. Could he have been the Var-L of Krypton-Two? Might the Dane gene have had a trace of Kryptonian blood in the mix? Might he and Kal-L be cousins?

Don-El and his fellow Kandorians were restored to their normal height and moved to the extradimensional world of Rokyn, a world that occasionally resided in Earth-One's universe, but was usually in an adjacent universe. A Darrel and the Freedom Fighters returned to Earth-X, in order to assist in the rebuilding of that war-torn world. Since evidence points to the original Doll Man having returned to the mid 1940s of Earth-Two as he reunited with Martha, it seems likely that the Doll Man seen on Earth-X in the 1980s was the Danes' son Darrel Junior.

Doll Man developing a strength enhancing ray in 1950, based off the Miraclo black light ray hypothesized by his fellow Freedom Fighters teammate Rex Tyler. Darrel used this ray on a stray dog he adopted named Elmo, which both healed him and give him super-canine strength. It also increased his intelligence, allowing him to understand human communication. 

For the next several months, Elmo assisted Dane’s alter ego Doll Man. Eventually, the dog became acquainted with Darrel's fiancee Martha Roberts, and soon assisted her as well when she adopted the Doll Girl alter ego after gaining powers similar to her boyfriend's. From December 1950 until February 1952, Elmo faithfully followed his master into a wide array of adventures, helping the pair.

Eventually, Elmo retired from crimefighting, although Darrel and Martha carried on in their costumes crusade. Given the nature of Dane’s ray devise, the superhuman strength “of ten men” (like that which Hourman possessed after exposure to the Miraclo black light) would have amplified his already proportionally strong physique when he was a Mighty Mite towards the end of his costumed career. 

Super Squad Support Supermen Succinctly

Originating from the last surviving Kryptonian city of Kandor, an elite team of recruits assembled to form the diminutive Superman Emergency Squad. Kandor had been shrunken and kept in a bottle by the alien android named Brainiac. Upon defeating Brainiac and claiming the minature city, Superman kept it within his Fortress of Solitude of Earth-One, Each member of this Squad possessed superhuman abilities due to being descendants of Krypton. 

Led by Don-El aka the Super-Mite Superman, cousin of Kal-El aka Superman, they helped the Man of Steel whenever there was a need on Earth-One. While Van-Zee was also a member, he relinquished that responsibly for his career as a scientist. Secretly, he also assumed the alter ego of Nightwing. One other member, Vitor, had briefly left this life behind while attempting to court romance with Lois Lane and Lana Lang, although he soon thereafter rejoined he Squad. This group typically had a dozen active members at any one time. At times, they wore uniforms modeled after that worn by Superman, other times they wore distinctive scarlet colored uniforms. 

On Earth-Two, Kandor wasn't shrunken but instead was digitized by Zor-L, uncle of Kal-L aka Superman into a virtual reality replica. Zor-L housed this program within the Symbioship, which he designed to save his daughter Kara aka Power Girl when Krypton-Two exploded. As such, in place of a Squad supporting Superman that originated from his people, there was a Squadron... of which the golden age Superman was himself a member. 

This All-Star Squadron was formed at the beginning of World War II. Among its many members were Superman himself, as well as Crimson Avenger and the Wing, who mirrored the Kandorian known as Flamebird and his partner Nightwing. Another All-Star was the mighty mite Doll Man, secretly Darrel Dane, a physical look-a-like of Superman! Given this as well as his inherent superhuman strength and near invulnerability, attributes not attributable to his shrinking chemical concoction, there is a possibility he may have been one-eighth Kryptonian. 

Kal-El's great-grandfather Var-El teleported to Earth-One to attempt experiments that were illegal on Krypton-One. It is likely that his counterpart, Var-L, likewise did something similiar. If so, then instead of returning to Krypton-Two, he may have sired another family on Earth-Two while under the identity of 18th century lawman named Dane. This would explain Kal-L and Darrel's kinship, which they displayed when reuniting years after first meeting one another.

The actual doppelgängers of the remaining Kandorian members of the Superman Emergency Squad were Zator’s Seven who trained a young Osgood Armsby who later… along with Doll Man, Crimson Avenger and Wing, became a member of the All-Star Squadron and their third “Doctor” on staff. However, the Seven mostly operated behind the scenes.

Mighty Midgets: Don-El and Darrel the Super Mite and Doll Man

Don-El and Darrel Dane were a pair of "Mighty Mites" and Superman lookalikes. Allied with counterparts Flamebird and Nighwing, and Nightwing and Wing, they made their mark as heroes of stature.

Don-El as  Captain of the Superman Emergency Squad, a team of Kandorians in miniature size who wore costumes of the famous Kryptonian and aided that caped crusader on occasion on their adopted Earth-One. In his first appearance, he adopted the alias of Super-Mite.

Darrel Dane aka Doll Man was a chemist and as a member of the All-Star Squadron was a teammate of Superman. The original Mighty Mite, Doll Man was like his contemporary Superman of Earth-Two, among the earlies of caped crusaders on their world, and fought crime there for over two years.

Don-El was the son of Nim-El, who was the twin brother of Zor-El, himself the father of Kal-El. So Don-El was the twin cousin of Superman (Kal-El), although he survived not in a space ship sent directly to Earth-One but rather as an inhabitant of the shrunken bottled city of Kandor. When Superman years later battled and defeated Kandor's captor, Brainiac, he found the city a new home inside his Fortress of Solitude.

Darrel Dane as Doll Man decided due put to good use the shrinking formula that gave him various mental abilities and the power to shrink to 6 inches tall. Aided by his girlfriend Martha Roberts and her father, Doll Man had several solo adventures and was also a member of the aforementioned All-Star Squadron and Freedom Fighters. 

Don-El temporarily assumed Superman's identity during a moment of psychological breakdown, before returning to Kandor. Eventually that city and all its inhabitant's, including Don-El, were restored to normal size and lived in the extra-dimensional world of Rokyn which oscillated between Earth-One's universe and that of another. Which of the other universes Rokyn was normally located within... Earth-X, Earth-S, Earth-Four or (most probably) Earth-Two is unknown... but would have to have been one of them as Rokyn still existed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths when all other universes were destroyed.

Darrel eventually left behind his native world with the Freedom Fighters to aid Earth-X, where he and his teammates would face that world's Nazi forces for decades before finally defeating them. Eventually, Superman (Kal-L) and his Justice Society allies as well as the Justice League visited Earth-X, and he worked alongside Doll Man to liberate that world. 

Following this, Doll Man and his pals migrated to Don-El's Earth-One to revitalize their costumed careers, but were portrayed as criminals, and so left for Earth-Two. Unlike his fellow Freedom Fighters, there is evidence that Doll Man returned to the past... shortly after he had left for Earth-X.. and reunited with Martha*. We know this because Martha’s “Who’s Who” entry mentions her being with Darrell in 1939 when he became Doll Man, and still with him in 1951 when she became his crimefighting partner, Doll Girl. Dane's trip through time made possible due to the Justice Society member Flash's Time Vortex device, allowing for traveling through time from the late 1970s to the mid 1940s.

* A later told tale of the Freedom Fighters returning to Earth-One to assist Superman versus neo-Nazis could’ve occurred right after they (aside from Dane) left Earth-Two and returned to Earth-X. And still later, when Doll Man appeared with his teammates in 1985 on Earth-X, this was a temporally time-displaced Darrel Dane… as many heroes from the past were pulled to the present day including Doll Man’s fellow All-Stars Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle!