Nathan Dolly was a world traveling dealer in curios and art objects. Once, in Africa, he procured a magical doll from a native witch doctor. The object, actually a magical talisman, enabled Dolly to mentally control whoever the doll was molded to resemble. Fashioning a costume and working clandestinely as Mister Doll, Dolly used the talisman to increase his income considerable, until an encounter with Tony Stark (and his alter-ego, Iron Man) resulted in the doll being taken from him.

Undaunted, Dolly continually searched for another doll which might give him the power he craved. Finally, in the Balkans, he chanced upon an old dollmaker who had created small death effigies. These wooden figurines where carved from wood grown on Mt. Wundagore, where the Earthly presence of the demon Chthon was imprisoned and thus infused with mystical powers. Taking two figures, Dolly was told that each could be brought to life by one's own spirit. Eagerly, he entered the trance to animate the dolls, but in trying to animate both, Dolly's body was left totally bereft of life but trapped in two wooden figurines with no way to reverse the process.

Dolly mailed himselves to his wife, Priscilla, in America. There, Dolly researched the occult until he discovered a way to transfer his life essence into full-size manikins. At some point, however, Priscilla Dolly's sanity slipped, and she believed the manikins to be her sons, complete with names and histories, which her husband perpetuated.

Calling himself Brother Grimm, Nathan Dolly used his magical spells and conjurations to perform many crimes and acts of mayhem, often running into conflict with Spider-Woman. Although technically two separate beings, he always kept one of himselves in hiding, tricking his opponents with his sudden "reappearances."

Learning of the nature of Drew's mentor, Magnus, as a powerful magician, Dolly and his wife (who took to calling herself Madame Doll) tried to force Magnus into restoring Dolly to a human body once more. Magnus and Spider-Woman ultimately prevented Dolly from possessing his victim, Drew's boyfriend Jerry Hunt, and his life essence dissipated.