Stella Bates was a doctor who fell in love with Clayface.
History
Stella served as a medical consultant on Dark Interlude, a romantic film starring Matt Hagen as Senator Eric Chandler. The film told the story of the romance between the senator and his plastic surgeon (played by Stella), who heals him after an accident. During filming of the film, Stella genuinely fell in love with Hagen, which Hagen seemingly returned. Upon hearing what happened to Hagen, Stella sold a motel she owned to finance medical research devoted to curing Clayface when his form began to break down.
Stella made some initial progress, managing to keep Clayface alive, but not being able to cure him. As she continued to care for Clayface, Stella discovered that the experimental isotope MP-40 would be able to restore, and likely increase his powers permanently.
After Clayface returned from Wayne Biomedical with the isotope, Stella began the process. However, Batman arrived and interrupted the treatment. Stella lunged at him, but fell over a table of chemicals. Clayface, upon seeing his love hurt, attacked Batman; slowly he tried to pull Batman into his body to smother him, despite Stella's protests.
Clayface and Batman took the fight outside, towards the cliff's edge. Stella was worried, as the rain made Clayface unstable again. She watched in horror as he lost to Batman and fell into the ocean below, where he dissolved. She was presumably handed over to the authorities for aiding Clayface in his crimes.
Clayface, however, survived the battle with Batman and returned to Gotham a few years later. Whether Stella found out is unknown.
Appearance
Batman: The Animated Series
- "Mudslide"