{"id":32297,"date":"2025-02-25T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T09:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32297"},"modified":"2025-02-24T15:55:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:55:55","slug":"showcase-presents-the-elongated-man-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/02\/25\/showcase-presents-the-elongated-man-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Showcase Presents The Elongated Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy John Broome<\/strong>, Gardner Fox<\/strong>, John Broome<\/strong>, Carmine Infantino<\/strong>, Murphy Anderson<\/strong>, Irv Novick<\/strong>, Gil Kane<\/strong>, Neal Adams<\/strong>, Mike Sekowsky<\/strong>, Sid Greene<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-1042-2 (TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are a bunch of comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but a few are going to be unjustly ignored. As a feverish fanboy wedged firmly in the past, I\u2019m again abusing my privileges here to carp about another brilliant vintage book, criminally out of print and not slated for revival either physically or in digital formats\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Once upon a time, American comics editors believed readers would become jaded if any characters were over-used or over-exposed. To combat that potential danger – and for sundry other commercial and economic reasons – they developed back-up features in most of their titles. By the mid-1960s the policy was largely abandoned as resurgent superheroes sprang up everywhere and readers just couldn\u2019t get enough – but there were still one or two memorable holdouts.<\/p>\n

In late 1963 Julius Schwartz took editorial control of Batman<\/strong> and Detective Comics<\/strong> and finally found a place for a character who had been lying mostly fallow ever since his debut as a very long-legged walk-on in the April\/May 1960 Flash. The Elongated Man<\/strong> was Ralph Dibny<\/em>: a circus-performer who discovered an additive in popular soft drink Gingold which seemed to give certain people increased muscular flexibility. Intrigued, Dibny isolated and refined the chemical additive until he had developed a serum which granting him the ability to stretch, bend and compress his body to an incredible degree. Then Ralph had to decide how to use his new powers…<\/p>\n

A quirky chap with his own small but passionate band of devotees, in recent years the perennial B-lister became a fixture of the latest Flash<\/strong> TV series, but his many exploits are still largely uncollected in any format. The only archival asset is this charming, witty and very pretty compilation gathering his debut and guest appearances from Flash<\/strong> issues #112, 115, 119, 124, 130, 134, and 138 (spanning cover-dates April\/May 1960 to August 1963) plus the Stretchable Sleuth\u2019s entire scintillating run from Detective Comics <\/strong>#327-371 (comprising May 1964 to January 1968).<\/p>\n

Designed as a modern take on Jack Cole\u2019s immensely popular Golden Age champion Plastic Man<\/strong>, Dibny debuted in a cunningly crafted crime caper by John Broome, Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella. Flash<\/strong> #112 went on sale February 25th<\/sup> 1960, cover featuring \u2018The Mystery of the Elongated Man!\u2019<\/em> He was presented as a mysterious, masked yet attention-seeking elastic do-gooder, of whom the Scarlet Speedster was nonetheless highly suspicious…<\/p>\n

Proving himself virtuous, Dibny returned in #115 (September 1960, inked by Murphy Anderson) when aliens attempt to conquer the Earth and the Vizier of Velocity needs \u2018The Elongated Man\u2019s Secret Weapon!\u2019<\/em> as well as the guest-star himself to save the day. In Flash<\/strong> #119 (March 1961), Flash rescues the vanished hero from \u2018The Elongated Man\u2019s Undersea Trap!\u2019<\/em>, thereby introducing vivacious and deadly smart Sue Dibny<\/em> as a newlywed \u201cMrs Elongated Man\u201d) in a stirring saga of subsea alien slavers by regular creative team Broome, Infantino & Giella. The threat was again extraterrestrial with #124\u2019s alien invasion thriller \u2018Space-Boomerang Trap!\u2019<\/em> (November 1961), featuring an uneasy alliance between the Scarlet Speedster, Elastic Investigator and sinister rogue Captain Boomerang<\/em>, who naturally couldn\u2019t be trusted as far as you could throw him. Ralph collaborated with Flash\u2019s junior partner in #130 (August 1962) only just defeating the wily Weather Wizard<\/em> when \u2018Kid Flash Meets the Elongated Man!\u2019<\/em> before bounding back into action with – and against – the senior speedster in Flash<\/strong> #134 (February 1963). Seemingly allied with Captain Cold<\/em> in \u2018The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero!\u2019<\/em>, Dibny excelled in an epic thriller that almost ended his heroic career…<\/p>\n

Gardner Fox scripted \u2018The Pied Piper\u2019s Double Doom!\u2019<\/em> in Flash<\/strong> #138 (August 1963), a mesmerising team-up seeing both Elongated Man and the Monarch of Motion enslaved by the sinister Sultan of Sound, before ingenuity and justice ultimately prevailed. Soon after, when a back-up spot opened in Detective Comics<\/strong> (previously held by Martian Manhunter<\/strong> since 1955 and only vacated because J\u2019onn J\u2019onzz<\/em> was promoted to lead feature in House of Mystery<\/strong>), Schwartz had Ralph slightly reconfigured becoming a flamboyant, fame-hungry, brilliantly canny globe-trotting private eye solving mysteries for the sheer fun of it.<\/p>\n

Aided by his equally smart, thoroughly grounded wife, the short tales were patterned on classic Thin Man<\/strong> filmic escapades of Nick and Norah Charles<\/em>, blending clever, impossible crimes with slick sleuthing, all garnished with the outr\u00e9 heroic permutations and frantic physical antics first perfected in Plastic Man<\/strong>. These complex yet uncomplicated sorties, drenched in fanciful charm and sly dry wit, began in Detective<\/strong> #327 (May 1964) with \u2018Ten Miles to Nowhere!\u2019<\/em> (by Fox & Infantino, who inked himself for all early episodes). Here Ralph, who had publicly unmasked to become a (regrettably minor) celebrity, discovered someone had been stealing his car every night and bringing it back as if nothing had happened. Of course, it had to be a clever criminal plot of some sort…<\/p>\n

A month later he solved the \u2018Curious Case of the Barn-door Bandit!\u2019<\/em>, debuting his direly distressing signature trademark of manically twitching his expanded nose whenever he detects \u201cthe scent of mystery in the air\u201d. Then he heads for cowboy country to unravel the \u2018Puzzle of the Purple Pony!\u2019<\/em> and play cupid for a young couple hunting a gold mine in #329.
\n\"\"
\nRalph & Sue were on an extended honeymoon tour, making him the only costumed hero without a city to protect. On reaching California, Ralph is embroiled in a \u2018Desert Double-Cross!\u2019<\/em> when hostage-taking thieves raid the home of a wealthy recluse, after which Detective<\/strong> #331 offered a rare full-length story in \u2018Museum of Mixed-Up Men!\u2019 <\/em>(Fox, Infantino & Joe Giella) as Batman<\/strong>, Robin<\/strong> and Ralph unite against a super-scientific felon able to steal memories and reshape victims\u2019 faces. Returned to his solo support role in #332, the Ductile Detective then discovers Sue has been replaced by an alien in \u2018The Elongated Man\u2019s Other-World Wife!\u2019<\/em> (with Sid Greene joining as new permanent inker). Of course, nothing is as it seems…<\/p>\n

\u2018The Robbery That Never Happened!\u2019<\/em> occurred when a jewellery store customer suspiciously claims he had been given too much change, before \u2018Battle of the Elongated Weapons!\u2019<\/em> (#334) concentrates on a crook who adapts Ralph\u2019s Gingold serum to affect objects, after which bombastic battle it\u2019s back to mystery-solving as EM is invited by Fairview City to round up a brazen bunch of uncatchable bandits in \u2018Break Up of the Bottleneck Gang!\u2019 <\/em>While visiting Central City again, Ralph is lured to the Mirror Master<\/em>\u2019s old lair and only barely survives \u2018The House of \u201cFlashy\u201d Traps!\u2019<\/em> before risking certain death in the \u2018Case of the 20 Grand Pay-off!\u2019<\/em> after replacing Sue with a look-alike – for the best possible reasons – but without her knowledge or permission…<\/p>\n

Narrowly surviving his wife\u2019s wrath by turning the American tour into a World cruise, Ralph tackles the \u2018Case of the Curious Compass!\u2019<\/em> in Amsterdam, by foiling a gang of diamond smugglers before returning to the US to ferret out funny-money pushers in \u2018The Counterfeit Crime-Buster!\u2019 <\/em>Similarly globe-trotting creator John Broome returned to script \u2018Mystery of the Millionaire Cowboy!\u2019<\/em> in Detective<\/strong> #340 (June 1965) with Ralph and Sue stumbling onto a seemingly haunted theatre and finding crooks at the heart of the matter, and \u2018The Elongated Man\u2019s Change-of-Face!\u2019<\/em> (Fox, Infantino & Greene) finds a desperate newsman publishing fake exploits to draw the fame-fuelled hero into investigating a town under siege, before \u2018The Bandits and the Baroness!\u2019<\/em> (by Broome) has our perpetually vacationing couple check in at a resort where every other guest is a Ralph Dibny, in a classy insurance scam yarn heavy with intrigue and tension.<\/p>\n

A second full-length team-up with Batman filled Detective Comics<\/strong> #343 (September 1965, by Broome, Infantino & Joe Giella). \u2018The Secret War of the Phantom General!\u2019<\/em> is a tense action-thriller pitting the hard-pressed heroes against a hidden army of gangsters and Nazi war criminals determined to take over Gotham City. Having broken Ralph\u2019s biggest case, the happy couple head for the Continent and encounter \u2018Peril in Paris!\u2019<\/em> (Broome, Infantino & Greene) after Sue goes shopping as an ignorant monolingual American and returns a few hours later a fluent French-speaker…<\/p>\n

Fox\u2019s \u2018Robberies in Reverse!\u2019<\/em> boasts a baffling situation wherein shopkeepers start paying customers, leading Ralph to a severely skewed scientist\u2019s accidental discovery, whilst #346\u2019s \u2018Peephole to the Future!\u2019<\/em> (Broome) sees Elongated Man inexplicably develop the power of clairvoyance. It sadly clears up long before he can use it to tackle \u2018The Man Who Hated Money!\u2019 <\/em>(Fox) starring a bandit who destroys every penny he steals.<\/p>\n

\u2018My Wife, the Witch!\u2019<\/em> was Greene\u2019s last inking contribution for a nearly a year: a Fox thriller wherein Sue apparently gains magical powers whilst \u2018The 13 O\u2019Clock Robbery!\u2019<\/em> – with Infantino again inking himself – sees Ralph walk into a bizarre mystery and deadly booby-trapped mansion, before Hal Jordan<\/em>\u2019s best friend seeks out the Stretchable Sleuth to solve the riddle of \u2018Green Lantern\u2019s Blackout!\u2019<\/em> – an entrancing, action-packed team-up with a future Justice League <\/strong>colleague. \u2018The Case of the Costume-made Crook!\u2019<\/em> then finds Ralph ambushed by a felon using his old uniform as an implausible burglary tool.<\/p>\n

Broome conceived \u2018The Counter of Monte Carlo!\u2019<\/em> as the peripatetic Dibnys fall into a colossal espionage conspiracy at the casino and afterward become pawns of a fortune teller in \u2018The Puzzling Prophecies of the Tea Leaves!\u2019<\/em> (Fox), before Broome dazzles and delights one more time with \u2018The Double-Dealing Jewel Thieves!\u2019<\/em> with a museum owner finding his imitation jewel exhibit is indeed filled with fakes…<\/p>\n

As Fox assumed full scripting duties, mystic nomad Zatanna<\/em> guest-stars in DC<\/strong> #355\u2019s \u2018The Tantalising Troubles of the Tripod Thieves!\u2019<\/em> as stolen magical artefacts lead Ralph into conflict with a band of violent thugs, before \u2018Truth Behind the False Faces!\u2019<\/em> sees Infantino bow out on a high note as Elongated Man helps a beat cop to his first big bust and solves the conundrum of a criminal wax museum. Detective<\/strong> #357 (November 1966) featured \u2018Tragedy of the Too-Lucky Thief!\u2019<\/em> (by Fox, Murphy Anderson & Greene) as the Dibnys meet a gambler who hates to win but cannot lose, whilst Greene handled all the art on \u2018The Faker-Takers of the Baker\u2019s Dozen!\u2019<\/em> after Sue\u2019s latest art project leads to the theft of an ancient masterpiece.<\/p>\n

Anderson soloed with Fox\u2019s \u2018Riddle of the Sleepytime Taxi!\u2019<\/em>, a compellingly glamorous tale of theft and espionage, before Ralph & Sue visit Swinging England (Detective<\/strong> #360 February 1967, by Fox & Anderson) for \u2018London Caper of the Rockers and Mods!\u2019<\/em> Meeting the reigning monarch and preventing warring kid-gangs from desecrating our most famous tourist traps, they head home to \u2018The Curious Clue of the Circus Crook!\u2019<\/em> (Greene). Here Ralph visits his old Big-Top boss and stops a rash of robberies following the show around the country. Infantino found time in his increasingly busy schedule for a few more episodes, (both inked by Greene) beginning with \u2018The Horse that Hunted Hoods\u2019<\/em>: a police steed with uncanny crime solving abilities, and continuing in a \u2018Way-out Day in Wishbone City!\u2019<\/em> wherein normally solid citizens – even Sue – go temporarily insane and riot, after which unsung master Irv Novick steps in to delineate the mystery of \u2018The Ship That Sank Twice!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018The Crooks who Captured Themselves!\u2019<\/em> (#365, by Greene) recounts Ralph losing control of his powers before Broome & Infantino reunite one last time for \u2018Robber Round-up in Kiddy City!\u2019<\/em> as, for a change, Sue sniffs out a theme-park mystery for Ralph to solve. Infantino finally bowed out with the superb \u2018Enigma of the Elongated Evildoer!\u2019<\/em> (written by Fox and inked by Greene) as the Debonair Detectives thwart a thief in a ski lodge who seems to possess all Ralph\u2019s elastic abilities. The Atom<\/strong> guest-starred in #368, helping battle clock-criminal Chronos <\/em>in \u2018The Treacherous Time-Trap!\u2019<\/em> by Fox, Gil Kane & Greene, before iconoclastic newcomer Neal Adams illustrates poignant puzzler \u2018Legend of the Lover\u2019s Lantern!\u2019<\/em> and Kane & Greene return for intriguing all-action \u2018Case of the Colorless Cash!\u2019<\/em>. The close of the year signalled the end of an era as Fox, Mike Sekowsky & Greene concluded Elongated Man\u2019s expansive solo stretch with delightfully dizzy lost-loot yarn \u2018The Bellringer and the Baffling Bongs\u2019<\/em> (#371, January 1968).<\/p>\n

With the next issue Detective Comics<\/strong> became an all Bat-family affair. Ralph & Sue Dibny temporarily faded from view until revived as bit players in Flash<\/strong> and were finally recruited into the Justice League of America<\/strong> as semi-regulars. Their charismatic relationship and unique, genteel style have, sadly, not survived: casualties of changing comics tastes and the replacement of sophistication with angsty shouting and testosterone-fuelled sturm und drang<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Witty, bright, clever and genuinely enthralling, these smart stories from a lost age are all beautiful to look at and a joy to read for any sharp kid and all joy-starved adults. This adorable collection is a shining tribute to the very best of DC\u2019s Silver Age and a volume no fan of fun and adventure of any age should be without. It should not, however, be the only place you can stretch out and enjoy such classic fare.
\n\u00a9 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Broome, Gardner Fox, John Broome, Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, Irv Novick, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Mike Sekowsky, Sid Greene & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-1042-2 (TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. There are a bunch of comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Showcase Presents The Elongated Man”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,211,10,75,76,91,332,82,125,225,272,172,148,107,169,99,268],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-atom","category-batman","category-crime-comics","category-dc-superhero","category-flash","category-gil-kane","category-green-lantern","category-humour","category-mystery","category-neal-adams","category-robin","category-romance","category-science-fiction","category-spy-stories","category-westerns","category-zatanna"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8oV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32301,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32297\/revisions\/32301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}