An ear -- In the Fireplace!: Reviewing "Ten Miles to Nowhere!"

Title: "Ten Miles To Nowhere"
Issue: Detective Comics No. 327
Date: May 1964
Format: 10-page backup feature.
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Gardner Fox
Penciller and inker: Carmine Infantino
Main character: Elongated Man (8th appearance, last seen in The Flash #138)
Supporting Characters: Sue Dibny (4th appearance, last seen in The Flash #138)
Cameos: The Flash, Kid Flash, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Captain Boomerang
Villains: Al and other thieves (first and only appearance for all).
Setting: Lake Champlain, Montreal (flashback), Central City (flashback).
Stolen item: 2 million dollars (60s dollars) in diamonds.
Mystery: Who drove the Dibny's car for 10 miles while they were sleeping and why?
Method: Tracking and spying. 
This is the first:

• Elongated Man solo story (before this, he only appeared as a guest star in The Flash).
• Elongated Man appearance in Detective Comics.
• Elongated Man backup feature, which starts a series in Detective Comics.
• Time Ralph is called "the Ductile Detective".
• Time Ralph doesn't wear a mask as the Elongated Man.
• Time Ralph gets obsessive about his fame.

Before this issue we say Ralph's interest in mysteries in Space Boomerang-Trap! (Flash #124) and Kid Flash Meets the Elongated Man! (Flash #130) and do some clever detecting in The Pied Piper's Double Doom! (Flash #138). This story has a stronger focus on him as a detective.

The feature starts with a recap of the Elongated Man. The teaser indicates that he used to be a Flash character, then, we have a cool indication of how his powers work.

The Dr. Jekyll comparison is a bit too much (Ralph changes his physiology with Gingold extract, but he's mind is pretty much the same), however, it is pretty cool and a great pretext for Infantino to go wild. It's also great to know that Jekyll exists in the DC Universe.  
Then the story starts. The Dibnys are returning from eastern Canada and they are stopped at customs in the frontier. The officer explains that there was a robbery of two million dollars in diamonds in Montreal. Gardner goes almost straight to the comic relief aspects of the story:

This sets the tone of the rest of the story and the rest of the series. There is mystery, but there's also humor and the tone is very lighthearted (even more than The Thin Man). 
Right after that, Ralph gets involved in a mystery:

It is important to notice that the third page, which features the last 6 panel that I have shown, define a lot about Ralph; he's a bit of a goof and a very methodical man. He's constantly watching for things out of place, which makes him notice that somebody has been using his car. This, of course, gets him obsessed.

This is the pattern that will be followed by 99% of the rest of the series, just as sending Sue to do some shopping while he investigates. By now, we also got a sense of the kind of woman that Sue is: easy going, witty, and a bit hedonistic and frivolous.
In this story we see one of the most commons methods that Ralph uses to find the culprit, tracking and spying, which is only logic, given the nature of his super powers.

Oddly enough, he arrives just in time to hear the villains recap their crime (this happens a lot in his stories). Which results in one of the most memorable lines of the silver age.

That has to be one of the most surreal panels of the 60s, and it lead to the first of many weird fights that the Elongated Man had with lots of nameless thugs. "An ear -- In the fireplace!" Ha, ha, ha. The first time I read it, it flew under my radar, but I instantly recognized it when I read it as the title of the blogs of a couple of other Elongated Man fans. Great superhero movies tend to make a big deal out of the simplest uses of superpowers. They don't take them for granted. Think of Superbaby lifting Pa Kent's vehicle. Even dodging a punch from local high school bully, Flash Thomson, can be awesome if properly told. I think that, before any of those flicks, this is what Fox and Infantino captured in this panel. We have those thieves, talking about the secret details of their last hit, and they see a freaking ear hanging from the fireplace! Next thing they know, something that seems like a person comes out of it and start throwing punches from everywhere, like some sort of super fast rubber octopus.

With the case solved and the villains out of the picture, the story goes back to Ralph's silly obsession.

This first issue is great for Ralph in that Schwartz finally let him shine. There is a lot of focus on his abilities, the kind that was never seen while he was second fiddle to the Flash.

I also feel that Carmine Infantino was also let shine with this story. He didn't pull that kind of dynamism with Flash. I think it also features the prettiest pics of Sue.

To me, this is one of the greatest Elongated Man stories. Yes, it has some silly, far too coincidental aspects, but there's a lot of great characterization. I believe that Ralph was one of the earliest heroes to develop a personality (back then, heroes used to be distinguished just by uniform, hair color and powers).

It's a shame that current comic writers think they need to open every mystery with a very graphic and grotesque murder scene. Being the greatest detective doesn't require to solve the darkest mysteries. Sherlock, himself, had some pretty silly cases (look it up). I have nothing against murder cases for detective superheroes, but there's a lot of potential in thefts too; The Pink Panther was all about them.

One of the highlights of the Elongated Man is how entertaining his fights were. Only stretchers can pull that kind of stuff, and it's not like there's many of them.