The 6 Birthday Mysteries of the Elongated Man

"The Elongated Man's Other-Worldly Wife" (Detective Comics #332) started one of the earlier traditions of the Dibny: The birthday mysteries.Every year, around Ralph's birthday, March 21, Sue prepares a mystery for him to solve. She does so many of those that, at some point, the Daily Planet runs an entire section on them.

Some of his partners in crime include the Sue's uncle Jim, Flash, Green Lantern, Alfred Pennyworth, the entire Justice League International and his last was going to be Green Arrow.

Since Ralph turned 55 on Tuesday, in order to keep the celebration going, I decided to make the list of birthday mystery stories.

BIRTHDAY MYSTERY I

Detective Comics #332 (October 1964), "The Elongated Man's Other-Worldly Wife" - Ralph discovers that Sue is the beautiful leader of an alien invasion. Written by Gardner Fox, with art by Carmine Infantino and Sid Greene.
This is the one that started the tradition. Epic art, Carmine is the master of design Sue looks incredible as an alien queen. This is by far, her most elaborated scheme.

BIRTHDAY MYSTERY II

Detective Comics #350 (April 1966), "Green Lantern's Blackout" - Hal can't remember that he is the Green Lantern, so, since Ralph and Sue are in Coast City, Pieface recruits him to save the day.

This birthday Ralph got a very memorable present from Sue (and Paul Gambi?).
Written by Gardner Fox, with art by Carmine Infantino.
Somehow, this one has a dark feeling, a bit hardboiled for an Elongated Man story.

BIRTHDAY MYSTERY III

Detective Comics #375 (May 1968), "The Face That Stopped Clocks" - In Wayside City, a man can stop clocks by staring that them. Even though Ralph is expecting Sue's mystery and his nose doesn't twitch, he agrees with her to follow him. 

Written by Gardner Fox, with art by  Mike Sekowsky and George Roussos.
Out of all the DC superheroes of the 60s, the Elongated Man feels the most like a sitcom of that era. This story is just like watching Bewitched, The Dick Van Dike Show or My Favorite Martian. 

BIRTHDAY MYSTERY IV

Detective Comics #449 (July 1975), "The Mystery Man Who Walked On Air" - Sue spots an old man walking on air outside their hotel room in Key West, FL.
Written by Mary Skrenes, with art by Dick Giordano.
I don't know if its the 70s, or the "old man", but the only thing missing is a scary monster to make it a Scooby Doo story.

BIRTHDAY MYSTERY V

Justice League Quarterly #6 (January 1, 1992), "Take My Wife--Please!" - Sue goes missing in Seaside City and the Ralph gets help from the Justice League International to find her.

Written by Mark Waid, with art by Eduardo Barreto, this is often considered the best birthday mystery by fans. Personally, I have to agree; this one feels like Ralph and Sue take the JLI gang on a roller coaster of mystery, keeping both the Giffen-DeMatteis line of humor and the silver age vibe of the Elongated Man stories. 

Ralph is perhaps the only silver age superhero that kept his mid-60s spirit, this feels like a celebration of that.

BIRTHDAY MYSTERY VI

Identity Crisis #1 (June, 2004) - "Chapter One: Coffin" - Ralph thinks Sue is only going to get him a magnifying glass he saw in Belgium, but at their Opal City home, she has a bigger surprise and a mystery set with Green Arrow on board... We end on a sad note...Written by Brad Meltzer, with art by Rags Morales.
It's controversial... I'm not touching that one with a 60-feet pole.

And that was the last one. Hopefully, the new DC horizon will bring us many more.
 

THE END

OR IS IT? (Update: 06-30-2015)

Nope, it wasn't. And that's great news.

BIRTHDAY MYSTERY VII (or VI b)

The pic is from Justice League 3000 #12 (feb 2015), and it shows the Blue Beetle and Booster Gold of what I like to call "Earth-Bwah-Ha-Ha" (hey, the term kind of got a blog laugh from J.M. DeMatteis), a continuity in which the events after I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League are completely different from what was published by DC. This means that Identity Crisis, Countdown, 52 and all the stories that turned the lives of Ralph and Sue, along characters like Maxwell Lord, Blue Beetle and Rocket Red into deaths and tragedies didn't happen. Instead, we get a number of extra birthday mysteries for Ralph, including the one Blue Beetle is talking about in the picture.  

In this continuity, sometime after the events of  I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, disappear when the Super Buddies were having a surprise party for Ralph and wake up some 3000 years in the future. This means that, although they didn't plan it, their disappearance became the 7th published birthday mystery, and, since Ralph obviously didn't find them, we can assume it's the only one he never solved... 

HAPPY 55th BIRTHDAY, RALPH!

Actually, according to Mark Waid's excellent Justice League Quarterly #6, that's on March 21 (along with Dick Grayson). However, the date on the cover of The Flash vol. 1, #112, his debut issue, is May 12, 1960, which means that the character is 55 years old. He could be my old man!

Ralph was created by editor Julie Schwartz as a supporting character for the Flash. Legend has it, that he would have been named "Plastic Man" if his creator, the legen-- wait for it... dary editor Julie Schwartz knew DC had the rights to that name. Which makes sense, since he liked to make new characters with old names.

At first, only after Iris herself, he was one of the most recurring character in the pages of The Flash. He met the Flash, saved the world from a number of alien invasions, got married to Sue, gave away his secret identity, met Kid Flash and fought some rogues. However, after a while, he moved with his wife to the pages of Detective Comics, where they became comic book versions of Nick and Nora Charles, traveling throughout US and the world in a convertible and solving mysteries in every town. 

In his first appearance, his detective skills were so fine that Flash couldn't beat him up to the crime scenes.
They both had to share the "man of the year award".
Left: Eventually. Ralph got his own adventures in the pages of Detective Comics.

Some time later he joined the Justice League of America, which later became the Justice League International.

Ralph and the Justice League of America.

Ralph and Sue with the Justice League International.

Some of his best accomplishments include solving the murder mystery of Edgar Allan Poe, teaming up with the Flash to prevent 3 alien invasions, defeating the Felix Faust and Neron team-up, becoming one of the earliest members of the Justice League and teaming up with Batman, Robin, Slam Bradley and Sherlock Holmes to fight Edgar Moriarty.

Unlike most superheroes, Ralph makes his own luck. He created his own super powers by formulating the "Gingo elixir", from the extract of an indigenous fruit from the Yucatan Peninsula (ie, "made in Mexico"). He also trained himself until he became one of the best detectives of the world, made a fortune as an entertainer and married a beautiful girl from New York's high society. He is also a close friend of DC's best, from Clark Kent to Ted Kord, he knows them all.

Another big difference with most superheroes is that Ralph is laid back and a bit of a class clown. Oddly enough, his humor tends to come from his observations rather than his making odd shapes with his body; if Plastic Man is Jerry Lewis, the Elongated Man is Jerry Seinfeld. This takes after Nick Charles, and as in his case, humor is just a side of Ralph's sharp mind. When he is not solving mysteries he is learning languages, like French, Interlac or Kryptonian.

Ralph and Carter are about to get busted by Wonder Woman.

One of the earlier traditions of the Ralph Dibny mythos (since "The Elongated Man's Other-Worldly Wife", Detective Comics #332) is that around his birthday Sue would prepare a mystery for him to solve. She has done so many of those that the Daily Planet ran an entire section on them. Some of his partners in crime include the Flash, Green Lantern, Alfred Pennyworth, the entire Justice League International and his last was going to be Green Arrow. (For more information about Ralph's "birthday mysteries", click here). 

And it looks like DC is giving him a birthday mystery. Just like Sue not right on his birthday, but around it, as we have the Convergence: Justice League of America story going on.

They are back!

I wish a nice come back for my all-time favorite DC character. 

For more information about Ralph's "birthday mysteries", click here.