The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero!

Title: "The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero!"

Issue: The Flash No. 134
Date: February 1963

Format: 15-page main feature.
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: John Broome
Penciller:Carmine Infantino

Inker: Joe Giella (Murphy Anderson did the cover).

Main characters: The Flash, the Elongated Man (6th appearance, last seen in The Flash #130).
Supporting Characters: Iris West, Miss Twist.

Villains: Captain Cold (5th appearance, last seen in The Flash #129).

Setting: Central City.

Stolen Item: Captain Cold and other convicts.

Mystery: What is making Lical, the super computer of the Central City University, give the wrong answers? and later, what is making the Elongated Man act against his will?

Method: Coincidence and association of ideas.

This is the first time:

• The Elongated Man figths Captain Cold.

Let's go over the track first: Flash #134 (cover date February, 1963),  is the third issue to feature the Elongated Man on the cover, his sixth appearance, his fifth team up with Flash and his third confrontation with a Flash Rogue, in this case, Captain Cold, one of the most recurring.

I'm a bit indifferent to the cover (remind me later to do an article about the covers). The last one at least had the amusing giant boomerang and Ralph stretching to catch it; this one is a bit confusing. You can't really tell that easily that Ralph is going against the Flash. Maybe if he was wrapping him or something...

Teaser: That's one weird giant "tiger butterfly".

Ralph is absent from the teaser, I'll get back to that later. Meanwhile lets go over the character developments:
1. Ralph's identity is confirmed as public knowledge. We saw him getting married in superhero costume in Flash #119, and despite that the Flash knew it was supposed to be a secret, he called the Elongated Man by his Christian name in public while wearing his uniform a couple of times before that (#112 and 115) and once more in #124; however, the status was never confirmed. I think there was a lot of a lack of planning to this situation, but we can safely assume that it was Flash's Homer Simpsonesque absentmindedness that made Ralph give up the secret. 

2. Ralph is confirmed as a celebrity.We already knew this from the newspaper headlines talking about his wedding in Flash #119 and the non-Central City crooks recognizing him in #124. But I think it is interesting to see the reaction of Central City University's scientist after seeing the Elongated Man (even though they were in the presence of the fastest man alive).

The premise to get Ralph in the story is fun and interesting, basically it's a 'superhero play date'. Unfortunately, I think the plot was a bit odd. First, Ralph's accompanies Flash to unsuccessfully try to help the people from the Lab of Physics of Central City University figure out what's wrong with their super computer (they search in the hardware, which is odd, since I'd expect the error to be in the software, any ideas?), then the duo moves on to capture about 30 prisoners who have just escaped. Their last fugitive turns out to be Captain Cold (who is secretly the mastermind behind the prison break) and they eventually track him stealing the U. S. Mint, only whenever Ralph attacks him, for some reason he end up going after Flash.

Captain Cold show some interesting characteristics. I had no idea that he was originally a lady stalker. So far I had only seen the hilarious thug version of  Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the Challenge of the SuperFriends minion, and the cold-hearted code obeying villain of modern comics, but I'd have never imagined him as a stalker a-la Crazy Joe Davola, complete with wallpapered pictures of his target in his prison cell. In this issue, we learn that after his 'crubsession' on Iris he moved on to a dancer known as Miss Twist and he seems to think that he'll somehow impress her by grabbing the headlines with his crimes. That goes nowhere in the story, but it's definitively an interesting characterization.

Captain Cold's wall in his prison cell.

In the story, it is also the second time that Flash requires the Elongated Man's help. However, in this story, Ralph serves mostly as part of the mystery with his odd behavior rather than a supporting hero. I'd have liked to see him being a bit more than a clue action. In his first appearance, the Elongated Man solved crimes before the fastest man alive, now with the 'super hero play date' premise as a pretexts, it'd have been interesting to have them exchanging tricks or competing against each other in this story. Specially when they had to capture the prison escapees.

All in all, I think Broome wasted a lot of interesting possibilities that the plot offered: developing Captain Cold (with his scheme going somewhere), seeing the odd behavior grow oddly in Ralph, having a friendly competition to capture the escapees and Ralph revealing his methods.  However, I do think it fits withing the Elongated Man development and I like that it exists.

Kid Flash Meets the Elongated Man!

Ok, time for a new post. In this case one that is long overdue:

Flash # 130, "Kid Flash Meets the Elongated Man!" (Aug 1962).

Title: "Kid Flash Meets the Elongated Man!"

Issue: The Flash No. 130
Date: August 1962

Format: 11-page second feature.
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: John Broome
Penciller:Carmine Infantino

Inker: Joe Giella

Main characters: The Elongated Man (5th appearance, last seen in The Flash #124), Kid Flash (10th appearance, last seen in The Flash #127).
Supporting Characters: The Flash (last seen in The Flash #130/1).

Villains: The Weather Wizard (2nd appearance, last seen in The Flash #110).

Setting: Goldville in Oakley County (Norwest USA), Blue Valley.

Stolen Item: The spring of Oakley County.

Mystery: Why is it winter in Oakley County?

Method: Exploring the place. 

This is the first time:

• The Elongated Man meets and team up with Kid Flash.
• The Elongated Man has an adventure without the Flash.

If the title is not explicit enough about the content of the story, lets see if the teaser splash does the trick:

Get it? It's Kid Flash teaming up with the Elongated Man against the Weather Wizard in a story titled "Kid Flash Meets the Elongated Man!", which might or might not involve a super punch.

It's funny how the silver age writer's concept of mystery was using the word "mystery" in the title. Ok, to be fair, in many there's mystery or the protagonists, but the story gives it all away for the readers. I mean, instead of using the image of the Weather Wizard to try to make the teaser attractive, they could have done a cold opener; and instead of Flash assigning the mission to Wally, they could have shocked the kid with a creepy stretchy guy showing up in his house saying he knows he's the Kid Flash. Anyways... I'm digressing.

Back on track: this story is the 5th appearance of the Elongated Man (the second story if his fighting Flash's rogues era), the 10th of Kid Flash and the second of the Weather Wizard. Flash only appears in the introduction. I'm getting the impression writers started shuffling characters as a mean to avoid monotony. Given the title, it's needless to say this is the first time Wally and Ralph team-up; their friendship is revisited during the JLE era.

Flash goes to Blue Valley to recruit Kid Flash to join the Elongated Man on a mission. Mark Waid will establish in the post-Crisis continuity that Blue Valley is in NE, just as Waymore, the city that, at some point (I do not know in which issue, do you?), is established as the birthplace and childhood hometown of Ralph. Anyway, the story starts with a very creepy introduction.

Good thinking, Barry! A grown man wearing skin tight spandex probably shouldn't be seen along with a child in his bedroom.

But as the story starts looking like a "very special episode" of Blossom, Flash elaborates.

"The Celebrated Elongated Man"; both Flash's comment and the caption in this story reinforce the fame that the Elongated Man has within the DCU. Note how Ralph sings his regular name in the letter. Newspapers published that Sue married the Elongated Man in  Flash #119, but the status of his secret identity won't be specified until the issue after this one.

So Flash doesn't want to molest the incredibly young Wally West, he just wants to send the child in his place to fight thugs with an Elongated Man. Somewhat better. If I was Wally I'd prefer the negligence to the abuse.

Nothing like some great 60s parenting. It's remarkable how that's not negligent at all.

Anyway, Kid Flash goes to the hotel room of another grown man in spandex, to see what "aroused his curiosity".

Check out the "Ace Hight Hotel"! I love Carmine's sense of architectural design!

I have to admit that in 18 years of reading comics I never noticed that Kid Flash first uniform was equal to that of his mentor. So, in the end, Flash: Rebirth is not the first time that we have two Flashes wearing the same uniform.

By the nature of the case (which wasn't a big deal), and what Ralph has done so far to solve it (he didn't even explore the area), it's clear that he was just recruiting help to share the adventure. Then again, there's a reason cops work with partners.

They cross the frozen surroundings. Basically nothing they couldn't do alone.

 And there goes the mystery, not like the Weather Wizard in the cover wasn't a dead giveaway. So, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Once we learn the villain is just pulling a racketeering scheme, it's just a matter of a couple of pages before the villain is behind bars.

The story, as all the previous, authored by Broome, is pretty much going from A to B. Shuffling characters was a good idea, but it's not enough. Personally, I think it could have used a twist or a McGuffin. Compare it with The Space-Boomerang Trap!, for instance. One good thing I can say about the plot is that it reminds me a bit of Superman: The Animated Series' episode Speed Demons, which is a great thing. Infantino and Giella's art is flawless as always.

Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man, vol. 1

Believe it or not, there was no Elongated Man trade until 2006's Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man, vol. 1 (don't wait up for the color version). The good:

• 559 pages of Elongated goodness in 52 stories.
• The lack of coloring Joe Giella, Sid Greene and Carmine Infantino's wonderful ink work.
• You get the full Elongated Man 101.

The bad:

• The lack of color is a bit tiresome. The impact is not the same.
• The Table of contents is a mess.
• No foreword, articles, annotations.
• The cover is ruined with the "Over 500 pages of Comics!" crap.
• It's missing about 30 stories and we have not seen volume 2 after 5 years.

Since I didn't get JLE, I only new Ralph as the stretchy guy in the superhero crowds of the early 90s. After the Super Buddies miniseries, Identity Crisis and 52 I was hooked on Gingold. Europe '92 was mostly a disappointment, and even though there was no color trade I decided to give Ralph a second chance with Showcase Presents and I've never regretted it. I have to admit that it's a decent introduction that doesn't go hard on the pocket. After that I've been collecting the rest of the Elongated Man material issue by issue.

When it comes to Carmine Infantino's art, I always say the same: flawless. By the different art styles, you can tell how much was up to the inkers back then. save for the last 15 stories, all the art was done by Infantino, and yet, some of that look really different. Joe Giella is really neat, Infantino (who did some inking) is very scratchy (but not any less appealing) and Sid Greene is somewhere in between. Carmine's sense of fashion and design is something most artists, including modern ones could only wish to have (Cooke and Sale come close to it, though). When Sid Greene does the pencilling as well, the stories look a bit funnier. Other artists include Murphy Anderson (who also did some of the inking in the Carmine issues), Irv Novick,  Neil Adams, Gil Kane and Mike Sekowsky (recognize any names?).

Same artist, different inker. Note: this images are from the original publications, the Showcase doesn't have color.

The writing and editing in all is done by the guys who revived the super hero genre in the late 50s: John Broome, Gardner Fox and editor Julius Schwartz. Back then stories were mostly for kids. They are very naive, might present huge deal events as if it was nothing and introduce every single aspect (nowadays editors do the opposite, which is a lot worse). It's not the type of trade you read in a couple of hours, but something you calmly enjoy during 10 minutes every day. The great and now late Dwayne McDuffie once told me that, since younger generations are only trained to read post modern comics, we're bound to have some troubles with silver and golden age stuff. If you are not used to silver age story telling, be patient, you'll get there at no time. And it's really worth it, these guys are the source of many mind-blowing stories by Alan Moore and Grant Morrison.

The Space-Boomerang Trap!

Cover of Flash #124, The Space-Boomerang Trap!, the second in which Ralph appears.

Title: "The Space Boomerang Trap!"

Issue: The Flash No. 124
Date: November 1961

Format: 16-page main feature.
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: John Broome
Penciller:Carmine Infantino

Inker: Joe Giella

Main characters: The Flash (last seen in Justice League of America #7), the Elongated Man (4th appearance, last seen in The Flash #119).
Supporting Characters: Sue Dibny (2nd appearance, last seen in The Flash #119).

Villains: Captain Boomerang (2nd appearance, last seen in The Flash #117), interdimensional alien invaders (1st and only).

Setting: Central City, a "super-scientific dimension adjoining ours" (true story), somewhere with a beach.

Stolen Item: The Crown Jewels of Normark.

Mystery: How did Captain Boomerang steal the Crown Jewels while witnessing the crime?

Method: They just caught the boomerang. 

This is the first time:

• The Elongated Man saves the Flash.
• The Elongated Man fights Captain Boomerang or any Flash rogue.

The Space-Boomerang Trap! I love how silver age stories emphasize every title with exclamation marks! And you can't put a price on the weird combination of elements that somehow represent a treat to the heroes: It's a trap (a) that consist of a boomerang (b) that travels through space (c).  On top of that, on the cover, we have the Flash tied to a giant boomerang. Only during the silver age! It's actually not that bad considering that nowadays' "realism" can become a bit tiresome. These days, it takes Grant Morrison to make a silly premise like that a mind-blowing concept.

Anywho... the subject of this post is Flash #124, "The Space-Boomerang Trap!". It's the 4th appearance of the Elongated Man, the second appearance of Captain Boomerang (his first was Flash #117) and about the 50th appearance of Flash (counting second features). It is also the third of what I call the "alien trilogy" or "era" and the first of what I call "the rogue's gallery series". As I explained before, after his debut in Flash #112, the next three appearances of Elongated Man, issues 115, 119 and this one, 124, the red and purple duo fight alien menaces. After this one, Ralph won't fight this kind of threats until his first Justice League case (if I'm not mistaken).

This is a transition story, while the last of the alien fighting series, it's the first out of four ones in which Elongated Man teams-up with Flash to defeat returning villains:

• Captain Boomerang in this issue, 
• the Weather Wizard in #130, 
• Captain Cold in #134, 
• and the Pied Piper II in #138. 

Save Captain Cold, all of them are facing alone Flash for the second time; so, it's pretty much a re-frying formula. Returning villains with Elongated man as a variable.

Another important aspect of The Space-Boomerang Trap! is that it marks the first time Ralph goes to aid the Flash an not the other way around. In Flash#112, they were rivals and team-up at the end; in #115, Ralph seeks the Flash's aid; and in #119, Flash rescues him. However, they all end up with team-ups in which they look equally effective. In this story, Flash writes the Elongated Man to update him on a Captain Boomerang case that he has not been able to crack. The criminal appears at exhibitions but a boomerang comes from elsewhere and takes the valuable objects. Since he can't fly, the Flash is not able to catch the boomerang.

After reading from Flash about the Captain Boomerang situation, Ralph decides that this case requires his talents.

Note that, although the Elongated Man has not been formally called a detective, we have a mystery drawing his attention. The Same can be said about The Elongated Man's Secret Weapon in Flash #115. Then again, this a conjecture that I'm making, but Flash, Batman, Superman and the other heroes were probably drawn to mysteries as well. Which is why my theory is that Ralph became a detective to fit Detective Comics, and most of his merits as one were being called so by the caption boxes. More on that in future posts.

Since the Elongated Man mentions that Flash usually leaves messages for him at the police headquarters whenever there's an emergency,  page 6 makes it official, we missed a lot of team-up adventures before the wedding. The same page is probably the first indication that Ralph loves the attention:

1. Flash makes a habit of leaving information for Ralph. 2. Ralph declares loving attention for the first time.

Once Ralph enters, the case is solved by the duo's combined talents. While a time and space traveling boomerang is a challenge for a speedster who can't fly, catching it takes almost no effort for somebody who can stretch 100 yards at "rocket speed", much less when he borrows impulse from Flash.

Thankfully, the story has a couple of twists that keep it going, as it turns out that the mysterious boomerang not only travels time and space, but also whatever the other one is called (for practical reasons, let's call it Bob), so it attracts the attention of extra-dimensional invaders. Freaking extra-dimensional invaders! Once again, with this story we get another example of how silver age writers had the habit of making the most extraordinary circumstances look ordinary. My guess is that it's storytelling style. The very same story would be shocking to modern readers if narrated with Grant Morrison's style. Well, maybe he'd cut out the fatigue guns, haha. I wonder from where did Broome get his sci-fi concepts.

The extra-dimensional invaders.

I didn't like the extra-dimensional invaders look individually, but they really look interesting when Carmine portrays them together.



This story also help me find out how come a villain like Captain Boomerang can be a match for the Flash. I like that he's capable to inventing a weapon that travels time, space and the other one.


I thought I wouldn't find much out from rereading this story, but it turns out I was wrong.  Next time I'll review Kid Flash Meets the Elongated Man!, the first story in which Wally teams-up with Ralph, a duo that would return in the Justice League Europe era.

The Elongated Man's Undersea Trap!

Title: "The Elongated Man's Undersea Trap!"

Issue: The Flash No. 119
Date: March 1961

Format: 14-page second and main feature.
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: John Broome
Penciller:Carmine Infantino

Inker: Joe Giella

Main characters: The Flash (40th appearance, last seen in The Flash #119 / 1), the Elongated Man (3rd appearance last seen in The Flash #115).
Supporting Characters: Sue Dibny (1st appearance), Iris West.

Villains: The Bredens (1st and only).

Setting: Central City, somewhere at the Caribbean coast of a Central American country, Breda.

Stolen Item: Ralph.

Mystery: Where's Ralph?

Method: Mere searching. 

This is the first time:

• The Elongated Man is established as a World-famous celebrity.
• Sue appears.
• Ralph and Sue are seen as a married couple.
• Sue meets the Flash.
• It becomes apparent that the Elongated Man gave his secret identity away.
• The Flash saves the Elongated Man.

This is the last issue I consider essential to understand Ralph's background and, again, a key element is only read between the lines. In the first panel of the story (second page), we see a news papper with the header "Elongated Man marries debutante Sue Dibny". We have 6 messages, 3 of them are developments and 4 of them are hidden between the lines. Let's see the image:

 

So, we have that:

1. The Elongated man marries Sue Dearbon.
2. Sue is upper class.
3. Sue is a young adult.
4. The Elongated Man is famous enough for his wedding to make it to banner newspaper headliners. The caption indicates that's he's one of the country's most distinguished celebrities.
5. His friendship with Flash grew to the point of making him his best man.
6. Ralph gave away his secret identity (he cand marry with his Elongated Man identity as the news papers show.

      NOTE: This is Sue's first appearance.


I think it's interesting that a character that would evolve to be DC's top detective after Batman has some "mysteries" in his origins.

This story makes Ralph the first superhero to marry as well as the first to give up his secret identity (he probably did both things at the same time, which would also make him the first to do so). Various superheroes like the Flash, Hawkman, Batman (Earth-2),  the Atom, Red Tornado, Wonder Girl, and eventually, Clark, Ollie would follow his example.  The Atom follows it to the point of giving up his secret identity as well (this happens right after the Crisis). Additionally, the fact that this is Sue's first appearance, also makes the Elongated Man the first superhero to break the formula of keeping a troubling and endless romance on the side.  They will also remain a relatively drama-free marriage for the rest of their adventures.

The past issue also established him as the first superhero to make a living out of his super powers, to do so as an entertainer, and to make a fortune out of it.

I think all of what has been shown in these 3 stories makes him a pretty assertive guy: he goes for the super powers, he gets them; he goes for the fame and fortune, he gets it; goes for the debutante beauty, he gets her. Vini, vidi, vici. Compare that with poor repressed Barry and you won't wonder why he felt so jealous at first.

There are some factors to Ralph giving up his secret identity:

1. His civil identity wasn't developed (we don't get to see his job or daily life).
2. Barry was constantly giving it away.
3. He earned more money as the Elongated Man.
4. He enjoyed more being the Elongated Man than Ralph.
5. As established in future stories, he dated Sue as Elongated Man, not Ralph.

The goofiest one is Barry repeating his real name in public (special thanks to Indiaink for helping me notice):

"Wait, did I thought that or did I say it out loud?! Ahhhh"

If you're a superhero, whatever you do, never, never tell your secret identity to Flash! I mean, it's almost deadpan comedy! The great and late Leslie Nielsen couldn't have screwed Ralph secret identity better. And to think Ralph didn't even tell Barry's identity to his own wife (who lived years among superheroes)!

Barry will keep repeating Ralph's name like and oblivious goof during this and the following stories until the secret identity status is clarified by Julie. This was all obviously writing and editing mistakes (there are a lot of  clear thought balloon/speaking balloon mistakes in these issues), which leads me to believe that giving up his identity was a happy accident. This is Elongated Main's 3rd appearance; the status of his secret identity won't be specified until the 6th (and the specification is repeated in most of the stories after that). My theory is that the creative team realized that there was no secret identity anymore 3 issues after writing Barry as a clutz and after the Elongated Man married in his superhero identity. Again, stuff that somebody should be rushing to ask Carmine Infantino.

I think what we missed would have made some dynamite pages; Flash and Elongated Man crashing Sue's debut, and a showman stealing her from the high class elite juniors would have been really cool to see. Deciding to give up his secret identity in his wedding would have also been a nice shock. 

Interesting thing abut Sue: thanks to Infantino she had a great fashion sense even in her first panels (note that she changed clothes in the same scene).

Oh, and I almost forgot! there's the rest of the story after that panel. Another "alien" story (the second of the "alien phase"). This time is the Bredans, a sub aquatic civilization that kidnap people to use as "kotas" (slaves). In this one Ralph doesn't do detective work of any sort, the story is basically about rescuing the Elongated Man from them (somehow, by no merit of his own, Barry doesn't lose his memory). I like that it's very "Twilight Zone" with a lot of pulp sci-fi vibe; a world in which fish fish men. The art is awesome as always. I love the Bredan's design and their tech (funny thing, they look aquatic, but they don't breathe water), too bad they don't become recurring characters after this story.

The Bredans.

 This issue defines Ralph's stretching speed as rocket-like, which helps explain how come he did some stuff faster than flash in his first appearance.

FINAL NOTE: The final caption of the story got me thinking about what might have been the Elongated Man's popularity like. I did a little researching in The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe and it turns out that up until he left Flash to get his own Detective Comics feature, he was the most recurring character after Iris and Wally. Not even the most recurring villains (Grodd and Cold) appeare as much as him.  

Mystery of the Elongated Man!

I'll start this blog talking about the first debut story of the Elongated Man, "Mystery of the Elongated Man", published in Flash #112 (May 12, 1960). The character is introduced as the Flash's new mysterious rival, beating the world's fastest man to stop every crime. The situation reaches its peak when Flash's reporter girlfriend tells him that he's not getting the "Man of the Year Award" -- because the Elongated Man has been nominated in his place.  

Title: "Mystery of the Elongated Man!"

Issue: The Flash No. 112
Date: May 1960

Format: 13-page main feature.
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: John Broome
Penciller:Carmine Infantino

Inker: Joe Giella

Main characters: The Flash (24th appearance, last seen in The Brave and the Bold #28), the Elongated Man (1st appearance).
Supporting Characters: Iris West. Ken Dibny and the Dibnys (unamed, 1st apperance, flashback).

Villains: Perry Veto and his gang.

Setting: Central City, Waymore (unnamed, in a flashback)

Stolen item: XV century Ming Dynasty vases.

Mystery: Who is the Elongated Man and how is he beating the Flash to every crime scene?

Method: Flash sets up the Elongated Man, while he's using detecting. 

This is the first time:

• The Elongated Man appears.
• Flash teams up with the Elongated Man.
• The Elongated man reveals his secret identity (to Flash).
• The Elongated man is associated with the word "mystery".

An interesting aspect of the story is that it shows that the ever altruistic Flash is very capable of feeling jealousy and vanity, to the point that he'd rather believe that the Elongated Man is a criminal than accept that there's a more capable crime fighter.  

Barry Allen, what a jealous b**ch!

Funny thing about silver age stories: they often present big deals as if it was nothing. One would think that Ralph never acted as detective before he got his own feature in Detective Comics, but read between the lines here, his detective talent was so great, he managed to solve crimes before a detective who can move at the speed of light. It's the Flash who has trouble keeping up, not him!

As you can see, the arrival of the Elongated Man was a nightmare for the jealous Flash.

Sadly, this is the only story in which the Elongated Man is the arch-rival of Flash. I think it would have suited both better to keep the relationship like that for a few more stories before moving on to friendship and collaboration. However, the character was a success and became one of the earliest recurring Flash characters. It's worth noticing that Flash #112 is actually just the 12th appearance of the title character (24th if you count issues with two features). Before that, the title used to belong mostly to Jay Garrick, the golden age Flash, and was suspended during most of the 50s.

The issue was written by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, which is why they are normally credited as the creators of Ralph; however, I think he actually was the brainchild of Julius Schwartz. I can't find a source confirming so, save the legendary statement that if he had known that DC owned Plastic Man, he wouldn't have used the name "Elongated Man", which might be a hoax, since Carmine said that Julie never talked about Plastic Man while plotting and, according to Murphy Anderson, he'd have also deny any connection between the characters.

Infantino has mentioned that Elongated Man was never meant to be a famous character (which is why he didn't joined the Justice League during the 60s, even though he was created before Atom and Hawkman), but he got an unexpected popularity and enough fan mail to give the character hi own back up series. Talking about Infantino, the art is just awesome. The guy really catches the modernist spirit of the 60s. He has a great sense of fashion, at design and even architecture. The poses and angles of silver age stories are never that impressive, but modern artist should still take a look at Infantino's stuff and learn a lesson or two.

The story is good, but it has a problem that is very common in Broome stories, he reveals the mysteries way too early (Gardner Fox did it less often). Even Scooby-Doo writers knew that the masks have to come off until the end. I think it could be easily rewritten from a postmodern view, making nod to the golden age of detective fiction. Just narrate it from Barry's perspective. We'd learn about the "mystery of the Elongated Man" from Flash, a jealous detective trying to figure out his deal because he believes he's the culprit of the wave of robberies. The Elongated Man would reveal his history, his identity and the real culprit after Flash mistakenly apprehends him, then they team-up and catch the criminal. See? We have a mystery wrapped in a mystery and the suspect turns out to be the detective. How postmodern is that?!