10 common misconceptions about the Elongated Man

Finally! The Elongated Man is set to debut this Tuesday (October 31), and many fans of the show might want to know a little more about him. Googling him is easy enough, but with so many misconceptions spread online it's very easy to get the facts wrong.

For instance, Geek History Lesson podcast #184 got every possible fact wrong. Which goes to show us the limitations of the Internet as a source. So, I made a Steemit post about the most common misconceptions about Ralph. Click here to read it.

Why Steemit? Because that network allows us to get rewarded for every contribution we make as bloggers. So, if you like the content, please make sure you start an account there, upvote it, and create your own.

Here are two of the ten misconceptions:

10. "Identity Crisis and 52 are the best Elongated Man stories"

Those are some of the best stories with him, but not the best about him. Neither has a protagonist. In the first —which some fans even consider damaging for him as a DC property—,  he and Sue are plot devices and the mystery is solved by chance. In the second he gets a great case to solve, but that's one of six main plots of the series.

Showcase Presents the Elongated Man shows the character in his original spirit —imagine a 60s sitcom with Dick Van Dyke as a detective with super stretching. It compiles all of his early appearances in The Flash and his first 45 in Detective Comics, although it has no second volume and it leaves out anything published after January 1968.

A complete list of recommentations would have to include Detective Comics #500, 557 and Justice League Quarlerly #6, because....

7. "Sue always hung out with the League at the Watchtower"

Although it's a good one, the sad truth is that Sue didn't frequent the Watchtower. She started hanging out with the Justice League at the bunker during the Detroit years, and later again with the Justice League Europe at the Paris JLI Embasy (which they eventually moved to London). This takes us to...

Click here to read the other 8 misconceptions about the Elongated Man.

The Elongated Man might make his live action debut in The Flash, season 3

According to tvline.com, The CW is casting a character that fits Ralph Dibny's description for the third season of The Flash.

"For Season 3, the CW hit is casting the major recurring character of Barry’s slightly older, slightly geekier contemporary, a guy who is as smart as he is intuitive. As such, this newcomer doesn’t buy Barry’s nice guy routine and sets out to learn what he’s hiding — all while concealing some secrets of his own…."

(sources: Den of Geek, TV Line)

Remember, the Elongated Man debuted in The Flash #112 (the 8th issue featuring Barry instead of Jay). In that story, he is introduced as a superhero rival of Flash. Ralph beats him to solve so many crimes he suspects him of being a criminal. Of course, the explanation is that Ralph is just a better detective.

This is a great move for the series. Ever since Flash: Rebirth, DC has limited the Flash mythos to Barry, Iris, Reverse Flash, the Rogues Gallery and the now altered story of the Allens, forgetting many important elements of the silver age: Ralph and Sue Dibny, Kid Flash, Earth-2 Flash and Dexter Myles (not to mention the occasional otherworldly villains like Mazdan, Katmos or the Breedans). Hopefully the series will also include Sue, Dexter and the rest.

End of Secret Six

The fourth volume of Secret Six is over.

The series is lots of fun (if anything it, could have used two or three extra issues), and it made great contributions to the diversity of DC characters, but it's also noteworthy because of its contribution to Ralph and Sue Dibny as characters.

As its last cover shows, this incarnation of the Secret Six is about a family of quirky misfits brought together by a common enemy. In contrast, the previous incarnation of the Secret Six is a group of key players within the DC Universe supervillain community who refuse to join a syndicate of super-criminals called Secret Society of Supervillains.

In the first two issues of this series, we see Catman —a classic minor enemy of Batman and part of the previous incarnation of the Secret Six—  get captured and tortured along Big Shot, Porcelain, Black Alice, the Ventriloquist, and Strix. The five of them characters apparently created by Gail herself (one of them is soon revealed to be another classic character in disguise).

After their rough start, despite their shenanigans, Ralph Dibny keeps them together in a suburban house outside Gotham City, where they fight the Riddler, a Lovecraftian menace and the League of Assassins.

It would seem pretty odd to see the Elongated Man, a character usually associated with very straight and heroic people, with criminals and misfits, but we can guess that Gail was paying some tribute to the hardboiled roots of the characters. Ralph and Sue Dibny are famously based on Nick and Nora Charles, from The Thin Man.

Despite their wealth and happiness, Nick and Nora love to party and drink with all sorts of people from Nick's past as a private detective. They also take care and almost adopt the troubled Dorothy Wynant. All of this is very similar to the way Ralph and then Sue take care of Catman, Porcelain, the Ventriloquist, Strix, and especially Black Alice.

The Thin Man was originally a novel, but MGM made a film adaptation and several sequels out of it. The book and the scripts for the first two sequels were written by Dashiell Hammet, which might explain the way Gail portrayed Damon Wells as blue collar, hardboiled detective, and Sue appears to be a femme fatale at first. Of course, there are no sources to back this kind of similarities as something Gail intended, but they are still there.

Intended or not, the fun part about it is that Secret Six is the origin story of Ralph and Sue within the New 52 (some of that might remain as part of the upcoming "post-Rebirth" continuity), and Gail just gave them a backstory that pays tribute to their  hard-boiled roots.

The first Superheroines in comics

It is common to think the superhero genre is dominated by male protagonists, and it is. It has been that way since the beginning... although not as much as we think. A little googling and some listing can show us that there were a lot of golden age superheroines (or mystery women) and that they were as talented and independent as their male counterparts.

After reading a bit about Lady Luck, the theme picked my interest, and since the last month, I've been doing this list on my free time. It covers superheroines of the golden age of comic books (c. 1936 - 1953) and provides basic info on each character (publishers, first appearance, general premise), as well as some comments I make about their innovations, influences, originality, fashion sense, impact, and influence.

This is a really long post and I don't expect anybody to read the whole thing. However, it has many sections about different characters, so it's a "pick your favorite" sort of situation. The advantage is that having all of it in one post allows us to compare and see the relevance of each character.

Good girl art, superheroines, censorship, and feminism

By comparing superheroines with their male counterparts, we can get an idea of their equality. It's clear that publishers were just cashing on the "good girl art" (drawn pin-ups with a focus on their "headlighs" and other female parts —the term was coined later by David T. Alexander), which resulted from making female versions of popular male superheroes, without realizing the positive implications for equality and feminism. They were creating fictional women who were not only equal to regular men but epic superhumans, such as Tarzan, Buck Rogers, The Shadow, The Phantom or Superman.

A little context is necessary. The golden age of comic books coincided with the Hays Code, which moderated the amount of violence or sex (or even cleavage) movies could show, and was enforced from 1934 to the late 1950s. Since pulps and comics were largely uncensored back then, they became the biggest outlet for that kind of content. And the fastest way for publishers to serve it was drawing women in Tarzan or Flash Gordon mini-costumes beating thugs.

I think this image is making a commentary about its readers.

One could certainly argue that such representations objectified women —titillating male readers and indulging their escapism, and they certainly do all of that—, but they also made them look like their counterparts: admirable men in even fewer clothes. If Sheena, Mysta or Namora wear skimpy clothes, Tarzan, Flash Gordon or Namor wear even skimpier ones, and the six of them have skills beyond normal men. This is the rationale that made feminist Gloria Steinem ask DC Comics to bring back Wonder Woman's star-spangled bottom.

Ralph and Sue's legend is still strong 1000 years later!

... In the form of a themed Grill & Bar.

There are many interesting things going on with the above image from the fantastic third issue of  Justice League 3001. I'm sure Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis were just having fun, but that's what happens when you have talented craftsmen on the job.

Among the extras we can see the somebody looking like Ambush Bug, a creation of Keith, and another guy resembling the Shadow (perhaps an homage to Andy Helfer?). The Chrysler Building seems to be on the background, which would mean we are seeing the New York City of 3001 AD, when Earth is a dumpster called Takron-Galtos, a place for criminals and low lives.

The restaurant sign alone reveals that there is a Ralph and Sue themed bar and grill, which might lead us to assume a number of things. Until we see the next panel!

You are thinking "is that Wolverine next ot Clark?", but in this picture,
there are a couple of DC regulars hidden in plain sight as well.

There's something funny going on. Let's take a closer look.

Those are freaking Ralph and Sue!! 

I won't get ahead of myself. We have two great options. In the worst case, those are not resurrected Ralph and Sue, which means their legend was so strong it lived as a franchise for almost 1000 years. But let's be practical, if Barry was resurrected for the 3rd time, and we know Firestorm (in control of Cadmus) is now reviving even guys like Gardner, odds are those are resurrected Ralph and Sue and they own a place now. Only Keith and J.M. know the answer and future plans for the characters.

This is a great year for Dibny fans.

By the way. I cannot recommend enough to buy this series. The creative team is a guarantee, and, after a great start, it has been getting more and more entertaining with every issue. The art is fantastic, the story is great and it's impossible not to care about these characters. Not because they are beloved DC icons, but because the compelling way they are written. 

If I'm not mistaken... Ralph and Sue lived longer in JL 3000!

It all depends on this picture from Justice League 3000 #14. That's a flasback with (left to right) Ralph, Max, Oberon, Ice and Sue, showing a moment, way after the Super Buddies issues, sometime after Fire exchanged places with Ice at hell.
The story also states that Ice never saw Fire again, however,
a. that's not how Ice revived in the pre-Flashpoint continuity, as seen in Birds of Prey #105 (July 2007),
b. Fire and Ice reunited and teamed up in Justice League: Generation Lost (2010),
c. by the time Ice was resurrected in the pre-Flashpoint continuity (July 2007), both Ralph and Sue were dead and Max had turned evil.

If I'm correct and those are Ralph, Max and Sue, it means we have our first post-Flashpoint continuity in which they are still alive at the present time!!

And here is a cool picture of the whole gang. Just because:

Update: I've confirmed it at J.M. DeMatteis blog, CREATION POINT (actually, he did said so in an interview that I missed before I asked). By the way, that blog is really awesome, J.M. is incredibly cool and gives honest answers to about everything.

Girls get Sue Dibny

Last week I mentioned that I wanted to marry Ralph Dibny. I’m actually not sure if that’s true, or if I just want to be Sue Dibny. Though her appearances in various Justice League International titles have kept her modern, Sue still possesses a certain air of old-fashioned glamour; you just know she talks like a heroine from a noir or screwball comedy. (It helps that her relationship with Ralph was famously based on Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man books/movies.) She’s always witty and self-possessed; even in the Silver Age she could banter with the best of them. 

On her own, Sue is brilliant, funny, brave, and forthright, whether she’s slugging a supervillain or putting the moves on the dashing (well…dashing-ish) Elongated Man. She’s the brains of the Superbuddies (okay, that’s a bit of a tallest hobbit situation, but still) and the heart of the JLE. She once encouraged an entire nation to rise up against their supervillainous dictator. And no one can wear an outrageous hat like she can!

That's from a post in Dimestore Dames, a column by Jessica, on the girl-wonder.org blog. Jessica focuses on many female characters in comics, who are all too often pushed aside in favor of male heroes and villains. She has gone as far as declaring that she wants to be Sue, be married to the Elongated Man and punch Hal Jordan in the face... Which girl wouldn't?

Don't read it. The picture is good, the content is just wrong, ha. ha.

Sue makes a great case. Modeled after Nora Charles, she had a defined, interesting personality from the start. However, after she joined the Justice League Europe, she also developed as a multi-talented woman. We already knew she has an amazing taste and was a great fashion designer, but her time in the league showed that she is also a great hacker, a leader and a top notch PR manager. Later, Gotham Knights #41 revealed she is also a great mystery writer and a talented amateur detective, rivaling with Batman and her own husband. Can Lois Lane pull all that? Didn't think so.

So, yeah, feminist girls should look up to this fine fictional lady.

CLICK HERE to read the full article. I fully recommend in order to understand about one of DC's most talented women.

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. 

THEY ARE BACK! THE DIBNYS ARE FINALLY BACK!!

Well, it finally happened. It was a very pleasant surprise, a perfectly satisfying return and… I didn’t have the time to report it.
Anyway, the Dibnys are back and just as we remember them. Literally, since these are not the New 52 versions but the ones from the 80s Earth-One.
As part of the Convergence crossover, Ralph, Sue and the entire Justice League roster of the Detroit incarnation are back in  Convergence: Justice League of America #1,  written by Fabian Nicieza.

Convergence: Justice League of America #1

The issue is part of a longer story and doesn’t stand alone. Which means there will be more of our favorite couple. The best part of this is that Sue is the POV character, so, predictably, Ralph will be the hero of the whole story.
A great surprise is that Fabian gets the characters just right. They feel just like Nick and Nora Charles, which is actually a great improvement over most of their original appearances (Justice League Quarterly #6, being the most notable exception). If in the next issues he solves a mystery, we would have the full deal.
If this wasn’t good enough, according to the USA Today article about this issue “Fabian Nicieza is eagerly awaiting the call to do a monthly detective comic book featuring Ralph and Sue Dibny”. That would be great news. I don’t know how serious is that, but I found that so exciting that I even went to Dan DiDio´s facebook wall to congratulate him on the decision. Fabian clearly gets the characters and the current DC line could definitively use a book like that.
As soon as I read the whole JLA Detroit story in Convergence, I will write a review here.

UPDATE 

The mystery of how the actual heroes are not on the cover.

The second part of "Heroes Interrupted" in Convergence: Justice League of America #2 is even greater than the first. Well, at least for Ralph and Sue.

Finally a story that revindicates the Elongated Man as a JLAer!

...Just not on this panel.

The story make a nice showcase of Ralph's fighting abilities. He is basically all around stretching more than he ever did on a JLA book.

The issue also focuses on his skills; however, in this case, it isn't on him as a detective, but as a strategist and a field leader.
In addition to being the POV character, Sue also becomes the problem solver, along with an anachronistic Detective Renee Montoya (she debuted in 1992 as a regular cop in blue). Sue didn't actually started to take initiatives like that until Justice League Europe #9, when she helped save Power Girl.

The downside of so much Dibny focus, to be fair, is that the rookies are not really showcased. The story could have used about 5 pages to focus on the fight of the Justice Leaguers against the Secret Six after spreading. However, this isn't really a bad thing, the story is clearly about the Dibnys: it shows how Ralph and Sue can do a lot with very little. 

This image says it all!
Enlarge if you don't mind spoilers.

New Elongated Articles

Hi, everyone,

I've been really busy with work and life in general, and it seems that the situation is going to stay like that for a long while. Luckily, other bloggers have not forgotten about Ralph and Sue.

WTF, DC? Elongated Man/Digital Comics

Whoever writes WTF, DC?  decided to do a nice recap of the Dibny tragedies and their current status. A pretty neat job; the auhor nailed all the highlights and reminded us that DC still owes us an explanation: Why?

Why indeed.

Perhaps that was intended as a saga that never materialized. Perhaps TPTW were not Dibny fans. We're unlikely to get to know now.

I agree that Identity Crisis put the Dibnys on the map. And that was front and center in a way that I don't think they have ever been. Barry went with a bang on Crisis on Infinite Earths, Hal did the same on Zero Hour and somehow, the JLI's comic relief got his moment as well. After that, Blue Beetle II, and Booster Gold followed. However, despite the peak moments of fame that those stories provided for their protagonists, they normally don't sit well with their fans, which is why Barry and Hal eventually returned and why people like the author of WTF, DC? still expect the return of Ralph, Sue and Ted in the New 52.

If I had to do some constructive criticism on the article, I'd say it needs to go back a bit more, before JLI, when Ralph became mostly comic relief. His past as supporting cast of Flash, mystery solver and the idea guy of the JLA (mostly after Batman left) could have been mentioned.

DC Couples

Here's an interesting pick of four of the most iconic and solid DC couples.

As far as I can track it's origin, the original poster of this image seems to be Mecha Rebekah, from Tumblr. Maybe she drew it too.

A bio thingy

Frank Diabolu just sent me this. He received it from Shag. Further than that, which is not much, I have no idea of its origins. Enjoy it, anyway.

25  characters still missing from the New 52

And finally, here's a list of characters that still need to return in the new DC continuity. After even Year One has gone out the window, the common opinion seems to be that the new Ralph and Sue should just pop up with a somewhat clean story. I insist, detective fiction sells greatly on TV and books, so, it should do fine in comics (more so now that DC has no couples).

Carmine Infantino dies.

To the world of comics it can be said that a legend passed; to the world of the Elongated Man and Flash it must be said that the legend, Carmine Infantino, passed away at age 87.

He created the Elongated Man, Sue Dibny, Flash, the Rogues, Grodd, Batgirl, Animal Man, King Faraday, Pow Wow Smith, Detective Chimp, Black Canary and Captain Comet, and contribute to Adam Strange and the first Flash, and revamped Batman during the 60s. As you can appreciate, one can't possibly think of silver age without getting mental images of his art. Not only he was prolific, but his style truly capture the style of his era. As an architect, seeing his interpretations of modern an googie architecture is quite an experience. And the same goes for fashion enthusiasts. I didn't live through the 60s, but no artist gets the vibe of the shows and movies of era like Carmine.

R.I.P.

Since the experts teach best, here's some Infantino 101 from the master Ty Templeton: http://tytempletonart.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/carmine-infantino-and-roger-ebert/

Superheroes and their mythos

I have often wondered what makes a new comic book character (or a returning one that had faded) stick around. So far, my conclusion is that a breakthrough run will make him relevant; however, a rich mythos is key to make him stay past the first writer. Think about it, what do Batman, Superman, Spider-man, the X-men, have in common that characters like Aquaman and specially the Martian Manhunter lack? They all have a great rogues gallery, well known supporting cast, popular technology and locations.

Ok, it's fan-made, but you get the idea. (Art by Jeff Pina).

The problem with B-listers is that writers always try to create new elements for their mythos without embracing and revamping classic ones. They often move forward those characters, which is correct, without taking a look to the basics. When somebody mentions Batman, concepts like the Joker, Robin, Alfred, The Bat-cave, the Penguin, Catwoman, Commissioner Gordon, the Bat-signal and Gotham City come up immediately; when somebody mentions the Martian Manhunter... Exactly. This is why it would be good to revisit Professor Hugo, Mr. V or the Idol-Head of Diabolu in addition to creating new guys like Ma'alefa'ak. Aquaman would be an example of somebody in the middle, he has a fairly developed supporting cast and setting, but when it comes to his rogues gallery, most people draw a blank after two of them.

Now, Ralph is an animal of another species. Like Sherlock, all he needs is a sidekick (Watson, Sue) and interesting mysteries to solve. Most detectives share a similar formula. This is why writers were always able to recreate the vibe of his original series way after it ended. However, given that Ralph is a superhero, and I have nothing better to do I decided to merge the case-driven detective formula with the mythos-driven superhero formula to produce a series of fake solicitations. Here is the mythos I conceived for him:

SETTING

The Dibnys hard traveling years are over, so, they decided to settle in New York City, at the Dearbon Building, property of Sue's parents and located on 5th Ave. in front of Cantral Park and the Guggenheim. However, old habits die had, so half their adventures will take place all over the world. Frequent destinies include Waymore, NE birthplace of Ralph, and Yucatan, birthplace of the Elongated Man.

In this case, the fake stories are set in the fake Earth-J, named after Julie Schwartz, where its still the 60s and most of the DC heroes are just debuting.

SUPPORTING CAST

Ralph and Sue basically know everybody who is anybody in the DC Universe on a secret identity basis. Ralph is very specially tight with the Flash and Batman; however, only a handful of characters get to appear in almost every adventure of his fake series.

Sue Dearbon - Ralph's wife and sidekick. She's very plucky and talented. She is an authority on fashion, mystery writing and computer hacking.

Frazier - See the villains section.

J. J. Dearbon - Sue's dad and landlord. He came from Ireland with nothing on his pockets and now he's one of the richest men in the world. He has a loud, big bear type of jolly personality. However, he can be quite greedy ans is always exploring new ways to make money all around the world.

Caroline Dearbon (neé Astor) - Sue's clueless mother. Despite being very perceptive, she's quite clueless and she's normally sitting around in a perpetually good mood making unintentionally hurtful but honest comments.

Chief Clancy O'Hara - Cousin of Gotham City's Miles O'Hara, the clueless, stubborn and short tempered police chief of NYC, he calls the Elongated Man when crimes become unsolvable.

THE COMMON SUSPECTS

I figured common suspects would ruin the mystery, but even Sherlock has a Moriarty, right? Ralph has stated that he avoids supervillains on purpose for his own safety reasons, but how about a crowd of lovable thugs like Batman used to have in the 60s?

There's just one true villain here, and that's the big mystery of the first season, the rest are just con men and petty people.

???? - The "Moriarty" I was talking about. Just like Ralph solves mysteries for the thrill of the challenge, his enemy should manipulate all crime in the Eastern Seaboard just for fun. In the first big arc a number of villains will be introduced and Ralph will have to find out his identity.

Frazier - Ralph and Sue's old pet dog comes back with a twist. He's the Thin Man's Asta gone narcissistically wrong. In this fake continuity he's a Westie, since I don't think a Jack Russell can pull evil or has the required personality. If he was a regular villain, he would be too much for any superhero, but being just a dog, his silly instincts hold him back.

Egghead - Think of characters like Frasier Crane, Hackman's Luthor, Megamind, the Brain (from Pinky and the Brain) and, of course, the real deal, as portrayed by the great Vincent Price. He used to be a supervillain in Gotham, but now he's reformed and lives at the Dearbon Building along with the Dibnys, so his role is mostly that of an obnoxious neighbor and radio talk-show personality.

Miss Bacon - Egghead's infatuated secretary. She types for the posterity almost anything his eggocentric boss says. Their relationship is quite unprofessional, if you know what I mean, and she enjoys hinting people about that.

Mistress Sinestra - A local TV personality with secret witch powers. Basically a cross between Magica De Spell, Elvira and Fran Fine. She's obsessed with fortunes, spells and curses, so she's a constant pain for the Dearbons.

The Elongated Evildoer - Martin Beene. One of the few notable original enemies of Ralph. Obsessed with the Elongated Man for no good reason, he discovered a way to elongate things that he has touched. However, since that's a silly power, this time he comes back with regular stretching superpowers. He knows more than Ralph about stretching, but he's quite incompetent as a criminal, which frustrated him even more.

The Clinton Boys - 3 of them used to be "the Untouchables", who battled Ralph, Superman, Robin and Hawk and Dove, but they reintegrated with their family in Hell's Kitchen to become the largest gang of thieves / carpet cleaners (don't ask) in the NY metropolitan area.

M. M. Pennypacker - More of a frienemy of J. J. Dearbon, Sue's dad. He's his evil counterpart from Australia; the Flintheart Glomgold to his Scrooge McDuck. The main source of his wealth is news media, which is how he manages to stay clean depite being a crook.

Average Joe - Joseph Jones, and average looking man. He commits clean, practical crimes leaving no traces,   the perfect challenge for Ralph.

Rajah - A magician / hypnotist from the old Elongated Man stories. Magicians make great challenges for detectives, so this one is a natural.

L'Escargot - France loves the Elongated Man, and believe it or not, this guy is one of Frances biggest super criminals (true story, look it up).

Kukulk'caan - An ancient alien who once enslaved the Mayans. He created the gingo fruit that gave Ralph his super powers and his ship keeps attracting aliens to Yucatan.

Maximo Molina - Yet another megalomaniac trying to conquer the world, this one acts like an eccentric hacendado from Yucatan. Basically the local Prince John.

Edgar Moriarty - This creepy guy is the head of Scotland Yard. However, his family name makes him an obvious prime suspect.

The Grünewappen family - They are secretly the wealthiest family on Earth, but their status is threatened by the rise of a new criminal mastermind of Europe.

RECURRING CHARACTERS

The Super-Hero League of New York - Also known as the Super Buddies, an association of New York-based superheroes who offer free services to the community. Ralph and Sue work here in order to use its resources. The list of members is really long, but the common suspects include Power Girl, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Fire, Ice, Rocket Red (exchange member) and Guy Gardner. It is managed by the sleazy Maxwell Lord, along with L-Ron and Oberon.


Billy Warner - Ralph's #1 fan from the old stories. He lives in Astoria, Queens and wants to become a master detective like his idol. His body also reacts to gingo extract with elasticity, only he promised Ralph not to use his powers until he becomes a pro.

The Flash - Ralph's bro. He often calls when a mystery gets too complicated at Central City or visits just to hang around.

Batman - The other Worlds greatest detective. They often have to team-up when mysteries get too complicated.


The Croatoan Society - A league of Detectives who gather annually to solve paranormal mysteries. The original members were Ralph, Detective Chimp, Edogawa Sangaku, Dr. 13 and Tim Tranch. Sherlock Holmes, the Question, Filo Molina and the Dog joined eventually.

P. I. Butch "Dog" Douglas - NYC's former top detective. He's not that talented as a detective, but he makes up for it with dog-based super powers.

Speedy Gonzalez - Yucatan's champion, and the first speedster and superhero Ralph met. His powers also comes from a fruit, in this case Yucatecan chilli pepper.

Don Eduardo - Ralph's host in Yucatan. He's old and very knowledgeable on everything about Yucatan, so he serves as the resident guide. He's a great host, but is set in his conventional ways, so he finds Ralph's shenanigans obnoxious.

Filo Molina - A friend of don Eduardo and Yucatan's top detective. He's a retired trauma doctor who solves crimes on his free time.

Amos Hurd, the Millionaire Cowboy - A friend of Ralph from his old adventures. Pretty much the J. J. Dearbon of Texas.

The Justice League of America - The elite super-hero team of America, so, obviously, Ralph belongs to it. Its roster includes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Robin, Green Lantern, Flash, the Martian, the Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman and Black Canary. Zatanna joins along with Ralph, and eventually it will also include Hawkwoman, John Stewart, Firestrorm, Cyborg, Samurai, Apache Chief, Black Lightning, Supergirl, Enchantress and Platinum.

More Elongated art!

This image by Mark Stutzman deserves its own post I have to know the history behind it. I guess the trinity had to go for the Best next thing after Batman in whatever that adventure was (apparently a commission for a Fusion Toys puzzle series). Oddly enough, Ralph was a lot closer with Batman and only teamed-up once with Wonder Woman.

Hawkman and the Atom #46, art by Ryan Sook.

I believe this one was done by Willis Bulliner. And I guess that's Ralph saluting TPTB for his fabulous role in the New 52.