Top 10 grounded DC characters.

Art by yours truly, Rafa Rivas.

For certain characters, who never had notoriety of any sort, its completely normal to get dry spells of publication. Nobody expects the likes of Angel and the Ape, Anthro, Prez or Detective Chimp to get their own regular series. However, since the 70s, every decade has a different set of previously prominent DC Comics character hidden under the rug. As if TPTB were ashamed of those properties. The Martian Manhunter, Firestorm, Zatanna, Red Tornado, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Adam Strange and even Aquaman have all been through that.

The first clear example would have to be J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. When the Justice League of America was founded, outside the "super trinity" (Batman, Superman and Wonder), he was about as famous as any of the rest. Really. In fact, the weakest link was Green Lantern, who debuted some months before the team was created. After the debut of the JLA, all its members were editorially pushed with their own titles; the Martian moved from Detective Comics, where he was out-shined by Batman, to House of Mystery, where he became the lead. The Elongated Man replaced him in Detective Comics. However, that all faded by the late 60s; he was first taken out of House of Mystery, and then, he was written off the Justice League. By the 70s, he was known as the green bald dude who was somehow a funding member of the JLA. After over a decade of cameos, the Justice League title provided the best justification for his return: it needed full-time members, who wouldn't have adventures outside the book. Lacking options to make the team feel like the real JLA, writer Gerry Conway decided to bring the green dude back, and for similar reasons, the next creative team kept him as leader of the Justice League International. DC revamped the League once more in the mid 90s and, this time, the angle was going for the original founding members (or their available equivalents). Consequently, after all that, despite his long absence around the 70s, the Martian became known as "the heart and soul of the JLA". That's a happy ending, let's see how it continues now that he has been retroactively erased from the origins of the Justice League and shoehorned into a team called "Stormwatch".

Zatanna, for instance, was a steady member of the JLA after the late 70s. Like the Martian Manhunter and the Elongated Man, she stayed with the League during it's "Detroit era". However, once it was over, she went back to scarce cameos. The controversial and successful Identity Crisis limited series brought her back to the spotlight, she has a miniseries, joined the League for a while, appeared in Detective Comics, and got her own title. Now, she's with something called "Justice League Dark".

Firestorm popped up in '78 with a mini series, then, fully boosted by his creator (Gerry Conway), returned in 1980 to join the Justice League and get his backup feature in Flash. In 1982, he graduated from the backup to get his own title. Then, they got the popular characters out of the JLA title, they did some really weird stuff with him in his book, yadda, yadda, yadda, he didn't appear through the 90s. When I started reading comics, I often wondered whatever happened to the guy from Super Friends with fire instead of hair. He returned, but they keep doing odd things with the character.

Along with the Elongated Man, half the characters who were part of the Justice League International, were notoriously absent from 1996 to 2004. They revamped them as the "Super Buddies" in a couple of limited series that were critically acclaimed and sold very well. However, after the first series, for some reason, one by one, each of those characters was killed off (Sue Dibny, Blue Beetle, Rocket Red, the Elongated Man), horribly derailed (Maxwell Lord, Captain Atom, Mary Marvel) or went through hell because of that (Booster Gold, Fire).

Their absence is normally a bit more notorious once they return; however, I believe I can identify the missing people of this era. My criteria is how recurring they were in the past, compared to what they get now:

10. Zauriel and Aztek

Shooting stars like Ragman or Blue Devil, they were never really regulars of anything. However, their absense is odd, considering that their creator, one Grant Morrison, is one of the most influential forces of the current DC Comics authors. He tends to leave a trace of brilliantly conceived bastard children behind him.
9. The classic Teen Titans

Not really an endangered species, since we get to see them all around; however, they do lack a regular series. During the 70s, writers avoided using or creating sidekicks (children fighting crime are a dumb idea, anyway), so they kept them in the Teen Titans team (a team of teenagers with no adult supervision... sounds better, doesn't it?). In 1980, DC aged them, added new characters and it became a hit. Sidekick problem solved, right? Well, not really. They kept aging and, during the 90s, DC created a new wave of sidekicks... which eventually needed a team, and since the Teen Titans were no longer teenagers, they got the name as well. Now the original titans are too old to stay in the team and not popular enough to substitute their mentors. Some became part of the Justice League, but that didn't sit well with the title's fans at all. Without a team, most of these characters are doomed to be title-less, which puts them at risk of fading away.

8. Black Lightning

Black Lightning was created to be the main African American superhero from DC Comics, and yet the character has been blocked from every opportunity of exposure outside comics: for Super Friends, they had to create "Black Vulcan", for Static Shock, they created "Soul Power", and he was notoriously absent in Justice League. He got some recent prominence in comics, but it has been fading since he quit the Justice League. And now, with Static as the new and improved electric black dude, BL is even less likely to get some spotlight.

7. The Penguin

This guy is probably the most recurring and well known of the list. Ask anybody who's not a comics book fan - the Penguin is a popular character. He even appeared more often in the 60s TV show than the Joker. However, in the current comics, he's a mere supporting character. What happened? In the 80s all the popular Batman characters got their postmodern makeover. The Joker, Two-face, Poison Ivy and Catwoman went from silly gimmicky villains to complex characters. The Penguin (like the Riddler) never made the leap. Even though, in theory, he always had what it takes to be a spectacular villain with magnetic personality: An epic histrionic disorder. As the creators of South Park how far can a character get with that (yes, I'm talking about Cartman).

6. The Question

Between Alan Moore's Rorschach and the Fox Mulder-esque treatment the Question got in Justice League Unlimited DC had the perfect formula to make Vic Sage a hit character. On the other hand they had Renee Montoya, a minor supporting character getting quite popular thanks to Gotham Central. What was done? They killed off Vic and turned Montoya into the Question. Did it work? If the purpose was trading the lead status for a supporting one, I guess it did. Montoya is a lovely member of Batman's supporting cast, but she doesn't have the twisted mind that is required to be the Question and now she can't even fall back to her police role.

5. Garth

Aqualad's main roles were sidekick of Aquaman and member of the Teen Titans, but what happens when he becomes too old for either? Literally, not much. Garth was killed two years ago and a new Aqualad has replaced him on both fronts.

4. Green Lantern John Stewart.

John was always meant to be supporting, he was the original "fill-in Green Lantern" to Hal Jordan; however, by 1992 he was popular enough to get his own series - which was cancelled for no good reason. Later, in 2001 he became the Green Lantern of the Justice League TV series; the idea was to bring diversity to the show to reach a wider audience. The comics followed the trend for a while, but despite all the other media popularity, when DC resurrected Jordan and brought back Guy Gardner, Stewart hit the bench once again.

3. Lobo

Lobo was created in 1983 and by the late 80s he was appearing at least once every single month. He got a number of miniseries and then, after R.E.B.E.L.S. was cancelled, his own title. However, with the change of century, Lobo started fading. He became supporting character of Young Justice, some appearances in 52, and then, back to supporting R.E.B.E.L.S.

2. Wally West

Like Iris West (his aunt) and Ralph Dibny, the Kid Flash is one of the earliest and most recurring supporting characters of the Flash. In the silver age, he was also a Teen Titan. When Barry Allen died, Wally became the Flash (the character got the regular series) and has been part of three incarnations of the Justice League. Recently, DC decided to resurrect Barry. Now, we have two Flashes, but we only get to see the adventures of the original.

1. Elongated Man & Wife

Before the mid 90s, one way or another, the Elongated Man always had a decent amount of appearances. About once every month. After that, his appearances became scarce. In 2004, writers Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis found the perfect home for the Dibnys in Formerly Known as the Justice League. Then, Brad Meltzer decided Sue could be the perfect victym for a thriller (Identity Crisis) and further than that, her death unleashed years of megacrossover events for DC (not even the Death of Superman caused such an aftermath). Ralph died in one of those spins (52) and they ended becoming "detective ghosts". As tragic as those stories were, at least it can be said that they put the Dibnys front center; however, it has been over four years since the end of 52 and those ghosts have only made 3 very brief cameos. Ralph used to be one of the most recurring characters of Flash, along with Iris West and Kid Flash; he had ties strong ties to Batman, was a member of the classic silver age Justice League of America and the Justice League International. However, now it'd seem that DC goes out of its way to avoid featuring them (in Justice League: Generation Lost and Flashpoint, for instance). And it's not only in comics: Sue has never been featured in other media, Ralph's animation time doesn't add up to even 5 minutes, and he's notoriously absent from the DC Universe Online videogame and the DC Universe Classics action figures.

Reboot possibilities for the Elongated Man & wife.

As sources have been informing this day (check the Bleeding Cool article, for instance), after the Flashpoint event ends, DC is restarting its entire line with 52 #1 issues. The change will also reset the continuity and focus on the main heroes at early points in their careers... Which means that there's a big chance for Ralph and Sue, along with Blue Beetle II the original Question and other characters like Rocket Red No. 4, the Ventriloquist & Scarface, Black Mask, the Fiddler and the KGBeast, to return from death without even needing to resurrect. I really, really hope so.

While Ralph was not seen in Flashpoint #1, a mysterious "Elongated Kid" appeared in Flash #9, part of the prologue of the event. Let's hope that means something good for the Dibnys. At least we know that the Elongated Man is still in the mind of Geoff Johns.

Update
Among the list of titles DC has revealed for September, we can notice the following changes:

1. Barbara Gordon can walk and is Batgirl again!
2. Roy Harper (a.k.a. Speedy, Arsenal or Red Arrow) recovered his right arm.
3. Arnold Wesker, a.k.a. the Ventriloquist & Scarface, is alive.

Covers to Batgirl #1 (by Adam Hughes) and Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 (by Kenneth Rocafort), and alternative cover to Batman #1 (by Greg Capullo).

These changes, specially Wesker's return, open the door for the Elongated Man and Sue, the original Question, Blue Beetle II, Rocket Red No. 4, Freedom Beast, Black Mask, Copperhead and the KGBeast to return.

So, the big question is: Are Identity Crisis and 52 still in continuity? Personally, as much as I love those stories, I hope not. If they don't get to be part of the new continuity, it would be like having a cake and eating it too. Those great stories would still be part of a past continuity, but we get some classic characters back in the current one. It's just a matter of crossing fingers now.

Update - Jun 9th

Along with a team that could give nightmares to Marilyn Manson, the Elongated Kid seems to be making a comeback in the upcoming Teen Titans #1.

Is this good? To me, it all depends. If he turns out to be Billy Warner, the classic Elongated Man #1 fan from the silver age, I might become a fan (despite not liking the uniform); if that's Ethan Kramer, I hope he doesn't survive the first issue. I'm sorry, but I'm just not into Diet Coke or I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, I dislike replacement legacies.

I'm still hopping we get to see the real Nick and Nora Charles of DC Comics alive.

Update - Jun 15th.

Well, it seems like it's not going to happen after all. In an interview with Comic Book Resources DC's Editpr-in-Chief Bob Harras and DCU Executive Editor Eddie Berganza, revealed that events like Identity Crisis are going to form part of the new continuity:

Berganza: Right. Just because we're starting with new #1s doesn't mean we're getting rid of the history attached. A lot of those big, important storylines are remaining in tact. What happened in "A Death In The Family" stays true, and so does "Blackest Night," "Brightest Day," "The Killing Joke"...
Harras: "Identity Crisis." Again, this is a well thought out process before we went forward.

I think 52 is also likely to be part of it. What was done with the Ventriloquist and Arsenal seems to indicate that Robinson's stories might not be part of the DCnU, though. So it seems like we're back to crossing fingers for more those promised ghost Dibnys cameos or a resurrection...

Update - Sept 13th.

Here's a nice post about it by Bill D. from Trusty Plinko Stick:

Friday Favorites: The Elongated Man (and Sue, of course)

"If you read superhero comics, you know DC spent the last few years being very, very unkind to the Dibnys (...) However, as they're quick to remind everyone, DC's running a whole new (or at least really, really revised) ballgame right now. Some of the old continuity remains, a lot of it seemingly doesn't. Seems to me that some of the more unpleasant bits could easily be swept under the rug, don't you think? Come on, DC, give us back Ralph and Sue"...

...Click here to continue reading.

Top 25 Detectives that should cross magnifying glasses with the Elongated Man

Over his 51 years of existence, the Elongated Man has worked cases along with some of the DC Universe's most notorious detectives: Batman, Slam Bradley, two of the Robins, the Martian Manhunter, and the members of the Croatoan Society (Detective Chimp, Dr. 13, Tim Trench and Edogawa Sangaku); not to mention the Flash and even Superman, who are investigators as Barry Allen and Clark Kent. The legendary Sherlock Holmes has already met Ralph twice, first in the 80s as an old man, and then in the 19th Century in his prime. In another interesting adventure, Ralph and Sue, both big detective fiction buffs, solved the mystery surrounding the death of Edgar Allan Poe. Therefore, it's safe to say that detective crossovers is definitively a thing when it comes to Ralph Dibny. The question is, should it stop there? Hell no. As a ghost, resurrected or set in the past, the Elongated Man and wife should get to meet as many sleuths as possible. It's only logical for a rich couple that travels around solving mysteries.  This is why I made a list of the top 20 detectives the Elongated man should cross magnifying glasses with.

My rationale for the rank is simple, I just tried to level historical and current popularity with the chemistry and dynamic that they would have with the Dibnys (in other words, I pretty much did whatever I wanted). Let's consider their personalities first: Ralph is a very polite and nice Midwesterner, turned entertainer, turned her/socialite. As a detective, he has sharp eye for order, his main leads come from the crime scenes and he's quick to spot the extraordinary. His elastic powers serve him to spy suspects and infiltrate locations. His memory and ability to reconstruct scenes are sharp even under dramatic stress. Sue shares his wit and love for humor. In the classic stories she was just a spoiled wife and a compulsive shopper, but as time passed, she started getting into research. Her computer skills and experience coordinating the Justice League of Europe made her capable of  hacking a satellite. She also became a successful detective fiction writer and developed a lot of creativity as a sleuth.

So, without further ado, here's the list:

27. Inspector Gadget
Created by Andy Heyward, Jean Chalopin and Bruno Bianchi. 

Gadget is way too silly; even for a guy who made a super serum for elasticity out of a soft drink. This goofy cyborg is the wost detective ever. At least Clouseau is right on the money with his idiotic theories. I might as well have included Daffy Duck playing detective. However, I'll admit that the 80s kid in me thinks that it might be fun to see Ralph and Sue being forced to play the roles of Brain and Penny against a MAD that is somehow a serious thread, but it would rather have to happen in Gadgets universe.

26. Nancy Drew 
Created by Edward Stratemeyer. 

She’s a graceful, attractive, brilliant, overachieving and almost flawless teenage amateur sleuth. Gourmet cook, expert driver, great sailor, good painter and French speaker; Nancy Drew is a renaissance girl. She’s as multitalented as the Dibnys and just as nosy, if she was hedonistic like them, she’d be the daughter of their dreams.  I think Sue would have a great time solving a “where’s the Elongated Man” mystery with her.

25. The Hardy Boys
Created by Edward Stratemeyer.

Frank and Joe Hardy are the stereotypical ideal of WASP kids. They play popular sports, get very good grades at school, have a regular group of friends and have pretty girlfriends. That’s the part that is supposed to make most people identify with them; the part that gets them interesting is that their old man is a talented detective and they get to imitate him without having formal training. An interesting side of them is that they often question the authorities and show a bit of a cynical attitude. I don’t think the Elongated man would let the m help him solve a case, but they are not the type that take a no for an answer, especially if they get to find out something he missed.

24. Angel and the Ape
Created by E. Neldon Bridwell.

Angel O'Day is like a slutty version of Sue and Ralph rolled into one; a talented detective with great fighting skills and a weakness for clothes and hedonism. Sam Simeon is also a good detective, but he plays 'the Watson' by being the silent bodyguard type. That's a lot of potential chemistry. Ralph would probably play the mentor to this surprisingly talented duo. I think that a team-up between the four should happen in an Angel and the Ape series, so that the story can have its characteristic zany humor.

23. Magnum, P.I.
Created by Donald P. Bellisario and Glen A. Larson.

Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV is the slacker of this crowd. Like Ralph, he lives an ideal life, even if that's thanks to a benefactor putting the Hawaii mansion and the Ferrari 308 GTS. He's single, fun easygoing and quite the ladies man. However, thanks to his wits his contacts and military training (he's a former Navy SEAL), he's also the type who always gets the job done. When he accepts a gig, he takes his private investigation job quite serious. Above anything else, he relies on moving around and using contacts to gather information. This would leave plenty to do for Ralph and his deductions if they teamed-up. 

22. Madolyn "Maddie" Hayes and David Addison
Created by Glenn Gordon Caron.

Two of the few detectives in the list that are not super geniuses or utter incompetents. Maddie Hayes is a former model turned detective agency owner and David Addison is an alleycat turned detective/alleycat. Maddie is very proper, naive and controlling while David is a fast-talking scam artists. There's already a link and a secret story between Moonlightning and the Elongated Man: Ralph has a gun that is evidence from the "Anselmo Case" that was never solved in that series (despite working on it the entire run). Consequently, it'd just be a matter of explaining how he ended up with that. Ralph and David could definitively have an interesting detective team dynamic while Sue gives romantic advise to Maddie.

21. Monk
Created by Andy Breckman.

Even though Adrian Monk has OCD, a number of impairing phobias and a personality that is completely different from Ralph Dibny, they both follow a very similar strategy to break cases; they both work spotting oddities in the crime scene and using their privileged memories to remember every detail about it. I think that a story with both would require them to work separately on the same case, maybe Monk disappears while working on a case and Ralph has to follow his steps with Natalie assisting him. 
     
20. Lord Peter Wimsey
Created by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Lord Wimsey has a lot of common ground with Nick Charles and Ralph Dibny: he's a wealthy man who solves crimes instead of having a real job (and his wife is a detective fiction writer, just like Sue became). He's actually the original gentleman detective. On the surface, Lord Wimsey would seem like Bertie Wooster playing amateur detective; however, he's more like Bruce Wayne investigating without the tights. Despite his self indulgence with pleasures and hobbies, he has a hero complex (and some PTSD issues) and tends to use his skills to help people in need. It might be interesting to see Ralph and him work the same case in parallel, each in his time.
   
19. Batgirl
Created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino.

Barbara Gordon a.k.a. Batgirl pretty much works as a better version of Sue. Like Ralph, she has photographic memory; however, she prefers to rely on research and computer espionage like Sue. Maybe it was Batgirl who got Sue started with the whole hacker thing. That would be an interesting story to see.

18. Father Brown
Created by G. K. Chesterton.

Father Brown and Ralph Dibny have both very contrasting methods and personality. Brown is quiet and profound, Dibny is extroverted and irreverent. While the Padre relies on intuition, knowledge of human nature and borrows a some ratiocination from Dupin; the E-man is all deduction, observation. However, they both tend to find rational solutions to what appears to be supernatural. Put them in the same mystery and the story writes itself. 

17. Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully of the FBI
Created by Chris Carter.

Mulder is a believer and Scully is a skeptic, they practically invented those words. They are good detectives, but not in the league of some of the sleuths of this list, which is good: Ralph puts the brilliant mind and they put the X-file. Although he knows supernatural first hand, in the classic stories had a tendency to be skeptical like Dana. 

16. Harvey Bullock
Created by Archie Goodwin (not that Archie).

Lt. Harvey Bullock is not a solo flier, and he's not that impressive as a detective (actually, he's one of the less talented of the list), but this loud fowl-mouthed, clumsy, stinky, rude, stubborn, cigar-smoking, doughnut-eater, would make an excellent odd couple with the Elongated Man (I think Sue would bail on them after one minute of smelling Bullock). Ralph is easy-going, but I bet that the Fred Flintstone of the Gotham City Police Department can put that to the test.


15. Jessica Fletcher
Created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson, William Link.

 I think that, by now, unlikable people with lots of enemies should have learned to get the hell away when she visits. Jessica is a strong, independent widow who used to be an English teacher and now writes mystery novels; your average nice grandma. She’s very neat and organized with her life; however, every time an acquaintance of her gets killed (and that happens incredibly often), she has the habit of making time to get involved and discover the murderer. She’s very charismatic and it is easy to relate to her; consequently, her method relies heavily on getting to know the people involved; normally, in a casual manner. Her conferences and conventions would easily have her crossing paths with Ralph and specially Sue, which would probably mean that a recently introduced unpleasant character will get murdered. The great thing is that she and the Elongated Man have very compatible methods.

14. Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Machine gang
Created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears.

The idea is silly, and it would have to take place outside the DCU, but Scooby-Doo is a very recognizable pop-cult icon and, hey, if it's good enough for Batman, Vincent Price and Weird Al Yankovic, it's good enough for Ralph. I can almost hear Fred saying "Hey, it's Ralph Dibny, the World-famous Elongated Man". The story would probably have Ralph making an early cameo investigating a more case in the same town, then he would appear at the end revealing the identity of the villain, which was somebody related to his case, and finally, Wilma would reveal how the cases are related.



13. Charlie Chan
Created by Earl Derr Biggers.

Charlie is quiet, humble and wise. He always talks in proverbs and is very discrete. When he’s looking for a culprit, he’s main strategy is patience; he’s very observant and astute, often tricking the villain into incriminating himself or giving a lead away. There isn’t a Charlie Chan postmodern makeover yet (what is Jackie Chan waiting?), but as classically portrayed, he has a lot of personality and method contrast with the Elongated Man, which makes them ideal for an action/mystery buddy comedy.

12. Perry Mason
Created by Erle Stanley Gardner.

Perry Mason is as passionate in the court room as the Elongated Man is in the crime scene. True vocation men. They both love difficult cases to solve and they both had an extraordinary knack to tell when something is wrong. In Perry’s case, that’s when he picks a client; he never fails to recognize the wrongly accused and expose the true culprit. In order for both of them to shine, Ralph would have to be wrongly incarcerated and Perry would have to rely in the sleuth’s photographic memory to get his leads.

11. Miss Marple
Created by Agatha Christie.

Jane Marple is gossipy, nosy, adventurous and difficult to intimidate; however, she's also a kind and nice upper class old lady who likes to play the amateur detective, so, whatever she doesn't have in common with Ralph, she does with Sue. Given her old age, I could perfectly see her requesting the assistance of Mr. and Mrs. Elongated Man. While she's not afraid of danger, at her age in her later books, she would benefit a lot from a super detective with stretching powers (normally used to spy). Her cynical attitude towards human nature would be a nice contrast with the stretchable sleuth.

10. Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin 
Created by Edgar Allan Poe.

This guy is the father of all gentlemen detectives, and Ralph knows it. Papa Dupin is practically a rational machine who likes to free himself of all human emotion. His main method is called “ratiocination”, and consist on putting himself in the mind of the criminal. Ralph would love meeting him, although after an adventure together, he’d feel sorry for the guy. While the he’s an assertive man who got everything he wanted from life really soon (fame, wealth, love, his perfect career, JLA membership), Dupin’s family lost their fortune and he ended up being a lonely snob who denies human experiences to himself. I can’t help but imagine him portrayed by Jim Parsons as a Victorian Sheldon Cooper (from The Big Bang Theory).

9. The Inspector
Created by Blake Edwards.

Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau is famous detective, yet not a talented one. Despite being highly incompetent, I think the Ralph could make sense out of one of his ridiculous theories (which are usually right) and help him to crack a case. As long as they don't make him the butt of the jokes, the Elongated Man mixes well with comedy, and Clouseau could get him in pretty funny situations. If some nut actually made such story, he should create a prologue short story sequence with the Inspector and a brainwashed rogue Elongated Man (and a Pink Panther cameo) in cartoon style, establishing how the two meet.

8. House

Created by David Shore.

Who do you think would win a discussion the medical sultan of sarcasm or the super-heroic wonders of wit? House is mean and cynical, but the Dibnys are comeback experts; the three of them are quick and sharp judges of characters, so it would be an interesting situation. Ok, House is not really a formal detective, but are you really surprised to see him here? I think that a team-up between them would be very dynamic, since they both have very different areas of expertise.

7. The Question

Created by Steve Ditko.

The Question is definitively in Ralph and Batman's league, only he's more of a researcher and, in recent incarnations, a conspiracy nut (one that if always right). Like a lot of people I loved the Justice League Unlimited version; heavily influenced by Rorschach and Fox Mulder. Ralph is sharper in practical matters and crime scenes, but Vic has the edge on connections, which would create an interesting partner dynamic. A crossover would have the two of them alone, with Ralph playing the Scully to his Mulder.

6. Dirty Harry

Created by Harry and Rita Fink.

Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan in not precisely famous as a detective genius, and yet he always beats the rest of the San Francisco Police Department to find dangerous serial killers. The thing about him is that, as his name indicates, he's an antihero; he'll always manipulates the situation so that he has a good pretext to eliminate murderous criminals. This contrasts with Ralph, a happy laid back superhero who never uses lethal enforcement who is satisfied with cracking the case. It'd be fun if Ralph figured out that an old Harry is about to kill the wrong suspect.

5. Philip Marlowe

Created by Raymond Chandler.

Great crossovers show contrast which is something that this hardboiled detective could definitively bring to the table. Like Ralph he’s wisecracker and a fast thinker, but he’s humor is dry and he’s a street-smart blue collar private dick depending on his latest gig to make a living. Ralph’s got it easy and lives in the utopic world he created for himself; Marlowe had to master the laws of the street to survive. Ralph is all about solving the mystery with his impressive deduction skills and spying super abilities, Philip has to investigate while adapting to crude realities in the process. They are also very different in their private life: the Elongated Man is a comedian and a showman who goes to his wife and enjoys an hedonistic socialite lifestyle with her; Marlowe is profound, lives alone (although he might get lucky) and enjoys chess, poetry and drinks. A team-up would also generate a very postmodern refry style, mixing hardboiled detective pulp with the superhero comic version of the stereotypical golden age of detective fiction tone.

4. Nero Wolfe

Created by Rex Stout.

When it comes to eccentric detectives, Nero Wolfe takes the price. He’s obese, extremely demanding and routinary, snobby, has a bad mood, a short temper, probably OCD. He’s wealthy yet he lives almost like a hermit in his brownstone house in Manhattan; which makes him conduct all his investigations in a Top Cat style from home, using Archie Good, his witty live-in detective assistant, as his contact with the outside. Nero mostly conducts interviews at his office and he’s extremely cautious controlling information. The easiest way to create an interesting dynamic would be having Ralph replacing a kidnapped Archie.

3. Hercule Poirot

Created by Agatha Christie.

Ralph would obviously consider this legendary guy an absolute eminence and it would be a honor to work with him... the first ten minutes. After that the Dibnys wouldn't be able to stand the arrogant, egocentric and unlikable man. Sue would want to strangle him!  Poirot tends to rely on the interviews while Ralph is a lot more focused on physical clues. I think a collaboration story would have both brilliant men splitting very soon and coming together at the end to solve the crime. 

Note: A Brave and the Bold story has Batman and the Elongated Man making reference to The A. B. C. Murders, a Poirot mystery. The murderer they were chasing was following a similar scheme.

2. Columbo

Created by Richard Levinson and William Link.

Ralph is actually older as a character; however, if these characters were put in the same world, I'm sure Lt. Columbo would be his biggest contemporary idol. Columbo is normally set against pretentious intellectuals or socialites, so it'd be fun to see him work with one for a change. Ralph would seem to do all the connections, but it would be the Lieutenant who would humbly close the final gaps. I'd love to see them brainstorming in Columbo's station until they figure a lead. Part of the appeal is that such crossover would have to come with a classic Columbo story structure, with the murderer revealed at the beginning, and the two detectives working the howddunit. Ralph would focus on gathering clues and spying while Columbo handles the interrogations, and they would use Ralph's elastic powers to set the villain.

1. Nick and Nora Charles

Created by Dashiell Hammet.

They are the inspiration for Ralph and Sue, so, naturally, the two couples would be dynamite together; like Dibny in stereo in front of a mirror. The main difference is that Nick gets his super powers from buzz and not from a Gingold elixir – Oh, and that instead of super elasticity and strength, his most notorious powers are lost of balance and poor driving. Both are extraordinarily talented detectives who stop the press when they get in town, they are both retired and work out of altruism and they are both married to beautiful socialites.  The exchange of witty comments between those four would have to be almost as legendary as the partying and as fast as the bouncing of ideas that Nick and Ralph would have during their investigations. A barfight scene is obligatory and it wouldn't be a Thin Man if they don't gather all the suspects and people involved to reveal the murderer at the end.