Real Name: Ralph Dibny
First Appearance: The Flash #112 (1960)
Aliases: The Ductile Detective, The Stretchable Sleuth
Creators: John Broome, Carmine Infantino
Lame Abilities: Elongating (of course), super-sleuthing, can do fabulous splits, never has to worry about erectile dysfunction
Like me, the Elongated Man was an accident. Editor Julius Schwartz okayed the creation of the character only because he didn’t realize that DC had acquired Plastic Man from Quality Comics four years earlier. Schwartz said he would have used Plastic Man as a supporting character in “The Flash” instead of the Elongated Man had he known. Nonetheless, the world got another Plastic Man. Then a year later, poor Ralph Dibny fell even further down the ladder of respectability. Another stretching superhero, Mr. Fantastic, made his debut and topped his predecessors in popularity. Now the Elongated was the No. 3 stretchy guy in comics.
It wasn’t anything as cool as acid or cosmic rays that gave Ralph Dibny his amazing powers. It was a soft drink. Ralph was obsessed with contortionists and wanted to learn their secret. He soon discovered that they all drank Gingold soda pop and that it had a mysterious ingredient, gingo fruit. So, Ralph isolated the ingredient and when he drank it in its concentrated form he had super elongating powers. Thereafter, Ralph must drink Gingold to continue stretching.
Like Plastic Man, the Elongated Man can stretch. Like Plastic Man, he was used for laughs. Like Plastic Man, he was in the Justice League. But unlike Plastic Man, he was one of the first married superheroes and the first to reveal his secret identity. Ralph and Sue Dibny were the Nick and Nora Charles (“The Thin Man”) of the comic book world, traveling the world and solving mysteries. But years later tragedy struck and Sue was murdered, a crime that figures prominently in two high-profile series — “Identity Crisis” and “52.”
The Elongated Man even appears in the Alex Ross mini-series “Justice,” in which he tries to justify his existence to his rival, Plastic Man. Threatened by Plastic Man’s appearance, Ralph tries to toss him out of the Justice League. “There can be two stretchy guys,” Plastic Man tells Ralph. “It’s okay.” “No, there can’t,” Ralph replies. “They don’t need you if they have me. And I don’t care if you were the first one with stretching powers.”
I know what the Highlander would have to say about this.
There can be only one!!
Ok, I have been quite supportive of this Lame Superhero feature, especially that gem She-Thing, but I’m drawing the line here. I am personally insulted on behalf of Ralph Dibney. He is not lame! Anyone who gets their superpowers from a soft drink is ok in my book. His storyline in 52 was soooo awesome!!!!! I demand a retraction and a public apology. This time you’ve gone too far, my friend.
@Empress Eve
This is coming from someone who drinks way too much soda. The super powers ain’t coming!
originally he sucked, but now he’s cool oK? He’s solid & he’s cool! He got attacked by a creepy effigy & got rid of Faust & Neron
@Mister Sinister
I agree. Ralph Dibny was one of the best things about “52″ and they did a great job of making him edgy and cool. But I’m talking about the entire history of the Elongated Man, particularly classic Elongated Man. He’s long been considered a joke. In fact, in “Justice” Ralph gets frustrated because the Justice League treats him like a joke. And, come on, he was just another Plastic Man, but not as cool as Plastic Man. Not until a year ago, anyway.
The worst thing about the elongated man is his name. I mean it IS descriptive but how lame does it sound? Watch out crime I’m eLONGating. Sounds nearly like super porn.
the Greatest thing about Enlongated Man is Dropping his name in conversation. My friend will be sitting on the couch next to me and ask me to grab the remote, i will reply “Who do i look like, Elongated Man?” which usually leads to a double take, because if you are going to use such a nerdy reference, you expect Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic or Plastic Man. i dunno, i think he is lame. Let us not forget other stretchy heroes like Coil Man (the impossibles) and Mr. Gum (the atomics)
@Ralph
I haven’t forgotten those other stretchy heroes. Does anyone remember Stretch Armstrong? Or still have one?
Yeah, Elongated man is actually my least favorite DC superhero, while Plastic man is actually my favorite.
I still don’t trust Elongated man, even though Plastic Man was a mobster. Mr. gum and Flatman is alright, though.
You all are high. He’s an amazing detective. He’s a much more sophisticated character then he’s being given credit for here.
I do like how DC uses its “stretchy” super heroes as comic relief, while the main rubber man of Marvel is Mr. Fantastic who is one of the most uptight and unfunny characters they have (essential and important, don’t get me wrong, but about as funny as a ball of fresh phlegm on dry toast…). At least after Sue died, Ralph was given new depth in that he became the driven, grizzled, revenge -seeking loner on a path of darkness while trying to find a way to bring Sue back. One thing I want to correct the author on involving the similarities of EM and Plasticman is that Ralph could only stretch and contort his body while Plas could change himself into anything (as long as you didn’t mind it being black, red or flesh colored). DC has brought that point up many times and even Batman considered Plasticman to be “potentially one of the most powerful super heroes around” while EM felt chronically underused (Gosh, I miss the the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths JL revision. That was one funny comic. Where else could you see Guy Gardener be transformed emotionally into a 14 year old female hippy after being socked in the head by Batman…? No where else, by GUM…) I gotta tell ya, though, if I had Plas’s powers, I would purposely be the wierdest, goofyist, sillyist thing on two feet (or three or four or five….. y’know, however many feet I’d decided to sport that day. Or maybe I’d decide to walk on animated nostril hairs for a change… The possibilities are endless…) Actually, I’d love to see what a young Jim Carrey could do with powers like that. He said in an article years ago that he always wanted to visit “Nerf Land” where everything is made if Nerf material. That way he could walk up to anyone, punch them dead in the face and a few seconds later *Foomp* they would pop back into shape, no harm done. That sounds %$#&-in’ GREAT….. Ah tangents… uh, what was I talkin’ about…?
The 90s were not fair to the Elongated Man. His biggest fan, Gerard Jones, dedicated pig part of his writing to trying to make Ralph a funny character, when he was just making him lame. Morrison did the same with Plas, only he knows how to pull funny. Justice made yet another new unflattering characterization that sounds nothing like the satellite era Ralph.
Two stretchies or even 5 is not an issue, considering how many speedsters, powerhouses, detectives and lanterns are nowadays.
While some Seinfeld, Laurie (House and much more) or van Dyke type of sense of humor suits Ralph, he’s at his best spying and actually doing the detective thing. Like he did in 52 and Detective Comics. That’s the Ralph that stole the thunder of the fastest man alive when he debuted.
Btw, Julius and Infantino denied Plastic Man connections and they didn’t rescue golden age characters during the early silver age. At best you’d have a “Ralph Dibny / Plastic Man”.