Comments on: Lame Superhero of the Week: The Elongated Man

By: Rafa Rivas

Rafa Rivas — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:52:15 +0000

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”.

By: Mikey Harris

Mikey Harris — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:07:22 +0000

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…?

By: Nelson Melle

Nelson Melle — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:30:15 +0000

You all are high. He’s an amazing detective. He’s a much more sophisticated character then he’s being given credit for here.

By: Treddie

Treddie — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:07:47 +0000

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.

By: James A.

James A. — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:21:49 +0000

@Ralph

I haven’t forgotten those other stretchy heroes. Does anyone remember Stretch Armstrong? Or still have one?