The Flash #112 (1960)
by John Broome & Carmine Infantino
The titular “mystery of the Elongated Man” is why would anyone think that’s a good codename.
We begin with the Flash finding a cat about to fall to its doom.
0.000000001 nanoseconds later, someone else catches it.
Wait, what?
It’s important to remember that Iris, unlike most DC love interests, is NOT in love with the titular hero but his his secret identity.
But I still think Barry might be a little jealous of how much she’s impressed by Elongated Man.
And that wasn’t even the first time the Flash was upstaged. How do you arrive to the scene after someone who isn’t a speedster when you can run faster than time???
We then jump straight into Elongated Man’s origin story, which begins with him as a kid being impressed by India Rubber Man.
Which only SOUNDS like a poorly aged superhero name.
This turns into an obsession for Ralph.
But over the years, Ralph noticed that every single India Rubber Man likes a particular brand of soda. Will that be the secret to uncover their ability?
No it won’t.
Except yes?
Is that a silly origin? Yes, undoubtedly. But it’s far better than Jimmy Olsen turning into Elastic Lad two years earlier because he poured Kryptonite antidote over himself.
Considering the Flash has a costume that can be compressed to fit into a ring, I’m surprised they went with an actual material for the stretchy costume.
Back to the present, Barry is obsessed over Elongated Man because he might be a criminal.
And he’s certainly not thinking about how much Iris was keeps bringing up this guy.
He’s so convinced that Elongated Man is a criminal that he convices the Sinorient Importing Company to keep the exposition of precious vases, despite having told them to postpone it.
While Barry is busy securing the building, he’s ALREADY failed the case.
0.000000001 nanoseconds later, he captures the thief.
Except it turns out that, while the Flash was busy setting up traps, Elongated Man solved the actual case off-panel.
0.000000001 nanoseconds later, the Flash captures the remaining criminals who had escaped.
“The mystery of the Elongated Man”: how did the criminals steal stuff from the 20th floor of a skyscraper?
With a helicopter, which is famously an extremly silent vehicle that attracts no attention.
And so we close the story with both the Flash and Elongated Man sharing the “Man of the year” award.
Must have been a very uneventful year.
Historical significance: 6/10
Elongated Man will integrate himself quite well in the DC Universe, but it’s telling that this is the last Flash story before he joins the Justice League and waits forever before inviting him.
Silver Age-ness: 7/10
You can get stretching powers if you extract the fruits from a specific soda. It will make you stretch faster than the Flash can run!
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
This is an extremely basic plot that could have been done SO much better. There’s absolutely no tension because we don’t really know Elongated Man, and the solution to how the criminals were taking advantage of his fame is just a throwaway line.
Having the narrator explain the origin story instead of the character telling the story is just unforgivable.
Ridiculous Flash feat of the day
How close is this to the modern character? 7/10
Elongated Man was created thanks to a strong push from editor Julius Schwartz who really wanted a supporting character to the Flash.
Reportedly, Schwartz later said that if he had been aware that DC Comics already owned the rights to the name Plastic Man (after purchasing the Quality characters in 1956), he would never have chosen the name Elongated Man.
EM had a rather unique character journey. Starting from the fact that in his third appearance he gets married; his identity is not yet officially public, but it might as well be since his wife’s real name is public knowledge!
The following issues are a bit vague about whether the people know his identity, but it’s at least confirmed in The Flash #134, his sixth appearance in 1963.
If you count his marriage as the moment his identity is officially public, he beats the Fantastic Four as the earliest mainstream superhero with a public civilian identity.
In 1964, following Julius Schwartz moving to editing Detective Comics, Elongated Man took Martian Manhunter’s place as the backup feature from issue 327.
Which SOUNDS like a weird decision… and it is… but this serial establishes Elongated Man as a detective, with the stories following him and his heiress wife traveling the country to solve mysteries.
It also established his gimmick of his nose twitching whenever he senses a mystery.
I’m 99% sure this is him being silly, but in the Silver Age it might be a legit superpower.
Future stories will rely more on him being a jokester, but for real, he IS an actually decent detective on his own!
This serial is a little known gem of the Silver Age; not just because they’re fun mysteries, but because Sue is one of the best-written DC love interests and their relationship is quite believable.
Yep: a stable, happy, mostly trouble-free superhero marriage IN THE SILVER AGE.
He graduates to a better costume in 1966.
In fact Elongated Man’s presence in Detective Comics lasted an impressive 56 issues, ending in 1969. He will show up in another 11 issue run in 1972.
Don’t feel bad for him though, because in 1973 he finally joins the Justice League.
Despite doubting himself several times, Elongated Man ended up being a perfect match for the Justice League considering that he doesn’t leave until the team disbands in #258 in 1987.
You don’t often think of Elongated Man as a pillar of the Justice League, but he was a member for FOURTEEN YEARS straight!!!
In 1989, Elongated Man moved to the Justice League Europe: a natural choice considering it was headquartered in Paris and he was one of the few heroes who actually spoke French.
His wife was basically a member of the team as well.
The series had a light tone, although I would argue it’s not as comedic as the DeMatteis & Giffen Justice League… despite starting off with the same writing team.
But this felt just right for Elongated Man and Sue.
They even had their own miniseries in 1992.
DeMatteis and Giffen would revisit the couple in “Formerly Known as the Justice League” in 2003.
So we have a light-hearted superhero in a stable relationship with a reasonable love interest.
Naturally, the best thing DC Comics had in mind in 2004 was to brutally murder her and make him the most miserable superhero ever.
But that wasn’t gratuitous enough, so she was also pregnant.
But that wasn’t crass enough, so they also retcon the fact that Doctor Light raped her years ago.
But that wasn’t dumb enough, they also retconned that instead of punishing Doctor Light they gave him brain damage to turn him into comic relief.
But it wasn’t enough to ruin one classic love interest, because the series ended with the revelation that the Atom’s love interest went insane and killed Sue.
There are no words to express how much I hate Identity Crisis.
The worst parts of the 5YL era are Watchmen compared to Identity Crisis.
Heck ONE MORE DAY is Watchmen compared to Identity Crisis.
Elongated Man dies in the 2007 series “52” (after a complicated plan trying to resurrect Sue), but at the very end he’s reunited with his wife as a ghost.
They attempted a setup as a “ghost detective” duo, but that wasn’t crass enough so 2009 resurrected both as bloodthirsty zombies.
I swear DC was written by twelve year olds for like a decade.
They are then killed for good by the Indigo Tribe, a.k.a. the Indigo Lantern Corps, because if Geoff Johns is writing you and you’re not one of his darlings he will treat you like crap to hype his favorites.
I’m kind of shocked that Johns will bring back the Volume 3 Legion one day, because he would have fit right in with the 5YL approach.
After that… I’m just gonna go ahead and call it crap, I don’t think anyone can defend this use of the character… Elongated Man has returned to the main continuity.
Whatever that concept even means in modern DC.
Elongated Man’s role in history was at the very least important enough to give him a role in Detective Comics #1000 in 2019.
I have little basis for this, but I feel that the Identity Crisis stink is still clinging to the character and it’s contributing to fewer appearances.
He also has the problem that Plastic Man has received a MASSIVE increase in popularity in the past twenty years, not to mention that superheroes with a public identity are no longer as unique as they were in his prime.
But I still think there’s room enough in the DC Universe for Elongated Man. His powers may not be anything special, but if you need a detective story with superpowers that doesn’t take itself too seriously without going into full parody, he’s your guy.
What else was in The Flash #112?
A Kid Flash story dealing with go-karts.
But more interestingly, he helps a guy prove that a competing construction company has used cheap materials.
Ridiculous Kid Flash feat of the day
Identity Crisis explained Doctor Light’s slide from an A-list villain to a buffoon who was easily defeated by Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys. The problem is that it also sacrificed Sue Dibny and torched Batman’s relationship with the League. Rape is a special kind of evil and should be used sparingly. At least Doctor Light’s subsequent appearances showed other villains finding him distasteful, before the Spectre finally disposed of him.
You may have missed Ralph’s introduction in the New 52, as Big Shot in the Secret Six. It’s best forgotten.
The Arrowverse introduced Elongated Man and Sue, but EM was kind of a jerk and Sue was kind of larcenous. The characters were growing in the right direction when Ralph’s actor made some poor social media decisions and he was fired.
I do hope Elongated Man and Sue make a comeback someday. They’re classic characters who deserve better than being tossed into comics limbo.
I looked it up when researching for the review, but honestly I couldn’t make heads or tails of what actually happened to Ralph there.
I didn’t mind the series itself, it was fine, but man did he feel out of place.
I’m with you on Identity Crisis. It’s the worst comic I ever read and kicked off an awful era for DC Comics where everything went grimdark to make their characters more “cool.”