THE DUCTILE DETECTIVE by Dave Goode

One of the things I loved about the Silver Age of Comics was the double-feature comic book. One of my favorites was Detective Comics when it featured Batman and the Elongated Man.Ralph Dibny made his comic book debut in Flash No.112 (May 1960) where we learn the Elongated Man's origin.

When he was 9 , Dibny visited the circus with his family and became fascinated with the Indian rubber man. Because the sideshow performer will not reveal the secret of his elasticity , Dibny spends years visiting every rubber man he can trying to learn their secret. He does notice that they all drink Gingold , a brand of soda water derived from a tropical rubber plant. Dibny distills and drinks the essence of the plant. Because of an X factor in his type O blood the Gingold gives him the ability to stretch his body to any length he desires.Creating a costume of a specially treated material he first becomes a performer and then a super-hero of sorts as the Elongated Man.

Dibny would appear in several issues of the Flash , partnering with the "fastest man alive" for several far-out adventures. In Flash No.119 (March 1961) he would marry socialite Sue Dearbon ,becoming one of comic books first married superheroes. He would also reveal his secret identity to the world.

The story goes editor Julius Schwartz didn't know that DC had acquired the rights

to Plastic Man and had John Broome (writer) and Carmine Infantino (artist) create the "ductile detective". Aside from his ability to stretch I never saw much of Plas in the Elongated Man. And his stories in the Flash were vanilla. But that would change when he was given his own feature beginning in Detective Comics No.327(May 1964). Dibny became more of a wisecracking hero. And he was shown to be a bit of a exhibitionist as well. Then again he had worked in show business.

 

It was after watching the classic movie mystery THE THIN MAN(1934) as a teen that I caught the "Nick and Nora" vibe that the Elongated Man writers were working for. And the character became one of my favorite second-banana heroes. Ideal to serve as Batman's back-up in Detective Comics.

This may be a stretch, but did you know that some of the best costumed crime didn't need superpowers? No, 
they used judo. Just like the heroes in JUDO COMICS by
Dave Goode and illustrated by Vance Capley. Do you have a copy yet? Click this link:

Link...get it?

Don't forget to listen to this weeks special episode of Sundown Cinema. We discuss scary films with Dave Goode, Vance Capley, Ricky Blalock, and David Walker: