Mystery of the Millionaire Cowboy!

 June 1965 brought Detective Comics #340, featuring Ralph's next adventure, "Mystery of the Millionaire Cowboy!" The issue is available on Comixology and DC Universe, but has only been reprinted in Showcase Presents The Elongated Man.

In the letters page, reader Walt Smith says they preferred Ralph's story to Batman's in #336, "The House of 'Flashy' Traps!" Why? The Flash pops up, and Walt feels that seeing heroes interact outside of The Justice League of America "makes your characters more realistic." Looking back at it now, it seems like faint praise, but I suppose it wasn't common back then, spurring Walt's letter. There's two other letters, but they only comment on Batman's story.

This story was written by John Broome with Carmine Infantino on pencils, Sid Greene on inks, Gaspar Saladino on lettering and Julius Schwartz credited as editor.

The splash page shows Ralph hanging from some rings in a gym as two crooks stretch out his legs, thinking they "got him." The dialogue from Ralph's thought bubble can be read as Ralph being dismissive or wondering if the crooks have a trick up their sleeve. Anyway, Infantino does a fine splash panel. Not exactly eye-catching, though.

The story is set in Midwest City, which says it's famous for culture and night life. There is a real Midwest City in Oklahoma, and currently, it does seem to have quite the night life. I can't tell if it was the same back in 1965, or if Fox just put the name in there because he needed to name the city.

Ralph surprises Sue with tickets to a show titled "A Satellite For Two." While the show was sold out, the theater just added two new balcony seats, which a friend of Ralph's who's in the show managed to procure for him.

Sue puts on a new red dress that Ralph, being extremely cute, admires her in, even elongating his eyes to make them "pop." Infantino is in usual good form, telling the story well in the quick pace the Silver Age used.

Arriving at the theater, Ralph and Sue notice crowds of people who are likely being turned away due to the show being sold out. Getting to their seats, though, they notice that they are the only audience members in attendance. Ralph confirms it by elongating his neck and looking around the seats.

We get a peek of the opening number, introduced by a man dressed as an astronaut saying, "The future is ours, baby! Listen..." Then the song begins "I'll be alone with you in a satellite built for two!"

But... satellites weren't made to carry people...

Ralph's mystery-sniffing nose is set off as the song finishes and applause can be clearly heard. Sure enough, Ralph slips away to investigate, leaving Sue to watch the show on her own.

The story shifts over to an elaborate mansion owned by Mr. Hurd "a wealthy cattleman," who is the titular "Millionaire Cowboy." A group of crooks are demanding he gives them his money or they'll blow the place up. Which seems a little dumb as it'd be unusual for a millionaire to have his money in cash form and not, you know, in a bank or tied up in stocks. The story actually never says he has his money there, so I'm just going to assume the crooks are really stupid.

Mr. Hurd and his wife stall the crooks by playing a game of "cold beans, hot beans" with them, where Mr. Hurd will say they're cold if they're not close to finding the money, or "warm" or "hot" if they're close. They walk past his pool and into a gym, where Hurd claims one guy is getting "hot," and the crook opens a panel on a wall, where a boxing glove springs out and punches him. The crooks are mad and figure they've been had and throw some dynamite into a sitting room.

Luckily, Ralph has arrived and manages to quickly deposit the dynamite into an old, abandoned well, where it harmlessly explodes. He slips into the sitting room and the crooks look back in to find him when they realize the explosion was too far off.

Note that the panel in which the crooks discover Ralph suffers from the recurring problem of the colorist adding in the line of Ralph's collar.

Now we get to the moment from the splash page where the crooks are stretching out Ralph's legs, intending to "stretch him out" in opposite directions, but as soon as they're next to walls, Ralph simply kicks and knocks them out. A footnote explains that Ralph's limit of elasticity is about "100 yards" or 300 feet. Of course, this limit is hardly going to be religiously followed by everyone.

When another crook tries to shoot Ralph, he quickly coils his leg around them, wrapping them up. The other two crooks begin to recover, but Ralph quickly knocks them out by extending his elbows.

The police are called in and take away the crooks while Ralph talks to Mr. Hurd and his wife. Ralph of course asked the front desk about the empty theater and found out that Mr. Hurd had bought out the theater, so Ralph went to his home to investigate.

Mr. Hurd explains that he wanted to see a hit show along with his wife, so they bought out the theater. But for the benefit of the actors, they would play applause from concealed loudspeakers during the show. Of course, the crooks had kept them from attending. However, Mr. Hurd makes a call and promises a nice payout to the cast of the show if they can do another performance, letting Ralph see the show.

The final panel sees the two couples having front row seats, with Mr. Hurd promising to take the Dibnys to the "swankiest" night club in town. Sue decides she'll slip away this time to change into something more formal. After all, she already saw the show earlier.

This story isn't especially great, but it has a good plot. The only thing is just how stupid are those crooks? There wasn't much to say about the art because Infantino did a great job. Ralph's fight with the crooks isn't his most spectacular fight, but it's serviceable.

Next time, Ralph meets the Elongated Man.