The Counterfeit Crime-Buster!

 I don't typically include the covers of Detective Comics when I do these blogs as they're usually dedicated to the Batman story and Ralph isn't seen at all. But this time, the cover is so wonderfully ridiculous, I have to show it. It was once said that if you put a gorilla on the cover of a comic book, it would sell better. If you go through just about any comic book run from the Silver Age, you will find so many comics featuring them. It even inspired plots and characters, such as Gorilla Grodd in The Flash, Jimmy Olsen's various ape-adventures (whether becoming one or marrying one), and likely the Red Ghost and Super (Stupid) Apes in The Fantastic Four.

Anyway, as Batman faced an ape (again), Ralph was going up against "The Counterfeit Crime-Buster!" in Detective Comics #339, which is available on Comixology and DC Universe as well as being reprinted in Showcase Presents The Elongated Man. It was written by Gardner Fox, pencils by Carmine Infantino, inks by Sid Greene and Julius Schwartz was editor.

 In the letters page, "Break Up The Bottle Neck Gang" faced the scrutiny of the Detective Comics readers. If you remember, I found the plot to be "all over the place" and was disappointed that it relied on Ralph pulling extremely specific tricks and counting on the crooks to fall for them.

After praising the Batman story in that issue, Tom Dietz says "I'm afraid I can't offer such high praise" for Ralph's story. "The art was good, and... the plot... seemed well devised and handled, but somehow it just didn't stick together." He bemoans repeated plot patterns for Ralph and hopes to see something "totally different for the Sultan of Stretch." He suggests a costumed villain "of a humorous vein," bringing up the Joker and Penguin as examples. However, he's not without some appreciation, saying "there were several innovations in the use of EM's power, which is always interesting and pleasant to see."

In contrast, Mike Fredreich returns from the last issue to say he loved the story. "It was excellent! You returned to normal after last issue's disastrous EM story and did a great job. The story was very good and the Infantino-Greene team did the best they have yet done. I especially liked the new stretching tricks EM used... I can just imagine the consternation of the crook who had an ear thrust into his face!"

The splash page looks very eye-grabbing, putting Ralph in a dark room, stretching to super-thin lengths that crooks fail to shoot, despite one of them having a flashlight. This is probably one of the better splash pages in awhile.

Ralph is surprised when he gets a phone call that Sue has been arrested for attempting to use a counterfeit bill. Arriving at the police station, Sue explains that she was given a new $20 bill by Ralph himself.

Ralph's dialogue during Sue's flashbacks seems a little too explanatory, so I'm going to assume this is Sue filling in details being inserted into Ralph's dialogue that he actually didn't say. Kind of like how how Luis in the Ant-Man movies voices all of the characters in his flashbacks.

She further says that she was at a "Maks" store. I don't know if this was a real store in the 60s or if it plays on the name of an existing chain. T.J. Maxx wasn't established until 1976. Looking it up on Google, "Maks" has been applied to several stores. Anyone with insight, the comments are open.

Anyway, she feels sure that someone swapped out her bill with the counterfeit one. She was arrested for trying to pay with a counterfeit bill.

Ralph suggests whoever swapped the bill out was trying to see if Sue could get away with it. But he's a little suspicious, his nose beginning to twitch. He has the police test the bill for fingerprints. (One of the panels misspells "given" as "givin.") The man in the lab finds recent fingerprints belonging to "Husky" Harry Bellows, a mob boss who Ralph exclaims "died over a year ago!"

Sue is probably being treated pretty well considering that she's a debutante and her husband is not just a superhero, but a rich one at that. And he's previously assisted the police.

Ralph now theorizes that the phony bill was placed to warn him and the police that Husky Bellows was still alive and that his gang was going to rob the store. Ralph proposes to stake out the store and keep an eye out for the gang. Sue laments that Ralph gets so caught up in the case that he forgets about her.

We go back to Infantino's super tall panels to show off Ralph stretching up an elevator shaft and through a grille in the floor.

The story tells us that it's "well past midnight" and an hour later before the crooks finally pop up. Instead of apprehending them right away, Ralph trails them, but gets spotted after they raid the safe. The crooks try to fire at him, but Ralph stretching himself "wire thin" across the ceiling in a barely lit room proves to be an effective escape.

Infantino again clearly loves drawing Ralph fighting and evading the crooks' fire. Thing is, the rooms he draws are dark and sparse, so while we're supposed to see the fight go out into the sales floor, the art isn't carrying that across to the reader.

Luckily, Ralph uses the dark and the displays to hide himself and knock out and trip the crooks. On the next page, he enlarges his hand and slams a crook against the ceiling.

In a bit of text not matching art, the text claims a group of crooks is running down an escalator, but the art clearly shows a staircase. One tip is that each step has a rim, which an escalator wouldn't. The other is that escalators are divided into at least two "staircases," one going up, the other going down.

In any case, it seems that while they're running down, Ralph slings himself around the staircase, making them sling back to the top of the stairs.

Ralph gets the police in, and they bemoan that they couldn't trace them back in to their hideout, but Ralph says to check the address on the car's registration as using a fake address would be too risky.

The police bring in Husky Harry and a private detective from Gotham City named Hugh Rankin comes in and reveals he was behind planting the phony $20 on Sue with the intention of getting Ralph's attention to help him catch Harry.

I sure hope Sue got one HECK of an apology.

To prove Hugh's on the up and up, they call in Batman, and Hugh says this was part of his plan to try to get into the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City. Ralph indicates he might be interested in joining sometime.

This story looked more interesting than it actually was. Sue getting involved with the mystery is good, but her involvement was ultimately pointless and did nothing but frustrate her. It's been a moment since we've had a really good story.

Next time, cowboys and a theater.