TV Review: "A Flash of the Lightning" and "Dead Man Running"

All right. Unless we get major episodes of The Flash to discuss (like the season premiere two weeks ago) or they feature Ralph heavily, I'm gonna just do biweekly reviews.

"A Flash of the Lightning" saw Barry (Grant Gustin) trying to determine the truth of the Monitor's (LaMonica Garrett) prediction that he will die in the upcoming Crisis. Unable to travel in time, he heads to Earth-3 where Jay Garrick (John Wesley Shipp) and his wife Joan Williams (Michelle Harrison, who also played Barry's deceased mother Nora Allen) help Barry look forward in time.

Meanwhile, Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker) is unimpressed at an art gallery Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Ralph have brought her to. Our two friends on Team Flash try to figure out why Killer Frost is so icy towards art.

Cecile (Daniele Nicolet) has apprehended a young metahuman woman named Allegra (Kayla Campton) who was identified as a murderer. However, Cecile's powers are indicating that the suspect is not guilty. But as the victim was killed with blasts of ultraviolet radiation—a possibility of Allegra's power—who else could it have been?

"A Flash of the Lightning" keeps up good, character-building stories that stay contained to one episode while doing justice to the characters we know and love, often even better as Barry becomes more self-reliant in figuring out how to handle the tasks he faces as a superhero.

"Dead Man Running" saw a nice Ralph plot as we met his mother, Debbie (Amy Pietz). She has been identified as a perpetrator of an armed robbery. However, Ralph discovers that his mother has been lying to him about her ex-boyfriends by saying they died. The two need to be honest with each other.

Meanwhile, Barry helps Killer Frost deal with the news that the Crisis will be happening sooner than they thought as they help Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy) deal with an undead metahuman.

Finally, Allegra gets a lead on a surprisingly alive Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh)—the Earth-1 version actually died many years ago, being replaced by a disguised Eobard Thawne, who "died" during the first season's finale—but Iris (Candice Patton) knows that this is a version of Wells from a different world in the Multiverse and takes it upon herself to find him, but doesn't tell Allegra the truth.

"Dead Man Running" offered a good look at Ralph's past as we look forward to his future. In addition, we're building nicely towards Bloodwork's ultimate goal and leading up to Crisis. In addition, we're delving into Killer Frost's character as she is given control of Caitlin's body for the time being. So far, so good this season.

Viewers in the US may view "A Flash of the Lightning" and "Dead Man Running" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire sixth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix by June 2020. Digital versions of the episodes may be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Google Play and other retailers of digital video content. Blu-Ray and DVD copies of the season are expected to be available for sale in or by September, 2020.

Non-US viewers should check their local listings, the websites of the channels that air The Flash, and digital video retailers.

Peril in Paris!

Detective Comics #344 has a cover date of October 1965. Once again, it's available on Comixology and DC Universe. This tale was reprinted in the Showcase Presents Elongated Man book.

Over in the letters page, readers were puzzling over the identity of the Outsider from recent Batman stories. It's not until the second column that George Wirth of New Orleans, Louisiana comments on "The Mystery of the Millionaire Cowboy." He thought it was better than the previous story. He calls the story ingenious and the artwork (crediting both Infantino and Greene) great.

Meanwhile, Mark Dillman of Topeka, Kansas found the Batman story from the previous issue "too far-fetched" but thought the Elongated Man story was the best he'd read in months. He then points out that Ralph drives a Mustang in the story unlike previous tales. The editor confirms the fan theory that Ralph and Sue must use rental agencies. Surprisingly, the editor further states that the story was written by John Broome, not Gardner Fox as is reported on many sources.

"Peril in Paris!" was written by John Broome with Carmine Infantino on pencils and Sid Greene on inks. Julius Schwartz served as editor and Joe Letterese lettered it.

The splash page sees men from a boat firing on Ralph, who's just barely visible here. He's supposed to be stretched very thin so they can't hit him, but it looks like a rush job from Infantino and Greene on Ralph when the rest of the page is good. The overly-verbose gunman calls Ralph "L'homme Étendu," which translates to "the Extended Man." Meanwhile, the crowd cheers Ralph on.

How we know this is a John Broome story: the crooks are trying to get away and opening fire with a ton of witnesses present.

Okay, onto the story. The opening text says that Paris is one of Ralph's favorite cities, but this is the first time he's visited with Sue. I suppose he must've visited between his second and third appearances in The Flash. Bit of a stretch there.

Ralph is on the balcony of his Parisian hotel room and spots Sue coming back. That is one weird looking car just past the lamp post in that first panel. Sue returns buzzing that somehow, she can now slip into fluent French despite never having learned it. She's soon able to read the French newspaper as well. It sends Ralph's nose twitching. He continues to read the article about the theft of perfume essence and thinks he'd like to nab the crooks when suddenly, Sue leaves abruptly. Getting a tip from the hotel doorman, Ralph follows her to the Eiffel Tower.

Sue goes over to a couple of men dining at a table and begins to talk to them about a plan. Going over what I can find, they would be at the Champagne Bar at the top of the Eiffel Tower. The men are baffled as they don't recognize Sue, but decide to go question her privately.

Ralph intervenes and Sue claims she doesn't know who Ralph is and he's not her type, and that her name is Monica. At this, the men decide to take her with them and then shove Ralph off of the tower.

For some reason, instead of a more dramatic panel of Ralph falling to what would otherwise be his doom, we get a frankly useless panel of Ralph in mid-air, thinking before we get to the logical next panel of him using his powers to save himself with the crowds below cheering him on.

Also, in the panel where Ralph is saving himself, the scale of the people and the Eiffel Tower looks totally off.

Getting back onto the tower, Ralph uses a pair of sight-seeing mounted binoculars to spot Sue and the crooks heading to a houseboat. Yes, somehow they managed to get to the ground in the mere seconds it took for Ralph to save himself. Ralph descends from the tower and makes a quick bow to the gathered crowd. The panel's art looks a bit less like a bow and more like Ralph is suddenly having a case of food poisoning.

The crooks are baffled about Sue and wondering where their accomplice Monica is. They decide to go on without her, but of course, Ralph is on the trail and pulls the boat back. The crowds watch Ralph as he evades one of the crook's gunfire (a gun inexplicably appears in the crook's hand, but given he's supposed to be a magician, I think it might be a wrist-mounted pistol) by stretching and twisting to dodge the bullets.

Ralph then splashes water onto the boat, then knocks them over and punches them out.

This is definitely not one of Infantino's best fight scenes for Ralph. In fact, I could say it's forgettable. The most interesting panel is the one with Ralph twisted up nearly like rope, but dodging a bullet aside, there's not much else going on.

The crooks are—of course—the perfume essence thieves Ralph read about in the newspaper. A silent Sue is taken by Ralph back to their hotel. Arriving, a strange woman happily greets Ralph and kisses him, making Sue snap out of her reverie and threaten the woman, who is the real Monica.

Monica, being an accomplice of the crooks, is arrested, and Ralph figures that Monica and Sue somehow had their personalities and minds switched when the magician crook hypnotized them. He compares this to Jekyll and Hyde. Sue figures the sight of Monica kissing Ralph was what snapped the two women back to normal. Ralph and Sue go back to touring Paris, with Sue being clueless as to what people are saying in French.

Okay. We have problems here.

We are not told at any point that Sue went to any magic show until Ralph begins piecing things together. Ralph also surmises that Monica is actually the gang leader, so why would she be working in a magic act when she's trying to smuggle high-profile stolen goods?

Hypnosis simply can't do a mind transference, though I know, this is a comic book.

Even Ralph's comparison of Jekyll and Hyde falls apart because Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde weren't body-switching, they were two sides of the same person.

Well, this story is another mess. While Broome was able to handle Ralph all right when he was playing second fiddle to the Flash, he simply can't seem to have him lead a mystery story that hangs together well.

Come back, Gardner Fox. I miss you.

Next time, the crooks who give you money!

Who is Ira Schnapp?

I've already discussed the important role that letterers have on comics. As I say, if your lettering is bad, no one will want to read the comic book. But the talents of letterers can extend beyond the comic page. So get ready to meet a DC legend who got to work on Ralph, namely in the last story we covered: Ira Schnapp.

Israel Schnapp was born in Sassow, Austria on October 10, 1894. The next year, his father moved to New York City to begin work as a grocer, eventually bringing his family over in 1900. He had four brothers and two sisters who were born after the move. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1913.

Schnapp's talent for designing letters was quickly put to use as he revealed that he designed the lettering for the James A. Farley Post Office Building, constructed from 1908 to 1912. On his World War I draft cared, he said he was employed for the W.T. Slide Company, which created title screens for silent films. While no credits to his name are known through the 1920s, this was work that usually went uncredited. In the 1930s, he would be designing lobby cards and posters for films, including displays for King Kong's premiere at Radio City Music Hall.

After working for publishers and advertisers, Schnapp began working for a relative of his wife: Jack Liebowitz, who along with Harry Donenfield was publishing pulp magazines. They eventually acquired National Comics. While people believe Schnapp designed the logo for Action Comics, he claimed his first work for DC was the Superman logo, which he revised from the original by Joe Shuster. The logo was revised in the 1980s to round out many of the letters, but the logo's style used to this day is the same that Schnapp designed for DC.

Schnapp became instrumental for DC throughout the years, designing logos and advertisements and lettering when available for a wide range of their titles. His design work is credited as making DC titles an exciting seller for young readers.

One work of Schnapp's appeared on hundreds of comic books by many publishers over the years: he designed the Comics Code Authority seal.

In 1966, DC's logo design duties were transferred over to Gaspar Saladino, who fondly called Schnapp "Mr. DC." Schnapp remained employed by DC for two more years, mainly as a professional courtesy, before the company retired him. Neal Adams claimed that Schnapp had been sent home to die, and Saladino said that when Schnapp left DC, it was as if he'd never been there.

Schnapp died of a heart attack on July 24, 1969. DC did not officially note his passing. He was survived by his wife Beatrice and their children Theresa and Martin.

I only briefly talked about Schnapp's work here as in researching, I came across two lengthy pieces documenting his life and works. If you're interested in reading more, I highly recommend them. The first is a feature on Dial B For Blog, which focuses mainly on Schnapp's work. The other is a series of blogs by Todd Klein which go indepth about the details of Schnapp's life. Enjoy these two tributes to a true DC legend who was confirmed to have worked with the Elongated Man at some point during his career.

How I'd Fix The Secret War of the Phantom General

So, comic writing is rarely known for consistently amazing stories. Often writers have to develop plots quickly and work out the dialogue so there's little time to revise and rewrite in time to make a deadline. And sometimes the stories show that.

Well, our last story, The Secret War of the Phantom General, felt really off, so how would I improve the story if I had the chance?

In case you didn't read that blog, I urge you to use the link above and check it out first, because I'll be addressing points in the story and that will serve as the context.

The story opens fine until we get to the point of Batman and Robin meeting Ralph and Sue in their hotel room. This means that Batman and Robin—in costume—would be walking through a hotel to get to Ralph and Sue's room. This also leads into the weird freak out from Ralph when Batman talks to them about the crimefighting they just did.

My alternate solution is that instead of that, have Batman and Robin on their way back to Wayne Manor where Ralph and Sue are visiting because why wouldn't Bruce Wayne invite a publicly known superhero to visit him? You could still lead into the Von Dort reveal by having Ralph talk about his current investigation that brought him to Gotham City. Bruce and Dick—who would be seen in their civilian identities for once in the story—can confer afterwards. You could also have Aunt Harriet pop up serving refreshments to the guests and Sue offering her own commentary versus her just dropping out. Drop the clumsily introduced flashback to Von Dort and show us some of his backstory.

This would also cut Batman and Robin and Ralph heading out to investigate and going separate ways, which makes little sense that they'd split up. Later, I'd imagine they'd run into each other as they capture the parachuters and then compare notes and head off to the Andes.

The finale in the Andes I'd change where Ralph is put in a trance by Von Dort, who would decide to go activate his death ray. Batman goes off after Von Dort, while Robin has to get Ralph out of the trance so he can deactivate the death ray in time as only Ralph's stretching abilities can reach the components they'd need to reach in time.

And at the end, the celebratory panel could still happen, just now in Wayne Manor with Bruce and Dick back in civilian identities. Rework Bruce's thoughts and give them to Ralph as dialogue.

Like I said, the concept was good, the execution had it all fall apart. It just needed a more dynamic finish and some smoothing out.

Do you have different concepts? Are there stories in the past you think I should fix? Let me know in the comments.

The Secret War of the Phantom General

 Detective Comics #343 was released with a cover date of September, 1965. It can be found on Comixology and DC Universe. In addition, since this story also features Batman, it has been reprinted in Batman Family (Vol. 1) #4 and Showcase Presents: Batman Vol 2, as well as Showcase Presents Elongated Man.

Over in the letters page, readers were too busy puzzling over how Batman could actually lift a gorilla on the cover of #339 to discuss Ralph's story in that issue. However, Joel Pollack of Silver Spring, Maryland tries to offer advice on how to identify inkers on Carmine Infantino's work throughout the book. "I can sum it up in one word—expression. When Sid Greene inks Carmine Infantino, everyone looks happy, even when they're sad. With Joe Giella, everyone looks befuddled. When Infantino pencils, characters have very human expressions on their faces."

This would be the second team up story for Batman and Ralph, following from "Museum of Mixed-Up Men!" back in #331. The concept was to do a book-length story occasionally pairing up the two heroes instead of two separate stories. Readers weren't crazy about it, though.

"The Secret War of the Phantom General" would see the return of John Broome to writing for Ralph and Joe Giella on ink with Carmine Infantino on pencils and Ira Schnapp lettering. Julius Schwartz was editor.

The cover should be striking, but something about it just feels unappealing to me. Ralph seemingly has Batman and Robin at his mercy, tied up in his arms, at the command of the ghostly face behind them. I'm going to venture that it would look much better against an actual background instead of black, empty space.

Another error is the text on the cover and header trying to suggest that the villain of the story might not actually be alive, but they show him standing right there in the splash panel.

We haven't even started the story, and I'm already disappointed.

So yes, the splash panel shows us the villain General Von Dort with a hypnotic monocle that has put Ralph and Robin out of action with Batman trying very hard not to look to avoid the same fate. It's interesting and very Batman-central and Joe Giella returning to ink Ralph again looks okay.

Ralph doesn't turn up until page 6, so I'll sum up the story until then.

Batman and Robin are going to meet Ralph and Sue at a hotel when they hear about a hold up at the Gotham City Terminal. There are dozens of crooks and when Batman and Robin arrive, they only manage to take out a few before most of them escape. Batman notes military-style efficiency and a reporter decides to run "Is New Mystery Crime King A Military Mastermind?"

Batman and Robin go on to meet Ralph and Sue, the latter of which goes to the Gotham City Music Hall to go offscreen until the final panel of the story. (Sigh.)

Batman tells Ralph about the scene they just arrived from and when he mentions "military mastermind," Ralph freaks out and goes pale. He tries to connect dots as the story cuts away to a flashback introduced by a portrait of John Broome.

The flashback shows some Gotham City criminals being met by General Van Dort, a German general who was believed to be dead "with Hitler in that fatal Berlin bunker!" Van Dort says he's alive and has simply moved from traditional warfare to crime. He wants to take over the crime world in Gotham and claims he can't fail. When one crook asks him how he knows they won't turn him over to the police, he laughs and stares them with his monocle and says they wouldn't dare.

Seriously, I hate that we got this method of introducing the villain. The cover and title teases that the General might be dead and it's his ghost. Here, page 8, Van Dort clearly says that this isn't the case. While our protagonists might not know, we as an audience do, so that bit of suspense is gone. It's also really clumsy to have Ralph freak out and then there's no explanation for what happened for two pages.

Ralph explains that he was in South America and heard rumors about Van Dort. He heard that Van Dort left his base in the Andes for Gotham, which makes his freak out so surprising. Now that Batman and Robin have an idea of who they're dealing with, they all set out to investigate together.

The last panel shows Ralph putting his costume on. I'm going to assume he's finishing putting on after stepping out of the bathroom and he didn't strip down in front of Batman and Robin.

While out, Batman and Robin spot parachuting crooks descending on an auction and go break them up. However, these crooks were just a diversion while Van Dort steals an undisclosed item and heads back to the Andes.

As the heroes meet up again, absent until now Ralph reveals that he has discovered that Van Dort was working on a Death Ray, and was only lacking "a vital radioactive isotope called M-244." They realize that Van Dort has stolen the isotope and headed back to the Andes, so they head to Batplane to pursue.

Arriving, Ralph stretches his neck from the Batplane so he can strike a sniper. Good going, Ralph, it's about time that you got an action moment.

As the three heroes meet and take on Van Dort's men, they are identified as Batman and Robin. Ralph adds "And don't forget the Elongated Man!" Okay, that's a good moment.

Ralph spots Von Dort through a window and stretches in to demand his surrender. Von Dort uses his monocle and compels Ralph to turn on Batman and Robin. Ralph seems to be completely aware of what he's doing, but he can't stop his actions.

Batman and Robin manage to stop Ralph by twisting his arms around himself and squeeze him, making Von Dort's spell on him break.

So... What the heck just happened? Did Batman and Robin break a weird trance by forcing Ralph into a self-induced Heimlich maneuver?

Von Dort himself arrives on the scene and freezes Robin with the radiation from his monocle, and Batman—observing Von Dort's weapon—lowers his head and charges, knocking Von Dort out with a punch.

Why would a military mastermind like Von Dort just arrive on scene with no protection? Like, do it from the window and then go to escape or something. It's like he wasn't even trying.

Before I go to the final panels, this surprisingly wasn't the end of Von Dort. Five years later, Batman would face his son Willi Van Dort (they got the name wrong) along with Wonder Woman in The Brave and the Bold #87.

Batman and Robin get the authorities to pick up Von Dort and his crew and discuss how his monocle worked and how they narrowly stopped his death ray.

Later, Batman and Robin join Ralph and Sue in their hotel room for tea, Batman thinking that nothing ruffles Sue. (Lies.) "Just looking at her makes you realize that everything's all right in the world—and probably always will be!"

Well, that makes Identity Crisis hurt even more.

You know, I think it'd be fun if Sue has figured out that Bruce Wayne is Batman from observing Batman's mannerisms here while he's at ease and putting together what she probably knows about Bruce Wayne.

Well, I'm rather disappointed with this story. The lead in text, cover and title all tease that Von Dort might be dead, but it's quickly shown to not be the case and Batman and Robin take him down with just a bit of help from Ralph, who's definitely just a guest star here. The story idea of an former Nazi general finishing a death ray is not bad, but it's not carried to its full potential here. The wrap up is contrived and just too easy. It's too bad John Broome doesn't seem to care about Ralph very much after he introduced him back in The Flash. The best moment is the bit where Ralph announces himself to Von Dort's men.

Infantino's art is fine with some well-done moments, but nothing really spectacular.

Next time, Ralph goes to Paris.

TV review: "Into The Void"

The Flash is back for Season 6, and returning as a regular is Hartley Sawyer as Ralph Dibny.

Last season's finale teased that Sue Dearbon would be showing up this season, however the new show runner Eric Wallace has confirmed that she'll debut in the latter portion of the season, after the crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths. No casting has yet been announced. He did also mention that there is potential for Ralph and Sue to be spun off into their own show, which is exciting to think that a beloved more obscure DC hero has enough goodwill to possibly lead a TV series.

However, clips and set photographs of Ralph reveal him in action as Elongated Man and even seemingly in front of the Central City Police Department with new chief Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) behind him. So we'll have to see where Ralph's plotlines go this season.

So, the debut episode of Season 6 begins to set up the season. The show runner has mentioned that they will be doing two main plotlines, one before Crisis and one afterward.

 
The cast and crew teased that the episode would pick up right where the previous finale left off, and that's true, but there's shortly a time jump to the future. Barry (Grant Gustin) apprehends a Godspeed lookalike, with Cisco (Carlos Valdes) mentioning that several of these doppelgangers have been appearing lately. Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) finds her trying to bring out her metahuman alter ego Killer Frost troublesome as she tries to help console her fellow scientist Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy) who will become the Season 6, Part 1 Big Bad Bloodwork, who has lost his mother.

Looking for a tub that her father threw out, Iris (Candice Patton) is nearly sucked into a black hole that mysteriously opened. These begin to appear around Central City with Team Flash having to find out what's causing them and how to stop them.

Ralph is back this season with dialogue confirming he went to Opal City for a missing persons case, "a summer spent rubbing Rolexes with the wealthy elite..." He was looking for leads on the disappearance of Sue Dearbon, mentioning that her parents seemed desperate to find their daughter. From what it sounds like, Sue's case is ongoing, but we know we're still in for a wait before we actually see her. But it is confirmed that the Arrowverse Sue will still come from a wealthy background, just as her original comics counterpart.

Later, Ralph tricks Killer Frost into a talk, trying to get her to admit to why she hasn't been helping Caitlin, and later he and Killer Frost go out to help evacuate part of Central City when a black hole appears.

The episode plays so neatly with threads left from the last season that it feels more like a continuation rather than a new start, even with a new show runner. Of course, it should, but there's typically been some major event going on with The Flash to shake up the status quo, but really it's just Team Flash continuing on. Which, really, is probably good as the end of the episodes sees the return of the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) who reveals that the Crisis that the Flash disappears in will now be happening much sooner than they thought.

Also, there's a long-overdue use of a particular song by Queen.

Viewers in the US may view "Into the Void" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire sixth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix by June 2020. Digital versions of the episodes may be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Google Play and other retailers of digital video content. Blu-Ray and DVD copies of the season are expected to be available for sale in or by September, 2020.

Non-US viewers should check their local listings, the websites of the channels that air The Flash, and digital video retailers.