The Puzzling Prophecies of the Tea Leaves!

So, it's been a second. One thing that's happened is I got a new job that drastically changed my day to day schedule, so that's one thing I've had to adjust to. Plus, there's a pandemic going on and there was an election and a lot to think over. Shout out to my friend Sean who's currently quarantining after a positive test. Admittedly, the Hartley Sawyer news was also a buzzkill. (They've announced that Ralph will be leaving the show, his farewell episode will see him replaced with another actor, so there won't be many more TV reviews when the show comes back in February. Hopefully his reception on the show gets them to adapt the character in other ways. It's just a shame that once we get the start of Ralph and Sue, it's over.)

Anyway, on to Detective Comics #353 which is available on Comixology and DC Universe.

In the letters page, only a couple readers wrote in to weigh in on Ralph. Alan Trahern of Covington, Louisiana wrote that "The 13 O'Clock Robbery" was "excellent, as usual. I always enjoy reading (Ralph's) yarns and love his tricky tactics that he uses in winding up his capers." Ingrid Nurenberg of Woodland Hills, California says that Ralph is "groovy! I luv the way he stretches—but how does he do it? I can almost understand getting his cells (muscle-wise) to stretch, but what about his bones?"

"The Puzzling Prophecies of the Tea Leaves!" was written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Carmine Infantino with lettering by Gaspar Saladino with Julius Schwartz as editor.

The Splash page sees Ralph creeping through a keyhole and wrapping up a couple crooks with his stretchy arms, thinking how he was informed about the crime and his involvement by a fortune teller. An interesting note is that there's a clear artist credit, unusual, but Infantino deserved it.

The text says this takes place in Quaker City, which is the name of a village in Ohio and a community in Pennsylvania. Most likely, as usual, this is supposed to be "Any Metropolitan City, USA," but it's always fun to see if it matches up to any actual places.

So, we kick off with Sue having her fortune told. Sue doesn't believe in it, but thinks it's fun as the teller warns her that she is "destined to take a fall," and that "an ominous voice will greet you when you return home!"

While walking an hour later, a heel on one of Sue's shoes breaks, making her fall, but Ralph is nearby and grabs her before she hits the ground, his jacket ripping in the process. She explains the fortune teller's prophecy, but Ralph dismisses it.

However, when they arrive at their hotel room, they hear the promised ominous voice saying "They say nothing ever happens in Quaker City—but beware!" Ralph slips out of his jacket, which Sue collects and notes the rip in it. She says she'll mend it.

Okay, we're supposed to believe that Sue mends Ralph's clothes? I'm not saying she wouldn't know how, but given they're a rich couple, couldn't they drop it off at a tailor's instead? But then, it's nice to know Sue's helping Ralph out somehow.

Infantino is in his usual pencil and inking style and doing all right. He's able to detail action well, even if it's not looking as good as when Sid Greene handled inking.

Ralph laughs when he discovers that the ominous voice is coming from a mynah bird that was delivered to their room, however, when questioned, the manager says that he was told Sue ordered the bird. Ralph decides to question the fortune teller himself and finds her telling a widow that she'll receive $100,000 in the mail tomorrow.

Ralph asks the teller about the mynah bird, and she protests that she can indeed read the tea leaves, and she tells him that he'll stop three men attempting a robbery at 10 o'clock that night at the Loftus Jewel Salon.

Ralph decides not to go so as not to give the fortune teller the satisfaction, especially as he and Sue have theater tickets. However, Sue can tell that Ralph is thinking of the prediction as his nose keeping twitching and growing longer. When it reaches into the piled up hairdo of the woman sitting ahead of him, Sue finally tells Ralph to go look into the robbery.

Ralph goes to the jewelry store and indeed finds two (not three) robbers inside. He surprises them by wrapping them up with his arms, then socking them in the jaw, then knocking their heads together. Turning them over to the police, Ralph decides to go see the fortune teller again, thinking that she might actually be the ringleader of the robbers, but he finds two more trying to rob her.

Ralph knocks these two out with a safe. Which would probably really hurt someone. Then he smacks them together as Ayda the fortune teller comes downstairs.

Ralph questions Ayda, who reveals her real name is Alice Avery, the daughter of the late Andrew Avery, a ruthless businessman who legally took advantage of people, including Ralph. Alice has been using the guise of Ayda to make restitution to people he wronged. She was actually mailing the $100,000 to the widow she was talking to earlier.

As for Ralph, she knew he didn't need financial compensation, so she offered him a mystery to investigate. She arranged the mynah bird and noting Sue's shoes, predicted the fall. She overheard the crooks talking about their plans to rob the jewelry store, so sent Ralph on their trail.

Ralph declares that he's been repaid with interest.

Ralph meets up with Sue in their hotel room, and they say that Quaker City is a "fun town" now. Sue can be seen mending Ralph's jacket in the final panel.

Overall, not a bad story. It's just not very memorable. Gardner Fox wrote an okay story without many logic leaps, and Infantino is doing good but not great work here.

Next time, jewel thieves.

The Flash fires Hartley Sawyer

It has been announced that Hartley Sawyer will not be returning to The Flash in Season 7.

It was revealed that as late as 2014, Hartley had made horrible jokes on Twitter aimed at women and people of color as well as other derogatory jokes.

Hartley had addressed the tweets a week ago when they were first brought to the public on Instagram.

I'm not here to make excuses—regardless of the intention, my words matter and they carry profound consequences. And mine can have caused pain and embarrassment, along with feelings I can only imagine to supports and fans, my cast mates, the crew, my colleagues and friends. I owe them all an apology. And I owe each of you an apology. Thank you for holding me accountable.

My words, irrelevant of being meant with an intent of humor, were hurtful, and unacceptable. I am ashamed I was capable of these really horrible attempts to get attention at that time. I regret them deeply.

This was not acceptable behavior. These were words I threw out at the time with no thought or recognition of the harm my words could do, and now have done today.

I am incredibly sorry, ashamed and disappointed in myself for my ignorance back then. I want to be very clear: this is not reflective of what I think or who I am now.

Years ago, thanks to friends and experiences who helped me to open my eyes, I began my journey into becoming a more responsible adult - in terms of what I say, what I do, and beyond. I've largely kept that journey private, and this is another way that I have let so many down. I still have more work to do.

But how I define myself now does not take away the impact of my words, or my responsibility for them. I am very sorry.

Personally, I hope Hartley is sincere here. However, especially during this current cultural climate, the showrunner of the Flash and the executive producers had to take action. Showrunner Eric Wallace had this to say:

This morning, many of you learned that Hartley Sawyer will not be returning for Season Seven of The Flash. Concerning his social media tweets, they broke my heart and made me mad as hell. And they're indicative of the larger problem in our country. Because at present, our country still accepts and protects the continual harassment—unconscious or otherwise— terrorizing and brutalizing of Black and Brown people, which is far too often fatal. That's why our country is standing up once again and shouting, "ENOUGH!" and taking to the streets to bring about active change.

I, too, am committed to bringing permanent change to the work environment here on The Flash. Yes, this is a family show. But it's for all families. That includes Black and Brown ones. In order to facilitate this, I will continue to find Black and Brown writers, directors, actors and producers of all genders to help tell Flash stories. Their stories are part of the American narrative, too, and must be heard. And the more you hear and see us, the more you will begin to recognize one simple fact: We're human beings, too.

To those who still aren't sure why so many Americans have taken to the streets to make their voices known, I ask you to consider this: Every time a Black or Brown life is harassed, harmed or murdered, as in the case of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and too many others, our entire country fractures and moves further and further away from any moral authority we often claim to have in the world. Murder is not democracy. Systemic and institutional white privilege is not equality. Suppressing the free press with violence is not liberty. The only way for you to be free is for all of us to be free.

#BlackLivesMatter 

It is not yet announced how Hartley's firing will affect the show. Ralph (and likely Sue) could be written off the show or Ralph could be recast. Natalie Dreyfuss wasn't upgraded to series regular when other new recurring characters were, so an early exit from the show for her is entirely possible.

Hartley Sawyer has not commented on social media after his apology, but before he issued his apology, he had determined to use his platform to support Black Lives Matter. I think he's likely taking a long break from social media entirely. If you want to support him, support Black Lives Matter and other socially progressive causes in your area. 

So, we'll see how things go. We'll still be doing comic reviews when time allows.

The Counter of Monte Cristo!

Detective Comics #352 has a cover date of June 1966 and is available on Comixology and DC Universe.

Over in the letters page, two readers write in that Ralph should get a chance to grace the cover of the comic sometime. (If you're wondering, it doesn't happen. Ralph would appear on the cover, but only alongside other characters with Batman up front.)

Mickey Gaither of Ellicott City, Maryland suggested that Ralph could be featured on the cover or split the cover with Batman. But before that, he comments on "My Wife, The Witch!" saying it was an entertaining story, "not 'The best story I've ever read' as some of your readers might try to tell you. I'd like to congratulate you on the job you've done with the Elongated Man strip; at first I thought it held no promise because of Ralph's power, probably the most common in all comicdom. Sue does add much to this success, along with the idea of a married, secret-identityless superhero."

He goes on with "Lastly, why not feature the Elongated Man on a cover? Or perhaps a cover divided into two, with him AND Batman?"

Irene Vartanoff of Bethesda, Maryland hits the same note with a more impassioned plea: "Dear Editor: How about featuring Elongated Man on the cover of Detective? I feel that, since the title of the mag is Detective, NOT Batman, the Elongated Man has just as much right to the cover as Batman has. The Martian Manhunter never had a chance when he appeared in Detective, to my sorrow, and he was always considered 'inferior' because of it. (This is an unconscious reasoning; the reader feels that the unfeatured story is a 'filler'). Please give Elongated Man a chance. I'm sure you'll never regret it."

Well, as above stated in a parenthesis, Ralph didn't get a starring cover in Detective Comics. The reason is simple: Batman was the iconic character for DC, and was soon appearing on TV screens. With so much media presence, they wanted to sell the most copies. However, despite not featuring on Detective Comics' cover, Ralph was amassing fans who loved the character.

Julius Schwartz asks readers to sound off on the idea of featuring Ralph on the cover. We'll see if this resumes in a few issues' time.

"The Counter of Monte Cristo!" was written by Gardner Fox with Carmine Infantino on pencils and inks while Gaspar Saladino lettered and Julius Schwartz served as editor.

Splash page time! The text teases that Ralph is lured into yet another adventure as he and Sue visit Monte Carlo. The panel shows Ralph rapidly swinging back and forth to draw the fire of three gunmen, trying to use up their ammunition. It's a pretty eye-popping splash page.

The way this story opens strikes me that it would have made a nice honeymoon story for Ralph and Sue, but it's set far after that as Ralph has his new costume.

It opens with Ralph and Sue enjoying the view of Monte Carlo from their resort's balcony. Sue mentions "If only Aunt Deborah could see me now!"

So, Sue has an Aunt Deborah and an Uncle Jim (as revealed in "The Elongated Man's Other World Wife"). Are they brother and sister, husband and wife, or are they on opposite sides of the family? We may never know.

When she says she's so glad she married Ralph, he replies, "Sure! Marry me and see the world!" Which makes me say this would have made a good honeymoon story.

Checking their guidebook, the Dibnys decide to visit a casino, a very classy one. Sue wins a round at a table and when she collects her markers, she accidentally knocks some over to the gentleman sitting next to her. She apologizes and explains it's her first time winning anything and she's so excited. He's cordial, perhaps too cordial as Ralph asks her about him as he steps away.

Sue says the gentleman was very polite, but then the man holds everyone at gunpoint and asks for their counters. Everyone does so and he leaves. Ralph switches to his costume (which he was wearing under his clothes) and gives chase, but after grabbing the man's jacket, the man slips out and gets away.

Talking to management, they tell Ralph not to pursue the case as they don't want any publicity. They'd rather lose the counters, but if the man returns, they will have him arrested.

Ralph and Sue head out to the Riveria to relax, but of course, Ralph can't get the case off his mind. The crowd is rather heavy and Sue even gets nudged by someone. As they find a seat, Sue reveals she had a counter in her pocket to give to Aunt Deborah. However, when she tries to get it out of her pocket, she can't find it.

Ralph realizes the man who ran into her earlier must have been a pickpocket and quickly trails him to a grand house.

Peeking inside, Ralph is able to hear confirmation that they were indeed after the counter stolen from Sue. He reveals himself to the men inside, who begin firing, prompting the scene of Ralph swinging himself like a pendulum to draw their fire and empty their pistols.

Fight scene! Ralph manages to punch out of guy by turning his arms into an arrow and using his body like a bow. Then he manages to stretch his hair (a rare move) to blind the pickpocket before knocking him out. Then he goes after the leader by tripping him up and catching him.

Ralph calls the police and later tells Sue the entire story. The men were part of a spy ring, the leader being the leader, who was the gunman at the casino in a disguise, trying to recover a valuable piece of microfilm hidden in a counter (because that's the only way to smuggle microfilm apparently), which happened to be the one Sue pocketed. Stealing all the ones from the table, it was soon discovered they weren't the one, so the pickpocket was sent after Sue.

On the way out of Monte Carlo the next day, Ralph is recognized and makes a show out of bowing to the people as only he can.

As I said, this would have been better as a honeymoon story for Ralph and Sue. Unfortunately, it was written much later into Ralph's career. Aside from the baffling bit of why the microfilm had to be smuggled in a counter (which the entire plot hangs on), it's a well-done story. Infantino is in good form as well. Really, the only complaint about the art is some missing red coloring from Ralph's costume in one of the panels.

Next time, Sue gets her fortune told.

TV Review: "Liberation," "Pay the Piper," and "Success is Assured"

While Ralph has been appearing in these episodes of The Flash, his roles were smaller in comparison to the main plots.

In "Liberation," Barry (Grant Gustin) realizes that Iris (Candice Patton) isn't really herself as Eva (Efrat Dor) sets her plans in motion using the mirror images of Iris, Kamilla (Victoria Park) and Captain Singh (Patrick Sabongui) to reach a certain metahuman for help.

Meanwhile, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Ralph visit Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) only to find her suffering from a strange case of hypothermia. They do what they can to help, but it's clear that they need to reach out to Caitlin's mother.

Ralph and Cisco were also seen trying to help Barry with the artificial Speed Force generator.

The Caitlin plotline stretched into "Pay the Piper," in which Killer Frost is awarded a "Dib-ploma" in a very sweet scene with Ralph as she feels nervous about meeting Caitlin's mother.

It felt like this should've been in the previous episode, and maybe it was originally planned, but with some reshuffling of the season's filmed episodes due to COVID-19, perhaps they had to split that plot over two episodes to fit it in at all. (It was, of course, a way to write out Caitlin/Killer Frost as Danielle Panabaker was taking maternity leave.)

The main plot of "Pay the Piper" saw Godspeed (voiced by BD Wong) return to Central City to take Barry's speed. To help take him out, Barry enlists the help of Hartley Rathaway (Andy Mientus), the Piper, who hates The Flash due to how a past run-in left one of his accomplices. With little of his own speed remaining, Barry has to take down Godspeed and help Hartley.

This brings us to the defacto season finale, "Success is Assured."

As Eva prepares to kill her husband, Joseph Carver (Eric Nenninger), Barry and his team prepare to defend him, convincing him to go into ARGUS custody. However, Eva manages to get Joseph's metahuman assassins on her side, so it's going to be quite the task.

Meanwhile, Ralph meets with Sue's parents (Mark Brandon and Nancy Hillis as Richard and Penelope, respectively), confronting them that he knows Joseph Carver was blackmailing them. Sue arrives and tells them that Carver had a change of heart, but Ralph is suspicious and later discovers that Sue is actually working for him, the true cause of his "change of heart," with her own intent to kill Carver. And yet the finale holds one more twist for Sue...

It is certainly unfortunate that The Flash wasn't able to wrap up the season, yet keeping the cast and crew safe and healthy was more important, and should everything work out, we will eventually get the end of the story.

As it is, the wrap up of the season suffered from having to rework everything into the episodes they were allowed. They told a coherent story, but some plots were cut too short while others felt bloated. It'll be interesting to see if several deleted scenes pop up on the eventual Blu-Ray release.

As it is, follow your local COVID-19 guidelines and hopefully, we can get The Flash Season 7 sooner rather than later.

Viewers in the US may view "Liberation," "Pay the Piper," and "Success is Assured" 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

TV Review: "So Long and Goodnight"

It's taken awhile for The Flash to get back to Ralph and Sue. In fact, it took awhile to get back. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production halted on the show and is unlikely to resume for some time. This season will be cut short by three episodes. Only three more will air after this episode.

The mysterious Black Hole organization is targeting Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), sending Rag Doll (Troy James) as an assassin. Barry (Grant Gustin) is trying to keep Joe safe, but due to the Speed Force dying (in a Ralph-less episode), his speed is dwindling, and there's only so much he can do. Not helping matters is Iris' mirror doppleganger (Candie Patton) working to force Barry to use up his speed.

Ralph enlists Cisco (Carlos Valdes) into helping him hack into a security system at a socialite breakfast when they run into Sue again. Using clues Cisco found, Ralph begins to deduce why Sue treated him the way she did in her last episode.

I was disappointed that Ralph and Sue got only two sequences, but they were really good, and hopefully, Sue gets to meet more of Team Flash. The non-Elongated Man portion was really gripping, building up a lot of tension. Hopefully the editing crew can use the remaining three episodes of Season 6 to do a great conclusion.

Viewers in the US may view "So Long and Goodnight" 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.

TV Review: "A Girl Named Sue"

Well, Ralph didn't pop up in "Marathon," the first episode of The Flash to air post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. Would've been nice to see him with Cisco (Carlos Valdes) puzzling over the timeline and geography of the new Earth Prime. Nor did he pop up in "Love Is A Battlefield," although Frost (Danielle Panabaker) did name drop him and his efforts to help her become a better person.

So, that brings us to "A Girl Named Sue." Guess who we meet here? Luckily, the CW released a bumper crop of photos marking the debut of Natalie Dreyfuss as Sue Dearbon, and I'm trying to use them all.

Well, currently Iris (Candice Patton) has been trapped in a Mirror Dimension, witnessing a Mirror version of herself interacting with Barry (Grant Gustin). However, she meets Eva McCulloch (Efrat Dor), the wife of the head of McCulloch Industries who was sent into the mirror six years ago during the Particle Accelerator explosion that created the Flash. Remembering their run in with a different version of Mirror Master in Season 3, Iris tries to help Eva escape.

Ralph, meanwhile, finally finds Sue after searching for her for nine months, which about lines up with the date of the Season 5 finale to now. He finds her in an apartment and manages to be there when there's an explosion. She manages to jump away from the blast.

Questioning her, she reveals she's being targeted by her ex, John Loring, a rich man running a criminal empire in the area. She is trying to get him exposed and captured so she can finally go home to her family without worrying about him targeting them.

Meanwhile, the Mirror Iris is up to some strange plot to reveal McCulloch Industries, but also runs into Nash Wells (Tom Cavanagh), who's been holding down STAR Labs while Cisco's away, but is also seeing visions of Harry Wells, his counterpart from the former Earth-2. Barry is also working with Joe (Jesse L. Martin) on some leads from Iris, which reveals moles inside Central City's police department.

So, "A Girl Named Sue" delivers a very different Sue from the one we knew in the comics. No longer is she just the woman with a rich background who wants to sit out cases. She wants to be in the thick of it, and as she and Ralph discover, they have points that complement each other.

Natalie Dreyfuss is deliciously energetic and clicks with Hartley Sawyer right away, which works very well for the storytelling. I look forward to seeing more of them and their relationship develop!

Sue's plot looks as if it will tie into the big bad story arc this season, and I look forward to seeing her hopefully work more with Ralph and Team Flash.

Well, given how large Team Flash has become, the show is having to have some cast members not appear in each episode (Danielle Panabaker wasn't present in this episode as either Caitlin Snow or Frost, and Tom Cavanagh only appeared in one scene), I might have to retract my determination to do biweekly reviews and just blog when we have an episode that uses Ralph. I will hold off if an episode just has him there and doesn't notably use him.

Viewers in the US may view "A Girl Named Sue" 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.

The Case of the Costumed-Made Crook!

Detective Comics #351 has a cover date of May, 1966 and should be on digital services shortly. Over in the letters page, none of the printed letters chimed in on Ralph's adventures.

"The Case of the Costumed-Made Crook!" was written by Gardner Fox with both pencils and inks by Carmine Infantino, Gaspar Saldino lettered and Julius Schwartz served as editor.

When we last saw Ralph, he had just gotten a new costume, now, he has to figure out what to do with the old one.

The splash page teases that someone stole the old uniform and is using it to do crimes with. The art shows us the crook firing some sort of large missile at a tired-looking Ralph.

Ralph's left arm looks flat while his right arm looks really skinny past the elbow and supposedly, he just stretched onto the roof given his elongated left leg. Also, Infantino's signature is in the lower right corner and Ralph's old costume is seen next to the title.

The story opens in an unnamed city which is said to be between Coast City (the location of the last story) and Central City, the home of the Flash. This is really vague because Coast Central is generally held to be in California, while Central City is either in Missouri or Ohio, which is quite some distance. Just Missouri to California is about two days by car.

Anyway, Ralph is checking himself out in his new costume and Sue lets her know she's feeling really hungry and she'd like to go to dinner.

Ralph announces he's going to donate his old costume to the Flash Museum in Central City, and Sue complains that she's hungry again.

Opening his suitcase, Ralph discovers his old costume is gone, so his nose gets to twitching and he decides to set off back to Coast City to recover it and sends Sue to Central City. "Not before I have my dinner!" Sue protests. "I'm famished!"

Go get some food, Sue!

Last time Infantino inked himself, the artwork looked a bit wonky. This time, it looks pretty good. Maybe he refined his technique a little. Or else maybe the crediting I found for this issue is off.

Ralph gets in a rental car and heads back to Coast City. Was Sue going to fly the rest of the way or do they know a really good route?

Asking at their hotel, Ralph discovers the bellhop who took their bags to their car promptly quit. Ralph then goes to the local paper and asks for copies of the photographs that were taken at his event. He spots the bellhop in them and then asks to look through the mug files.

The police then tell Ralph they're looking into a crook who seemingly vanishes after committing crimes. After hearing a couple descriptions of the crimes, Ralph deduces the crook is using his old costume to pull himself away from the scenes of the crimes almost instantly. With the police's help, he gets dropped off onto a building from a helicopter that night to keep an eye out for the crook.

 Ralph quickly spots him and apprehends him when he springs back to the roof of a building. Ralph punches the crook, which the old costume springs the man high up in the air and suspends him briefly, before he springs back down and hits Ralph.

This briefly knocks out both men, but the crook gets up first, and prepares to use the old costume as a weapon against Ralph.

Ralph gets back up to hear the crook threaten to "whale the elasticity out of you—" and responds "Talk is cheap! It's action that counts!"

For some reason, Ralph stands still as the crook whips around a makeshift bola which wraps around Ralph. It whips Ralph in the face and then makes him spin around.

It's here the crook reveals why he took the old costume. "I stole your old uniform with the idea that the wearing of it would give me the power to stretch the way you do! But when I discovered it didn't, I came up with another idea—"

Crook is a moron.

Anyway, it's now we get the moment that made the splash panel as a ventilation shaft cover is turned into a missile to fling at Ralph, but he manages to just dodge it and snaps it back at the crook, which knocks him out. Presumably, Ralph will turn the crook over the police, saying they can recover the rest of the loot.

It says the next day is the presentation at the Flash museum. This story has taken place over the course of three days:

Day 1: Ralph discovers his costume is stolen, returns to Coast City. Sue goes on to Central City.

Day 2: Ralph finds clues and deduces what happened to the costume. That night, he faces the crook, sends him to jail and recovers the costume.

Day 3: Presentation at the Flash museum.

Now, perhaps the lack of placing Coast City and Central City in any specific place back in the Silver Age meant this was no problem. But trying to figure this story with details revealed later means that Ralph and Sue had to have flown to Central City. Unless Green Lantern helped out again with that teleport beam.

Anyway, last page, Barry asks Sue where Ralph is, and she silently hopes Ralph will pop in, which he does, old costume in tow.

Ralph later explains the crime to Sue, who cutely watches him and kisses him as he explains that the crook didn't get the powers he wanted, finishing with "All of which proves, darling—that it's the man who makes the uniform, not the uniform that makes the man!"

Overall... This was actually good. The plot's tight and flows well. I just don't get why they say "wearing of it" in there. Infantino's art is good, but starts to look rougher as the story goes on. Still, nothing notable to complain about. Good work to the whole team on this one.

Next time, Ralph and Sue get down in Monte Carlo.

Green Lantern's Blackout!

Detective Comics #350 has a cover date of April 1966. It's on Comixology and DC Universe. In the letters page, no letters commented on Ralph's adventures at all.

"Green Lantern's Blackout!" was written by Gardner Fox with pencils by Carmine Infantino, Sid Greene on inks, Joe Letterese on lettering and Julius Schwartz served as editor.

The splash page shows us Ralph fighting some crooks alongside two men who don't appear to be very special. But, as the text and thought balloons inform us, they are Hal Jordan and "Pieface," meaning that we have the sixth superhero to team up with Ralph: Green Lantern. (The previous were, of course, the Flash/Barry Allen, Kid Flash/Wally West, Batman/Bruce Wayne, Robin/Dick Grayson, the Atom/Ray Palmer and now Hal.)

I have never liked the art on this splash page. It's frankly ugly, even with the dynamics of Ralph punching and his leg wrapped around some guy. However, now that I'm looking at it, you can tell those sound effects are Joe Letterese's work. (If you don't remember why, check out Joe's profile.) Other fun items of note: a blacked-out Green Lantern battery next to the title, and Infantino's signature in the lower left corner.

The story makes sure you're filled in on who's who, as the caption box fills you in that this is Sue Dibny, and this is her husband Ralph Dibny, and he is the Elongated Man. Never know when a story might be someone's first. But it seems like quite the infodump.

Anyway, Ralph and Sue are in Coast City, which is supposed to be a Californian city in the DC universe, again without a real-world counterpart. It's Ralph's birthday, and Sue wakes him up with a round of the "Happy Birthday" song. Ralph remembers his last birthday and what Sue did for him then, and so stretches his neck around the room to inspect it thoroughly to look for his present.

I noted that Sue quickly moves from one side of the bed to the other between the first two panels. Furthermore, I don't get why she wasn't in bed with Ralph. Unless implying a married couple would share a bed was too risque for 1966. She's wearing a near-transparent morning robe, though.

Sue says Ralph's present won't be ready until two o'clock, when she wants him to be back at the hotel. Ralph goes to sign autographs in the lobby, and is approached by Thomas Kalmuku, who tells Ralph that he's an ally of Green Lantern, who calls him "Pieface." ("Pieface" was actually a derogatory slur for people who had stereotypical Asian features. Tom was actually of Inuit origin and enjoyed Eskimo pies, which was supposed to be how he got the nickname. In time, DC has backed away from the nickname and just called him Tom, so allow me some liberty and I'll refer to him as Tom as well.) He further says that Green Lantern can't remember who he is and thinks it's the day after tomorrow, so he came to Ralph for help.

Tom has to spill Green Lantern's identity to Ralph, and explains that Green Lantern returned from a mission from a deep space mission, then switched to Hal Jordan. Hal talks to Tom about things they were scheduled to do the next day. Tom then sees Hal recharging his ring, except he'd already recharged it an hour ago when it only needs it daily, and unlike every other time, he's not in costume and seemingly not wearing his ring. When Tom asks him about it, he claims not to know what he's talking about or know who Green Lantern is. An hour later, Hal is now talking as if it's the day after tomorrow and charging his ring again, spurring Tom to find Ralph.


As they arrive at Ferris Air's base, Tom and Ralph spot strange planes that have been spraying some sort of chemical. Tom notices the guards are asleep, and as they pull in, they spot crooks running around with chemical sprays strapped to their backs. Luckily, Ralph can use his abilities to punch and kick at the crooks without them being able to spray him.

Ralph pulls himself onto the roof of a building to trip a couple crooks and then whack them against the building. Hal and Tom get into the fight and eventually all three wind up taking out the crooks. Tom gets the police who cart off the crooks.

This fight scene has some good visuals, but cutting between Tom and Hal and over to Ralph, it lacks the fluid motion we often get in Infantino's fight scenes.

Ralph has Tom confront Hal, who makes him concentrate on his invisible ring and have him restore his memory. The ring speaks and reveals that Hal passed through some gas that had a strange effect on him, making his sense of time screw up and forget that he's the Green Lantern.

It's now that Tom tells Hal that he let Ralph know that he's Green Lantern. Hal is willing to let Ralph have this information, but Ralph says he'd prefer to figure it out himself and Hal wipes that bit of information from Ralph's memory, and then Ralph notices that it's 1:59, and he's far from the hotel. Hal, however, transports him back with his ring.

Ralph is surprised to be surrounded by the media as Sue hands him a large wrapped box, which he opens to find a new costume.

Sue comments that Ralph's costume—which, we may recall, he's had since his debut in The Flash #112 just now without the mask—is "so drab," so she designed a new one and arranged for publicity.

Ralph tries on his new costume, which is primarily red with a black v-neck shape on the chest, as well as black gloves and boots with yellow trim, with a matching yellow belt. The new design is greeted by applause.

Okay, first, the story. It's serviceable, except Ralph doesn't get to really do much sleuthing and winds up just providing Tom some fire power. This feels more like it should've been a Green Lantern story guest starring Ralph versus the actual story, which is vice versa.

Now, onto the new costume. I don't love it. Mainly because it's extremely similar to Plastic Man's, which would prove to be bad timing as Plastic Man would return months later in July 1966 in House of Mystery #160. This was actually a "Dial H for Hero" story that saw Robby Reed use his dial to turn into Plastic Man to save the day. (Written by Dave Wood, art by Jim Mooney.)

However, the appearance of Plastic Man would be so well received that DC began their first Plastic Man series with a November/December cover date for 1966. While Ralph's costume was supposed to be red, it would often be colored differently, and I'll definitely be pointing it out.

In addition, I like purple being Ralph's color. This completely changed it.

Next time, what happens to the old costume?

TV Review: "Crisis on Infinite Earths" Parts 4-5/Looking Ahead To The Flash Season 6B

If you missed my review of parts 1-3 or just want to read it again, here it is, because we're jumping back into the coverage.

However, to honestly talk about these, I need to drop a spoiler for the end of Part 3 of the crossover, in fact, this will be very spoilery: at the end, the Anti-Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) wipes out Earth-1, the final remaining Earth. The Paragons are sent to the Vanishing Point, a point outside of Time. Suddenly, Superman (Brandon Routh) is replaced with Lex Luthor (John Cryer), who made himself a Paragon by altering the Book of Destiny. This makes the other Paragons Supergirl/Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist), the Flash/Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), Batwoman/Kate Kane (Ruby Rose), Ryan Choi (Osric Chau), White Canary/Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) and the Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz (David Harewood).

The episode of Arrow finds the Paragons at the Vanishing Point, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), having become the Specter, helps Barry use the Speed Force to send the Paragons on missions throughout time as they head to the Dawn of Time in a final effort to save the universe.

The crossover concluded on Legends of Tomorrow as the Paragons awaken on Earth to find everything back to normal. Kind of. Supergirl, Superman (Tyler Hoechlin), J'onn and Black Lightning (Cress Williams) discover that they now share the same Earth as the Flash and the Legends. However, Sara can't seem to find Oliver. Luckily, the Anti-Monitor is gone for good. ... Right?

Overall, as a fan of the Arrowverse franchise, it was exciting to see this event. It could've used more Ralph (as I say about everything DC), and it was hard not to smile. This isn't quite as epic as the historic comic book event, but that was very much a hard reboot of the DC Universe, while the TV version was in many ways a farewell to Stephen Amell's Oliver Queen. The cameos oddly didn't distract too much from the story, though I expect that people not quite as well-versed in all incarnations of DC in film and TV might not get them.

So, while Ralph didn't appear, he did appear in Part 3, so here's the end of that story, which sets up a new world for him to inhabit, and where he will soon meet Sue Dearbon. Read on after the availability notes for exactly how soon.

For viewers in the US, all episodes of Crisis on Infinite Earths will be available on the CW website and app for free viewing for a limited time, along with bonus materials. The respective episodes of Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow will be on Netflix along with the rest of their seasons after they complete their seasons. Batwoman will be streaming on HBO Max, the yet to debut WarnerMedia-owned subscription streaming service. The individual episodes will be available for purchase on digital vendors. Physical editions of each season are expected to be released on DVD and Blu-Ray. There is no word as to if there will be a special release of the event.

Viewers outside of the US will likely have a harder time following the event as the shows have many different licensing agreements.

Looking forward to the rest of The Flash Season 6, it becomes clear when we can expect to meet Sue as episode 12 of the season is titled "A Girl Named Sue," airing February 18. However, I believe Sue may turn up earlier. We'll just have to keep our eyes peeled. There will be a brand new "big bad" for the rest of the season and new plots.

The kicker is that we'll have to wait some time for this one as not only is this the third episode of "Season 6B," but The Flash won't be back for a couple more weeks as Arrow wraps up and Legends of Tomorrow returns to its Tuesday night post-The Flash slot.

So, TV reviews will be back on February 11 with reviews of "Marathon" and "Love is a Battlefield" (unless Ralph doesn't appear), and then February 18 for "A Girl Named Sue."

EDIT: Turns out, the just released trailer for the next episode actually showed us our first look at Sue! I took the liberty of making a screenshot. Again, all rights belong to Warner Brothers/DC Comics/The CW, etc.

 And here's a shot of Ralph from the same trailer. Looking forward to seeing this episode!

The 13 O'Clock Robbery!

Detective Comics #349 has a cover date of March 1966, and is on Comixology and DC Universe.

Over in the letters page, only Gregory Kopko of Stratford, Connecticut writes in about "Robberies in Reverse!" He says the story was wonderful as usual "except for the part where Sue was tickling Ralph under his arm. He could of just put down his arm and push Sue out of the way—but of course that was a ticklish situation and problem."

Notably, the letters page sees Henry Goldman of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania guess that Batman's recurring foe "The Outsider" is none other than an amnesiac Alfred, who was killed some issues back. Julius Schwartz calls it the best guess yet and mentions that Alfred will be appearing in the new Batman TV series, soon to debut.

"The 13 O'Clock Robbery!" was written by Gardner Fox while Carmine Infantino inked his own pencils for the first time in awhile, Gaspar Saladino lettered while Julius Schwartz served as editor.

The splash page is probably one of the most eye-popping ones in some time. Ralph is getting hit and stretched out by three boxing gloves popping out of the walls and ceiling and floor. Meanwhile, his target, a strange-looking man peeks out and laughing that the burglar alarm's traps are helping the crook, not the "Crook-catcher." It's not a bad splash page, except for how the crook comes off as looking a bit Asian.

Okay, as I stated in the credits, Carmine Infantino returned to inking duties on this story after a long time of Sid Greene handling it, and the difference is rather striking. Some of Infantino's panels look rather bad and suffer from weird details. Sue's appearance here is pretty bad. Where did you go, Sid Greene?

Our story is set near Lake Cherokee in the foothills of Vermont, which again, doesn't really exist. Ralph is getting ready to go fishing, surprised that Sue was letting him go, but then discovers that she wants to accompany him, because she has a designer lady angler's outfit she wants to wear.

There is a nice bit where Sue says "A wife's place is with her husband! Her interests should be his interests! I think fishing's going to be a lot of fun!"

It's a nice sentiment, but I've met couples who have differing interests and they find ways to compromise and make it work between them, even if it involves going to events they typically wouldn't be interested in. That said, if Sue is genuinely interested in fishing, that's great.

Ralph mentions he fished at Lake Cherokee as a child, but when he and Sue arrive, they find the lake dried up. So it's surprising when Ralph notices he's not the only fisherman at the lake as there is another seemingly fishing like normal.

Ralph's nose begins twitching and Sue decides it's time to cut out. She says there's something important in town that she wants to do. Wait, what happened to "A wife's place is with her husband?"

The fun thing is that Ralph stretches his ears to listen to Sue.

The mysterious fisherman keeps casting his line into different spots of the muddy lake with a magnet, trying to bring up something. Finally, he cheers that he found something.

Ralph switches to his Elongated Man uniform and follows the mysterious fisherman through tree tops in some very good art by Infantino.

Ralph sees that the fisherman is heading to the home of the late Elmer Ewell, and then witnesses him knocking out the caretaker of the house. (Geez, Ralph, you didn't act now? He just harmed an innocent person.)

The fisherman goes in and Ralph is intrigued when he hears the clock chime thirteen times. Peeking into the house, Ralph sees a hidden door open to a money vault and the fisherman heads in.

Ralph realizes that Elmer Ewell was a rich man and that the fisherman is obviously not a beneficiary of the estate.

Ralph thinks of the fisherman as "Izaak Walton," which I briefly wondered if I'd missed Ralph picking up his name, but it's a reference to the author of The Compleat Angler, first published in 1653. How did these references work in a pre-Google age? Guess you'd have to hope to have a good encyclopedia on the shelf.

Ralph accidentally sets off an electronic eye loop which activates burglar traps, setting off boxing gloves on mechanical arms that punch him and stretch him out.

The fisherman notices Ralph and delivers him a punch, knocking him out.

To add insult to injury, the fisherman makes some puns. "When it came to rigging up a burglar-proof alarm system—he sure was punchy!" And then, "Those gloves are eye-poppin' all right—but not as eye-poppin' as my fist makin' contact!"

The fisherman shoves Ralph into the vault, which happens to be air-tight, and thinks about how the clock-key he fished up let him get past the traps harmlessly. Now he's got the money and is sure he's got one ductile detective down.

There is a lot of Ralph stretching. I'm very convinced Infantino loved drawing Ralph's powers in action. This is feeling like a fair trade off to seeing Infantino ink himself again.

Ralph awakens in the vault and has to figure out how to get out. However, when he spots a light fixture, he unscrews the bulb and manages to thread himself out through the fixture.

Getting outside of the house, Ralph spots Jabez the caretaker, who's recovering from being attacked earlier.

Ralph informs Jabez that he'll be trailing the man who attacked him and that his tracks will be easy to follow.

Ralph, buddy, maybe you could also ask Jabez to call the police as you'll almost be certainly be needing them?

Ralph tracks down the fisherman with Infantino drawing him with his head close to the ground, his body fluid. He finally reaches a cabin where Ralph overhears the fisherman being addressed as "Chuck" and being threatened by a gang he used to belong to.

They critcize Chuck for going "Lone Wolf" since he got out of jail and he explains himself. He was going to directly rob Elmer Ewell near the end of his life, but witnessed him going into his money vault. He was caught and knocked out by one of the booby traps.

In jail, Chuck read about Ewell's death and for some reason, the newspaper mentions the clock key being thrown into Lake Cherokee. So he determined to find it and get Ewell's money for himself.

Chuck really got lucky that the key would respond to the magnet he was using. Or maybe he's been doing this a long time and this is the day he finally had the right magnet and the right aim.

Anyway, now that Chuck has his prize and is being held at gunpoint, he offers to split the goods with his old gang. Except Ralph just overheard the whole thing and makes his move.

Time for an Infantino Fight scene going for TWO pages!

So, Ralph reaches in to grab the loot and stretches a finger to knock out one crook. Some of the others try to fire at him, so he moves around to other side of the cabin, still holding onto the bag. Distracting them with the rest of him, he now lifts the bag...

...And uses it to whack two of the crooks! Chuck now tries to punch him again, but Ralph puts his nose to work, then hits the first crook again, then uses his knees to deliver another blow to the other two, then gives Chuck a big old wallop.

It's not really until the next panel that it's clear that there's been three other gang members along with Chuck, making a grand total of four guys Ralph handles. Would've been nice to have all four in one panel earlier.

Still, Infantino is in top form drawing these action scenes, which are the real highlight. They're very lively.

Ralph takes the four gangmembers in their car and Chuck's jeep and manages to drive both simultaneously. That can't be safe. Or legal. I knew he should've had Jabez call the police.

After so much fun, Ralph gets back to his motel room and wants to relax, but he notices Sue packing up, saying they're going to Lake Indian Head, which again, doesn't exist. There's an Indian Head Lake in Arkansas, but I'm sure that's more than the "couple of hundred miles away" that Ralph says it is. However, Sue has heard there's good fishing up there and is anxious to go.

The final panel has Sue driving the car, Ralph bemoaning the "good old days when wives let their husbands go fishing alone."

I won't call that sexism as Ralph doesn't want to fish right now, he wants to relax!

Overall, this is a better action story than a mystery. There's only two pages where Ralph isn't using his powers, the first page and the page where Chuck tells his story. Still, it was a pretty fun one.

Next time, Ralph teams up with another superhero and we are introduced to the iconic second costume.

Actually, I'll likely be posting my review of Parts 4 and 5 of the CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover first, but don't be surprised if it's a little late as my actual paying job scheduled me a shift that conflicts with the broadcast time.