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.

My Wife, The Witch!

Detective Comics #348 has a cover date of February, 1966. It's available on Comixology and DC Universe.

In the letters page, there was a lot of buzz about "Peril in Paris!" Leonard Tirado of Saratoga Springs, New York thought seeing Ralph in a foreign country instead of a US setting was a welcome change, and even claimed the US-based stories were showing some wear and looks forward to Infantino drawing more foreign places. Earl Krizek of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania guesses correctly that John Broome wrote the story, and says that it was enjoyable, except for the reason of "Sue's change of identity." Mitch Theophila II of Wadsworth, Ohio was far more critical of this point, saying it ruined the story. He opens by saying "What a waste! I can truthfully say that the writer probably laid the biggest egg of his career when he conceived the explanation..." He does compliment the art, though.

"My Wife, the Witch!" was written by Gardner Fox with pencils by Carmine Infantino and Sid Greene on inks, Gaspar Saladino lettered while Julius Schwartz served as editor.

The splash page teases that Sue suddenly acquires magical abilities, with an image of her wearing a stylish witch hat next to a broom under the title. The text further goes on to tease that Ralph is going to figure out what happened to Sue. So the art shows Ralph getting knocked out, stretching across the room, despite seemingly having knocked out two men already.

Not a fan of this art. It would be better if it showed Sue doing her "magic." That would be more enticing. The man's dialogue also just says what you can clearly see just happened.

It's a rainy night as Ralph and Sue arrive at the Pine Beach Hotel, just outside the (later revealed) town of Malem. (If you haven't guessed, it's a one letter change for Salem, Massachusetts.) The rain is so heavy, that Ralph and Sue are dripping wet in the time it takes to get from the car to inside the hotel.

Entering, the couple are informed that their reservation is not on file, but Ralph spots that a room key is still hanging up in the box for Room 13. The owner and manager, Gregory Hunt, protests that the room is haunted, but in a total power move, Ralph stretches his arm and grabs the key.

The next morning Ralph is heading downstairs to take their car to be serviced and informs Gregory that they slept soundly. Meanwhile, Sue finds a book about witchcraft in her room. It's heavily damaged, but three spells are legible. Sue decides to try them, and the first requires her to throw a feather over her shoulder and speak a spell to make a lamp levitate and move through the air. It surprisingly works.

Sue tries the second spell, which requires her to drink salt water and stand on her head while reading the spell, which alters the lights in the room into a strobe effect.

Sue then calls Ralph at the garage to ask him to pick up things for the third spell. He's puzzled as to why Sue wants these weird items, but when the mechanic hears the items, he informs Ralph that he can get the items at the Malem Museum's Witch's Museum gift shop.

While Ralph is at the Museum, three crooks try to rob the till. Ralph quickly changes behind a screen and springs into action as the Elongated Man. Infantino fight scene, coming up!

Admittedly, this isn't one Infantino's best as Ralph is mostly obscured through the fight, but he still conveys action nicely.

Ralph knocks one crook out with a spinning wheel, and the second one is able to recognize that the stretched out arm could only belong to the Elongated Man. This one is then knocked out by Ralph throwing a punch from a display.

The third crook tosses his gun as he knows it's useless to shoot Ralph and Ralph instructs him to put his hands in the air in surrender.

Turns out the gun was actually a smoke bomb with knock out gas! The final crook gives Ralph a punch that stretches him across the room.

The three gangsters begin their getaway, when they notice a long nose sticking out of the window. As it turns out, Ralph made sure he'd be knocked out so he'd be by the window so he could stretch his nose out, being unaffected by the knockout gas.

Ralph gives the three gangsters another knockout before taking them to the police department. Afterward, he returns to the hotel where Sue explains the third spell is for the heart's desire, allowing her to wish for whatever she wants.

Ralph scoffs at the idea of this witchcraft being real and mentions that he forgot the items Sue wanted given the crooks he just helped round up.

Sue tells Ralph about her magical feats, but the book (conveniently) says each feat can only be performed once. Ralph replies with a cute "Sue, honey—the only witchcraft you ever worked was when you got me to propose to you..."

 He then begins to think that perhaps Sue's magic was a trick to get him to the museum to catch the crooks. But who'd know they were there? The gang's leader who doesn't actually do the jobs, just orders the others to do it. With nose twitching, Ralph calls the police. (Presumably, Ralph heard about the gang's leader while dropping the gang off.)

The scene shifts over to Mr. Hunt who goes over his own dilemma as he listens in on Ralph's phone call. (Remember when you could do that?) We follow his thoughts as he reveals that he is the gang's leader and wants to keep the loot they've collected for himself, which is why he arranged for Ralph to arrest them by setting up gimmicks to make Sue's first two "spells" work.

He watches Ralph go to the car and head to the police station, and then goes to pack up his stolen goods. As he heads out, he finds Ralph waiting for him. Hunt swings at Ralph, who explains as they fight that he tricked Hunt to catch him red handed. The coincidences lined up too neatly for the gang leader to be anyone else but Hunt.

Hunt decides to blind Ralph by spraying him in the face with insecticide, but Ralph simply sprawls himself around the room, creating an impossible trap for Hunt. Ralph soon wraps up Hunt and takes him to jail.

Wrapping up the story, Ralph confirms with Sue that it was all a trick.

Sue confesses that the last spell, for "Heart's Desire," would've been used to make her the most beautiful girl in the world so that he'd be proud of her.

He embraces her and says "Silly girl! How could you ever be more beautiful than you are right now?"

It's a sweet ending, but the whole idea of Sue being gullible to fall for believing she can do magic smacks a bit of sexism. Even Ralph's well-intentioned "Silly girl!" is a little off. Not to mention her wish is a bit shallow. She wants to be beautiful. There's nothing else Sue could wish for?

It's a fairly well done story, but sells Sue off as a bit too naive for my liking.

Next time, Sue wants to go fishing.