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.