The Pied Piper's Double Doom!

 Ralph's last appearance in The Flash for nearly eight years was in #138. Nine months after this issue, Ralph moved to a solo backup feature in Detective Comics, but we'll get on the details of that next time.

Seeing Ralph out of the book he debuted in was of course the same team that saw him appear: John Broome writing, Carmine Infantino on art, and Joe Giella on inks.

The front cover continues the tradition of turning a panel in the story into the cover, with a layout change, of course. And this is certainly quite the dynamic cover with how the Pied Piper is directly in the middle with the two heroes clearly in his power. Also, Infantino is clearly having fun with Ralph's body by fitting it around that text, likely the work of Mr. Gaspar Saladino. (But since work went uncredited at the time, it's difficult to pin down exactly who did the lettering for a lot of these comics.)

On to the splash page! Using a three-panel design, the text and image tantalize us with what's to come in the story. Even without the text, the motion indicated in the artwork already suggests that Ralph and Barry are being influenced by the Pied Piper to commit crime somehow.

The story opens with two guards making sure no one enters the Tower of Tower City, which must be near Central City. The text indicates that the Tower was basically a fortress that settlers used to fight off "Indians" three hundred years ago when it was just Tower Town. For some reason, instead of upkeeping the original tower, it's been rebuilt. Well, I guess it was 300 years ago.

Even more bafflingly, a monarch of an undisclosed European country has loaned their royal jewels to Tower City and they're keeping them in the top of the Tower. Under guard, of course. I guess the Tower is the museum they got. But bafflingly, the jewels have been stolen when the story properly starts.

The page cuts to the Pied Piper, who is admiring the Star of India, the stolen gem and thinking about how clever he is to use superheroes as his "plundering puppets." I like that his thoughts use alliterative words.

On this page, we see the Piper's previous plot to steal the Star of India in action as he recognizes Ralph Dibny in a crowd at Tower Town. Using a small pipe, he programs Ralph to do his bidding, which he did the previous night, playing a special turne that makes Ralph leave his hotel room  and use his stretching powers to cross the moat and reach up to the top of the Tower.

This is a really good flashback page. Note the jagged edges around the panels and the profile of the Piper on the left side giving us the idea that this isn't happening in the present, but the past.

You'll notice a woman near Ralph in the first two main panels, which seems to match Sue as we see her later in the story. So they at least don't forget her anymore.

The next page shows Ralph breaking in to steal the jewels, smashing the case, which is a surprise that it doesn't alert the guard who's standing right outside. The page is particularly creepy, which is good since it's featuring Ralph acting out of character. The Piper has Ralph turn the loot over to him, then wipes his memory of what he's just done.

It's important to note that this would be mind control, not hypnosis. Hypnosis only offers suggestions or helps to dig up memories. Mind control in this sense is basically science fiction and can be depicted however they want.

 Ralph reads of the mysterious crimes in the paper, with Sue realizing he'll be off on a case in a moment. This is basically going to be the template for their cases in Detective Comics. Surprisingly, they happen to have a double date with Barry Allen and Iris West that night. Iris and Sue will spend the day shopping. Also something we'll see more of in the future...

Infantino draws the Dibnys as a fairly sweet and loving couple and it's still amazing how much motion he manages to depict in these still images. Sue herself is particularly glamorous, and you can easily pick up on the idea that they love each other very much and that they're from very different backgrounds.

Barry begins investigating the Tower City robbery, but while he's at the tower, the Piper puts him under mind control as well and has him rob the Tower City bank at super speed, so fast no one sees it happen. He boasts at his control of Barry for an hour before sending him back to the Tower and wiping his memory. The only thing is, Barry does the robbery at super speed, but finds the Piper back in his hideout in his standard garb. How did the Piper have enough time to get back, much less change clothes?

Barry has noticed footprints that are too far apart for any normal human, and finding Ralph at the Tower City Bank, he tells him that only he could have committed the robbery at the Tower. (I guess the DC staff hadn't yet decided Plastic Man existed in this world or Barry doesn't know about Jimmy Olsen as Elastic Lad.)

I'm pretty sure at the time of writing this story, it wasn't the plan for Ralph to move into a backup feature in Detective Comics and the plan was that he'd be back in the The Flash, but in this moment, we have an echo to his first appearance where Barry suspects he might be responsible for crimes. And it just so happens that it's his last regular guest star appearance for a very long time. So, this moment serves as nearly a fitting bookend for this chapter of Ralph's appearances in The Flash.

Ralph informs Barry that the clocks stopped in mere milliseconds from each other. The only one who could move that fast would be Barry himself.

The two realize they must have been forced to do these robberies and forget, which is a totally reasonable line of thought. They go back to Ralph's hotel room, where they decide to take precautions if it ever happens again.

The two heroes paint the soles of their feet with special paint that'll leave infra-red traces for them to follow. I love how Ralph has elongated his leg to easily paint his foot, just showing off what he can do with his powers.

Barry then asks Ralph for some gingold, which he claims should allow him to stretch. Given what's revealed about gingold later, this shouldn't work, but because it's only been established that it gives people elastic powers, it works just fine.

Ralph notes that a half hour vanishes as Barry drinks the gingold, meaning they've been made to do another crime. They leap into action with the infra-red lamp, showing their prints.

I really hope The Flash TV show has Ralph ride on Barry's shoulders sometime. It's a classic position for them.

The Piper is informed of Ralph and Barry arriving by his "musical radar system." If you're going to balk at a musical radar that has specific alarms for the wavelengths of the heroes, you just haven't been paying much attention. It's the Silver Age, after all.

Being alerted to the heroes arriving, the Piper steps outside and uses his mind control to make Ralph stretch and twist himself into a super long corkscrew, and this is of course where the scene depicted on the cover comes from. Barry runs on empty air as if he's stuck on a treadmill. Because gravity doesn't matter with super speed.

Infantino of course draws this absolutely insane sequence with nearly cinematic visuals.

Using the powers granted him by gingold, Barry manages to stretch his arm and knock the pipes away from Piper, breaking his control of the heroes. He runs back inside to get another pair of pipes because he forgets that he's up against someone with super speed.

Barry stops to help Ralph untwist himself, which causes a small tornado due to Barry doing it at super speed. This wrecks the Piper's house, preventing him from using another pair of pipes, Ralph snatching him out at the last minute. Barry then stops the tornado from damaging anything else in the city.

Ralph manages to meet Iris and Sue in time for their double date, but Barry arrives ten minutes late, due to dealing with reporters at the police station and returning the stolen goods to their owners. Iris gives him a tongue lashing, but what can he do?

Ralph and Sue totally know Barry's the Flash, right? Why else would they pair up with Barry and Iris—a police scientist and a reporter—for a double date?

So, here we are at the end of Ralph's appearances in The Flash as a guest star for awhile. When he returns to the pages of The Flash in #206, it's only for a small run of backup stories. I wish I had the story of why they decided to give Ralph his backup in Detective Comics and why five solo stories ran in The Flash. If anyone knows, feel free to drop a comment.

But what about this story? Frankly... it's a fun story at first glance. When examined closely, it begins to show some glaring weaknesses. Suddenly Piper must also have super speed to do some of the things that he does. I'm not sure why Barry had to stop to help Ralph recover instead of letting him snap back to normal instead of just apprehending the Pied Piper. But hey, we wouldn't have gotten those cool panels with the tornado that I didn't show you.

So, once again, we get some "nerfing" going on in a team up, though it's not quite as glaringly bad. Perhaps this is why Ralph disappeared from The Flash for so long: they were having trouble coming up with stories that used him without becoming a detriment to both characters. But hey, we got more Sue!

Next time, we get to Detective Comics at last.

The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero!

Ralph's penultimate appearance as a recurring character in The Flash for nearly eight years was in #134. Quite a familiar team by now was on board with this one: Carmine Infantino on the artwork for the cover and the story, John Broome writing, and Joe Giella on inks.

The front cover throws us for a loop, looking as if Ralph is somehow in cahoots with Captain Cold, capturing the Flash. In fact, the smug Captain Cold is so confident, he throws his cold gun away as he runs. If you missed Ralph's previous appearances, it might make Ralph seem to be one of the rogues.

The detail on the cover is very good, despite no background beyond the sidewalk. This art is so lively.

The splash panel depicts a scene late in the story in which Captain Cold creates a mirage with his cold gun to slow down Barry. The difference between the splash panel and the point in the story is that the splash panel puts the scene outside. In the story, it's inside.

The story finds some scientists working on a supercomputer called a "lightning calculator" or "Lical," which has been giving the wrong answers to questions they feed to it.

And here we find Barry and Ralph casually riding in a car together at the campus where they're about to check out Lical. No sign or mention of Sue. However, we do get an asterisk informing us that Ralph's identity has been revealed to the world, although the wording is a little off. If you thought Ralph's secret identity (such as it was, thanks, Barry) being revealed would be a big story, think again. There's a reason why I'm glad that The Flash TV show is giving Ralph character arcs: he needed a revamp that did something like that.

I do love the way Infantino draws Ralph's elongated neck. It already tells you he likes to show off.

Wait, is this Barry's car? If it was one of the cars Ralph and Sue use (I'm theorizing that they rent), why isn't Ralph driving? The problem is, I doubt he has that car licensed to "the Flash," thus meaning all someone has to do is take down his license plate number and look it up, and they know who the Flash actually is. What the heck, Barry?

The two superheroes go to check out Lical and the error is reported to them. Barry attempts a test to see if he can spot any errors with the electric pulse since he can actually keep up with it. However, he loses balances and nearly falls into a glass case, but Ralph springs into action and saves him. Aside from this mishap, Barry can't detect an error.

These pages where Ralph and Barry inspect Lical are well-done with Infantino's use of shading to imply limited light sources and an indoor locale.

Heading back out in the car, Ralph and Barry hear about a mass escape from the state prison and decide to go hunt down the escapees.

The panel where Ralph gets a newspaper is oddly without dialogue when compared to all the other pages. It's the only panel without a narration box or dialogue. There's quite a bit of mainly empty space in the lower right corner, so I wonder if there's a missing word balloon where Ralph tells the newsboy that he'll take a paper. If this is the case, it's never been corrected.

Ralph and Barry set out to use their own techniques to round up the thirty escaped convicts.

Barry and Ralph manage to capture all of the convicts except one: Leonard Snart, a.k.a. Captain Cold. The two heroes stroll out in what should be an iconic pose for the duo, though it's mainly in silhouette. Ralph says he's going to stick around.

Take a look at Ralph's dialogue here: "The two of us will be, Flash—for I'm going to hang around here till Captain Cold is—put on ice!" He takes a pause to make a pun. That's our Ralph.

Noting the repairs to the prison wall, Barry reflects that it was pure luck that caused the earthquake that allowed Snart to escape. We then cut over to a cave outside Central City where Snart is congratulating himself for causing the earthquake with "ultra-cold." How on earth he made that happen in prison is anyone's guess.

At the bottom of page 7, we see Barry and Iris West on a dinner date, Iris eager to tell Barry about what she was doing, but Barry's thoughts appear and we don't see Iris say what she was doing. I'm interpreting this as Barry getting lost in his thoughts and missing what she said. Rude, Barry. Rude. Well, until the next page where she reveals that she got to visit Snart's cell and noted that he seemed to be obsessed with a dancer named Miss Twist when he'd previously approached her for romantic intentions.

Overhearing that Captain Cold is in midtown, Barry convinces Iris to go see him, intending to dash out himself. I hope he made arrangements to pay for dinner. Barry finds Snart at a subdivision of the US mint, where he's just frozen the guards and prepares to make off with a lot of cash. Snart manages to distract Barry with a mirage from his cold gun as seen in the splash panel.

Seriously, Barry, did you slow down? You're moving at super speed. He shouldn't have time to see you're there and use his gun before you can catch him.

Running outside, Barry almost apprehends Snart before Ralph grabs him instead by accident, knocking him down. He doesn't know why he did it, but Barry assures him that they'll catch him. After catching up to Snart again, Barry gets frozen with "absolute zero," but manages to free himself with "vibration at super-speed." And yes, seems this bit serves as the basis for the title of the story.

As Ralph makes another grab for Snart, he again grabs Barry, making Snart so smug, he throws away his ice gun, and yep, here's the panel Infantino redrew as the cover. The composition is nearly the same, with things a bit more detailed and striking on the cover.

Whatever is going wrong with Ralph, it causes him to pick up Cold's gun and fire at Barry. Barry manages to out-maneuver him and finally has to knock out Ralph and then whirls Captain Cold back to jail.

Helping Ralph recover, Barry is reminded of Lical and drags Ralph back to the college campus, where he realizes some of the tubes in Lical are giving off a strange violet glow. Once the tubes are replaced, Lical begins working correctly. It seems that the odd radiation had affected Ralph as well due to his molecules being "vulnerable" because of his elasticity.

Well, looks like Barry has stopped using his car everywhere now. Also, the explanation of why the radiation affected Ralph reeks of bull. If anything, elastic molecules should bounce back, not absorb.

So, everything's peachy keen for Ralph and Barry, and apparently Sue, who it seems the creative team has completely forgotten about.

So, Ralph goes up against Captain Cold, is exposed to an odd weakness, and also, the defining moment of him not having a secret identity is right here, although it could easily have been an editorial afterthought. This story would've been better before Ralph's marriage to Sue.

The story is a rather weak team up story because we get a random "nerfing" of Ralph and Barry to make the story have any stakes. There's details about Captain Cold established in the story that wind up going nowhere. His interest in Miss Twist is why he commits the robbery of the subdivision of the mint. Speaking of which, are those people okay? We don't hear a thing about them. Realistically, no, those people are dead. Comic book science... maybe they survived once they thawed out.

In any case, next issue, Ralph's last appearance in The Flash for a long, long time.

Kid Flash Meets The Elongated Man!

This story comes from The Flash #130. John Broome is writing again, Carmine Infantino is back on the art, and Julius Schwartz editing.

So, we have the first time Ralph meets young Wally West, Kid Flash, and post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, he became the Flash after Barry died while making a strike against the Anti-Monitor. This is before Kid Flash had his own unique costume.

This splash page does something unusual by showing us the main characters twice. The lower part shows a moment from the climax of the story, while up above, we get decorative illustrations of the characters around the title and a teaser.

The lower part of the splash page amuses me because that is a HUGE block of dialogue that Ralph is rambling off as he moves quickly. Infantino draws it nice and dramatic here, although you'll notice Wally's costume is lacking the circle behind the thunderbolt on the chest.

The story starts with Barry arriving in Wally's room at his home in Blue Valley, and the art makes it look like Barry is spinning at super speed. He makes Wally close the window blinds so no one sees him. Maybe you could have done that at super speed first, Barry, just saying. Would've looked cooler.

Barry tells Wally that Ralph Dibny sent a letter to the Flash at the Central City Police Department asking for his help in investigating a "situation." Barry is about to vacation with Iris, so he sends Wally because he can't spare a moment away from his woman.

Okay, can our superheroes not work out a better way to communicate than just letters?

Wally agrees, eager to meet Ralph and become friends, so he hurries to Ralph's location.

Ralph (Sue is nowhere to be seen) explains that Oakley County is inaccessible due to the roads being blocked by extreme winter weather. Not even planes can get through due to heavy clouds. Ralph and Wally head out, and the use of outdoor scenes only on the rest of the page can get a little confusing. Also, Ralph's car is seemingly the only car at the motel, so maybe this bad weather has really badly affected the economy of the area.

Here we have Ralph and Wally making their way through the ice and snow wearing only their superhero costumes. I really hope for their sake that those costumes are well-insulated.

Infantino is doing good work with the winter landscape here, especially this ravine that Ralph helps Wally cross. He shows you how deep it is, and how resourceful the two are. So you get the idea that they're well-matched to what they'd come across.

Aside from the splash page, this is the point of the story where it is confirmed that the Weather Wizard is behind the extreme weather. He's making the people of Goldville (the main town of Oakley County) pay him before he'll stop the extreme weather, seeking a payout of $100,000. The townsfolk are beginning to break.

The comic cuts to some excellently drawn panels of Weather Wizard, who reveals to the reader that his plan is to use the money to build an even bigger weather station. And to supplement the ransom money, he's having a few assistants robbing the local bank.

Having split ways with Wally, Ralph runs into Goldville and spots the bank robbers. Noting hail falling directly out of the way of the robbers but  blocking the way of the bank guard. However, Ralph springs directly into action, stretching in a long arc to grab one of the thieves.

Infantino excellently draws snow and hail, but again, I really hope his costume is helping him fend off the cold, and he must have some good traction on those shoes to be running like that on the snow.

The captured henchman squeals that the Weather Wizard is behind this, making Ralph hurry to the hideout, where Wally has been heading.

More great art from Infantino, on the next panel (which I didn't show), he draws a little brown rabbit hopping around in the snow.

Wally notices a big reflector on the shack, then hurries in and finds Weather Wizard, who manages to take him out with a flash of light and a smoke bomb that masks him punching him in the back of the head. Wow, it's almost as if Wally didn't have super speed.

Ralph has reached the cabin and manages to spot that Weather Wizard has taken out Wally. He slips in, but Weather Wizard is ready for him and uses a "lightning bolt device" that stops Ralph's "circulation" which paralyzes him.

Um, pretty sure that if you stop someone's circulation, they die.

Wally revives and "vibrates" at super speed in an attempt to save Ralph. I mean, to be fair, maybe Ralph is dying here.

I looks more like Wally is moving Ralph at super speed than just "vibrating." But I guess he has to move so Weather Wizard can't get them again.

I am going to save my comments on these pages' story for the end...

Ralph's circulation is restored and he manages to knock out Weather Wizard. The criminals are all thrown in jail, the weather controlling mechanisms are destroyed, and the snow finally melts across Oakley County as the two heroes head home.

Well, it's one of those Silver Age stories that has points that don't really hold up to actual scientific scrutiny. But that's just about standard for any Silver Age story.

The bigger issue is that aside from that bit to getting to Goldville, there's really no reason why Wally needed Ralph's help. No reason why Weather Wizard should've been able to knock him out. Basically, both characters get "nerfed" (or having their power reduced) in order to justify a team up, which is one of the negative tropes of team up stories of this era.

So, it's cool that we see Ralph meet Wally, a friendship that'll come up quite a bit in the future, but the two really deserved a more solid team up.

The Space-Boomerang Trap!

Well, here's the second time Ralph featured on the front cover of a comic. And what a cover...

The Flash #124 features Barry being hurled off into the sky, strapped to a giant boomerang while Ralph stretches up to try to catch him.

"You're going on a one-way trip to the moon, Flash—and there's nothing on Earth that can save you!" gloats Captain Boomerang.

Okay, so you're trying to send Barry out into space on a giant boomerang? Buddy, no, that's not how that works. There is no way that can break the atmosphere. It does make a pretty striking cover, though, and this particular story would be referenced as an example of a team-up with the Flash when Ralph moves to Detective Comics.

Anyway, a familiar team is at work on this issue. Carmine Infantino is penciling both the cover and interior art with Joe Giella on inks, and John Broome writes the story.

 Splash page time!

This one is more illustrative of what the story's going to do rather than illustrate a scene from it. We have Ralph and Barry teaming up with villain Captain Boomerang as they take their stances against a group of invading aliens.

I rather like this splash page with the offensive stances and the view of the invaders. It does a good job of making you excited for the story.

Little trivia, this scan is from The Flash Archives, which would usually recreate the original colors from the comics just with better printing technology and on-register. However, the sky in the original printing was yellow. In the digital version through Comixology, it's yellow again. And in the reprints in Showcase Presents, there was no color so it didn't matter.

Here we find Mr. Dibny relaxing on the beach, reading a letter from the Flash. I'm a little surprised that Barry would mail it. In fact, I'd imagine that Barry would be more likely to run in and talk to Ralph rather than mail or drop off a letter. That could've made a much more dramatic start to this story, actually. And also, how on earth did Barry know where Ralph would be? If they keep in touch through the phone or something, why not just talk over that? John Broome, you let me down here. But, we do get Malibu Ralph out of it, so... it's not that bad.

Barry's letter tells how Captain Boomerang is out on parole and how he's suspicious that Boomerang might try to steal the Normark jewels on a public exhibition. Arriving there, Barry is surprised to find Boomerang in his costume. The paroled felon claims he's not doing anything wrong, so Barry can't do anything. Boomerang in fact invites Barry to keep an eye on him to prove that he's not doing anything. As expected, a boomerang enters the hall and scoops up the jewels, flying outside and up into the air and vanishing with the loot. Barry knows Boomerang did it, but how? The letter reveals that two other robberies have since happened.

Well, here for the first time is Sue in a bathing suit, looking quite lovely. Sadly, she only gets three words of dialogue before Ralph leaves for Central City. Sadly, this will set the standard for a lot of Sue's appearances in the 60s, both in The Flash and Detective Comics.

The story cuts over to Captain Boomerang who reveals through his thoughts that he has a boomerang that can travel twenty four hours into the future, allowing him to have an alibi for what he was doing as the crime was taking place.

However, as he sets out to do another job, we discover that his boomerangs actually pass through another dimension and the beings that live there have seen the boomerang and take it as a threat and decide to attack Earth.

Frickin' Captain Boomerang... This is why you don't mess with time travel.

No lie, I cracked up the first time I read that plot twist.

Infantino does a good job of drawing an alien world and selling that that's what it is, even if we only see it for four panels.

The bottom half of this page is dedicated to Ralph joining Barry at the museum to protect some priceless jade on display. (Honestly, it's like these museums are just asking for people to steal from them. Three previous robberies that )

Ralph has an interesting aside here that begins to tie into his persona that would soon be established as he thinks, "I like people looking at me! I guess that's why I always wear my Elongated Man uniform in public—my trademark!" Compare this to his declaration of only using his powers to help back in #112. It's less an inconsistency and more that someone's learning to love the spotlight.

So, Captain Boomerang pops up to prove he's not behind any funny business, and sure enough, a boomerang appears and snags the jade, but thanks to Ralph, Barry is able to recover the jade.

Barry then realizes that they might be able to find Captain Boomerang's fingerprints on the boomerang. The villain overhears and realizes this will sink him, but Flash catches him.

There's not a lot to say because Infantino does a good job, and except for handling the boomerang so much, the story is pretty sound.

I will say that on panel five, just as on the splash page, we can see that Ralph uses a string to keep his mask on his face.

Captain Boomerang spots people passed out in the street and Ralph spots a news report about aliens attacking earth. People are being struck with fatigue weapons that sap their strength. The government is helpless. So, Captain Boomerang offers to help Ralph and Barry fight the aliens.

I'm just going to say that Infantino's panels here are actually really good at getting the idea of the alien invasion  And in the panels to your left, he uses shading to neatly convey where the light would be blocked, but it also conveys a sense of foreboding. Basically, this story could probably be a bit longer and darker.

All right here, you know how I feel about Ralph elongating his back like this. At least here, he's doing it for a clear purpose. And Infantino does get a very good sense of scale of how far Ralph has stretched with that angle.

So, spotting the aliens holed up at City Hall, the three split up to slowly take them out.

I will say that the previous pages made me think this was all of the country being attacked, but seemingly the invasion is local to Central City. It's not unthinkable Central City would have a division of the National Guard or something, but the previous pages made us think the threat was bigger than the rest of the story lets on.

So, apparently, those aliens were really good at narrowing down where that boomerang they weren't able to properly observe came from.

And that's one of those things I just write off as "It was the Silver Age."

So, here we have a particularly dramatic panel of Ralph stretching across a river and popping up out of the water to sneak attack an alien. Honestly, that's pretty badass. Captain Boomerang is able to take out some from a hiding place with his boomerang, and Flash is able to run circles around them until they pass out, trying to catch him.

 So, our trio gets a hold of fatigue guns and turn them on the invaders. This strike causes the leaders to decide to retreat, and after they escape in a fissure in space, Barry seals it up so they can never return.

Barry finds Ralph passed out, surmising that he was struck by a retreating alien, but I think the idea is that Captain Boomerang did it, since he was only helping to get rid of the aliens. And so he turns his weapon on Barry...

So, yes, he has a giant space-boomerang that he's tied Barry to that will send Barry into perpetual orbit around the earth. Captain Boomerang, that's bullshit and you should know it.

I just want to imagine Captain Boomerang getting a crew of workmen to help him set that up and explaining that he's going to use this rig to send the Flash into orbit. Meanwhile, the workmen just nod and do the job, not telling him that there is no way a non-powered launch like that is going to break the atmosphere.

 The penultimate page sees Ralph recover from the fatigue weapon and look up to see Barry on the boomerang. Launching up as fast as he can, he manages to reach the boomerang, free Barry and return him to the rooftop where Captain Boomerang is.

Gotta love Captain Boomerang standing there just going "!?"

I do not want to be where that boomerang would come down. Unless it turns out it actually did get into orbit. In which case, there's canonically a giant boomerang orbiting around this earth. Unless we assume someone like Superman or Green Lantern pulls it out. That's going to make for some interesting discussion fodder for the next Justice League meeting.

As my buddy Duke says, "These are things man was not meant to question."

Anyway, Ralph really must have juiced up on his gingo extract. But the way Infantino draws it is pretty cool.

Final page, Barry catches Captain Boomerang and hauls him back to jail. As he runs through town, he observes people recovering from the alien attack.

The final panel has Barry confirm that Captain Boomerang's fingerprints were on the mystery boomerang. I think we can assume from this that they were able to recover the stolen jewelry.

This is while Barry and Ralph are riding in the back of a car, so... did they have an impromptu parade? I mean, I guess "Hey, they saved us from an alien invasion" is parade worthy... And just the type of attention Ralph would eat up with a spoon.

So, yeah, excellent work from Infantino on the art, kind of wish they'd given the story a little more space. John Broome kind of let me down in a couple spots in the writing, but hey, the guy probably had a deadline to meet.

I think what we learned here is don't mess with objects that travel into the future or else you might bring an alien invasion upon your fair city. Also, Barry also isn't always the worst.

The Elongated Man's Undersea Trap!

 Here's the story from The Flash #119. It's a very important story for the future of Ralph as we know him, because we can honestly say that after this story, he was never the same.

The team that introduced Ralph is back for this milestone: Julius Schwartz as editor, John Broome writing, Carmine Infantino on pencils, Joe Giella on inks, and Gaspar Saladino lettering.

This splash page gives us another exciting tease of what's to come in the story with Ralph and Barry in action against what appear to be aliens with Ralph directly attacking one in what would be a flying saucer, except it's on wheels.

Then you notice the rocky outcropping at the top and see that this must be some underground place. Infantino once again did great work here to convey the action of the moment.

Heck, blow this up and make it into a poster, it's that good.

There is so much to talk about on this first page. Ralph is married now to Sue Dearbon, a debutante. And note: Dearbon. For the longest time, I thought it was Dearborn, but there's no second r. Some sites and other media get this wrong, but honestly, it's an easy enough mistake.

Ralph, as you remember, was a kid from an unremarkable family in Waymore, Nebraska. Sue being a debutante means she's a far higher class, and her marrying Ralph means she's married below her own class. Yeah, Ralph said he's made a lot of money from media appearances, but if he's gotten married and might want to start a family, he might want to look at getting some more eventually...

The thing that frustrates fans of the character is that this is the first time we've met Sue, who becomes a mainstay of Ralph's life. We're told nothing of how they met or how Ralph convinced her to marry him. Later stories would flashback and reveal that Ralph crashed her debut ball. Specifically Secret Origins #30 and Identity Crisis #1. Maybe more, but I haven't read all of the Elongated Man stories yet... Why do you think I started this blog? And while Ralph wasn't quite the most physically attractive person around, his personality and the energy he brought to the debut ball was what made Sue fall for him.

The question that arises here is if Ralph is still doing the whole secret identity act. You can see that he had the Flash as his best man, and apparently, Barry can't keep Ralph's identity a secret... Some fans believe that of course a legal wedding would require Ralph to reveal his name. The confirmation that Ralph didn't have a secret identity would be made in a few issues time, and was not a big plot point. So, Ralph revealing his secret identity at the same time he married Sue would be quite the romantic and public move that would feel just so typical of the character.

Well, I just spent four paragraphs on the first panel of this page. Well, moving on, Infantino gives us the first look at Mr. and Mrs. Dibny together and they make quite the cute couple. Sue would undergo many style changes over the years, and most of the time, her hair would be depicted as jet black. In 52 and Secret Six, however, her hair was colored brown.

Okay, Ralph goes skin diving and it seems he uses his regular costume for it. The idea of him elongating while swimming does make for an interesting visual, especially when you try to imagine it in motion.

Suddenly, Ralph is zapped by a paralyzing beam and that's the last we see of him for several pages.

It wasn't until recently I realized that Sue is looking over the edge of the boat. Previously, I'd thought she was sitting over a wireless telegraph sending a message out. She heads to the nearest town and sends a telegram to Barry Allen, who they were told to contact if they needed the Flash. (Which likely means Ralph has deduced Barry's identity.) Barry luckily has the weekend off and hurries to the hotel where Sue is staying.

I'm going to have to warn you that if you were expecting these early stories with Sue to have her be a remarkably strong female character, you're going to be disappointed. Fortunately, as the comics continued and the society reading and creating these stories progressed, it got better. But we do have quite a few well-intentioned bits of sexism coming our way.

Sue fills Barry in on all the details she knows and Barry remembers hearing about skin divers going missing in the area. (Funny no one mentioned that to Ralph who would definitely take an interest.) He prepares to go underwater at super speed, but Sue insists he wear diving gear.

As it turns out, Sue has the right idea because as Barry goes underwater, he spots strange fish-men who ride on underwater jet skis. They paralyze him with their rays and he awakens, feeling very hungry, in a tank with other men who are caught by these fish-men who dangle steaks in front of them on fishing lines.

Infantino is well-suited to drawing this underwater civilization and the strange men that inhabit it. It's not a particularly striking piece of work, but the designs work well.

Barry manages to learn that this civilization is called Breda, and the strange fish men who live there are the Bredans, who capture skin divers for their slaves, called the Kota. The Kota are building the homes of the Bredans, but most of them seem to have their memories wiped so they don't fight back. Only Barry seems to be exempt thanks to his speed. The Bredans communicate telepathically through tiny devices they wear around their necks.

I mean, to be fair, Barry is kind of the worst and Ralph knows it.

Barry spots Ralph as part of the crew building the home of a Bredan. After being fed, Barry completes the house at super speed so he can talk to Ralph, but Ralph's also been affected by the mind wipe.

Or maybe Ralph's really hoping Barry will just leave him alone.

Barry manages to jumpstart Ralph's memories by tickling him and making him use his stretching abilities, because I guess his gingold hadn't worn off. And that's how you know this is definitely a Silver Age comic book, kiddos.

The next page sees Ralph and Barry handle a pair of Bredan guards, which off-panel inspires the other Kota to rise up against the Bredans. If it wasn't for the dialogue, you just see a bunch of people standing off to the side, which you might actually miss due to being obscured by shadow.

So, viva la revolution!

 
This is the moment the splash panel was inspired by, with Ralph riding Barry's shoulders and stretching up to wreck the Bredan's assault cars. Infantino does a lot with just three panels, this would be a number of pages in a modern comic.

This gives Barry and Ralph the leverage they need to parley a truce with the Bredans to release the Kota to the surface. Good thing it was done with no threat of violence, right?

Okay, I lied.

After the Kota are released to an island, Barry manages to get a cruise line to take them to the mainland. No mention of if their memories were restored...

Barry takes Ralph back to Sue personally and we get one more look at the happy couple as Barry decides to spend the rest of his weekend off with them.

So, wow, the first story to feature Sue also features Ralph and Barry teaming up to stop a race of underwater people from taking humans as slaves. And the Bredans have seemingly never popped up again, so I guess they learned their lesson.

Sometimes the 14 page limit is a bit too compressed for all of the story to really play out. But if you carefully read all the details, wow, what a story!