TV Review: "License to Elongate"

Danielle Panabaker returns to the director's chair for this episode, which features Ralph finally heading to Midway City to follow a lead on Sue Dearbon. Barry (Grant Gustin) goes with him, crashing a party for supervillains. Barry is there to help Ralph so he can get back to Central City for a deposition, which is actually going to be the Flash officially introducing the Elongated Man as Central City's new protector. However, host Remington Meister (Carlo Rota) decides to take matters into his own hands with the party crashers.

Meanwhile, Cecile (Daniele Nicolet) and Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker) help Chester P. Runk (Brandon McKnight) reclaim his identity and romance his crush. "Nash" Wells (Tom Cavanagh) teams up with Allegra (Kayla Compton) to find the secret of the Monitor, believing him to be a fraud.

Barry and Ralph's scenes are delightful, riffing on James Bond movies but also playing some good character beats for both characters. Even though they're not even using their powers. No, no last minute added glimpses of Sue, but Ralph does factor into a cliffhanger. Also, the setting reminded me of the story of how Ralph met Sue in the comics by crashing a party she was attending.

Next week, part one of the two-part midseason finale before Crisis on Infinite Earths begins. Which means I'll be covering both parts of the finale two weeks from now. See you then. Or come back for the next comic break down. It's a good one.

Viewers in the US may view "License to Elongate" 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.

Who is Bill Finger?

Who is Bill Finger indeed? Well, as history wound up making it, the third person to write a comics story featuring the Elongated Man. But, if you're familiar with comics at all, you know he's responsible for a lot more.

Milton Finger was born on February 8, 1914 in Denver, Colorado. His family shortly moved to The Bronx, and he graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1933. At a party, Finger met fellow DeWitt alumnus Bob Kane and began working with his comics company in 1938, ghostwriting comics strips. He shortly took on the pen name "Bill."

The next year would see the comics world shakeup with the introduction of Superman. Now, every comics creator wanted a piece of the superhero pie.

Bill Finger revealed that Bob invited him to look at his new creation: the Batman. The character was dressed in red with black wings sticking out of his costume with a domino mask. Finger suggested some changes to the design: add a cowl, make the wings into a cape, add gloves, change the primarily red color scheme.

Batman would debut in Detective Comics #27. Finger wrote the first story and several early stories. This means that Finger established a lot of Batman lore: the Batcave, the Batmobile, Robin, Gotham City, the name "Bruce Wayne" and even Batman being a detective instead of just a costumed crimefighter. He would also co-create many of Batman's iconic rogues, including the Joker, Catwoman, the Penguin, Two-Face, the Scarecrow, the Riddler and Calendar Man.

That said, Finger was not officially credited for Batman's creation for a long time. Bob Kane got all of the credit. Kane eventually revealed that Bill was a major factor in shaping the beloved superhero, but he wouldn't receive credit in the comics until 2015. The first non-comics media credit would appear in 2015 in the second season of the Gotham TV series, and later in the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. This was thanks to his granddaughter Athena campaigning DC to finally give her grandfather the credit he deserved.

The company behind Detective Comics was eventually acquired by National Comics, who would become DC. Finger followed and would write for many DC stories. He would also co-create the original versions of DC heroes Green Lantern and Wildcat. He was known for carrying a notebook to write down ideas. He inspired the villain Black Hand.

Finger had married a woman named Portia and had a son named Fredrick with her. They divorced, and he remarried to Edith Simmons, but their marriage eventually ended.

Finger was found dead on January 18, 1974 in his home. He'd already survived three heart attacks, but occlusive coronary atherosclerosis was ruled the cause of death. It was believed that he was buried in a potter's field, but Fredrick had actually had him cremated and the ashes scattered on an Oregon beach in a bat shape.

Despite not getting proper credit in his lifetime, Bill Finger is now a recognized DC Comics legend. If you want to know more about him, Hulu released a documentary about him titled Batman and Bill. And despite what modern trends and interests have turned to, his work should still be read and enjoyed.

Who is Natalie Dreyfuss?

From Natalie's Instagram story

Yesterday, it was announced that The Flash had cast their Sue Dearbon, actress Natalie Dreyfuss. Checking her Instagram story, new posts from her revealed she was excited to begin her first day of filming on her new job. Meaning that we can expect her first episode very soon when season 6 resumes after Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Natalie is the daughter of actor Lorin Dreyfuss and Kathy Kann, born on February 25, 1987. Her first role was at age 2 in an uncredited bit part in Let it Ride, which starred her uncle, actor Richard Dreyfuss.

At age 6, she began pursuing dance as a career, which she followed for ten years, working with New York's American Ballet Theater and Philadelphia's School of Rock. Her dance career was sidelined by an ankle injury.

She attended California's Moorpark College and trained with Yale graduate Gregory Berger-Sobeck. She would later say that aside from acting, her career choice would be a preschool teacher.

Her acting career took off in 2007 when she began a long series of guest roles on TV series and had a bit part in National Treasure: Book of Secrets. She would find recurring roles on the CW's The Originals, The Secret Life of an American Teenager and Glory Daze, which also featured Hartley Sawyer. She also had a featured role in the short lived series Rita Rocks.

You can follow her on social media on Twitter and Instagram.

We're looking forward to seeing her bring Sue Dearbon to life for the first time ever on The Flash next year!

Two Batmen Too Many!

Well, here's a first. This is a story where Ralph more or less appears in a cameo.

Batman #177 carries a cover date of December 1965. Carmine Infantino did the cover with inks by Murphy Anderson and Ira Schnapp provided the logo. "Two Batmen Too Many!" was written by Bill Finger with pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, inks by Joe Giella, lettering by Gaspar Saladino and Julius Schwartz served as editor. The issue is not currently available on Comixology.

Ralph does but doesn't appear on the cover, which doesn't reflect a scene in the story. It teases three different Batmen: regular Batman, a giant one and a tiny Batman.

The splash page sees all three of the Batmen taking on crooks in three panels. Only the regular sized one is accompanied by Robin, though.

The story begins with Ed "Numbers" Garvey feeling targeted by Batman. He used to run a numbers game, but became obsessed with a jewel heist. He flees to a cave and finds two figures seated on thrones, one very tall, the other very short. His torch reflects light into a crystal and turns the figures into clones of Batman, who say they'll be his slaves.

Ed takes the Batmen to his gang back in Gotham City. When the fellow crooks try to fight them, the Batmen make short work of them. They're about to have the Batmen do a job, when the little one says it needs to be revitalized with star light reflected through a blue-white crystal. The little Batman goes to help them knock off a carnival, but the robbery is stopped by the real Batman and Robin, though the crooks get away.

Back at the hideout, the Big Batman needs revitalized with a ruby. When Big Batman claims to be revitalized, Garvey has them knocked out, revealing he suspected the Batmen were frauds and that the ruby he just used was a fake.

Removing the Batman costumes, they discover that the Batmen were actually Elongated Man and the Atom.

Garvey decides to unmask the Atom to discover his secret identity (chances of him recognizing Ray Palmer at the time is very low, though), but Batman and Robin enter and begin fighting the crooks. Garvey tries to get away via a trap door, but Batman manages to catch him.

Now comes an explanation of the whole plot. Batman did indeed arrange things to make Garvey go to that cave and find Ralph and Ray in costume.

The "revitalizing" with a gem act was to get radioactive powder onto the gems so Batman could find them with a Geiger counter.

When the crooks left to knock over that carnival, Batman and Robin found the diamond in a clock, realizing that each gem was hidden in different locales.

Garvey thinks he's still got the rest of the jewel collection hidden away, but the ruby act worked because he held the fake gem in the same hand as the real one (just in case) and the radioactive powder got onto the real one, which Batman finds in a telephone.

The rest of the gems are found in spots in the hideout related to numbers: in a typewriter, behind the door's number, in a hollow in a desk calendar and in a dummy algebra book.

To be fair, anyone besides a mathematics whiz owning an algebra book outside of a school is already pretty sketchy.

With all of the gems recovered, it's now time to take Garvey to prison.

The story tries to keep it down to earth with a wacky concept, and luckily, Batman was given connections to Ralph and Ray prior to the story. It's just wacky that the crooks went with the concept at first of clay figures being brought to life that look like Batman. Silver Age stories, am I right?

Sheldon Moldoff becomes the first person aside from Carmine Infantino to draw Ralph in the pencils for a story, and he doesn't do a bad job at all. Except that he doesn't really show Ralph stretching. Most of the time, he's not drawing Ralph, but an oversized Batman.

Interesting is that you can see Ralph's face clearly a little deformed as he had to stretch his chin to mimic Batman's face. This marks the first time we saw him take on face molding, something that other writers would make use of much further down the line, and even make its way to The Flash TV series.

So, not a bad story, but not quite a memorable one. And my tease last time wasn't wrong, Ralph did get a new costume: a Batman costume!

So, next time, we're heading back to Detective Comics as Ralph completely fails to catch a criminal.

Peephole to the Future!

Detective Comics #346 has a cover date of December 1965. It's available on Comixology and DC Universe.

In the letters page, Batman continues to dominate the conversation, but there's a few comments on "The Bandits and the Baroness." Robert Allen of Attica, New York thought "the story came out great. Plot, art were all up to par (yawn) and the humor was as terrific as ever. This will go down as an average Elongated Man story but if you keep your average up where it's been (about 99% better than your competitors), then you'll keep my happiness up too."

Mike Friedrich of Castro Valley, California thought Ralph's story was better than Batman's story from the issue. "Elongated Man was far better. Two different sets of crooks working separately, with one trying to rob the other, and six other Ralph Dibnys stretched (if you'll pardon the expression) the story into another winner. It seems like the EM stories are in the same position as Robin is in. Without him backing up the star performer, the latter would be sorely lacking; yet he gets very little publicity or reward for his vital part in the overall setup.

"Incidentally, you (or rather the author) made a minor mistake in the EM story. You called Ralph Dibny the only costumed hero to reveal his other identity. Remember Metamorpho!"

Finally, Ben Creisler of Crescent City, California enthuses about the issue, though doesn't have any specific comments: "And now for that Man of a Million Measurements, that rubberband maker, the Elongated Man! You manage to involve him in a mystery every month and in turn give readers a mystery-to solve, a cascade of thrills."

"Peephole to the Future!" is written by John Broome with Carmine Infantino on art, Sid Greene on inks and Julius Schwartz as editor. The splash page is very eye catching with a nicely drawn Ralph being knocked out, his neck stretching back towards the reader. (And his butt looks very nice in that costume.) The text teases that Ralph has suddenly been able to see into the future. The bank robbers knocking him out say that he suddenly went into a trance and that "He looks so dreamy, he shouldn't mind being put to sleep with this haymaker!"

The story says Ralph and Sue have set up a temporary residence in Empire City. Now, there are a few real Empire Cities in the US, and it's also a nickname for New York City. However, there is an actual Empire City from DC Comics lore. It was the hometown of Manhunter, the second incarnation, who appeared in Adventure Comics during the Golden Age. So, could Ralph and Sue be near the home of an established (but not currently active) superhero? Maybe.

Sue asks Ralph for money to buy a fancy new hat, and he suddenly goes into a trance before giving her an exact sum. She thinks that this more than she wanted to spend, but since Ralph offered, she won't turn it down. I think this should be dialogue, but I suppose it works just as well.

Ralph is suddenly able to predict room service arriving and the phone about to ring and is beginning to be suspicious of his new ability.

Sue is on the phone, excitedly telling Ralph that the hat she bought costs exactly what he gave her. She heads back home and tries on the hat while Ralph is puzzling over his new ability, that he suddenly goes into a trance and sees a quick view of the future. He tries to demonstrate by looking at a newspaper and reads a completely different headline by what's on there. However, Sue doesn't seem to get what he's talking about as he decides to go see if he can stop some bank robbers.

Ah, casual sexism. We know, you've been here the whole time, but now you raise your ugly head again.

Ralph manages to get to the bank in time and manages to stop the robbery by knocking the gun out of the gunman's hand and knocking the crooks over, instructing a clerk to sound the alarm.

However, Ralph has a quick vision of the crooks leaving the bank, and thanks to entering the trance, it allows them to knock him out, now in a much smaller version of the scene from the splash panel. It's not quite as dynamic either. The cramped panels prevent this from being a great Infantino fight scene as well.

The crooks escape out the back as the police arrive. Ralph didn't stop them, but he did prevent the robbery. Back at his hotel room, Sue nurses his sore chin.

The paper Ralph saw is now out, letting Sue see the paper Ralph saw and she mentions that it would've told him that he didn't bring the crooks in.

Meanwhile, the crooks are also reading the paper and see that Ralph was interviewed and mentioned his vision of the future. They decide to try to get even with Ralph and make a profit as well.

Ralph is heading out to perform at a charity bazaar, but when he gets into the elevator, a smoke bomb is tossed in that knocks him out. At the ground floor, the crooks take to their hide out, having chemically weakened Ralph and giving him a truth serum so they can show him the paper and hope to profit from the next day's news. He can't give them stock market predictions or the winning lottery number, but he can see race results, which he gives them and they use it to place bets at the race track and turn $10 into $819,500.

Returning with their wins, one of the remaining crooks reveals he asked Ralph to read him tomorrow's headline, which tells of him capturing them at "George Washington." They decide to go shoot Ralph, but when they enter the room, he's nowhere to be seen.

As they leave, it's revealed that Ralph is hiding between the ceiling tiles, despite feeling very exhausted. He slips down and manages to get to a window, getting some fresh air to restore his strength. (How that works, I don't know.) He manages to stretch his foot down, kick one and knock the others out with his fingers as he descends.

As the police arrive to take the crooks to jail (attempted robbery and kidnapping is still a crime), they see that they were captured at the George Washington Hotel, not the George Washington Bridge as they suspected from the future headline.

Sadly, there's only a litle bit of Ralph fighting the crooks in the story and it's not up to Infantino's usual snuff.

The next day, Sue asks Ralph if it'll be a good day to have a picnic or if it'll rain. Ralph says he doesn't know.

By the way, this panel of Ralph and Sue in their room, Ralph looks particularly attractive.

Ralph goes onto explain that his new super power has vanished. He suspects that there was an impurity in his gingold that he was using at the time.

This is the first instance of something that only comes up once again as far as I know, that if something's wrong with Ralph's gingold, he develops new superpowers in addition to his regular elastic abilities. Given that Ralph was later confirmed to be a metahuman with his elastic powers triggered by gingold, it may be that he actually has several superpowers that he doesn't know how to trigger and the couple of times we saw were times when they were triggered.

The final panel shows Ralph and Sue discovering that it is raining for their picnic after all. Ralph says he'd prefer not to know the future so he can solve mysteries.

Speaking of solving mysteries, this is really just a crime story with some superpowers, no real mystery. Which would be fine, except that this is Detective Comics, so the focus should be on mystery stories. It's really not too bad, despite the casual sexism with how Sue was depicted, but it could've been better if some mystery could've been set up.

Next time, Ralph gets a new costume, but it's not what you think.

TV Review: "There Will Be Blood" and "Kiss, Kiss, Breach, Breach"

When we last left Team Flash, Barry (Grant Gustin) had just dropped the bombshell that in order to see the universe survive the upcoming Crisis, he must die. So "There Will Be Blood" finds the team struggling to figure out how they'll live with themselves knowing that their time with Barry is coming to an end.

Cisco (Carlos Valdes) teams up with Barry and "Nash" Wells (Tom Cavanagh) as Barry seeks to create a way to keep Dr. Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy) alive as he seeks a cure for the HRH virus. However, Cisco is hesitant to willingly help, deciding to put his efforts to saving Barry instead.

In a B-plot, Iris (Candie Patton) has a lead on Sue Dearbon for Ralph, but the detective seems uninterested. If he can't save Barry, what's the point of finding someone who's eluded him for months?

The main plot finally reveals the villainous side of Rosso to the team with some creepy scenes included. It's very nice to see The Flash handle a much shorter "big bad" arc. Ralph's plot, hinting strongly to his future, felt a bit like several of his Season 4 episodes. But the despair Team Flash feels at finding out Barry's fate is a surprisingly natural feeling turn rather than the forced repeating we got in Season 4.

"Kiss, Kiss, Breach, Breach" sees Barry and Iris go on vacation, leaving Cisco in charge. Ralph goes to patrol Central City with Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker), who's intent on finding Dr. Ramsey Rosso. Meanwhile, Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) finds "Nash" in the underground tunnels of Central City and they find themselves trapped.

The main plot sees the return of Breacher (Danny Trejo) as he seeks Cisco's help in finding the murderer of Gypsy, Cisco's former girlfriend. When Cisco manages to use a mechanical replica of his Vibe powers to see the past, he sees Gypsy's killer... himself.

Given Ralph's absence in promo photos and advertisements, I was afraid he wouldn't be appearing, and yeah, he mainly played a supporting role. But the main plot was fairly strong in building Cisco as a hero on his own, even without his powers.

The Flash is taking a break next week, but will be back on the 19th with a Ralph-centric episode. Which means it'll be getting a review all to itself!

Viewers in the US may view "There Will Be Blood" and "Kiss, Kiss, Breach, Breach" 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.

Robberies in Reverse!

Detective Comics 345 has a cover date of November, 1965 and is available on Comixology and DC Universe.

Over in the letters page, most readers are continuing on about Batman, but Ray Clason of Del City, Oklahoma has a question about "Mystery of the Millionaire Cowboy." He asks if the Midwest City in the story is the Midwest City in Oklahoma, which he claims he's heard is the only Midwest City in the United States. The editor replies with a sly "The Midwest City the Elongated Man visited can be found in the same gazetteer that lists Gotham City, Batman's home town."

"Robberies in Reverse!" was written by Gardner Fox, drawn by Carmine Infantino, inked by Sid Greene, lettered by Gaspar Saladino with Julius Schwartz as editor.

The dynamic splash page shows Ralph taking out three crooks with his elongating body. It's fairly good, and a welcome change from the past few we've looked at. The text in the panel indicates that Ralph is investigating a case in which crooks are putting money into a cash register.

As the story starts, Ralph and Sue are heading down a highway when Ralph spots that they're nearly out of gas. Sue's a little upset, but stretching his neck up, Ralph spots a nearby gas station and drives there, extending his arm to shake the attendant's hand.

The attendant is a little shaken at the sight until Sue explains that this is the Elongated Man. Ralph fills the tank for only $5.25, which is how you know this is the 60s.

However, when Ralph goes in to pay, the attendant gives him $5.25. Ralph protests and the attendant explains that Ralph is the third person he's paid to buy gas (and the only one to insist on actually paying). The attendant goes on to say that three gunmen entered the station earlier and instead of robbing the cash register, they put $500 in it. The attendant says after he closes, he's taking the money to the police. This sends Ralph's nose twitching, however, the attendant spots the gunmen returning, prompting Ralph to suit up for a fight.

So far, so good. A curious situation and the artwork is good at carrying the story and we've already seen Ralph use his powers, both practically (spotting the gas station) and impractically (shaking the attendant's hand from a distance). However, during the first panel where Ralph has his arm extended, we see the shadow of his arm, which nearly looks as if he's extending both arms.

The gunmen return, holding the attendant and Sue at gunpoint. They explain they've been robbing gas stations, but for some reason, they were compelled to leave money at this one.

Infantino doesn't miss a beat and has Ralph's hand poking in through the window as one of the gunmen heads to the cash register.

Ralph snaps into action and slams that particular gunman against the cash register, knocking him out. He goes on to punch the other two as he comes in through the window, instructing Sue to get out with the attendant.

I mean, not the worst use of Sue... We've already seen some bad ones. If, say, Ralph was helping take down the aggressors of a hostage situation, seeing Sue help get the captives out would be kinda awesome.

The gunmen try to hold Ralph down, but he springs into action, arching his back to send one of the men flying through the window, with Sue saying "That's my boy!" and the others are taken out by Ralph elongating his knee and knocking the last one into a stack of oil cans.

Ralph and Sue take the gunmen and the loot to the police, but when Ralph is supposed to turn over the stolen money, he refuses to. Sue tries to encourage him to turn it over.

This results in a humorous tug of war with two policemen trying to take the money while Ralph holds onto it, his arm stretching. Sue finally gets Ralph to surrender by tickling him, causing the police to fall backwards humorously.

Oh, Gardner Fox, I missed you.

The inking here looks pretty similar to when Infantino was inking his own art. Perhaps Greene was trying a bit harder to bring Infantino's style through. Or else Infantino had to fill in some of the inking work. Or the crediting was off and this was just Infantino. Otherwise, the art has really bounced back with some nice action and shading.

Realizing that he's been the latest in a string of people who have been compelled to act against their will, Ralph goes back to the first person: the attendant at the gas station. The attendant says that his troubles started after "Doc Evans," a retired police scientist, bought a "quarter cigar." He further says that Doc is trying to invent a way to prevent people from committing crimes. Ralph reasons that he must have the same quarter that Doc paid with and decides to pay him a visit.

At Doc Evans' place, he explains that he got the idea to create a pill that deters criminals from committing crimes. He's managed to help "rat packs" (did he mean "pack rats?") stop stealing things. He's been also trying to help a kleptomaniac named Ed curb his tendencies, and at the drop of a hat, Ed enters with a necklace he stole from a jewelry store. Doc Evans is about to take it to return it, when two crooks enter, saying they were intending to take the necklace themselves.

This area has a huge crime problem. We had a roaming pack of three gunmen earlier, now we got two guys who just brazenly walk into a retired police scientist's house where the Elongated Man just happens to be. No wonder Doc Evans is hard at work.

In four panels, Ralph quickly takes these two crooks out, first by tickling them, then kicking them against a wall, then turning them upside down and cracking their heads on the floor. It's fast and effective.

Ralph returns the necklace himself, noting that now without the quarter, he doesn't have the problem of handing it over.

If you were wondering how the quarter worked, well, Ralph returns to Doc Evans. Ralph explains that when people near it think of money, it makes them do the reverse thing.

Doc Evans explains that he had the pill powder in a box with the quarter, and radioactive elements from the powder reacted with the quarter, giving it its strange behavior-reversing power. He decides that this is a step in the right direction and he'll keep working, hoping to eliminate crime altogether. Ralph says he hopes he's successful.

The final panel shows Ralph and Sue in their car with Ralph waving goodbye to Doc Evans. Maybe Sue was just out of frame or waiting in the car all the time. We only see her in the car, she doesn't do the "go off to shop" sendoff.

Sue asks that if Doc Evans eliminates crime, wouldn't it put Ralph out of business? Ralph replies with a good bit of dialogue: "Honey, the world is full of unsolved mysteries that have nothing to do with crime! I'd just as soon tackle them!" That's a nice line for Ralph, that he's anxious to discover the mysteries of the world.

This story might rely on some iffy science that would only work out like this in a comic book, but altogether, it's sound and presents all the needed elements right there. Gardner Fox, welcome back to penning Ralph's adventures.

Next time, Ralph picks up a new superpower.