How The Flash wrote off Ralph Dibny

Last night, The Flash aired the third episode of Season 7: "Mother," which was supposed to be the finale of Season 6, but was delayed into the new season by production delays thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Sue Dearbon (Natalie Dreyfuss) was introduced and had a storyline in Season 6's second half, she reappeared in the "faux-nale." The question for Elongated Man fans was, would Ralph? We'd heard they'd have another actor play him to write the character off. Was this going to be in this episode or later? Turns out, it was this episode.

The episode saw the culmination of Eva's (Efrat Dor) plans to take over the world with her "mirror minions," as well as the return of the original Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) who'd been killed by the Reverse Flash back in Season 1, years before Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) became the Flash. After the death of the other incarnations of himself from the multiverse in creating the Artificial Speed Force (just don't ask if you're not watching the show), he was resurrected as a "balancing act" of the universe, and returns to help Team Flash revive the actual Speed Force, with a little help from Iris West-Allen (Candice Patton), who was finally extracted from the "Mirrorverse" last episode. Team Flash's combined efforts see Eva defeated and the restoration of everyone who was pulled into the Mirroverse.

Sue arrived fairly early into the episode, revealing to Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) that her parents had been replaced with Eva's minions, and mentions that Ralph is "tracking a lead." (In the first Season 6 episode, it was said Ralph and Sue were staying off the grid.) Later in the episode, Sue arrives with a severely disfigured Ralph, who managed to extract evidence proving Sue's innocence as she'd been framed with killing Carver, Eva's now late husband. He was caught in an explosion, and apparently the CW's Elongated Man can contain a bomb going off in himself, but can't stand over 500 degree heat. Cisco (Carlos Valdes) sees Ralph to a chamber to help him recover.

In the final moments of the episode, Ralph reappeared, now wearing a mask that also distorts his voice (pictured above) as his face still hadn't fully healed. Sue rejects an offer to join Team Flash and says she and Ralph intend to go take down more organizations like Black Hole. Ralph promises he'll be back "when you least expect," and Barry offers to help him and Sue whenever need be.

This is almost where I wanted to see the show leave Ralph and Sue: they're on the road together, working as a team, but seeing Ralph depicted without even a face or an actual voice felt disappointing.

Frankly, I feel this would've been a lot better that if instead of firing Hartley Sawyer, they had demoted him back to guest star and wrote his character off with this episode. The show, even in this episode, often had plots about second chances and forgiveness.

I agree with the cast and crew of The Flash that Hartley Sawyer's old tweets were unacceptable. However, they were in his past. He hadn't physically hurt anyone, and his owning up to what he'd done and acknowledging the need to be held accountable speaks that he'd grown as a person. While it seems his firing greatly crippled his career (he's completely shut down his social media since his tweets were dug up, deleting Twitter and locking his Instagram account, and there has been absolutely no news about him since his firing), in the end, not allowing him to play Ralph one last time hurts the fans more than anything.

I intend to continue watching The Flash as I watch all the other CW shows based on DC Comics, but I do not expect to be writing about the show here unless Ralph comes back.

You probably know the drill about how to get this episode: it'll be on the CW website and app for US viewers for a limited time, or you can buy the digital copy, or wait for Netflix or home video releases.

The Puzzling Prophecies of the Tea Leaves!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ralph declares that he's been repaid with interest.

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

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

Next time, jewel thieves.

The Flash fires Hartley Sawyer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#BlackLivesMatter 

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

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

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

The Counter of Monte Carlo!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next time, Sue gets her fortune told.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Viewers in the US may view "Liberation," "Pay the Piper," and "Success is Assured" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire sixth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix by June 2020. Digital versions of the episodes may be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Google Play and other retailers of digital video content. Blu-Ray and DVD copies of the season are expected to be available for sale in or by September, 2020.

Non-US viewers should check their local listings, the websites of the channels that air The Flash, and digital video retailers

TV Review: "So Long and Goodnight"

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

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

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

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

Viewers in the US may view "So Long and Goodnight" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire sixth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix by June 2020. Digital versions of the episodes may be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Google Play and other retailers of digital video content. Blu-Ray and DVD copies of the season are expected to be available for sale in or by September, 2020.

Non-US viewers should check their local listings, the websites of the channels that air The Flash, and digital video retailers.

TV Review: "A Girl Named Sue"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Viewers in the US may view "A Girl Named Sue" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire sixth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix by June 2020. Digital versions of the episodes may be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Google Play and other retailers of digital video content. Blu-Ray and DVD copies of the season are expected to be available for sale in or by September, 2020.

Non-US viewers should check their local listings, the websites of the channels that air The Flash, and digital video retailers.