Elongated Man
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The Elongated Man is a fictional comic book superhero in the DC universe. He is a reserve member of the Justice League. His first appearance was The Flash vol. 1, #112 (May 12, 1960). He was partially created by Julius Schwartz, who noted he only created the character because he didn't realize DC Comics had acquired Plastic Man in 1956.
The character has won and been nominated for several awards over the years, including winning the 1961 Alley Award for Best Supporting Character.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Biography
According to his origin, as a teenager, Ralph Dibny adored contortionists, or people who displayed feats of agility and suppleness. He learned that all of the body-benders he spoke with drank a popular soda called "Gingold." Ralph set to work learning chemistry and developed a super-concentrated extract of the rare Gingo fruit, which gave him his elasticity.
Ralph Dibny was one of the earliest Silver Age DC heroes to reveal his secret identity to the public, and also one of the first to marry his love interest. He and his wife Sue Dibny became effectively partners, solving mysteries and participating in Justice League adventures as equals. They were also notable in having a stable, happy, and relatively trouble-free marriage — an anomaly in the soap operatic annals of comic books. Fans of the characters often referred to Ralph and Sue as the "Nick and Nora Charles of the super-hero set" (a reference to The Thin Man movies).
In Identity Crisis #1, published in June 2004, tragedy struck the Dibnys, when Sue was murdered in their home just before she was going to surprise her husband with the news that she was pregnant. Ralph and Sue also appeared as members of the Justice League offshoot the Super Buddies in the miniseries Formerly Known as the Justice League and its sequel story arc "I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League". published in JLA: Classified #4-9. The latter arc was produced before Identity Crisis but published afterwards. Unfortunately, a running joke in "I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League" involves the possibility of Sue's pregnancy, and seems somewhat morbid after Identity Crisis.
In the 2006 weekly series 52, Ralph Dibny has a gun to his head when he is informed that Sue's gravestone has been vandalized with an inverted version of Superman's 'S' symbol — the Kryptonian symbol for resurrection. He confronts Cassandra Sandsmark, and she tells Dibny that she is in a cult that believes that Superboy can be resurrected, but that they would like to try it first with Sue. Despite his initial agreement, Dibny and his friends disrupt the ceremony, but the effigy of Sue crawls to Dibny and calls out to him as it burns; Dibny suffers a nervous breakdown as a result.
A voice from within the helm of Doctor Fate speaks to Dibny and promises to fulfill his desires if he makes certain sacrifices. Dibny journeys with the helm through the afterlives of several cultures, where he is cautioned about the use of magic. The Spectre promises to resurrect Sue in exchange for Dibny's taking vengeance on Jean Loring, but Dibny is unable to do so.
At Nanda Parbat, Rama Kushna tells Dibny, "The end is already written." In Dr. Fate's tower, Dibny begins the spell to resurrect Sue, puts on the helmet of Fate, and shoots it, revealing Felix Faust, who was posing as Nabu. Faust planned to trade Dibny's soul to Neron in exchange for his own freedom. Ralph reveals that he was aware of Faust's identity for some time, and that the binding spell surrounding the tower is designed to imprison Faust, not to counter any negative effects of the spell. Neron appears and kills Dibny, only to realize too late that the binding spell responds only to Dibny's commands: Through his death Ralph has trapped Faust and Neron in the tower.
[edit] Powers and abilities
As his name suggests, the Elongated Man can stretch his limbs and body to super-human lengths and sizes. These stretching powers grant the Elongated Man heightened agility enabling him flexibility and coordination that is beyond the natural limits of the human body. He can contort his body into various positions and sizes impossible for ordinary humans, such as being entirely flat so that he can slip under a door, or using his fingers to pick conventional locks. He can also use it for disguise by changing the shape of his face, although this is painful and difficult for him. Ralph's physiology has greater physical limitations than Plastic Man; there is a limit to how far he can stretch his finite bodily mass.
The Elongated Man's powers also greatly augments his durability. He is largely able to withstand corrosives, punctures and concussions without sustaining injury. It has been demonstrated that he is resistant to high velocities that would kill an ordinary person and that he is also more resistant to blasts from energy weapons that would kill ordinary humans. His physiology is more like that of an ordinary human than Plastic Man and as a result he does not share Plastic Man's nigh invulnerability.
The Elongated Man gets his abilities from a combination of drinking a soda named Gingold that contains the extract of a (fictional) fruit called gingo and his natural latent metahuman physiology. The extract interacts with a latent gene that Ralph has, thus activating his super powers. It was revealed in Invasion #3 that it was a metagene reaction to the Gingold elixir that had always provided him with his stretching powers, meaning that he is, in fact, a metahuman and that an ordinary human would not develop such powers through ingesting the extract. Also, most people are extremely allergic to highly concentrated Gingold. The only other hero in the DCU who uses Gingold is Stretch, a member of Hero Hotline who has been using the compound since the 1940s. Due to prolonged Gingold abuse Stretch had problems maintaining human form. Pre-Crisis storylines had Jimmy Olsen taking a similar gingo extract, becoming Elastic Lad, and being an Honorary Legion of Superheroes member.
The Elongated Man is professionally trained as a detective and is highly skilled in deductive reasoning. Often considered one of the most brilliant detectives in the DC Universe (second only to Batman and perhaps the Question), his name is also a play on The Thin Man detective serial. He is a talented amateur chemist as well.
Ralph Dibny is a native English speaker, but can also speak French. He can understand Interlac well enough to translate.
[edit] Other media
The Elongated Man appeared in several episodes of the Justice League Unlimited animated series, voiced by Jeremy Piven. This was the first television series in which he has made an appearance. Although he appeared in numerous episodes as a background character, Elongated Man had only three speaking roles.
- In The Greatest Story Never Told, he and Booster Gold complain about being put on crowd control during a massive battle with Mordru. Although the episode follows Booster's efforts to stop a black hole from destroying the city, Elongated Man is called to the front lines and defeats Mordru, albeit offscreen.
- In his second voiced appearance, (The Ties That Bind) the Elongated Man and The Flash express concern about the fact that some other members of the League don't show them enough respect. The Flash goes on to save the day while the Elongated Man sits the mission out.
- His last vocal appearance, (Clash) his powers are stolen by The Parasite, who uses them to nearly defeat Metamorpho and Batman before the timely intervention of Captain Marvel.
[edit] Elseworlds
In Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, Dibny is mentioned as a man in a bar who was reminiscing about the Silver Age and when he heard mention of Batman, his face sagged and his jaw dropped to the floor. In the sequel Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Dibny is seen hawking a "male enhancement" drink in a TV infomercial. He is then recruited to aid Batman in his attack against the American government (taken over by Lex Luthor).
