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scheu's review
4.0
Let me tell you what's great about this collection.
Ralph Dibny (the titular Elongated Man) was introduced as a sideline character in Flash in the late 1950s, and frankly his first few stories weren't very interesting. However, when the character was moved to the back pages of Detective Comics, he developed into something special. Most of the stories here are Ralph and his wife Sue solving mysteries. They aren't superhero stories (although Batman and Robin do show up from time to time) - they're detective stories. Ralph and Sue have character. They banter like Nick and Nora Charles. The late Carmine Infantino provided most of the art (and the writing, post-Flash) and while the earlier work is unremarkable the later stuff really pops. Infantino was inking his own pencils and you can tell he had a strong artistic vision for the EM stories. It's fun stuff that you don't find now.
This book also makes me look at Identity Crisis differently. Although I grew up with EM's appearances in the Justice League, his character was never written to be much more than a less-able Plastic Man, which is a shame.
Ralph Dibny (the titular Elongated Man) was introduced as a sideline character in Flash in the late 1950s, and frankly his first few stories weren't very interesting. However, when the character was moved to the back pages of Detective Comics, he developed into something special. Most of the stories here are Ralph and his wife Sue solving mysteries. They aren't superhero stories (although Batman and Robin do show up from time to time) - they're detective stories. Ralph and Sue have character. They banter like Nick and Nora Charles. The late Carmine Infantino provided most of the art (and the writing, post-Flash) and while the earlier work is unremarkable the later stuff really pops. Infantino was inking his own pencils and you can tell he had a strong artistic vision for the EM stories. It's fun stuff that you don't find now.
This book also makes me look at Identity Crisis differently. Although I grew up with EM's appearances in the Justice League, his character was never written to be much more than a less-able Plastic Man, which is a shame.
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