<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Elongated Man
Ralph and Sue Dibny
Gender	Male
Publisher	DC Comics
Origin	Waymore, Nebraska
First Appearance	Flash #112 (1960)
Creator(s)	John Broome and Carmine Infantino
Alter ego	Ralph Dibny
Aliases	The Stretchable Sleuth
Abilities	to stretch and shape his body to an inhuman and ridiculous degree.
Affiliations	Justice League of America.

The Elongated Man is a fictional superhero character owned by DC Comics.

Elongated Man began as a secondary character in the Silver Age of Comics, a supporting character and friend of the Flash. His ability to stretch his physical body like rubber or plastic was based a bit on Plastic Man, who was thought then to be a hero strictly of the Golden Age of Comics. Ironically, decades later, Plastic Man himself was to be revived in the Modern Age of Comics, to become part of the Justice League as well.

The interesting thing about Elongated Man, is his established marriage and relationship with his wife, Sue Dibny. The two together echoed the relationship of the fictional characters created by Dashell Hammett, Nick and Nora Charles, specifically the version which appeared in the movie and television series based under the franchise name of The Thin Man. Ralph bucked the superhero trend by marrying early in his career and not troubling to keep his true identity a secret. He also became known as a detective, and he and his wife would run across mysteries to solve, with Sue acting as the attentive sidekick to the “stretchable sleuth”. Whenever Ralph was intrigued by a particular mystery, his stretchable nose would twitch in a bizarre and inhuman manner, and the two would be off. The Elongated Man appeared as a backup series in Detective Comics, as well as other places.

Eventually, Ralph’s detective skills led to his being invited to become a member of the Justice League. Sue would later join him and become part of the team’s support staff. It was difficult not to like the affable couple, and the two became a popular staple of the DC Comics superhero community.

All this made it all the more heartbreaking when Sue Dibny’s murder became the focus of the limited crossover series Identity Crisis (2004). Ralph has since become a tragic and lost character, searching for new meaning and purpose in his life. In the limited series 52 (2005), Ralph’s search for meaning leads him eventually to being united with Sue in death, and the two become ghosts with a penchant for solving supernatural mysteries.

Character Origin

Gawky teen Ralph Dibny loved attention and excitement as much as he loved solving mysteries. Early in his life, he found he had a knack for twisting his lanky body into unlikely shapes, resulting in stunts such as hiding in the lockers of girls he was trying to impress. He became fascinated with sideshow “Indian Rubber Men”, contortionists who could win applause by taking their body twisting abilities further than even Ralph was able to. He began interviewing them to discover the secret of their abilities. None seemed to have a real clue to what gave them their talent, but Ralph’s fine detective mind noticed that the one thing they all seemed to have in common was a taste for the soft drink with the brand name “Gingold”.

Ralph soon determined that the active ingredient in the soft drink was the juice of the gingo fruit. Not realizing that the juice in pure form could be toxic (so you shouldn't try this at home), Ralph began a steady diet of the stuff. The substance reacted with Ralph’s unique body chemistry (or perhaps a metagene), and instead gave him the ability to stretch his body to incredible lengths and in astonishing manners.

He began a superhero career, which led him to Central City and an encounter with the Silver Age Flash. It was in Central City that he was also to meet wealthy heiress Sue Dearbon, with whom he would fall in love and would join him in a life of public adventuring and mystery solving.