Friday, March 25, 2016

The Elongated Man is finally back!


... In the yellow costume —for some reason—, but he is back!

As lame as this picture is, I'm glad to see him for the first time as part of the new continuity.

Ralph and Sue Dibny finally return to their regular selves in the pages of Secret Six #12. Almost five years after the current continuity started, this is the first formal appearance of Ralph in full costume, and he seems to be back in business.

The new uniform is weird, though. It was a tough call since there was no perfect uniform, though. Telling from what fans share in their pages, I think there seems to be some sort of untold consensus that purple is the color and the uniform from Justice League Unlimited are the best fit —even if Ralph barely made three cameos in the entire series.

Ralph has only worn yellow a couple of times: the first the classic red uniform colored yellow in Detective Comics # 357, 1966, and the second, in Gotham Knights #41, 2003, is different from all the other uniforms.

The big 'E' and the design of the uniform seems to be inspired by the uniform Ralph wears guring second half of his time with the Justice League Europe (the half almost nobody remembers, though).

It is a bit weird that it took so long for Ralph to ditch the Damon "Big Shot" Wells persona. During the last arc, the rest of the Secret Six knew his secret but he kept doing the accent and the mannerisms. Maybe I missed the reason, or maybe it will be explained.

Anyway, the important thing is that Ralph is fully back. So, let's just hope he won't do that silly stairs walk all the time. To be fair, after the Infantino days, his stretching became weirder and less functional.

Also, Sue is a light brunette. I'm not big on that, but then again, she's back, and that's good enough*.





*Yes, I'm aware that she is likely a mole, but we all know how things go. She'll eventually return to her regular self. Hopefully, with black hair**.

**UPDATE: In a comment, I asked Gail Simone if Sue was a brainwashed mole... and she said that she is just her regular self! So, this is it! The Dibnys are back, and they are in the great hands of a talented writer, leading some lovely misfits into the right path —just like Nick and Nora did in The Thin Man with Dorothy Wynant.