Elongated Man

Origin

Ralph grew up with an older brother who always stole the spotlight. He was a successful academic, star athlete and popular with everyone in their small town. Ralph on the other hand became the opposite, a troublemaker and class clown. Due to the nature of their work, Ralph adored cartoonists as well as contortionists as they displayed feats of agility and suppleness. Trying to get into the secret of these abnormally flexible persons he found out that all the people he talked to who were body-benders had a similarity: they all drank a soda called Gingold. Once this discovery was made, Ralph set to work studying chemistry and made a super-concentrated extract of the rare Gingo fruit, which gave him his elasticity.

Married

Ralph was one of the first costumed heroes to reveal his secret identity to the public, and one of the first to marry his love interest. Ralph and his wife Sue Dibny became effective partners participating in Justice League Of America adventures solving mysteries. The two had a stable, happy, and relatively trouble free marriage, which is very uncommon in the lives of superhero marriages.

Creation

Elongated Man was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino. When it came to naming the character, DC editor Julius Schwartz was unaware that DC owned the name "Plastic Man", so instead went with the much more unwieldy moniker. 

Character Evolution

Major Story Arcs

Justice League Detroit

After an invasion by the Martians which destroyed the JLA Satellite and left Earth almost conquered, Aquaman (the lone remaining original member of the Justice League of America) decided to disband the team as they had lost sight of their goal. He felt that the League could not work on an ad hoc basis, where heroes came and went as available. Instead he envisaged a full time Justice League which would be able to deal with problems immediately as they arose. Immediately after disbanding the team, some of the remaining heroes pledged to Aquaman that if he would lead them that they would agree to his concept of the new League. Joining were Zatanna, the Martian Manhunter (who technically was not a member at the time and thus could not make such a decision that Aquaman had) and Ralph. They were soon after joined by a group of younger and more inexperienced heroes, to which Ralph provided a form of veteran leadership.

Identity Crisis

During Identity Crisis, tragedy struck their marriage with the death of Sue Right before she was going to surprise Ralph with the news that she was pregnant. Ralph was devastated and his first suspect for who was responsible for the loss of his wife was Dr. Light as he had at one time sexually assaulted Sue and threatened to find her again. It was revealed that Sue was murdered by Jean Loring, the ex-wife of Ray Palmer (the Atom) in an attempt to reconcile with her ex-husband.

Crisis of Conscience

During this arc, Ralph stopped taking his daily intake of Gingold, gradually losing his ability to stretch and become elongated. During the crisis, the Super-villains that had their memories wiped were starting to get them back. Zatanna wanted to re-wipe their minds but in the end only erased their knowledge of the League's secret identities.

52

Prior to the events surrounding the DC maxiseries 52, Ralph's life had turned towards depression due to the death of Sue. He was about to commit suicide when he learned that her tombstone was vandalized. He confronts Wonder Girl and accuses her of the act because of the inverted Kryptonian symbol on the tombstone which means resurrection. She and the Cult of Conner steal Dibny's ring. Ralph then goes to Booster Gold for help in the investigation but stops when he realizes that Booster might have been able to save Sue's life and Ralph attacks him in anger. While Booster later disperses a mob, an actor he hired for a staged battle reveals the truth to the press. Dibny tells reporters that Booster is a fraud.

After Dibny finds Wonder Girl, she informs him that they may be able to resurrect Superboy but need to have a trial run, Ralph agrees to cooperate so that Sue might be brought back to life and be with him again, however his friends disrupt the ceremony and destroy the necessary elements for it to work. The straw doll that represents Sue calls out to him while it burns. The cult leader, Devem, tells Dibny that because of the disruption, he no longer can resurrect anyone.

Ralph and Sue?

After the disruption of his only hope to retain Sue in his life, he suffers a breakdown, vowing to "try again". Recovering in Marseilles, he receives a visit from Detective Chimp who brings with him the helm of Doctor Fate. The Shadowpact assembles in Giza for a scrying to reveal the helm's recent history. The helm speaks to him and tells him that it will grant him his wishes if he makes the necessary sacrifices for it. Dibny accepts, and he takes off with the helm, beginning his pilgrimage. Traveling the Land of the Dead, Ralph learns his ways in the act of magic and most importantly in the prices and bargains that must be paid in order to achieve magical power.

On returning to the land of the living, he approaches the Spectre telling him that he will do anything asked of him if the Spectre brings his wife back. The Spectre, desiring revenge on Eclipso for her manipulations of him but not being able to do anything himself tells Dibny to punish Eclipso in return for his wife's life. Realizing this means taking revenge on the women who murdered Sue, he takes her to the point in which she murdered his wife and intends to put her in a time loop forcing her to watch herself murder Sue Dibny over and over for all eternity.

After coming to her sanity, she begs Ralph for forgiveness and vows that it wasn't her that killed Sue. Dibny, affected by her pleas, his sense of compassion and his own feelings on watching his wife's death, finds himself incapable of such ruthlessness and refuses to complete his pact with the Spectre and yells at him and sends Eclipso back to orbit the sun, but now aware that their is a way to return his wife back to life. He moves on with the helm to find another who could help him in his attempts to return sue back to life. Arriving at Nanda Parbat, Dibny is attacked by a yeti-like creature, but is rescued by Yao-Fei, a Chinese 'super-functionary', whom he later helps to capture the creature. He receives and audience with Rama Kushna and he tells him that "Death is only an illusion of being in time; a trick of the light". Seemingly disillusioned, Dibny travels to Central City, where he recovers the gun he intended to kill himself with after the Crisis. He then later retrieves the ring of "Shackles of Arion" hidden in the destroyed ruins of Atlantis, guarded by a crazed and amnesiac Aquaman, by trading his wedding band for the link of chain. Ralph Dibny was killed in 52 #42 when he shot off the mask of Dr. Fate and turned back in to his wedding ring and it was Faust that was brain washing him all the time. Netron came and told Ralph Dibny that Faust was his and Ralph said it was his responsibility to take him. Ralph Dibny subsequently confronted Netron where Ralph lost and was killed by Netron when he shot his ring thought his heart. In the though, Ralph had planned for it all as he trapped Netron and Faust in the wall. In 52 week #52. Ralph and Sue are together at last as ghost detectives investigating the hole on the ground in a prep school. In Batman and the Outsiders Ralph and Sue were there helping Batman and his team as ghost detectives to solve a mystery before disappearing into the light.

Blackest Night

During the events of Blackest Night Ralph and Sue are reanimated by the power of the Black Power Rings, and become part of the Black Lantern Corps. As one of their first actions as Black Lanterns, Ralph and Sue ambush Hawkman and Hawkgirl at Carter Hall's museum. He mauls Hawkman using the hero's own Nth metal mace against him. Being resistant to physical blows, there is little Hawkman can do to stop Ralph from beating him, then extracting the fallen Hawkman's heart for consumption by the black rings. Ralph is then seen in Gotham City with the Black Lanterns Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Sue, and Firestorm preparing to kill the Flash and Green Lantern. He then proceeds to torment Barry Allen before Indigo-1 shows up and destroys him using Hal's ring and willpower with her own. 

Powers and Abilties

Other media

Television

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Wrapped along Plastic Man

He appears in the ninth episode of series: "Journey to the center of the bat!". Along with Plastic Man fight against Baby Face and his gang of henchmen. Babyface didn't know who he was. During the confrontation competes with Plastic Man to determine who is the favorite hero to Batman, due to their competition they were wrapped and Baby Face manage to escape only to be stopped by Batman. At the end Batman said that he preferred to stay alone rather than work with one of the two.

Justice League Unlimited

Ralph in JLU

In Justice League Unlimited, Elongated Man appears in a few episodes voiced by Jeremy Piven. He did not have many speaking roles and appeared as mostly a background character. He was seen in the following episodes: "The Greatest Story Never Told", "The Ties That Bind" and "Clash." Ralph Dibny only had three speaking roles.