Wednesday, October 6, 2010

In Which Adam Spends Too Much Time and Energy Pondering Over What Having Stretchy Powers Entails Wednesday!

Along with the yellow oval underneath Batman's chest emblem, we started getting Elongated Man as a back-up story. While I have nothing against J'Onn J'Onzz or Roy Raymond, TV Detective, I found Ralph and Sue Dibny's stories a lot more entertaining.

And hey! Why not start the day with some Fun with Out of Context Dialogue?(tm!):

Over the years, Ralph's powers were a little undefined, depending on who wrote the story. But basically, Ralph was only supposed to be able stretch. Thusly:

Personally, I can wiggle my ears, but it kind of freaks me out that Ralph was able to use his nose as an appendage. I mean, no matter how large my nose became, I don't think I would have the muscular control to wrap it around a pistol like that. I think the fact that he's referring to his nose as an "elephant's trunk" is our clue that the writer over-stepped Ralph's abilities to stretch.

And there's also this:

This kind of makes more sense to me, because the muscles in your arms make smacking someone with your elbow an easy thing to do.

So while I question that stretching gives you the ability to use your nose as an eleventh finger, things like smacking someone with an outstretched arm, leg, elbow, knee, etc. made perfect sense.

This, however, confuses me:

Stretching does not equal giganticism. Ralph is not Plastic Man, who could actually change his shape. Ralph stretches, the end. Is anyone of the opinion that you could actually stretch your hand and make it bigger, thereby making it a plausible use of his powers? In this particular run, Ralph's stretching powers are all over the map, and I'm thinking we may have crossed the line here. If this was a "legal" use of the power, why didn't Ralph stretch out his chest to make himself appear more buff? He was vain enough to do it back in the day. I'm thinking "stretching" means "extending," and they went a little too far. Your thoughts?

It also bothered me when Mr. Fantastic would become a bouncing ball. I don't think stretching means you can do that, either.

And hey, did you know there was a Plastic Man tv pilot pitched to the Cartoon Network? Ah, what could have been.

5 comments:

Of course, Sue Dibny and Sue Storm Richards were grateful for their hubbys' ...er...talents!

Reminds me of Fred Hembeck's "Comic Book Newlywed Game" strip: Bob Ewebanks: "What's the most unusual place you and Reed've made whoopee?"Sue Richards: "The kitchen and the bedroom."Bob: "Well, we can only take one answer, Sue, so…"Sue: "No, you don’t understand, Bob.I was in the kitchen, Reed was in the bedroom....."

Luffy, the rubbery hero of One Piece, can make his body parts gigantic, but only by inflating his bones (!) first. Plus, it has the nasty side effect of leaving him shrunken and vulnerable for a few minutes afterwards.

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