The Elongated Man

Ralph Dibny, also known as  the Elongated Man, is a metahuman superhero detective with stretching powers, from the Earth-1 continuity. He is also a wealthy retired celebrity and a socialite who likes to travel around the world with his wife in his green Thunderbird, seeking mysteries to solve.

Origins
Ralph grows up in Waymore Nebraska, and from early on, is is clear that he contrasts drastically with the sedentary nature of his hometown. He showed signs of an adventurous spirit, and an hyperactive creativity. Despite skipping three years, it is clear that school didn't present any challenge to his mind. While a nice, sociable guy, he is perceived as odd by all his friends, family and acquaintances due to his class clowning, practical jokes and, specially, his knack for solving mysteries.

An avid reader, he idolizes the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Nick Charles and Columbo, so he constantly meddled with the sheriff's cases and any situation that strikes him as a mystery.

Year Two
While still in college, he is indirectly hired by Rupert Thorne to figure out the identity of Batman, which backfires as he decides to hide it and to expose the Mayor's ties to the Falcone Family. The experience proves to be defining for Ralph, in that he finds out how dangerous it can be to work against corruption; however, he also gained from it nation-wide notoriety as a detective.

As Bruce Wayne, Batman decides to farm Ralph's talent by granting him a full WayneTetch scolarship to study chemistry, which serves the double purpose of protecting him from the reach of Gotham's organized crime.

Year Four
Inspired by the likes of Batman and Superman, Ralph decides he needs skills and super powers in order to face crime. Consecuently, he used his scolarship and accomodation to train himself in judo, aikido and yoga while reasearching human reaction to different substances. His old and odd fascination with india-rubber men lead him to his thesis research. Knowing that the most cases of human body elasticity had a correlation with consumption of the Gingold soda, which is made from gingo, a fruit from the Yucatan Peninsula, he developed his project at the Yucatan branch of WayneTech Labs.

Ralph discovers the gingo tree only grows near the remote hacienda of Tixkakax, a long with a number of other artificially mutated plants that provide temporal abilities to their consumers. The mystery of their secrecy lead him to a conflict with the owner of the hacienda and the Gingold company, which reached its climax with an accident that made Ralph develop super stretching as a reaction to the gingo fruit.

With the super powers and skills he needed as an edge to fight crime and enough patents to secure his economical situation for life, Ralph graduated and decided to become a superhero.

Year Five
With Plastic Man, taken by a comic book character and Elastic unavailable as well, Ralph creates the Elongated Man as his superhero identity and makes his debut in Central City, hometown of the Flash. For a while, he managed to exasperate the fastest man alive by using his detective skills to outsmart him, solve his cases faster and get all the media attention.

Soon Flash and the Elongated Man became friends. Together they foil an alien invasion attempt in Yucatan and clear the reputation of Captain Frye when he is framed by the Turtle-man.

In one of their early cases, they followed Grodd to New York City and rescued the attendants of Sue Dearbon's debutante ball from him. Having followed his career since his his early cases, Sue is a big fan of Ralph and quickly identifies him, starting a life-long love relationship.

Along with the likes of Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Adam Strange, the Atom and Zatanna, the Elongated Man is part of the wave that cemented superheroism as a legitimate and admired activity. Around the time, Ralph is living on a the patents he developed for WayneTech, however, he increases his fortune by performing as the Elongated Man and becoming the spokesman of Gingold. His charisma and comedic timing, along with a succession of smart investments made him a very rich celebrity overnight. Soon, his civil identity was basically useless and the Elongated Man reached icon status.

Year Six
Sue dates Ralph as the Elongated Man and they soon married, revealing his secret identity at the wedding. By then, many superheroes were working with the FBI, which made a comfortable transition.

After their honeymoon, the couple decided to travel the country in search of mysteries to solve, places to visit and people to meet.

The couple are very sociable and quick to establish friendships. During this era, they become close with Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth, James Gordon, Miles O'Hara, Green Lantern, Carol Ferris, the Atom, Jean Loring, Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Zatanna. Other notable friends they make include Amos Hurd, the cowboy millionaire, his wife and and Billy Warner, the Elongated Man's #1 fan.

However, Ralph also makes several enemies, like Rajah, the hypnotist; the Riddler, Captain Boomerang, Martin Beene, a super villain obsessed with copying his super powers, and the Phantom General, a nazi criminal who organizes thousands of criminals into a terrorist organization within USA.

Year Seven
Up to a point, Ralph's laid back attitude and showbiz ties prevents him from being taken seriously as a potential member of the Justice League, despite the Flash always trying to enroll him as more than a reserve member. However a couple of tough cases changes the team's mind. The first was their collaboration with him to help Zatanna find her father, the wizard Zatara. Some time later, he rescued Green Arrow and Black Canary from Dr. Light, a villain who considers himself to dangerous to be taken down by less than the entire League. After this, Ralph becomes the 12th member of the League.

Ralph is the first member to take full advantage of the Justice League privileges, which he mostly used to protect his wife. Despite all the taken measures, a vindictive Dr. Light managed to viciously attack her at the Watchtower. The team managed to get in time to save her from any permanent damage, but the attempt made the Dibnys reconsider their lifestyle.

After joining the Justice League, Ralph and Sue get closer to Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Wonder Woman.

Year Nine
Ralph and Sue decide to finally settle. So, they move up to the six floor of the Dearbon Bouilding. A place in Manhattan in front of Central Park and the Guggenheim Museum on 5th Ave, property of Sue's father, J. J. Dearbon, an Irish real state tycoon with a knack for adventure. Their downstairs neighbor turns out to be Egghead, who claims to be reformed.

Ralph joins the Super-Heroes League of New York, along Power Girl, Captain Atom, Black Canary, the Huntress and Blue Beetle. He is assigned to investigate a series of leads to a grand mastermind organizing crime in New England and the north Atlantic states. His first clues mislead him to Frazier, a super powered dog controlling an army of homeless people with telepathy. Eventually, after realizing that he is just acting on ignorance and instinct, the Dibnys adopt Frazier.

Another case, lead Ralph to solve the mystery of Edgar Allan Poe´s murder. Then, he has yet another life long dream accomplished when he teams up with Nick Charles on Earth-2 to solve a second "thin man" case.

Around this time, Ralph gets a recurring rogues gallery he calls "the Usual Suspects". Besides, Rajah and Martin Beene, by then, going by "the Elongated Evildoer", the crowd includes L'Escargot, a tacky witch and horror movie host called Mistress Sinestra, and inventor called Mortimer Baxter; Average Joe, a brilliant criminal with an unmemorable look and a gang of thieves with intangibility powers called The Clinton Boys. They were all manipulated by the same mysterious mastermind, who reveals himself to be Egghead, not shocked to know that Ralph and Sue knew all along.

Year Ten
While curating the Sherlock Holmes museum on Earth-2, a plot by Edgar Moriarty, nephew of Professor John Moriarty, leads Ralph to team up with Batman, Robin, Slam Bradley and an aged Sherlock himself.

After Maxwell Lord reorganizes the team as a UN-sponsored Justice League International, merging it with the Super-Heroes League of New York and the Global Guardians, Ralph and Sue relocate to Europe as part of the European branch. On the team, Ralph was in charge of investigations. His main case was a global banking conspiracy the Question was researching before going missing. As it turns out, it was a all a plot by Edgar Moriarty, who crosses to Earth-1 to escape justice on his own universe.

Year Twelve
After multiple attacks

Identity Crisis, 52

Year Thirteen
Formerly Known, Ralphina.

Counterparts

 * Plastic Man (Earth-2)
 * Extruded Man (Earth-3)
 * Frank Future (Earth-8)