I have especially fond memories of Lois Lane’s brief career as Elastic Lass.
In Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane 23 (Feb. 1961), the intrepid reporter decides she needs an edge to run down the Wrecker, a mysterious weirdo who explodes public statues. So she asks Jimmy Olsen if she can borrow his Elastic Lad formula.
In an echo of a fairy tale, Jimmy trusts Lois with only 10 drops of Professor Phineas Potter’s elastic formula, enough to perform just 10 flexible feats.
Lois adapts easily to her new superhero mission — stretching her head through second-floor windows to get the facts, subduing a pickpocket with a boa-constrictor tackle, retrieving an engagement ring that has been dropped into a grating, performing stunts to entertain orphans (with a secret assist from Supergirl, who lives at the orphanage).
The story was simply fun and included whimsical little touches like having Lois stretch her lips to put on lipstick.
Unfortunately, Lois uses up almost all her powers before she catches the Wrecker, but her elongated nose, coupled with her deductive abilities, does the trick at the last minute (he turns out to be a disgruntled sculptor).
“At least she finds a way to use her super-nose less ridiculously than Jimmy did,” noted the Comics Archeology web site. In Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen 32 (Oct. 1958), Prof. Potter gave the cub reporter a “Pinocchio nose.”
“This super-power story is well done,” noted comics historian Michael E. Grost. “It was written by Otto Binder, who had created the Elastic Lad series of tales in Jimmy Olsen.”
“The Ten Feats of Elastic Lass allows Binder to return to two series for which he was the main writer: Jimmy Olsen and Supergirl. Binder’s tenure as Supergirl writer was over by the time The Ten Feats of Elastic Lass was published in February 1961. Like many earlier Binder Supergirl tales, this one centers on feats at Midvale Orphanage that benefit the orphans.”
“There are hints in this tale that to become a reporter-detective, Lois has to assume or usurp the powers of men in society. She has to wangle the formula for becoming elastic from Jimmy Olsen, and faces opposition from him… The whole story has a feminist undertone.”
In fact, this issue has three excellent stories — the third installment of the “Mr. and Mrs. Superman” imaginary series, written by Jerry Siegel, and the introduction of the mysterious Lena Thorul, who turns out to be Lex Luthor’s sister (and will serve to humanize the villain).
Lois is clever and resourceful in all three stories, and doesn’t act like a nitwit (a role into which she was forced too many times).
What I didn’t realize in 1961 was that Elastic Lad/Lass was, of course, a Plastic Man riff. That once-popular Quality Comics character — one of my mom’s favorites — had ceased publication in 1956, but the concept was so good that various variations on the theme kept appearing.
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