#rita farr

365 DC Comics Heroes & Villains Paper Cut-Outs

Elasti-Woman

Rita Farr had been a speed swimmer who won a gold medal at the Olympics.  She later turned to acting and achieved considerable fame in Hollywood, staring in various movies.  Her life took a dramatic turn one evening when she decided to go for a swim while shooting a film somewhere on the African Coast.  A pocket of mutagenic substances had exuded from a volcanic fissure on the sea floor and Rita was exposed to the substance.  

The mutagens altered her body, bestowing her metahuman abilities.  She quickly discovered that she was able to expand or shrink her body at will.  She could make herself barely an inch tall as well as grow to the size of giant, towering at twenty feet tall.  Over time, Rita gained greater mastery over these abilities, finding that she could stretch like elastic, shrink or enlarge different limbs at a time.  When she first discovered these powers, however, she experienced great difficulties controlling them and her career as actor was ruined.  

Feeling like a freak and a pariah, Rita became a reclusive and hid herself away.  She was sought out by Dr. Niles Caulder who convinced her to use her fantastic abilities to fight for justice. She was offered a place on Caulder’s ‘Doom Patrol,’ a team of heroes whom the ordinary world might look at as freakish.  Rita accepted and took on the alias of ‘Elasti-Girl.’   

Rita would go on to have numerous adventures as a member of The Doom Patrol.  During this time Rita fell in love with and marries man named Steve Dayton.   The couple later adopts Garfield Logan, the young hero (and future Teen Titan) known as Beast Boy.  Rita and Steve argue often, but they remained married and both cared for Gar.  

Rita and the rest of The Doom Patrol appeared to perish when they sacrificed themselves to save the people of a small island on the New England Coast.  Rita would return some years later under mysterious circumstances and it is eventually revealed that Dr. Caulder had used a sample of Rita’s biological material to essentially grow a new version of her body complete with her past memories.  It is further revealed that that when Caulder regrew her he did so using a type of experimental protoplasm designed to eliminate any ‘weaknesses’ such as bones and internal organs.  As such, Rita is no longer entirely human; indeed when she sleeps Rita loses her human shape and reverts to an amorphous puddle, having to reshape herself when she wakes up every morning.  Rita has since changed her codename to Elasti-Woman.  

Actress April Bowlby has portrayed Rita Farr in live-action television shows The Titans and Doom Patrol.  The heroine has additionally featured in a number of animated projects, voiced by actresses Tara Strong, Cree Summer, Olivia d’Abo, Kari Wahlgren and Hynden Walch.

Elasti-Woman first appeared in the pages of My Greatest Adventure #80 (1963).

The Doom Patrol #2 by Darcy Van Poelgeest and Niko Henrichon. Variant covers by (1) KyuYong Eom, (2) Eric Canete and (3) Pete Woods. Main cover (4) by Henrichon. Out in October.

"Doom Patrol's latest heroing-for-hire gig has brought Robotman, Elasti-Girl, and Negative Man face-to-face with a massive UFO and its strange — and rather gloopy — inhabitants. Now, as Negative Man breaches the minds and memories of these alien invaders, he finds himself digging into the Doom Patrol's past and future… and the mysterious young girl who seems to be intrinsically connected to both.

I am amazed Rita was able to keep her shape during that.

Poor Jane man, that can't have brought back good memories.

Wonder if The Negative Spirit felt anything?

They're an interesting bunch and I did not know Brendon Fraser was playing Cliff Steele. Actually took me a couple of seconds to recognize him.

Also, was not expecting Timothy Dalton and Mark Shepard to be in it.

Hold on.

Watching the Danny Patrol episode and Larry and Maura have started singing in it, brb.

EDIT: NO LARRY, SING YOU FUCKER! COME ON!

EDIT 2: NO MAURA! DON'T DO IT!

EDIT 3: YES DANNY! FUCK YEAH LARRY, VIC AND MAURA! FUCK THOSE FASCIST BASTARDS UP!

EDIT 4: Anyway, as I was saying.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. Rita's powers are awesome-

YES LARRY FUCKING SING YA WANKA!

-I like eldritch body horror aspect of her powers, they're really cool. Cliff's also pretty dope, I like the fact the story actually brings up the fact he struggles with his current condition.

Larry's cool too; I like the fact that it's sort of a sliding scale between the three.

Cliff tries to be a hero but he's really dysfunctional and struggles quite a lot.

Larry's a good person but really doesn't want to be a hero due to his past and tries to keep out of stuff but can't.

Rita's a bitch with a heart of gold beneath a layer of stuffy bitchism that would rather stay out of things but is slowly becoming better.

Jane's interesting. I'm not that informed on Dissociative Identity Disorder so I don't know if her portrayal's got problems or not.

But I've seen the whole "each Identity has a unique ability" thing before.

Quite like Hammerhead though, she takes zero shit from anybody. Dr Harrison is terrifying. Silver Tongue's badass and I like their ability.