Plastic Man
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Plastic Man (Patrick "Eel" O'Brian) is a fictional comic-book superhero originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Created by writer-artist Jack Cole, he first appeared in Police Comics #1 (Aug 1941).
One of Quality Comics' signature characters during the period historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books, Plastic Man can stretch his body into any imaginable form. His adventures were known for their quirky, offbeat structure and surreal slapstick humor. When Quality Comics was shut down in 1956, DC Comics acquired many of its characters, integrating Plastic Man into the mainstream DC universe. The character has starred in several short-lived DC series, as well as a Saturday morning cartoon series in the early 1980s.
Although the character's revival has never been a commercial hit, Plastic Man has been a favorite character of many modern comic book creators, including writer Grant Morrison, who included him in his 1990s revival of the Justice League, and painter Alex Ross.
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[edit] Publication history
A creation of Jack Cole, Plastic Man first appeared in Police Comics #1 (Aug. 1941), an issue that also included the debuts of Phantom Lady and the Human Bomb, among others.
Cole's character, an immediate hit, took over as lead feature with issue #5. He remained there through #102 (Oct. 1950), after which Police Comics became a naturalistic crime-drama title with no superheroes through its final issue, #127 (Oct. 1953). Concurrent with his Police Comics run, Plastic Man starred in his own 64-issue title. (The first issue carried no cover-date, but was released in 1943; the remainder were cover-dated August 1944 - November 1956.)
Cole's offbeat humor, combined with Plastic Man's ability to take any shape, gave the cartoonist enormous opportunities to experiment with text and graphics in groundbreaking manner — helping to define the medium's visual vocabulary, and making the idiosyncratic character one of the few enduring classics from the Golden Age to modern times. His art was striking for its bright, cartoony quality, with Plastic Man stretching across panels, going around the corner and up the street, wisecracking all the way. Cole's stories were noted for good humor mixed with deadly, albeit slapstick, violence.
By the end of the 1940s, however, the Police and Plastic Man stories were being created entirely by anonymous ghost writers and artists — including Alex Kotzky and John Spranger — despite Cole's name being bannered, and floundered creatively until Quality Comics went out of business in 1956. DC Comics acquired its properties, and while not continuing Plastic Man at that time later revived him in various series. DC editor Julius Schwartz noted[citation needed] that if he had been aware that Plastic Man was available, Schwartz would have used him as a supporting character in The Flash series rather than the newly created Elongated Man.
The character has since been intermittently published by DC, beginning with the omnibus special House of Mystery #160. A 10-issue solo series quickly followed (Dec. 1966 - June 1968), written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Gil Kane (the premiere issue), followed by Win Mortimer for the bulk of the run and Jack Sparling on the final three issues. He guest-starred in an issue of DC's superhero-humor series The Inferior Five, and teamed with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #76, 95, 123 & 148 (March 1968, May 1971, Dec. 1975, & March 1979)
Most significantly, however, DC reintroduced the startling Cole original to a new generation with the 25-cent giant DC Special #15 (Dec. 1971), reprinting Golden Age stories from Police Comics #1 & 13 and Plastic Man #17, 25 & 26. Cole reprints also sneaked into an issue each of Batman and two of Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen. This led to a second 10-issue series, numbered #11-20 (March 1976 - Nov. 1977), drawn by Ramona Fradon and written by Steve Skeates followed by John Albano. Plas afterward starred in the "split book" Adventure Comics, sharing the title with the separate adventures of 1970s Starman and/or Aquaman from #467-478 (Jan.-Dec. 1980). Joe Staton, best-known for drawing Charlton Comics' similarly morphing, humorous hero E-Man, did the art. Plastic Man went on to guest-star or appear in short feature runs in several DC comics, and as an occasional member of DC's World War II-era All-Star Squadron.
After the DC Comics miniseries "event" Crisis on Infinite Earths altered or "reset" much of the history of the DC Universe, a four-issue Plastic Man miniseries by writer Phil Foglio and penciler Hilary Barta ran Nov. 1988 - Feb. 1989, to re-introduce "Plas" to the post-Crisis continuity.
Writer Grant Morrison added Plastic Man to the Justice League of America (JLA) lineup when that superhero-team title was relaunched in 1997, often serving as comic relief. In issue #65, writer Joe Kelly revealed that Plastic Man has a 10-year-old son as a result of a fling with a stripper (and additionally that Plas can change color, although with great difficulty). The son, Luke, inherited Plastic Man's abilities but has greater control over them. In this issue, Plas convinces Batman to help him prevent the boy from adopting a life of crime, and even arranges to hypnotically erase his own memory of his life as a superhero in order to be a more responsible father. This was short-lived, as the JLA needed Plastic Man to regain his memories in order to fight a renegade member, Martian Manhunter.
Writer-artist Kyle Baker began a new Plastic Man series that ran 20 issues (Feb. 2004 - Jan. 2006). It featured humor similar to that of the Golden Age comics, while also satirizing modern comic-book stereotypes, and was generally considered to be "out-of-continuity" due to others appearing in the book (such as the Justice League) behaving humorously out of character at times. In this series, Plastic Man gets a girlfriend (FBI Special Agent Morgan, revealed as the surgically altered fiancee that Plas' alter ego had left in the 1940s comics) and adopts a gothic teenage daughter, (Edwina). Plastic Man won the 2004 Eisner Award for Best New Series.
[edit] Character biography
[edit] Pre-Crisis
Image:HouseOfMystery160.jpg Plastic Man had been a crook named Patrick "Eel" O'Brian when he was shot by a security guard and struck by a falling drum full of an unidentified acid, some of which entered Eel's wound. He was saved by a mysterious order of monks whose example cured his penchant for crime. The acid bath gave him the ability to change his shape. He wore dark glasses and a red-and-yellow costume as flexible as his body. Whatever shape he took, the colors remained the same, so there might be a red-and-yellow chandelier over a table full of plotting gangsters, or a red-and-yellow abstract painting hanging on the wall, but the villains never caught on until it was too late.
Plastic Man soon acquired sidekick Woozy Winks, a doofus who was originally magically enchanted so that nature itself would protect him from harm. That eventually was forgotten and Woozy became simply a dumb but loyal friend of Plastic Man.
There were at least three different Plastic Men portrayed in his various appearances during this time period. Originally, the Plastic Man series in the 1960's tied in the son of the original as interacting with the Inferior Five, later identified as residing on Earth-Twelve. A subsequent version appearing with Batman in Brave and the Bold and Justice League of America was identified as residing on Earth-One. Afterwards, the Quality Comics version was specified as being a member of the All-Star Squadron and Freedom Fighters, originally of Earth-Two and later moving to Earth-X. This version died during an extended period of World War II while on the latter world.
[edit] Post-Crisis
In the 1988-1989 Plastic Man miniseries, the monks and their good example were eliminated from Plastic Man's origin. Instead, Eel O'Brian, abandoned by his criminal gang after being shot and exposed to the acid, wandered the streets as his new powers developed, frightening others and bringing the police and National Guard down on him as a dangerous monster. Eel was at first oblivous to the changes to his body, but after realizing that he was the monster everyone was going on about, he used his new abilities to escape his pursuers, but soon became so despondent over his new condition that he attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge.
Fortunately, he was interrupted by Woozy Winks, a former mental patient kicked out of an institution due to lack of funding (or as Woozy put it, "something called Reaganomics"), who desired nothing more than to return to the warm safety of a straitjacket and padded room. Eel and Woozy decided to work together and capitalize on Eel's new powers to make their fortunes (Eel wanting to get rich quick, Woozy just wanting his "old room" back), but couldn't decide whether there was more money in crime or crime-fighting, and so flipped a coin to choose. Eel ended up with the name "Plastic Man" after a reporter misinterpreted his first choice, "Elastic Man", and with Woozy set up a detective agency in New York City and had various misadventures.
The retcon that Plastic Man was initially a superhero for money has affected his character development post-Crisis, notably in a JLA storyline where he, along with other Justice League members, was physically separated into two people: his "civilian" identity and his superhero persona. While Plastic Man devolved from a person with a sense of humor into a constantly wisecracking and almost ineffectual idiot, the "normal" Eel O'Brian struggled with the criminal tendencies he had suppressed as he had become comfortable with his role as a superhero, and wondered if he had actually changed for the better or if it had all been part of the superhero "act". Ultimately, Eel became the driving force behind the other transformed Leaguers banding together to re-join with their superheroic selves.
After the "Our Worlds at War" crossover, the Justice Leaguers are sent back in time to ancient Atlantis before its initial sinking into the ocean. Though the Leaguers were killed in battle, they were brought back to life in modern times thanks to Manitou Raven's magical powers and Kyle Rayner's Oan power ring, which had preserved the Leaguers' souls. Absent from this battle was Plastic Man, who had been torn apart and his pieces spread throughout the seas. After reassembling him, Eel declared that he had been conscious throughout the thousands of years of formlessness, and immediately removed himself from the team.
Sometime afterward, Eel has himself hypnotized so that he does not remember that he and his son have superpowers. His time as a dedicated father is cut short when Martian Manhunter evolves into the fiery being Fernus, and Batman and Eel's son convince Eel that he is the only person who can counter the telepath Fernus and save the world, with the revelation that Plastic Man's brain is as inorganic as his form and cannot be controlled telepathically.
[edit] One Year Later
In the "One Year Later" DC Comics crossover storyline that followed the "Infinite Crisis" crossover, a young man with similar appearance and powers as Plastic Man appears briefly in the superteam series Teen Titans Vol. 3, #34. The character wears a white costume with red goggles, similar to that of Offspring, Plastic Man's son in the earlier DC miniseries The Kingdom. While the Teen Titans story itself does not identify the character, page two of a published script purporting to be writer Geoff Johns' (unconfirmed) specifies it is "Plastic Man’s son, Offspring".<ref>The Comic Bloc: "You Waited, Now See... Teen Titans #34", posted 15 June 2006 by anonymous "magicspoon"</ref>
[edit] Powers and abilities
Plastic Man's powers are derived from an accident in which his body was bathed in an unknown industrial chemical mixture that also entered into his bloodstream through a gunshot wound. This caused a body-wide mutagenic process that transformed his physiology, possibly granting him virtual immortality as he also does not age, or does so at a rate greatly slowed compared to ordinary humans.
Plastic Man can stretch his limbs and body to superhuman lengths and sizes, with flexibility and coordination extraordinarily beyond the natural limits of the human body. He can contort into various positions and sizes such as entirely flat so that he can slip under a door or use his fingers to pick conventional locks. He can also disguise himself by changing the shape of his face. There is no known limit to how far he can stretch his body. The only limitation he has relates to color, which he cannot change without intense concentration.
Unlike other elastic heroes such as Mr. Fantastic or the Elongated Man (who retain their human physiology while elastic), Plastic Man appears to have no circulatory system or internal organs; when his body is sliced or broken into pieces, there's no bleeding, and the exposed edges appear to have the same uniform pink color as his skin. He also isn't limited to contiguous, closed shapes. He can open holes through his body (becoming a true toroid or a net, for example) and can even turn into simple machines with real, moving parts (such as a cart with wheels that turn independently of the rest of his body).
Plastic Man can "redistribute" bodily functions elsewhere throughout his mass. On multiple occasions, he has commented that he was able to recover instantly from catastrophic damage to his head (such as burning or dispersal) because his brain "wasn't anywhere near it at the time". In the JLA' arc "The Obsidian Age", Plastic Man, while in the past, is destroyed into separate molecules at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The Justice League finds most of his molecules 3,000 years later and re-assembles him.
Plastic Man's powers extraordinarily augment his durability. He is able to withstand corrosives, punctures and concussions without sustaining injury (although he can be momentarily stunned). He is resistant to high velocities that would kill an ordinary person, as well as to blasts from energy weapons. His bodily mass can be dispersed, but for all intents and purposes it is invulnerable. Plastic Man was incapacitated in the 2004-06 series' "Tower of Babel" arc when mercenaries froze and shattered his body, but, once thawed and reassembled, he was physically unharmed (though emotionally traumatized). In the JLA story arc "Divided We Fall", Plastic Man is shown to have some weakness to fire, and melting temporarally, though in at least one JLA story arc ("Obsidian Age") he was unharmed by fire that was mystical in nature. Another arc, "Trial by Fire", notes that because Plastic Man's mind is "no longer organic [i]t's untouchable by telepathy". Furthermore, in the "Crisis Times Five" story arc by Grant Morrison, he is transmuted into stone by the the Djinn Lkz, but was restored to his natural state simply by having the Flash vibrate and melt him.
Plastic Man was once a very talented professional thief. Although no longer a criminal, he has insight into their mindset, enabling him to be an effective sleuth.
[edit] Other versions
In Frank Miller's non-canonical Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2001–2002), Plastic Man was betrayed and locked in Arkham Asylum for years with his body forced into a perpetual egg-like shape by a pressurizing machine. The imprisonment and confinement drove him insane, and upon his release he lashed out at those around him. He fights Elongated Man, having the upper hand until Batman brings Plastic Man to his senses with a punch to the face. Batman declares that Plastic Man is the single most powerful superhero — presumably even more so than Superman and Captain Marvel, who also appear in the book. Carrie Kelly (as Catgirl) describes him as being: "Immeasurably powerful. Absolutely nuts." He seems to have aged somewhat in this continuity, appearing with silver hair and the occasional wrinkle.
In Tangent Comics Plastic Man is a member of the Secret Six. He is really scientist Gunther Ganz, whose conciousness has been transferred to a "living polymer".
[edit] Other media
The character's made a guest appearance on the television series Super Friends and then starred in his own TV series, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, in which he was given a bumbling Hawaiian sidekick, Hula-Hula; a blonde-bombshell girlfriend, Penny, whom he later married; and later their son, Baby Plas.Plastic Man was briefly mentioned by the Green Lantern and Elongated Man in the episode "The Greatest Story Never Told" of the Justice League Unlimited animated series, but did not appear on the show.
A pre-Plastic Man Eel O'Brian appears in Batman Adventures #6 and 8 as a member of a crime gang lead by the Black Mask. He is also a source of information for Matches Malone (an undercover Batman alias).
The April 19, 1999, issue of The New Yorker features Plastic Man on the cover gawking at a Picasso painting. This issue ran a biography of Jack Cole by Art Spiegelman, which two years later would comprise much of the text in his and Chip Kidd's book Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to their Limits.
There have been, appropriately, several versions of Plastic Man immortalized in plastic. He was a part of Kenner's Super Powers action figure line in 1986. In 1998, Plastic Man was included in Hasbro's line based on the JLA comic book. When DC Comics started its own toy company, DC Direct, in 1999, Plastic Man was one of its first action figures made. A second figure, this time an interpretation of the character based on the art of Alex Ross, was released by DC Direct in May 2006.
The animation company Spumco made an unreleased television pilot for the Cartoon Network, with Plastic Man voiced by Tom Kenny.<ref>Forevergeek.com: "Plastic Man Animated Series Pilot Episode" (fan site; no date)</ref>
In an episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Jimmy and his friends obtain superpowers and take on costumed identities. Carl Wheezer's costume is clearly based on Plastic Man's except that his goggles and costume are pink instead of white and red.
[edit] Jack Cole reprints
DC Comics unless otherwise noted.
- The Great Comic Book Heroes, by Jules Feiffer (Dial Press, 1965)
- "The Origin of Plastic Man" a.k.a. "Eeyow! It's Plastic Man!" — Police Comics #1 (Aug. 1941)
- Comix: A History of Comic Books in America (Bonanza Books, 1971)
- "The Granite Lady" — Police Comics #51, Feb. 1946
- DC Special #15 (Dec. 1971)
- "The Origin of Plastic Man" a.k.a. "Eeyow! It's Plastic Man!" — Police Comics #1 (Aug. 1941)
- "The Man Who Can't Be Harmed" — Police Comics #13 (Nov. 1942)
- "Plastic Man Products" — Plastic Man #17 (May 1949)
- "The Private Detecitve" (Starring Woozy Winks) — Plastic Man #26 (Nov. 1950)
- "The Magic Cup" — Plastic Man #25 (Sept. 1950)
- Batman #238 (Jan. 1972)
- Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #149-150 (May-June 1972)
- A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics (Smithsonian Institution / Harry N. Abrams, 1981)
- "The Origin of Plastic Man" a.k.a. "Eeyow! It's Plastic Man!" — Police Comics #1 (Aug. 1941)
- "The Man Who Can't Be Harmed" — Police Comics #13 (Nov. 1942) which has the First appearance of sidekick Woozy Winks
- Plastic Man 80-Page Giant #1 DC (Jan. 2004)
- Plastic Man Archives
- Volume 1, ISBN 1-56389-468-8 — Police Comics #1-20
- Volume 2, ISBN 1-56389-621-4 — Police Comics #21-30 and Plastic Man #1
- Volume 3, ISBN 1-56389-847-0 — Police Comics #31-39 and Plastic Man #2
- Volume 4, ISBN 1-56389-835-7 — Police Comics #40-49 and Plastic Man #3
- Volume 5, ISBN 1-56389-986-8 — Police Comics #50-58 and Plastic Man #4
- Volume 6, ISBN 1-4012-0154-7 — Police Comics #59-65 and Plastic Man #5-6
- Volume 7, ISBN 1-4012-0410-4 — Police Comics #66-71 and Plastic Man #7-8
- Volume 8, ISBN 1-4012-0777-4 — Police Comics #72-77 and Plastic Man #9-10
[edit] Footnotes
<references/>
[edit] References
- Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to their Limits, by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd (Chronicle Books, 2001) ISBN 0-8118-3179-5
- "Jack Cole: A Life in Four Colors" by Donald Swan
- Lambiek Comiclopedia: Jack Cole
- Index of the Earth-12 and Earth-1 adventures of Plastic Man
- The Grand Comics Databasefr:Plastic Man
it:Plastic Man pt:Homem-Borracha fi:Muovimies
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