Plastic Man
| Plastic Man | |
|---|---|
 Plastic Man #17 (May 1949) Cover art by Jack Cole. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Quality Comics (1941–1956); DC Comics (1957—) |
| First appearance | Police Comics #1 (Aug. 1941) |
| Created by | Jack Cole |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Patrick "Eel" O'Brian |
| Team affiliations | Justice League, All-Star Squadron, Freedom Fighters |
| Abilities | Can stretch and shape his highly resilient body into any shape he can imagine, even ones with moving parts. Immune to telepathy. Possible immortality. |
Plastic Man (Patrick "Eel" O'Brian) is a fictional comic-book superhero. Created by Jack Cole, he first appeared in Police Comics #1 (Aug 1941).
One of the trademark characters of Quality Comics during the Golden Age of Comic Books, Plastic Man possesses the ability to 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 including Plastic Man. Integrated into the mainstream DC universe, he has starred in several short-lived DC series, as well as a Saturday morning cartoon series in the early 1980s.
Although never a commercial giant, 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.
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 rebooted 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.
Character biography
Pre-Crisis
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 endowed with the power that nature itself will 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.
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 who was 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 resorted to flipping a coin to choose serving the law (though Woozy had his doubts early on). Eel, ending up with the name "Plastic Man" after a reporter misinterpreted his first choice, "Elastic Man", and Woozy set up a detective agency in New York City and had various misadventures.
The alteration that Plas was initially in the superhero business for the money has had an effect on his character development post-Crisis, notably in a JLA storyline by Mark Waid where he, along with other Justice League members, was separated into two people, his normal "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 now "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 super-hero "act". Ultimately, Eel was the driving force behind the other transformed Leaguers banding together to re-join with their superheroic selves.
One Year Later
Template:Spoiler 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 was depicted briefly in Titans Tower in the superteam series Teen Titans Vol. 3, #34, indicating he was a member of the Titans during the one-year jump. 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. No mention has been made whether the new character is Plastic Man's son Luke in the comics, but in Geoff Johns's script for the issue, it is revealed that he is indeed Luke as Offspring. [1] He was not mentioned by Robin as being a member of the current roster. Template:Endspoiler
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. These stretching powers grant Plastic Man heightened agility enabling him flexibility and coordination that is extraordinarily beyond the natural limits of the human body. He can contort his body into various positions and sizes impossible for ordinary humans, such as being entirely flat so that he can slip under a door, or using his fingers to pick conventional locks. He can also use it for disguise by changing the shape of his face. As Plastic Man can alter his bodily mass and physical constitution at will, there is virtually no limit to the sizes and shapes he can contort himself into. 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.
Plastic Man's powers extraordinarily augment his durability. He is able to withstand corrosives, punctures and concussions without sustaining any injury (although he can be momentarily stunned). He is resistant to high velocities that would kill an ordinary person and is also resistant 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.
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.
In JLA's The Obsidian Age, while in the past, Plastic Man 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 Plastic Man.
Other version
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.
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 Elongated Man and Green Lantern (John Stewart) in one episode of the Justice League Unlimited animated series, but for unexplained reasons (likely involving broadcasting rights, the reason Blue Beetle could not appear on JLU), 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).
Plastic Man was featured on the cover of the April 19, 1999, issue of The New Yorker, gawking at a Picasso painting. This issue also featured a biographical article on 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 enough, 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.
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.
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)
- Plastic Man 80-Page Giant #1 DC (Jan. 2004)
References
- Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to their Limits, by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd (Chronicle Books, 2001) ISBN 0811831795
- "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 Database