Plastic Man

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Template:Superherobox Plastic Man (Patrick O'Brian) is a fictional superhero originally published by Quality Comics during the Golden Age of Comic Books, and later acquired by DC Comics.

He was created by Jack Cole and first appeared Police Comics #1, published in August, 1941, an issue that also included the debuts of Phantom Lady and the Human Bomb, among others. He later received his own comic book title from Quality, and several short-lived books decades later from DC, as well as a Saturday morning cartoon series in the early 1980s. Comics artist Alex Ross has identified Plastic Man as one of the archetypes in comics. Plastic Man has the power to stretch and shape his body to any form he wants, a power that has since been duplicated in other comic book superheroes, such as Mr. Fantastic and The Elongated Man.

Contents 1 Character biography and publication history 2 One Year Later/Plastic Boy? 3 Powers and abilities 4 Appearances in other media 5 External link

Character biography and publication history

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 would 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 later acquired a sidekick called 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. Woozy Winks was largely based on the comedy routines of Lou Costello.

Cole's 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. His stories were noted for their good humor mixed with considerable deadly violence. The character had a longer publishing life than most created in the Golden Age of Comic Books, lasting until 1956, when Quality went out of business and DC Comics acquired their properties, yet opted not to continue Plastic Man.

Image:Plastic Man 17.jpg The character has since been intermittently published by DC in various series. Julius Schwartz noted that if he had been aware that Plastic Man was available, Schwartz would have used him as a supporting character in The Flash series instead of creating the Elongated Man.

This character is a personal favorite of comic writer Grant Morrison, who added him to the Justice League of America (JLA) line up when the title was rebooted in 1997, often serving as comic relief. In Grant Morrison's JLA run, Plastic Man is enlisted almost as a defense to the Martian Manhunter, as he is immune to his psychic powers.

It has been noted that Plastic Man can change shapes and into objects no matter how physically impossible, and he can even alter his mass at will. He received immortality and an indestructible nature due to the chemicals. In Frank Miller's non-canonical The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2001–2002), Plastic Man was locked in Arkham Asylum and became slightly insane. He fights Elongated Man, having the upper hand until Batman brings Plastic Man to his senses. Batman declares that Plastic Man is the most powerful superhero—presumably even more powerful than Superman and Captain Marvel, who also appear in the book.

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.

In one memorable issue of JLA, (JLA #65, penned by Joe Kelly) it was revealed that Plas has a ten year old son as a result of a fling with a stripper. 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 as a gang member, and it is revealed in the end that Plas can in fact change color with great difficulty. In a later issue, Plas decides to take responsibility for his past and behave as a parent to Luke. He 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 he needed to regain his memories to fight Martian Manhunter.

In February 2004, writer/artist Kyle Baker began a new Plastic Man series of comic books, which features humor very similar to that of the golden age Cole comics. It also satirizes many comic book stereotypes. In the series, Plastic Man gets a girlfriend (Special Agent Morgan) and adopts a gothic teenage daughter (Edwina). The series was a critical success and won the 2004 Eisner Award for best new series. DC has published two collections of this series: Plastic Man: On The Lam!, collecting issues #1–6 and Plastic Man Vol. 2: Rubber Bandits, collecting #8–11 and #13–14 (the "missing" issues in that sequence were produced by fill-in artist Scott Morse, indicating that the collections were being sold as much on Kyle Baker's name as on the character).

However, despite the above, sales of the series remained poor. DC Comics announced in November 2005 that this title will be among several which will be cancelled at the conclusion of the Infinite Crisis storyline, specifically as part of the "One Year Later..." event focused around the upcoming weekly series 52. The final issue was #20, released January 2006. What this means for the character remains unknown.

One Year Later/Plastic Boy?

A young man similar in appearance to Plastic Man and with similar powers was depicted in the Titans Tower briefly in Teen Titans (v. 3) #34, implying that he was a member of the Titans during the one year jump. The character wears a white costume with red goggles, a costume similar to that of Offspring, Plastic Man's son in the D.C. limited series, The Kingdom. Whether the new character is Plastic Man's son Luke is unknown, since no mention or reference to the character was made in the comic. He was not mentioned by Robin as being a member of the current roster. Template:Endspoiler

Powers and abilities

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, although he can change his color but he needs to concentrate very hard.

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). It has been demonstrated that he is resistant to high velocities that would kill an ordinary person and that he is also entirely resistant to blasts from energy weapons that would kill ordinary humans. His bodily mass can be dispersed, but for all intents and purposes Eel is invulnerable. He was incapacitated in the "Tower of Babel" arc when mercenaries froze and shattered his body, but, once thawed and reassembled, he was unharmed.

Plastic Man's powers are derived from an accident in which his body was bathed in an unknown industrial chemical mixture which also entered into his blood stream through a gunshot wound. This caused a body-wide mutagenic process that completely transformed his physiology, possibly granting him virtual immortality as he also does not age, or does so at a rate greatly retarded compared to ordinary humans.

Plastic Man was once a very talented professional thief. Although he is no longer a criminal, he has insight into the mindset of criminals enabling him to be a more effective sleuth as a super hero.

Appearances in other media

The character's other media presence has been limited to a guest spot in the television series Super Friends and then his own TV series called The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, in which he was given a bumbling Hawaiian sidekick named Hula-Hula, a blonde bombshell girlfriend named Penny, whom he later married, and later their son Baby Plas.

He was briefly mentioned by the Elongated Man and Green Lantern (John Stewart) in one episode of the Justice League Unlimited animated series, but for reasons which have not yet been explained (likely involving broadcasting rights, the same reason why Blue Beetle cannot appear on JLU), will not be written directly into the show.

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 their own toy company, Plastic Man was one of the first action figures made, released in 1999. Most recently, an interpretation of the character based on the art of Alex Ross was announced, due to be released in May 2006.

External link

• Index of the Earth-12 and Earth-1 adventures of Plastic Manpt:Homem-Borracha