Plastic Man

For other uses, see Plastic Man (disambiguation).

Plastic Man
Plastic Man #17 (May 1949) Cover art by Jack Cole.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics Quality Comics (1941–1956)
First appearance	Police Comics #1 (August 1941)
Created by	Jack Cole
In-story information
Alter ego	Patrick "Eel" O'Brian
Team affiliations	Federal Bureau of Investigation Justice League All-Star Squadron Freedom Fighters Elastic Four
Partnerships	Woozy Winks
Notable aliases	Ralph Johns, Edward O Brian
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 originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Created by writer-artist Jack Cole, he first appeared in Police Comics #1 (August 1941).

One of Quality Comics' signature characters during 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, and as a recurring character on Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

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; Art Spiegelman, who profiled Cole for The New Yorker magazine; painter Alex Ross, who has frequently included him in covers and stories depicting the Justice League; writer-artist Kyle Baker, who wrote and illustrated an award winning Plastic Man series; artist Ethan Van Sciver has an affinity for the character as he always toys with the idea of launching a regular monthly Plastic Man series and often draws him for fun, and Frank Miller, who included him in the Justice League in the comics All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder and Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again.

Fictional character biography

Pre-Crisis Jack Cole version

DC revives Plastic Man after 10 years: House of Mystery #160 (July 1966). Cover art by Jim Mooney.

Plastic Man was a crook named Patrick "Eel" O'Brian. Orphaned at age 10 and forced to live on the streets, he fell into a life of crime. As an adult, he became part of a burglary ring, specializing as a safecracker. During a late-night heist at the Crawford Chemical Works, he and his three fellow gang members were surprised by a night watchman. During the gang's escape, Eel was shot in the shoulder and doused with a large drum of unidentified chemical liquid. He escaped to the street only to discover that his gang had driven off without him.

Fleeing on foot and suffering increasing disorientation from the gunshot wound and the exposure to the chemical, Eel eventually passed out on the foothills of a mountain near the city. He awoke to find himself in a bed in a mountain retreat, being tended to by a monk who had discovered him unconscious that morning. This monk, sensing a capacity for great good in O'Brian, turned away police officers who had trailed Eel to the monastery. This act of faith and kindness—combined with the realization that his gang had left him to be captured without a moment's hesitation—fanned Eel's longstanding dissatisfaction with his criminal life and his desire to reform.

During his short convalescence at the monastery, he discovered that the chemical had entered his bloodstream and caused a radical physical change. His body now had all of the properties of rubber, allowing him to stretch, bounce, and mold himself into any shape. He immediately determined to use his new abilities on the side of law and order, donning a red, black and yellow (later red and yellow) rubber costume and capturing criminals as Plastic Man. He concealed his true identity with a pair of white goggles and by re-molding his face. As O'Brian, he maintained his career and connections with the underworld as a means of gathering information on criminal activity.

Plastic Man soon acquired comedic sidekick Woozy Winks, 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.

In his original Golden Age/Quality Comics incarnation, Plastic Man eventually became a member of the city police force and then the FBI. By the time he became a federal officer, he had nearly completely abandoned his Eel O'Brian identity.

During the tenure of his creator, Plastic Man was unique as a super-hero strip. Seamlessly blending crime, humour, super-heroics and surreal graphics, the character's rogues gallery of villains was equally off-beat. Sadly Sadly, Mr. Morbid, Hands, Hairy Arms, Mr. Aqua, Stretcho, The Granite Lady, Madam Brawn, Words, Baldy Bushwhack, Amorpho....they were as bizarre and different at the strip's star. Stunning femme fatales who led men to their obsessive doom were common in Cole's strips. Page layout and flowing brushwork highlighted a breakneck pace of ever-changing, ever-morphing plastic shapes and the distorted characters of the world Plastic Man inhabited. The splash page of each story was different, often containing Plastic Man's body in its lettering of logos. Cole's work got more and more surreal towards 1950. Among its many pinnacles was the story of criminal Sadly Sadly, (in Plastic Man #20) whose face is so pitiful that banks, restaurants and passersby give him money, food and jewels. Even Plastic Man is incapable of arresting Sadly Sadly because like everyone else, PM cries rivers of tears at the sight of him. Appearing in the first 102 issues of Police Comics, Plastic Man was originally a 6 page story, then a 9 page, then a 13 page and later a 15 page story, the lead feature of Police Comics and one of the most popular characters of his era. When Plastic Man was awarded his own 52 page comic to be released quarterly, beginning in 1943, Cole could no longer do everything. Other hands inked, wrote or did backgrounds, while Cole tried to oversee as much of the strips as possible. He was also doing Midnight, The Spirit and various other strips during the 1940s as well. Not only the artwork was unique, but Cole's scripts were breaking new ground as well. Beginning in Police #19, Cole peppered his stories with plots and characters unlike anything seen in other comics, a considerable feat considering how many publishers were then doing super-heroes. In Police #19, Plastic Man finds himself in a "forest of fear" surrounded by the mechanical devices of a mad scientist. Near the climax of the story, Plastic Man, the scientist and 3 other men are surrounded by a ring of fire that is expanding and closing in. Believing their lives to be over, each man confesses crimes in his past that he has kept secret. Plastic Man then reveals his secret identity as Eel O'Brian and confesses he is wanted in 8 U.S. states for crimes too numerous and varied to mention. In the end he lets four criminals go free, something no other hero of the day would have done. In the next issue of Police, a surreal tale told by a radio microphone features cartoonist Cole himself as a stuttering wreck who gets ideas from Woozy Winks. In issue #22, the lead story "The Eyes Have It" is touted on the cover as "the greatest tale ever to appear in comics". Though that may be a subjective opinion, it is not far from the mark. The disturbing story of a child exploited and abused by gangsters because of his large soulful eyes, it echoes the kind of barbarism in Victor Hugo's 18th. century novel The Man Who Laughs. Nothing like it has seen print before or since. Sad-eyed characters would figure into several PM stories over the years, a result, perhaps of Cole's increasing problems with depression. Plastic Man #14-26 contained some of the finest work of his career, as he returned to writing/penciling/inking in many of those issues published in 1949 and 1950. The 13 or 15 page stories in Police Comics also began to look like pure Cole around this time as well. After Cole's departure, the series reprinted his work for years, and newer artists never approached his brilliance with the character.

The star of the 1966-1968 Silver Age run of Plastic Man, written by Arnold Drake, was the son of the original Plastic Man, who as a toddler had accidentally drunk a souvenir bottle of the same acid that had given Eel O'Brian his powers. Other Silver and Bronze-age versions appear to carry the same identity and origin as the Golden Age original. The silver-age Plastic Man who took up the mantle from his father was later identified as residing on Earth-Twelve, home of the Inferior Five^{[citation needed]} . A subsequent version appearing with Batman in The Brave and the Bold and Justice League of America was identified as residing on Earth-One. Afterwards, the original 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.^{[citation needed]} This version died during an extended period of World War II while on the latter world.^{[citation needed]}

Post-Crisis Phil Foglio version

After the 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths, a 1988-1989 four-issue Plastic Man miniseries by Phil Foglio introduced a new version of Plastic Man: Eel O'Brian, abandoned by his criminal gang after being shot and exposed to the chemical, 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 oblivious 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 artwork, by Hilary Barta, was the first since Jack Cole to bring back the surreal otherworldliness of the 1940s and 50s strip. With influences from Cole, Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood, Barta's art jumped off the pages, while the hyper-realism of Kevin Knowlan's "Reality Check" segments brought us shockingly back into the real world with a jerk.

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 the 2000-2001 JLA storyline "Divided We Fall" by Mark Waid where he, along with other Justice League members, was separated into two people, his normal "civilian" identity and his superhero persona, by the manipulative wish-granting Id. 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, noting that Bruce Wayne in particular was approaching a mental breakdown as he struggled with his rage over his parents' murder while lacking the ability to do anything about it as Batman was the identity that had 'inherited' his skills.

Another memorable milestone in the life of Plastic Man was in the late-Nineties/early Millennium incarnation of the Justice League in the story arc "The Obsidian Age" where many of the key members including Plastic Man were transported in time thousands of years earlier to the beginning days of Atlantis and during a battle with the antagonists, he was frozen and then shattered into hundreds of thousands of inanimate little pieces. Having no way to locate all the pieces, much less fix him, with the technology of the day, the JLA finally returned to their own time and were eventually successful in finding all of his pieces and returning Plas to his former complete self after laying near dormant and unable to move for thousands of years. Unfortunately, even though he had been practically destroyed and turned into scattered confetti of sorts, he was partially, if not completely, aware of the passage of time and his inherent helplessness which had a profoundly negative effect on his mind. Shortly after being reincorporated, he admitted he has lost his nerve and quit the JLA, hoping to live a regular life. Helping him come to grips with leaving his former life behind was the newly introduced information that he had a son, now a teenager, and felt the boy needed a father and a normal life. Eventually, Batman convinced Plas to return to his life as a super hero again.

One Year Later, Countdown and Blackest Night

In the 2006 "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 written by R.J. Carter. The character wears a white costume with red goggles, similar to that of Offspring, Plastic Man's son in the earlier 1999 DC miniseries The Kingdom by Mark Waid. While the Teen Titans story itself does not identify the character, page two of a published script supposedly by writer Geoff Johns' specifies it is "Plastic Man’s son, Offspring". Plastic Man's son is also shown in costume, and identified as Offspring, in the 2007 52 Week 35 (written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid) when he is injured while rescuing a number of the depowered Everyman heroes. Eventually, Plastic Man and Offspring come together as father and son and for a while, they had the idyllic family set up until Plas was convinced that he couldn't deny his rubberized destiny as a super hero

In Countdown to Mystery #1 (2007) written by Matthew Sturges, Plastic Man is seduced by Eclipso, being made to believe he is a joke among his fellow heroes, and the only way for him to get some respect is through Eclipso. He is later freed of this corruption by Bruce Gordon. Plastic Man makes his next appearance within the pages of Green Arrow/Black Canary #8 by Judd Winick, having been freed from a stasis tube by Green Arrow. His DNA is taken by Sivana and used to augment an amnesiac Connor Hawke, in a bid to turn the young hero into a brainwashed slave with a strong healing factor.

Plastic Man appeared for a brief period in the 2009 Justice League of America vol. 2 series written by Len Wein. After joining up with the team following the events of Final Crisis, Plastic Man has his effectiveness questioned by his teammate Dr. Light, which starts a fight between the two. Vixen breaks them up. Vixen reassigns Plastic Man to team up with Dr. Light to stop the Royal Flush Gang robbery, when they have some control issues. Later, after the Royal Flush Gang is defeated, Plastic Man and Dr. Light finally stop arguing.

During a massive battle at the Justice League Satellite in Justice League: Cry for Justice, Prometheus injected Plastic Man with a chemical that badly damaged his plastic body. The chemicals caused Eel to suffer from a condition where it took great concentration to keep himself in his usual, semi-solid state and caused him pain, according to him, when he even thought about changing shape, leaving him in an infirm state.

In the Blackest Night crossover, while still suffering from his deteriorating state, Plastic Man had his heart torn out by the Black Lantern, Vibe, seemingly killing him. However, due to his powers, he was able to survive such an attack, albeit badly wounded. In the following issue, Vixen stated that Plastic Man was being taken care of at STAR Labs, and that he would be unable to return to the League.

He then appears in Justice League: Generation Lost, helping a large coalition of heroes on an unsuccessful mission to trace Maxwell Lord. He has seemingly been cured of his condition, and was shown retaining his normal shape without issue.

Later, he aids the JLA on their mission into Hell, where he helps Batman defeat Geryon. The League learns Satanus' plans to use the Dante's mask to become powerful. Plastic Man grabs the mask, which possesses him. The Leagues combines forces to remove the mask, which is incinerated, apparently killing Plastic Man; however, it is discovered Zauriel transported him into another dimension. Zauriel helps the League escape Hell.

The New 52

In this timeline of The New 52, Plastic Man is considered as one of the candidates for the United Nations-sponsored Justice League International. He is denied a spot on the team for being too unpredictable.

Powers and abilities

Malleable Physiology: 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. Eel exists in a fluid state, neither entirely liquid nor solid. Plastic Man has complete control over his structure.

Density Control: Plastic Man can change his density at will; becoming as dense as a rock or as flexible as a rubber band.

Malleability (Elasticity/Plasticity): He can stretch his limbs and body to superhuman lengths and sizes. There is no known limit to how far he can stretch his body.

Size Alteration: He can shrink himself down to a few inches tall (posed as one of Batman's utility belt pockets) or become a titan (the size of skyscrapers).

Shape-Shifting: 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 and body. Thanks to his fluid state, Plastic Man can open holes in his body and turn himself into objects with mobile parts. In addition, he 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.

Superhuman Agility: These stretching powers grant Plastic Man heightened agility enabling him flexibility and coordination that is extraordinarily beyond the natural limits of the human body.

Superhuman strength: He can alter his strength by growing or adding more muscle.

Color Change: The only limitation he has relates to color, which he cannot change without intense concentration. He generally does not use this ability and sticks to his red and yellow colored uniform.

Invulnerability: Plastic Man's powers extraordinarily augment his durability. Some stories, perhaps of anecdotal quality, have showed him susceptible to surprise attack by bullets, in one case oozing a substance similar to liquid plastic. In most stories, though, he is able to withstand corrosives, punctures and concussions without sustaining any injury (although he can be momentarily stunned). He is resistant to high velocity impacts that would kill an ordinary person, resistant to blasts from energy weapons (Batman once mentioned that he could presumably even withstand a nuclear detonation), and is bulletproof. His bodily mass can be dispersed, but for all intents and purposes it is invulnerable.

Regeneration: He is able to regenerate and/or assimilate lost or damaged tissue, although he needs to be reasonably intact for this process to begin; he was reduced to separate molecules and scattered across the ocean for centuries, only returning to his usual form after the rest of the League were able to gather enough of his molecules and restore approximately 80% of his body mass, after which he began to regenerate what they hadn't salvaged.

Telepathic Immunity: As stated by Batman (in JLA #88, Dec. 2003), "Plastic Man's mind is no longer organic. It's untouchable by telepathy."

Immortality: Plastic Man does not appear to age; if he does, it is at a rate far slower than that of normal human beings. In the aftermath of the Justice League story Arc "Obsidian Age", Plastic Man was discovered to have survived for 3000 years scattered into separate molecules on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. He is now over 3000 years old and is still active as a superhero.

Ultrasonic Detection: His body will start to "ripple" when an ultrasonic frequency is triggered.

Rubber-Organs: As stated by Black Lantern Vibe, Plastic Man's internal organs such as his heart when Black Lantern Vibe try to rip it out couldn't be killed unlike many of the Black Lanterns' victims, this makes him immune to such attacks.

Skilled thief: Plastic Man was once a very talented professional thief.

Master Detective: Although no longer a criminal, he has insight into their mindset, enabling him to be an effective sleuth. He is also considered to be a lateral thinker and much smarter than he lets on.

Weaknesses

His semi-liquid form remains stable at relatively high and low temperatures, provided that the temperature change is gradual. A sudden change induces a complete change of state, creating a truly solid or truly liquid form. Plastic Man was incapacitated in the JLA story arc "Tower of Babel" when mercenaries froze and shattered his body. 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 extreme heat (intense heat vision attack from a Martian) and was temporarily melted. In some versions, Plastic Man is also vulnerable to chemicals such as acetone, which melts and destabilizes his putty-like form, although he will eventually regenerate when the chemicals are gone. Another weakness is that the only colors Plastic Man can mimic are the colors of his body and costume (i.e. red, black, yellow, and flesh tone), although he can use these colors in various ways, once even managing to exactly duplicate the appearance of the Flash. Whether this is an inherent flaw in his powers or a mental block had never been explained, whereas, his son, Offspring, also gained his father's powers, but is able to mimic any color he chooses; Offspring's introduction revealed that Plastic Man could change color, turning his nose blue to prove to Batman that he could, but it apparently took a great deal of concentration just to accomplish that much. Also, for a long while it was not known if Plastic Man could take off his costume, but when he rejoined civilian life, he was wearing normal clothing so it appeared that he is able to.

Enemies

Plastic Man has fought many enemies:

• Acid Tongue - A criminal who can spit acid at a target from several yards away.
• Abba and Dabba
• Ali Krim
• Amorpho
• Archie Type -
• Assassin -
• Baldy Bushwhack
• B. T. Tokus
• Beauteous Bessie
• Big Beaver
• Blind Ali - A blind would-be assassin.
• Boss Annova - The self-appointed king of all street crime in the city of Metropolis.
• Brickface - A crime boss with a segmented face.
• The Burning - Plastic Man was chosen by Batman to battle the Martian Manhunter when he was corrupted by The Burning
• Carrot-Man - A criminal that dresses up as a carrot.
• Cauldron
• Chatterbox - A supervillain with a sonic weapon.
• Cheeseface -
• The Crab
• Desperate Desmond
• Doctor Dome - A supervillain in a dome-shaped helmet. He is the closest thing Plastic Man has to an arch-enemy.
  • Lynx - Doctor Dome's sidekick.
• Doctor Forklift -
• Doctor Honctoff -
• Dopey Joe
• Dr. Erudite
• Dr. Phobia
• Dr. Volt
• Dollmaker -
• Electra
• Even Steven - A balanced-obsessed criminal.
• Fargo Freddie, The Lava Man
• Froggie Fink
• The Gag Man
• Goldzinger - A gold-magnetizing crook.
• Granite Lady
• The Grasshopper
• The Green Terror
• Hairy Arms
• Hands
• Hate
• The Hotrod
• Killer Joe -
• King Lughead
• King of Spades
• The King Of Zing
• Kolonel Kool - Originally an agent at the NBI named Gulliver "Gully" Foyle, Plastic Man's success there at his expense made Foyle jealous and out for revenge. Kolonel Kool took over Boss Annova's gang before being nabbed by his former co-worker.
• The Lobster
• Louie The Lift
• Lowbrow - A short and insanely confident criminal who killed Cindy Bloch.
• Madam Brawn
• Madame Merciless -
• Madame Serpina
• Malleable Man
• The Mangler
• The Master Artist
• Max the Knife -
• Meat By-Product - A monster spawned from a meat by-product.
• Mona Mayhem
• The Moon Wizard
• Mostolo
• Mr. Aqua
• Mr. Cat
• Mr. Happiness
• (The Melancholy) Mr. Morbid
• Mr. Stingker
• Mr. Uglee
• Murray "the Swede" Schneiderman - A bank robber
• Number Seven
• Ooze Brothers -
• The Owl
• Pinky Flowers
• Professor Goodman
• Professor Dimwit
• Professor Spindrift
• Puttyface -
• Ramalama -
• Red Herring - An anthropomorphic red herring who appears to meddle with the investigations of crimes he was not involved in.
• Remember
• Rice O'Rooney - The "San Francisco Threat," he was considered to be the highest paid hitman in the country.
• Robby Reed - When Robby Reed's H-Dial was rusted, he ended up turning into evil versions of some of his hero forms.
• Rocky Goober
• Roxanne Roller - A roller-skating villain seeking vengeance against rock stars who supposedly spurned her.
• Rubberneck - A one-shot villain with super-strength. He appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Long Arm of the Law". In the episode, Kite Man plans revenge on Plastic Man from an earlier episode. With his sidekick Rubberneck, Kite Man threatens Plastic Man's loved ones and plans to remove his powers. He got his own action figure (based on his Batman: The Brave and the Bold appearance).
• Ruby Ryder - A ruthless business woman and owner of Ruby Ryder Inc. who fought Plastic Man and Batman.
• Sadly Sadly -a man whose face is so pathetic that banks hand over money.
• Saxon -a crook who always speaks in alliteration
• Skulllface and Eloc -Eloc is Cole spelled backwards
• Skunk - AKA the B.O. Bandit, the Skunk emanated an excruciatingly foul odor as a result of having never, in his entire life, bathed.
• Sleepy Eyes -who puts people to sleep just by looking at them
• Slick Dandy
• Sludge - A monster spawned from sludge.
• Snuffer - A cyborg killer in the employ of Rice O'Rooney, the San Francisco hitman directed the mechanical assassin to kill Plastic Man for Boss Annova.
• Sphinx - A super-strong crook that once tried to take over Doctor Dome's territory.
• Stretcho
• Supreme Leader -
• Time Trapper -
• Weapons
• Words
• Zircon -

Other versions

The Dark Knight Strikes Again

In Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2001—2002), Frank Miller's miniseries now set on DC's new Earth-31, Plastic Man was betrayed and locked in Arkham Asylum for years with his body forced into a perpetual egg-like shape (alluding to a container of Silly Putty) 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 most powerful superhero in the room. Carrie Kelly (as Catgirl) describes him as being: "Immeasurably powerful. Absolutely nuts." In this continuity, he appears with silver hair and the occasional wrinkle. In All Star Batman and Robin, also written by Miller. Plastic Man has only appeared in issue #5, where he is a founding member of a proto-Justice League, along with Wonder Woman, Superman, and Green Lantern Hal Jordan. He constantly changes shape and cracks jokes, and other members repeatedly tell him to "shut up".

Kyle Baker's Plastic Man

Plastic Man (2004–2006), written and illustrated by Kyle Baker, harks back to the Jack Cole version of Plastic Man featuring Eel O'Brian tended to by a monk in a mountain retreat, and inspired by the monks kindness, Eel resolves to use his powers for good, becoming the crime fighter Plastic Man, and works for the FBI. 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) and adopts a Goth teenage daughter, Edwina. The series won five Eisner Awards for Best New Series, Best Title for Younger Readers, Best Writer/Artist: Humor and one Harvey Award for Best New Series.

Tangent Comics

In the Tangent Comics imprint, set on the alternate universe Earth-9, Plastic Man is a member of the Secret Six. He is scientist Gunther Ganz, whose consciousness has been transferred to a "living polymer".

JLA/Avengers

In the DC Comics/Marvel Comics intercompany crossover JLA/Avengers, Plastic Man is a member of the JLA and teams with Martian Manhunter in the Marvel locale of Wakanda, where the two encounter the Marvel characters the Wasp and the Black Panther. Plastic Man is replaced by DC Comics' Elongated Man after the merging of worlds.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier

Plastic Man is mentioned by Sal Paradyse in Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier.

Flashpoint

In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Eel O'Brian is a villain. After Heat Wave was sent to death row after killing Jason Rusch, O'Brian arrives to break him out in the flying fortress of the military Doom prison, having been hiding in the body of his cellmate Cluemaster. During the prison break, O'Brian dislikes being called "Plastic Man", when inmate Sportsmaster calls him by his name. While O'Brian helps him to retrieve his weapons, he discovers Heat Wave attacking the guards' control room and attempting to ram the flying prison at Cyborg's home city of Detroit. O'Brian refuses to let him destroy the city, but Heat Wave turns on him, apparently killing him by using his flame gun to melt his body. After Heat Wave is defeated by Cyborg and imprisoned in Belle Reve, O'Brian is revealed to have survived, and smuggles himself into the prison in Heat Wave's new cellmate's body and advances on him at the end of the page.

In other media

Television

• Plastic Man made his animated debut in a cameo appearance in the 1973 Super Friends episode "Professor Goodfellow’s G.E.E.C." voiced by Norman Alden. Superman calls him in to extract a mouse from a computer system.

• Plastic Man starred in the 1979-1981 spin-off series The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show voiced by Michael Bell. In the series, he was an operative of a covert agency, fighting villains from a jumbo-jet headquarters with a bumbling Hawaiian sidekick named Hula-Hula and a blonde-bombshell girlfriend called Penny (whom he later married). While Plastic Man villains Carrotman, Doctor Dome, and Doctor Honctoff were featured, the other villains Plastic Man fought were exclusive to the TV series. Later, the cast was joined by their son Baby Plas. The character was, in part, a parody of Maxwell Smart of the 1960s TV series Get Smart, itself a parody: Plastic Man called his female boss "The Chief," and used Max's catchphrases "Sorry about that, Chief" and "Missed it by THAT much!" The show was released on DVD in a complete series set on October 20, 2009. The series was hosted by a live-action Plastic Man played by Taylor Marks.

• In the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Greatest Story Never Told," Plastic Man was briefly mentioned as a member of the Justice League by Elongated Man to Booster Gold and Green Lantern, but did not appear on the show.

• Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network commissioned a Plastic Man television pilot episode "Puddle Trouble" in 2006. Produced by Andy Suriano and Tom Kenny, and designed and storyboarded by Stephen DeStefano. Tom Kenny also performed the voice of Plastic Man in the program. Cartoon Network decided not to pick up Plastic Man as a series and has never aired the episode. "Puddle Trouble" has been released on the Plastic Man: The Complete Collection DVD set.

• Tom Kenny reprised his role as the voice of Plastic Man on the series Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Plastic Man appears in "Terror on Dinosaur Island!". He reappears in the teaser for "Journey to the Center of the Bat!". He also appears in the episodes "Game Over for Owlman!", "The Fate of Equinox!", "Long Arm of the Law!", "Death Race to Oblivion!" and "Cry Freedom Fighters!", and in the regular opening title sequence for the series. Plastic Man's real name is Edward O'Brian in this continuity, instead of Patrick, living in the suburbs with his wife Ramona, a baby and a dog. Batman is also involved in his origin story in this continuity, having caused his accident during Kite Man's robbery (as Plastic Man worked for Kite Man before his accident) and later helping him get back on his feet and become a superhero.

• Plastic Man makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the Young Justice episode "Revelation". He is shown rescuing a police officer from a massive plant creature created by the Injustice League where Plastic Man turns into a trampoline to break his fall. In "Agendas," Plastic Man was among the candidates to become a new member of the Justice League. His criminal record led to some doubts about his value. In "Usual Suspects," Plastic Man becomes a member of the Justice League.

• Plastic Man appears in an episode of Mad voiced by Dana Snyder. When Batman calls Plastic Man "Gummy Guy" and tells him to grab him a soda. This leads to him and Black Lightning leading the other superheroes in a musical number that asks Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman about being called "Super Friends."

• Plastic Man appears in the DC Nation Shorts again voiced by Tom Kenny.

Film

• Plastic Man made an appearance in Justice League: New Frontier during a John F. Kennedy speech.

• In the early 1990s, Warner Bros. and Amblin Entertainment began work on a Plastic Man movie.^{[citation needed]} Bryan Spicer was originally slated to direct.^{[citation needed]} Filmmakers Andy and Larry Wachowski wrote a Plastic Man screenplay in 1995, read and reported on by script reader and Yahoo! Movies columnist Greg Dean Schmitz in June 2003. The Wachowskis sought a Christmas 2009 release and were in talks with Keanu Reeves about starring.

Video games

• In the video game Justice League Heroes, while fighting through the Watchtower, a voice comes over the intercom saying there is a message from Plastic Man. His message (interpreted by the computer) is that he has forgotten his keys.

• Plastic Man is a playable character in Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Videogame, voiced by Tom Kenny.

Magazines

Plastic Man on the cover of The New Yorker. Painted by Art Spiegelman.

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. In the 499th issue of Mad Magazine, Plastic Man can be seen in the magazine's Watchmen spoof during Funnyman's (spoof of Edward Blake/Comedian) funeral.

Action figures

There have been several versions of Plastic Man immortalized in plastic. In 1979 he was made into a stretch figure for the Mego Corporation Elastic Superheroes line (which is highly sought after by collectors and extremely rare). 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 2009, two versions of Plastic Man were released as part of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold tie-in toy line. Plastic Man was also released as a figure, in DCAU style, in the Justice League Unlimited toyline in late 2009. A new, stretchable Plastic Man figure was recently released in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold toy line, in a multi-pack with Batman and Rubberneck. In 2010, Mattel released a Plastic Man figure as part of the DC Universe Classics line. This figure was exclusively sold at the San Diego Comic Con.

Gaming

Plastic Man is featured in Wizkids' Heroclix tabletop miniatures game, in his traditional red and yellow costume, in addition to having a regular Rookie/Experienced/Veteran figure in the inaugural DC Hypertime set. In 2003 a convention-exclusive figure was produced which featured the same powers and abilities but with a figure of Plastic Man as a mailbox (actually the mailbox 3-D object token repainted with his costume). Another version of Plastic Man, in the form of a hang glider was released in 2007. Meanwhile, in the VS System Trading Card Game, there was an alternate art version of Plastic Man's first card in VS System, in which his face takes up the entire card.

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 (August 1941)

• Comix: A History of Comic Books in America (Bonanza Books, 1971)

"The Granite Lady" – Police Comics #51, February 1946

• DC Special #15 (December 1971)

"The Origin of Plastic Man" a.k.a. "Eeyow! It's Plastic Man!" – Police Comics #1 (August 1941)

"The Man Who Can't Be Harmed" – Police Comics #13 (November 1942)

"Plastic Man Products" – Plastic Man #17 (May 1949)

"The Private Detective" (Starring Woozy Winks) – Plastic Man #26 (November 1950)

"The Magic Cup" – Plastic Man #25 (September 1950)

• Batman #238 (January 1972)
• Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #149-150 (May–June 1972)
• Plastic Man #1–2 (Dynapubs, B&W reprints of golden age comics in the Flashback series, 1974 & 1976)
• 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 (August 1941)

"The Man Who Can't Be Harmed" – Police Comics #13 (November 1942) which has the First appearance of sidekick Woozy Winks

• Plastic Man 80-Page Giant #1 DC (2003) (ISBN 1-4012-0114-8)

"The Origin of Plastic Man" a.k.a. "Eeyow! It's Plastic Man!" – Police Comics #1 (August 1941), by Jack Cole

"The Man Who Can't Be Harmed" – Police Comics #13 (November 1942) the first appearance of sidekick Woozy Winks, by Jack Cole

"The Hand Behind!" – Plastic Man #3 (Spring 1946) Plas vs. Bordo, a special prose feature. Writer: unknown

"The Wizard Of Light!" – House of Mystery #160 (July 1966) Robby Reed as a proto-Plas vs. the Wizard of Light. Story by Dave Wood, art by Jim Mooney.

"The Dirty Devices Of Dr. Dome!" – Plastic Man Vol. 2, #1 (November–December 1966). Story by Arnold Drake, art by Gil Kane.

"The Hamsters Of Doom!"" – Plastic Man Vol. 2, #11 (February–March 1976). Story by Steve Skeates, art by Ramona Fradon with Teny Henson.

• 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

See also

• Elongated Man, a DC character with similar powers.
• Mister Fantastic, a Marvel Comics superhero with abilities similar to Plastic Man.
• Thin Man, another elastic superhero from Marvel's predecessor, Timely Comics.

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

External links

• Plastic Man's secret origin on dccomics.com