| Character Name: | Plastic Man |
| Real Name: | Patrick "Eel" O'Brian |
| Species: | Metahuman |
| Publisher: | Quality Comics (1941–1956) DC Comics (1966–present) |
| Debut: | Police Comics #1 (August 1941) |
| Creators: | Jack Cole |
| Alliances: | Justice League Federal Bureau of Investigation National Bureau of Investigations Justice League of Anarchy All-Star Squadron Freedom Fighters Elastic Four Secret Six Terrifics |
| Partners: | Woozy Winks Offspring Batman Martian Manhunter |
| Aliases: | Ralph Johns |
| Powers: |
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Plastic Man (Patrick "Eel" O'Brian) is a superhero first appearing in Police Comics #1, originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics, appearing in their American comic books.[1] Created by cartoonist Jack Cole, Plastic Man was one of the first superheroes to incorporate humor into mainstream action storytelling. This character has been published in several solo series and has interacted with other characters such as Batman and many others in the mainstream DC Universe as a member of the Justice League. He has additionally appeared in several television and video game adaptations, including a television show of his own named The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show.
Plastic Man was created by writer-artist Jack Cole, and first appeared in Police Comics #1 (August 1941).[2]
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 shut down in 1956, DC Comics acquired many of its characters, including Plastic Man.
The character starred in his own Saturday morning cartoon titled The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show from 1979 to 1981 and was also a recurring character on from 2008 to 2011.
Although the character has never been a significant commercial success, Plastic Man has been a favorite character of many modern comic book creators, including writer Grant Morrison, who included him in their 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; and Frank Miller, who included him in the Justice League in the comics All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder and The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
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.[2]
Plastic Man soon acquired comic-relief sidekick Woozy Winks, who was originally enchanted so that nature itself would protect him from harm. This power was eventually removed from the character and Woozy became simply a bumbling yet loyal friend to 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.
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 unidentified 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 at large, he used his new abilities to escape his pursuers. Eel 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 ended up with the name 'Plastic Man' after a reporter misinterpreted his first choice of 'Elastic Man'. Eel and Woozy set up a detective agency in New York City and go on to have various misadventures together.
Plastic Man was made a prominent member of the Justice League during Grant Morrison's run on the title. The story arc "Rock of Ages" shows Batman recruiting Eel to infiltrate Lex Luthor's Injustice League in the guise of the Joker, which he does successfully. He notably engages in combat with the goddess Circe, proving immune to her magical ability to turn humans into animals. He is later made a full-time member of the League and aids the League in several battles, including against Prometheus, Julian September, General Wade Eiling, an upgraded version of Amazo, a White Martian who assumes the identity of Bruce Wayne, and Queen Bee. During this period he becomes close friends with fellow new members Steel (due to the fact that they are both "lateral thinkers") and Zauriel (Plastic Man later implies in the JLA: Heaven's Ladder graphic novel that his Catholic upbringing is a factor behind this, and Zauriel's existence is a testament to his faith). After the extended League dissolves at the end of the "World WarIII" arc, he is the only member other than the 'Big Seven' heroes (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern) to retain full-time membership in the JLA.
Plastic Man has also been instrumental in defeating several foes by himself, such as a Jokerized version of Doctor Polaris and the 'Burning Martian' persona of J'onn J'onzz (Martian Manhunter). He has played substantial roles in nearly every major team-up and crossover featuring the League of this era: with the Titans (The Technis Imperative), Young Justice (World Without Grownups), the Justice Society of America (Virtue and Vice, where he is one of the heroes to be possessed by one of the Seven Deadly Sins), the Avengers (the JLA/Avengers crossover) and even the Looney Tunes (in the humorous Superman & Bugs Bunny miniseries). In the "" arc, Plastic Man is frozen and shattered into pieces by Ra's al Ghul's League of Assassins, as part of an attack against the Justice League. Though he is put together again, this experience traumatizes him severely and when it is discovered that the assassins were following methods devised by Batman, Eel joins Wonder Woman and Aquaman in voting Batman out of the League. The heroes reconcile in following issues.
The fact that Plastic Man was initially in the superhero business for the money has had an effect on his character development, notably in the 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 at all or this was just 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 – having lacked the ability to do anything about it, as Batman was the identity that had 'inherited' his skills. Eel demonstrates this to the other divided Leaguers by savagely beating Bruce Wayne with a gun in the guise of a mugger to prove Wayne's ineffectiveness, and demonstrate the degree of psychological damage he has suffered due to the split.[3] Later, Batman comments that it was a wise move "under the circumstances".[4] Later, Plastic Man approaches Batman for help when he learns that Eel's estranged ten-year-old son Luke has fallen in with a gang of criminals, and has inherited his father's shape-shifting abilities, possibly to an even greater degree than Plastic Man's own. Plastic Man admits to Batman that he doesn't know if he ran away from being a father because he was enjoying his new life as a hero, or because he was afraid of becoming a parent for his son. Batman later intimidates Luke into returning home, and informs Plastic Man that he is disappointed in his cowardice, imagining that Eel would have shown Luke fatherly love; in reality, Plastic Man chose only to hide in Batman's utility belt during the whole encounter with Luke.[5]
During the story arc "The Obsidian Age", Plastic Man and the other main members of the JLA were transported through time thousands of years earlier to the beginning days of Atlantis. During a battle with the antagonists, Plastic Man was frozen and then shattered into pieces. Having no way to locate all the pieces, much less fix him, with the technology of the day, the JLA returned to their own time. There they were eventually successful in finding all the pieces and restoring Plastic Man. Plastic Man had been conscious the entire time but unable to move, which had a profoundly negative effect on his mind. He admitted he had lost his nerve and quit the JLA, hoping to live a regular life. This return to normalcy was made easier after a new encounter with his now-teenage son, which made Eel feel that the boy needed a father and a normal life. Eventually, Batman convinced Plastic Man to return to his life as a super hero again when they needed his shape-shifting skills and immunity to telepathy to defeat the Martian Manhunter, who had regressed to a racial memory of the long-forgotten 'Burning Martians' after overcoming his weakness to fire. After a few more cases, Plastic Man is present at the memorial service held after this incarnation of the Justice League officially disbands during the Infinite Crisis storyline.
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".[6] Plastic Man's son is also shown in costume, and identified as Offspring, in the 2006 weekly series 52 in 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 briefly even had an idyllic family set up until Plastic Man was convinced that he couldn't deny his destiny as a super hero.
In Countdown to Mystery #1 (2007) written by Lilah 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, which Vixen breaks up.[7] Vixen reassigns Plastic Man to team up with Dr. Light to stop the Royal Flush Gang robbery. Though they experience some control issues between them, the Royal Flush Gang is defeated and Plastic Man and Dr. Light finally stop arguing.[8]
During a massive battle at the Justice League Satellite in , 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 when he even thought about changing shape, thus leaving him in an infirm state.[9] [10]
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.[11] However, due to his power of near-invulnerability, he was able to survive such an attack, albeit badly wounded.[12] Vixen states that Plastic Man was being taken care of at STAR Labs, and that he would be unable to return to the League.[13]
Plastic Man later appeared in , helping a large coalition of heroes on an unsuccessful mission to trace Maxwell Lord. He had been seemingly cured of his condition, and was shown retaining his normal shape without issue or pain.[14]
Later, he aids the JLA on their mission into Hell, where he helps Batman defeat Geryon. The League learns Satanus' plans to use 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, seemingly killing Plastic Man. It is later revealed that Zauriel transported him into another dimension before helping the League escape Hell.[15]
In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, 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.[16] This cameo appearance was later retconned by "Eel" O'Brian's proper New 52 introduction in Justice League (Vol. 2) #25 (February 2014).
In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth" which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". In Dark Days: The Forge, Batman unveils a containment unit to Mister Terrific in The Lunar Batcave bearing the Plastic Man logo and suggests it is time to release him.[17]
In The Terrifics series, Plastic Man joins the eponymous group, consisting of himself, Metamorpho, and Mister Terrific, in traveling the Dark Multiverse after being sucked into Simon Stagg's portal. They also encounter Linnya Wazzo, an alien who had been trapped in the Dark Multiverse since she was young.[18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] After the Terrifics defeat the Terribles, Plastic Man's son Luke, Element Dog, and Miss Terrific join the roster.[24]
Obscura later recruits Plastic Man to investigate a multi-dimensional conspiracy led by the Cabal.[25]
Plastic Man's powers are derived from an accident in which his body was bathed in an unknown industrial chemical mixture that entered 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. He has complete control over his entire molecular structure. He can stretch his limbs and body to superhuman lengths and sizes. There is no known limit to how far Plastic Man can stretch his body. 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). He can contort his body into various positions and sizes impossible for ordinary humans, such as being entirely flat to slip under a door, using his fingers to pick conventional lock, compressing himself into a ball to ricochet off of things, and inflating his body. He can also use it for disguise by changing the shape of his face and body, contributory to his work as a sleuth. Due 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, creating virtually no limit to the sizes and shapes he can contort himself into. There is nothing he cannot alter his body into, which includes basic shapes or dangerous weapons, avatars of other superheroes, and functional automobiles. These stretching capabilities grant Plastic Man agility, flexibility, and coordination far beyond the natural limits of the human body. He can alter his strength by growing or adding more muscle.
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.[26] His unique physiology makes him impervious to conventional means of harm such as bullets, blasts, and blunt force. He is also able to withstand corrosives, punctures, and concussions without sustaining any injury (although he can be momentarily stunned). Batman once mentioned that he could presumably even withstand a nuclear detonation. This is mainly due to the fact that he has full control over his density, so he can willfully increase his durability as he wishes. His bodily mass can be dispersed, but for all intents and purposes, it is invulnerable, even from many forms of magic in the DC Universe. He is able to regenerate and/or assimilate lost or damaged tissue, although he needs to be reasonably intact for this process to begin. For example, Plastic Man was once reduced to individual, separate molecules and scattered across the Atlantic Ocean for centuries. He was only capable of 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 the remaining 20% on his own.
Plastic Man has proven to be insusceptible to the effects of telepathy. As stated by Batman (in JLA #88, Dec. 2003), "Plastic Man's mind is no longer organic. It's untouchable by telepathy". 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 3,000 years scattered into separate, individual molecules on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean without decaying or being otherwise affected at all. He can autonomically detect ultrasonic frequencies because his body will start to "ripple" when an ultrasonic frequency is triggered.
As stated by the Black Lantern corpsman Vibe, Plastic Man's internal organs (such as his heart when Black Lantern Vibe tried to rip it out) couldn't be removed, unlike many of the Black Lanterns' victims. This perhaps implies that Plastic Man is himself more like one giant, living organ than he is a "whole" made of component parts and organs, etc.
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. 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 malleable form, although he eventually regenerated when the chemicals are gone. Furthermore, he is initially unable to change the color of his body, requiring great concentration to do so.
Plastic Man was once a very talented professional thief, specializing as a safecracker. Although no longer a criminal, he has thorough 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.
Plastic Man has fought many enemies in his comics:
| Material collected | Published date | ISBN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plastic Man Archives Volume 1 | Police Comics #1–20 | February 1999 | ||
| Plastic Man Archives Volume 2 | Police Comics #21–30, Plastic Man (Volume 1) #1 | December 2000 | ||
| Plastic Man Archives Volume 3 | Police Comics #31–39, Plastic Man (Volume 1) #2 | December 2001 | ||
| Plastic Man Archives Volume 4 | Police Comics #40–49, Plastic Man (Volume 1) #3 | November 2002 | ||
| Plastic Man Archives Volume 5 | Police Comics #50–58, Plastic Man (Volume 1) #4 | October 2003 | ||
| Plastic Man Archives Volume 6 | Police Comics #59–65, Plastic Man (Volume 1) #5–6 | November 2004 | ||
| Plastic Man Archives Volume 7 | Police Comics #66–71, Plastic Man (Volume 1) #7–8 | January 2006 | ||
| Plastic Man Archives Volume 8 | Police Comics #72–77, Plastic Man (Volume 1) #9–10 | August 2006 | ||
| Plastic Man Volume 1: On the Lam | Plastic Man (Volume 4) #1–6 | November 2004 | ||
| Plastic Man Volume 2: Rubber Bandits | Plastic Man (Volume 4) #8–11, 13–14 | December 2005 | ||
| Plastic Man: Rubber Banded – The Deluxe Edition | Plastic Man (Volume 4) #1–20 | November 2020 | ||
| Convergence: Infinite Earths: Book Two | Convergence: Plastic Man and the Freedom Fighters #1–2 and Convergence: Shazam! #1–2, Convergence: Booster Gold #1–2, Convergence: Blue Beetle #1–2, Convergence: Crime Syndicate #1–2 | November 2015 | ||
| Plastic Man | Plastic Man (Volume 5) #1–6 | April 2019 |
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