Plastic Man

Plastic Man is the title of a series of comic book publications published since 1941 by the U.S. publishers Quality Comics (1941-1956) and DC Comics (1966-present), respectively, as well as a 1980s television animated series based on these comics.

The "Plastic Man" comics are about the adventures of a character of the same name - Plastic Man or "Plas" for short - who, since an accident, has the ability ("superpower") to deform his body at will and imitate almost any shape he wants. In doing so, his body is both stretchy like rubber and tough and fluid like plasticine. Plastic Man, who uses his gifts to impress as a detective and self-promoter, was originally developed in 1940/1941 by American Jack Cole as a parody of the so-called "superheroes" - such as Superman, Batman or Aquaman - who were extremely popular at the time. In character, Plastic Man is quite a go-getter who makes big speeches and tries to score points with the female sex, but mostly comes across as ridiculous to pushy.

The formula that Cole based his stories on - "a superhero comic with self- or parodic features" - has been applied to virtually all Plastic Man stories up to the present day. In the comics of the series, elements of the "funny" fun comic and the "exciting" superhero comic - filled with "action", "adventure" and "suspense" - traditionally go hand in hand. Accordingly, the characteristic elements of the series are, on the one hand, the ingredients typical of the superhero genre from the fields of science fiction/fantasy on the one hand and action on the other, as well as the humorous traits typical of a parody. In addition - due to Plastic Man's profession - there are borrowings from the genre of crime, especially detective stories.

Release Dates

The first Plastic Man story was published in August 1941 in issue #1 of the Police Comics series. The Police Comics, which were published by Quality Comics, included several stories in each issue featuring the adventures of various characters: Because the Plastic Man stories became by far the most popular Police Comics "feature" with readers within a few months, the series was eventually made the main series with issue #5. Accordingly, not only was most of the page space per issue devoted to the Plastic Man stories, but also most of the covers, which from then on almost always featured scenes from Plastic Man stories.

In parallel with the Plastic Man stories in Police Comics, Quality Comics published a stand-alone Plastic Man series that featured stories exclusively about the quirky superhero: the series ran from 1943 to November 1956, reaching a total of sixty-four issues. Plastic Man, meanwhile, was dropped from Police Comics after having "starred" in them for nearly ten years, with issue #102 of October 1950, after Quality Comics decided, as part of a major overhaul, to henceforth cease printing superhero features in the series and instead run exclusively "true-life" crime stories in it.

Cole already established the typical ingredients for the character and the series in the first Plastic Man stories: The sometimes extremely quirky plot of the stories about the "crumple man", even by comic standards, and a slapstick humour that occasionally escalated into the surreal. In addition, there was a storytelling technique that virtually broke the norms of American comics - especially comics of the 1940s - both visually and in terms of content: instead of letting the action take place exclusively within the fixed "frames" of the individual panels typical of the time, Cole liked to let his protagonist frequently wriggle and writhe his stretchy body in criss-cross fashion through various pictures. In keeping with the theme, the drawings themselves were not - as in the case of Superman, for example - concerned with depicting figures and backgrounds that were as close to reality as possible, at least visually, but rather revelled in a deliberately cartoon-like look. Artistic experiments were also frequent.

After the bankruptcy of Quality Comics, DC Comics acquired the rights to Plastic Man in 1957. After a single Plastic Man story that appeared in House of Mystery #160, DC launched a new Plastic Man series in December 1966 after a ten-year hiatus. This series continued until June 1968, appearing bimonthly and reaching a total of ten issues. The artistic design of the issues was done by the writer Arnold Drake and successively by the cartoonists Gil Kane (#1), Win Mortimer (#2-7) and Jack Sparling (#8-10).

This was followed in the 1970s by several issues guest-starring the gritty superhero Batman in issues #76, 95, 123, and 148 of The Brave and the Bold series, as well as the December 1971 DC Special #15, which reprinted old stories from the 1940s (Police Comics #1 and 13, and Plastic Man #17, 25, and 26).

From March 1976 to November 1977, ten more issues titled Plastic Man followed in a second ongoing series, numbered #11-20, following on from the 1960s series. These issues were created by writer Steve Skeates and John Albano, as well as cartoonist Ramona Fradon. In addition, stories in the anthology series Adventure Comics were published from January to December 1980 in the issues #467 to 478 - in addition to stories about Starman and Aquaman - stories about the Man of Plastic, most of which were drawn by Joe Staton.

From November 1988 to February 1989, a four-issue Plastic Man miniseries was published by writer Phil Foglio and cartoonist Hilary Barta, which retold the origin story of the fun superhero. In 1999, DC published a Plastic Man special that was adapted by Canadian Ty Templeton, who performed both writing and drawing duties.

Between February 2004 and January 2006, DC once again launched an ongoing "Plastic Man" series after a long hiatus. This reached a total of twenty issues, which were designed by the artist Kyle Baker. In addition to the traditional areas of humour for the character, it was primarily media and content-related stereotypes of modern superhero comics or the American comic book market that became the target of well-intentioned mockery. This series was awarded several prizes.

A single Plastic Man album was published in German translation in the 1980s by Stuttgart-based Ehapa Verlag. In 2016, the DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection, published by Eaglemoss, released an anthology containing the first six issues of the series by Kyle Baker and the Plastic Man story from Police Comics #1.

Plastic Man continued to be a recurring character in the animated series Batman: The Brave And The Bold.

Plot and main character

Plastic Man centers on former small-time hood and now private detective Eel O'Brian, who, after an accident (he falls into a vat filled with an experimental substance during a break-in at a chemical plant), has the ability to transform his body into any object he pleases. Due to the extremely elastic, rubber-like stretching and compressing nature of his body, O'Brian is also resistant to external force and thus almost invulnerable.

To make amends for his depraved former life of crime, and to amass a fortune on the side, O'Brian (occasionally using the pseudonym Ralph Jones) uses his newfound skills to henceforth run a law firm as "alternative" private investigators with his partner, the somewhat diminutive, chubby Woozy Winks.

Later, the character has also been given a ten-year-old son (Luke McDunnagh), born of an extramarital relationship with a stripper (JLA #), and has temporarily had his memory wiped so that he can be a better and more responsible father - free from the memory of his wacky superhero existence. He has also discovered his ability to change not only his shape but also his body color, adopted a gothic teenager named Edwina, and begun a relationship with FBI agent Morgan.