What Ever Happened To Plastic Man?

Written by GL

Many of us may have seen hints of Plastic Man, especially when considering the Justice League. Plastic Man can be assumed to be a little known character. I mean, hardly anyone is a fan, and even less people claim to recognized him as a member of the League. He doesn't have that macho exterior, he is never drawn as a stern fella, and his costume look like a swim suit from the 50s. So, what ever happened to him?

Plastic Man had been a crook named Patrick 'Eel' O'Brian. He was shot by a security guard and struck by a falling drum of unidentified acid, some of which entered Eel's gunshot wound. He was saved by a mysterious order of monks who cured his desire for crime. The acid bath, however, gave him the ability to change his shape into anything - well, plastic. He wore dark glasses and a red-and-yellow costume as flexible as his body. Yet whatever shape he took, the colors of his costume remained the same.

Plastic Man soon acquired a sidekick named Woozy Winks, a man originally magically enchanted so that nature itself would protect him from harm. But Woozy eventually faded from modern comic plots and became simply a slapstick, comedic, loyal friend of Plastic Man.

There were at least 3 different Plastic Men portrayed in various appearances during his origins. Originally, the Plastic Man series in the 1960s tied in the son of the original - who was part of a group called the Inferior Five, identified as living on Earth-Twelve. A subsequent version appeared with Batman in Brave and the Bold and Justice League of America; yet he was identified as a character from Earth-One. Later on, Quality Comics specified another Plastic Man as being a member of various groups including the All-Star Squadron and Freedom Fighters, originally of Earth-Two (and they later moved to Earth-X). This version died during an extended period of World War II while on Earth-X.

If you haven't got a headache yet, we can move on. Because something happened that changed all that. It was called Infinite Crisis - which marked the destruction of all the different Earths, leaving only on true one existing. That was a better idea than leaving it all at the above paragraph.

This is the revamped origin:

In the 1988-1989 Plastic Man miniseries, the monks were eliminated from Plastic Man's appearance. Instead, 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 of the changes to his body, but after realizing what he was able to do went about using his new abilities to escape his detection, but soon became so depressed over his new condition that he attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge.

Fortunately, he was interrupted by Woozy Winks, a former mental patient 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 so flipped a coin to choose. Eel ended up with the name Plastic Man after a reporter misinterpreted his first choice, Elastic Man, and with Woozy, the two set up a detective agency in New York City.

The retcon that Plastic Man was initially a superhero for money has affected his character development post-Crisis, notably in a JLA storyline where he, along with other Justice League members, was physically separated into two people: his 'civilian' identity and his superhero persona. While Plastic Man devolved from a person with a sense of humor into a constantly wisecracking idiot, the '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 superhero act. Ultimately, Eel became the driving force behind the other transformed Leaguers banding together to re-join with their superheroic selves.

After the Our Worlds at War crossover, the Justice Leaguers are sent back in time to ancient Atlantis before its initial sinking into the ocean. Though the Leaguers were killed in battle, they were brought back to life in modern times thanks to Manitou Raven's magical powers and Kyle Rayner's Oan power ring, which had preserved the Leaguers' souls. Absent from this battle was Plastic Man, who had been torn apart and his pieces spread throughout the seas. After reassembling, Eel declared that he had been conscious throughout the thousands of years of formlessness, and immediately removed himself from the team.

Sometime afterward, Eel had himself hypnotized so that he could not remember that he and his son have superpowers. His time as a dedicated father was cut short when Martian Manhunter evolves into the fiery being known as Fernus. Batman and Eel's son convince Eel that he is the only person who can counter the telepath Fernus and save the world, with the revelation that Plastic Man's brain is as inorganic as his form and cannot be controlled telepathically.

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 appears briefly in the superteam series Teen Titans Vol. 3, #34. The character wears a white costume with red goggles, similar to that of Offspring, Plastic Man's son (from the earlier DC miniseries titled The Kingdom). While the Teen Titans story itself does not identify the character, page two of a published script specifies it is Plastic Man’s son, Offspring.

And that, my friends, is as far as the Plastic Man storyline goes. The character's life is as twisty as his arms, and it seems to continue on. Come to think of it really, I haven't seen a comic in a long time. I guess what's really important is that we gained a little bit of knowledge about the superheroes, even though we are still left with the question of what ever happened to Plastic Man?