Plastic Man #1 - DC Comics

PLASTIC MAN No. 1, August 2018

Although Gail Simone’s desire to return “the first funny super hero” back to his roots within the Golden Age of Comic Books is both a laudable aim and something presumably many long-time fans of “Quality Comics” old “signature character” would want to see, it is hard to reconcile Jack Cole’s Early Forties creation with this “Teen Plus” rated publication’s creepy petty thug “who runs a strip club.” In fact, the Oregon-born writer’s insistence that Patrick “Eel” O’Brian persistently utters the term “Wang” throughout this adventure, and then later immodestly flexes his naked body in front of an embarrassed “mystery lady” whilst in his bedroom, disconcertingly provides this twenty-page periodical with just the sort of all-pervading sexual undertone that caused the Comics Magazine Association of America to form the Comics Code Authority (CCA) in 1954; “Is wang good or bad? Does it still mean penis?”

Admittedly, comedy has undoubtedly moved on somewhat since those more ‘naïve’ days sixty odd years ago, and Issue One of “Plastic Man” certainly succeeds in its American author’s aim to portray “the original humour hero jock” as being “a little bit bawdy, a little bit messed up.” But there’s debatably little fun to be had reading about Sammy “Suitcase” Mizzola threatening to physically assault his gun moll, Janet, when the lady complains he was supposed to be taking her dancing rather bludgeoning a man half-to-death with a baseball bat down some side-street alleyway, or the one-time star of a kids Saturday morning cartoon show talking about leaving “some rubbers at your Mom’s house. On the nightstand” because a gangster’s sister is in town…

Dishearteningly, the True Believers Comic Award-winner’s “pretty thin” narrative doesn’t make an awful lot of sense either, on account of the con artist supposedly not being able to remember who killed a security guard at the heist which accidentally bestowed upon him his superhuman elasticity. Just why, having been left for dead by his criminal ‘friends’ when they threw him out of their speeding getaway car, the malleable thief is subsequently brutalised by them for surviving the ordeal is never explained, nor is Plastic Man’s belief that he shot the hapless sentry when the book’s panel depicting O’Brian’s memory of the scene clearly shows the bald-headed Benny Turlin murdering the man..?

Mercifully however, this magazine is blessed with some gratifyingly witty artwork by Adriana Melo, who genuinely imbues the titular character with all the weirdly wonderful 'disguises' and sizes one has come to expect from a shape-shifting super-hero. Whether it be a giant bouncing ball, zany Wonder Woman lookalike, H.G. Wells’ tripod machine or gas-guzzling convertible, it is easy to see why Simone has previously stated that the Brazilian penciller “draws the most gorgeous people.”

The regular cover art of "PLASTIC MAN" No. 1 by Aaron Lopresti