Plastic Man

Revision as of 13:11, 18 July 2017

Plastic Man is a male comic superhero that features in DC Comics.

Biography

Quality

Plastic Man in Police Comics v1 #5.

Eel O'Brian was a male human whose parents had died when he was 10 years old leaving him alone in the world. He tried to work hard but was always pushed around by others causing him to lose faith in mankind and leading to him pushing others around. O'Brian later adopted the life of a criminal with such notoriety that he was wanted in eight states by the police. (Police Comics v1 #2) He later joined a gang that decided to break into Crawford Chemical Works as part of their heist. They were discovered by security guards who shot at them causing the gang to scatter but some bullets hit a barrel of acid that spilt on Eel. He was then abandoned by his comrades and the wounded Eel had to flee by himself as the chemicals went into his wounds. O'Brian escaped through the swamps but later collapsed from the injury where he was saved by a monk from the nearby Rest-Haven retreat. He tended to O'Brian and even turned away the police that were still searching for him. The act restored his faith and whilst at the retreat he discovered that the incident had given his skin a plastic-like quality allowing him to stretch and reshape it. He believed that this was a powerful weapon that he could use against evil and give him the chance to atone for his past. Among his first acts was getting a costume and arresting the gang that accompanied him to Crawford. He began to secretly operate as Plastic Man whilst maintaining his civilian life separate as his secret identity. (Police Comics v1 #1) He later aided the police in arresting the opium smuggler Dopey Joe who had an operating bringing drugs from Canada into the U.S. (Police Comics v1 #2) Plastic Man had become an ally of the police commissioner at this point and he was enlisted to help capture the clever criminal known as Baldy. (Police Comics v1 #3) Afterwards, he battled Madam Brawn who headed the Crime School for Delinquent Girls that took women recently released from prison and trained them in hand-to-hand skills or weapons to be skilled molls. This group quickly moved to take over criminal operations and protection rackets in the city. (Police Comics v1 #4)

DC

He was born Patrick O'Brian in Brooklyn, New York to an Irish mother who was heartbroken to see her son become a criminal. (JLA v1 #50) As a child, his father used to sing him to sleep with whisky on his breath and abused him by burning out lit cigarettes on his arm. (JLA v1 #65) His parents were said to had died when he was 10 years old and people began to push him around in life to the point that he responded in kind. In time, he later became a wanted criminal that was known as Eel O'Brien. One of his jobs with his gang was breaking into the Crawford Chemical Works but their break-in was discovered by a rental cop. As they escaped, the cop fired his gun that struck a barrel of acid that spilt on O'Brien with his comrades leaving him behind. Eel went on the run by himself and collapsed where he was saved by Brother Ellis from Rest-Haven who sheltered and cared for him. O'Brien discovered that that the acid from the accident had changed his body turning it into plastic allowing him to stretch to great degrees. (Secret Origin v2 #30)

In time, he gave up being Eel O'Brien and began to work with the Chief in the FBI where he helped put away a number of hoods that included the Hood, Elektra and the Mirror Man. (Secret Origin v2 #30)

During these years, he met Angel McDunnagh where he felt that he was not proud of his actions during this point in his life. He married Angel and together the had a son named Luke but he split from his wife where over marital differences as he considered her an unpleasant person. After learning he had become a father, Plastic Man left his wife and child as he did not want to end his life as a superhero and saw himself as a poor father figure. As Luke grew up, Angel told her son that his father had died but he did not believe her and secretly believed his dad to be Plastic Man. (JLA v1 #65)

In his guise as Matches Malone, Batman recruited Eel O'Brien at a bar in New York City for a mission. (JLA v1 #11) He was sent to aid the Justice League by being sent to infiltrate the Injustice Gang where he disguised himself as the Joker. (JLA v1 #15)

He later learnt from Angel that their ten-year old son Luke McDunnagh had joined a criminal gang and had manifested greater shapeshifting abilities than his father that he used for his new 'friends'. As a result, Plastic Man asked for Batman's help in saving his son from a life of crime. (JLA v1 #65)

When Fernus of the Burning Martians emerged from J'onn J'onnz, the Justice League struggled against their former comrade due to his strength and telepathic abilities. As a result, Batman called upon his contingency which was Plastic Man who was suspected to be immune to telepathy. However, Plastic Man had used hypnotism to revert his mind into his civilian persona and he wanted to stay to be a good father to his son. Batman with Plastic Man's son managed to convince him to resume the role of a superhero where he used his natural shapeshifting talents along with immunity to telepathy to fight the Burning Martian. (JLA v1 #88)

The New 52

Overview

Personality and attributes

During his criminal years, his ability to snake through the tightest spaces leading to him being given the nickname 'Eel'. (JLA v1 #50)

He jokingly claimed that women were his greatest weakness. (JLA v1 #65)

Batman had always thought that Plastic Man would make a great father even better than Superman. This was because he believed that Plastic Man would show his children that he loved them instead of telling them. Furthermore, he felt that he would make them laugh all the time. (JLA v1 #65)

He developed ins reputation as the toughest gangster afoot with criminals respecting him for his bold disregard of the law. (Police Comics v1 #2)

A life of being pushed around caused him to adopt a harsher view of the world and mankind to the point that he similarly pushed others around. This changed following his recovery by a monk who looked after him that restored his faith of people and led to him seeking to atone for his evil past. (Police Comics v1 #1) Plastic Man himself had a low opinion of himself namely that as a lowlife he would always be a lowlife. It was this that led to him leaving his wife and son with it being easier to do so the further he got away from them. (JLA v1 #65)

As Plastic Man, he was a champion of justice and masqueraded in his criminal identity in order to get inside information on criminal activities. (Police Comics v1 #2)

Powers and abilities

Growing gigantic in JLA v1 #89.

As a result of acid chemicals entering his wounds causing a physical change to his skin gained the ability to stretch like a rubber band. He was able to lengthen his arms, stretch his form and take other shapes whilst retaining plastic-like qualities allowing him to bounce his body. (Police Comics v1 #1) This protected him from attacks such as from a knife attempting to stab him as it simply bounced off his body. (Police Comics v1 #2) He could even survive being run over by a steam roller and still get back up to fight. (Police Comics v1 #3)

Plastic Man could change his facial appearance with his power allowing to change himself into appearing as an old man. (Police Comics v1 #2) It was said that his shapeshifting abilities were inspiration given form and that he did not need to concentrate in order to alter his shape. (JLA v1 #88) He was able to reverse magical spells that turned him into animals with his shapeshifting allowing him to return to his original form such as when Circe turned him into a pig. (JLA v1 #15)

One effect of his transformation was that his mind was no longer organic which made him untouchable by telepathy. (JLA v1 #88)

Notes

• Plastic Man was created by Jack Cole where he made his first appearance in publisher Quality Comics Police Comics v1 #1 (August, 1941).
• The character was later introduced into DC Comics in 1956.
• In JLA v1 #50 (1999), he was identified as Patrick O'Brian instead of O'Brien.
• In Wizard Magazine, writer Grant Morrison commented on his use of Plastic Man in his JLA comic:

"I [wanted] to use Plastic Man because he's a guy who doesn't have his own book, but he's one of those superheroes where even people who don't read comics know the name and recognize him. [Since longtime Justice League readers] are definitely used to the Elongated Man, I thought, 'Well, let's get the real guy in.'  He's going to be goofy, but hopefully we're going to try and make it work, so he doesn't just take over the whole thing as a joke [...] There's always this kind of figure in every pantheon of every nation, in every country in the world—someone who punctures the pomposity and makes the jokes and does the crazy things.  [Plastic Man] comes in there as the trickster [character in the JLA pantheon].

"The way I [wrote] Plastic Man is just to do him as Jim Carrey doing Ace Ventura.  So the guy is constantly hyper.  He's on a sugar-high constantly and he's just a real pain in the neck, but he gets the job done."

Alternate Versions

• In Justice League: Generation Lost v1 #14 (2011), a Plastic Man appeared in the alternate future where Maxwell Lord's O.M.A.C. army conquered the world and hunted its Metahuman population that was set one hundred and twelve years in the future. This version was a red-skinned clone of the original that was a member of the Justice League in this era.
• In Injustice: Year Three v1 #7 (2015), Plastic Man appeared in the alternate world setting that was a tie-in to the video game. Patrick O'Brian was shown as being the father of Luke McDunnagh who inherited his fathers abilities and had become a shapeshifter. His son Luke was apprehended by Superman's One Earth Regime and sent to the prison known as the Trench. This led to Plastic Man opposing the Regime as he broke into the prison and freed its various prisoners along with his son. He then fled into the Mirror World with Luke in order to escape Superman's despotic rule of the world.

In other media

Television

• In The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Plastic Man featured in the 1979-1981 spin-off animated series where he was voiced by actor Michael Bell.
• In Young Justice, Plastic Man made a non-speaking cameo appearance in the animated series in the episode "Revelation".

Films

Video games

Appearances

• Police Comics v1:
• JLA v1:

External Links

• Wikipedia Entry

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