PLASTIC MAN 467
Productions, 2010; Ellis, Warren, et al. Planetary: Crossing Worlds. La Jolla, CA:
WildStorm Productions, 2004.
Will Allred
PLASTIC MAN. A Quality Comics superhero , Plastic Man fi rst appeared in Police
Comics #1 (August 1941), written and drawn by Jack Cole. In the fi rst story, readers
are introduced to Eel O’Brien, a career criminal and former orphan. On a routine
break-in at a chemical company, O’Brien is shot by a night watchman and falls into
a vat of acid. Abandoned by his gang, a disoriented O’Brien passes out near a moun-
tain. He awakens to fi nd himself in a monastery, where a kind monk hides him from
questioning police. Following this act of charity, O’Brien vows to reform. Th is vow
receives a boost when he discovers the eff ects of the acid—he can now bend, stretch,
or mold his body into any shape. Altering his face to form a new identity, he begins
wearing goggles and a suit of red, yellow, and black. In this guise, he adopts the name
Plastic Man. As O’Brien, he now works undercover to capture criminals, beginning
with his old gang.
After his fi rst appearance, Plastic Man soon became one of Quality’s most promi-
nent characters. While his origin had appeared in the fi nal pages of Police #1, Plastic
Man took over as the lead feature of the monthly series with issue #5. At the same time,
the page count on the strip increased from 6 to 13. Th is was followed by a self-titled
series. Th e undated Plastic Man #1 was released in 1943. Issue #2 was dated August
1944, with a third following in spring 1946. From that point, the series followed a
quarterly schedule until #12 ( July 1948), when it became bi-monthly.
While other superheroes had a rigid format, Plastic Man could become anything.
Th is allowed the strip to have a looser, wilder form of storytelling. Th e increasingly
comedic bent was aided by the introduction of sidekick Woozy Winks, a portly bumbler
who assisted the hero on his adventures in Police Comics #13.
Initially, Plastic Man fought few super-villains, as most of his foes were racketeers and
gangsters. As Cole found his footing, both the drawings and the stories got broader and
more exaggerated. He defi ed expectations of the superhero genre, with villains such as
Sadly-Sadly Sanders, a man so pathetic people could not help but throw their money
at him ( Plastic Man #26), and Th e Green Terror, a gardener whose creations include a
plant that breathes enough carbon dioxide to smother a man ( Police Comics #58).
Th is experimentation extended past the stories to the look of the series. At a time
when many crime-fi ghters were interchangeable square-jawed tough guys, Plastic Man’s
bright, cartoony appearance stood out. He fooled criminals into thinking that he was
a lamp, or a table, or a rug, only to revert to human form and catch them red-handed.
As Cole’s visual style developed, the strip became increasingly packed with visual
information. Panels often contained several sight gags which could be easily missed by
the casual reader.
Despite the unique style of the strip, Plastic Man still relied heavily on superhero
conventions for much of its humor. Consequently, the series fell out of favor along with
