DC COMICS – @DCComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Gail Simone
ART: Adriana Melo
COLORS: Kelly Fitzpatrick
LETTERS: Simon Bowland
EDITOR: Kristy Quinn
COVER: Aaron Lopresti
VARIANT COVER: Amanda Conner with Dave Johnson
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (August 2018)
Rated “T+” for “Teen Plus”
Plastic Man created by Jack Cole
Plastic Man is a DC Comics superhero, but the character was originally the property of now-defunct publisher, Quality Comics. Plastic Man was created by cartoonist, Jack Cole, and first appeared in Quality's Police Comics #1 (cover dated: August 1941). One of the first characters to incorporate humor in superhero comics storytelling, Plastic Man was a criminal named Patrick “Eel” O'Brian, a criminal who was part of a burglary ring.
During a heist, Eel was exposed to a chemical that entered his bloodstream and caused a radical physical change. Eel's body now had all of the properties of rubber, and he could stretch, bounce, and mold his body into any shape. Eel created a red, black, and yellow (later red and yellow) rubber costume and began capturing criminals as the superhero, Plastic Man.
Plastic Man and his origin are the subjects of a new six-issue comic book miniseries from DC Comics. Plastic Man is written by Gail Simone; drawn by Adriana Melo; colored by Kelly Fitzpatrick; and lettered by Simon Bowland.
Plastic Man #1 opens with petty thug Eel O'Brian getting a beating from three fellow thugs: Sammy “Suitcase” Mizzola (the ringleader), “Brutal” Benny Turlin, and “Dizzy” Darren Fitzroy. Eel is angry that he did not get a cut of a recent burglary and that a security guard was killed, but something has changed since the burglary. Eel is supposed to be dead, and coming back from the dead has angered Sammy. What Sammy doesn't know is that Eel has come back really different. He's Plastic Man! But even Eel himself is in for a shock about what actually happened that night of the burglary.
Over its 80-plus years of existence, DC Comics, in its various incarnations, has gobbled up a number of characters that did not originate with it. The publisher really has not done much with some of those characters, except make them lesser than the original incarnations. Shazam/Captain Marvel is one of them. Plastic Man is another.
I think Kyle Baker, who wrote and drew 20 issues of a Plastic Man (2004-2006) for DC, is one of the few comics creators that have captured the craziness and surrealism of Jack Cole's original Plastic Man comics. [Cole's Plastic Man comics are worth your efforts to find them in reprint or archival form.] Gail Simone and Adriana Melo are not among them.
That's okay, really. Plastic Man 2018 is an attempt to normalize an abnormal character so that it fits in with the uniformity of the “DC Universe.” Simone drains Plastic Man of his inherent zaniness, and the art team of illustrator Adriana Melo and colorist Kelly Fitzpatrick bleeds the graphical wackiness and color right out of the character. Even Simon Bowland's lettering comes across as mechanical, although it isn't. This work is not bad; individually, the contributors deliver the inoffensively average.
The result is a professionally produced comic book that is the reading equivalent of a cauliflower and mayonnaise sandwich on white bread with the crust removed. Flavorless Flav!
5 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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