Plastic Man (1988) #1-4

Plastic Man #1-4

Originally released in 1988

Written by Phil Foglio

Art by Hilary Barta

After the past few days, I wanted to go with something on the lighter side, so with Plastic Man being one of the goofier DC characters that I've heard of, I thought I'd try one of his series.

This mini-series goes over his origin; during a heist gone wrong, crook Eel O'Brian has acid spilled over him that gives him the ability to stretch and change his shape. His former gang believes him to be dead and takes time to mourn him.

With his former friends terrified of him (and not really caring that he's gone), Eel tries to figure out what to do with his life when he comes across Woozy Winks.  A former inhabitant of Arkham Asylum, Woozy was kicked out due to economic problems, so he interprets that as though he needs a lot of money to get back to the asylum, which he considers home.

After exposing some clothing to the last bits of acid that remained after it was dumped and taking what wasn't dissolved as his costume, Plastic Man and Woozy discover Eel's old gang planning a job.  They're forced to consider what would be better for them - stopping Eel's ex-gang and getting the reward money or taking part in the bank heist.  It's a difficult question that requires a lot of soul searching, and the two of them handle it with all of the gravitas that you would expect.

The writing is all right - not laugh out loud funny, but at least chuckle-worthy - but the real highlight is the art.  Plastic Man's powers make him a particularly expressive character, and it does a good job at switching between several art styles, with the highly stylized world that we see most often being how Plastic Man and Woozy see the world, rather than how the world actually is.

Woozy makes for a fun sidekick, with his tenuous grasp on logic and reality making him an entertaining foil to Plastic Man. (Not that Plastic Man's grasp on reality is much better, mind you)

The plot's paper thin, but the series is some goofy light-hearted fun, which is just what I needed after the likes of Swamp Thing and the Vision.