Plastic Man

Entry updated 19 May 2025. Tagged: Character, Comics, Publication.

US Comic (1943-1956) and its title character. Quality Comics. 64 issues. Plastic Man created by Jack Cole. Artists include Jack Cole, Dick Dillin, Alex Kotzky, André LeBlanc, Charles Nicholas and Jack Spranger. Scriptwriters include Jack Cole, Gwen Hansen, Joe Millard and Bill Woolfolk. Initially 60 pages but falling to 36 by #17, with a brief increase to 52 #26-#31, before returning to 36. Each issue would have 3-5 long strips (usually 4) and a text story (initially involving Plastic Man, but later not), plus occasional short strips as filler (not involving our hero); sidekick Woozy also stars in his own strip from #3. #44 was all reprints; #46-#52 had new lead strips with the remainder being reprints (this seems to apply to most text stories too). From #53 the comic would be all reprints, save for the covers: the reprint strips were from earlier issues (at least one was revised to meet Comics Code requirements). Most stories lacked titles.

Plastic Man had first appeared in Police Comics #1-#102 (1941-1950) and was the cover star from #5; the comic itself lasted until #127 (1953). Other Superheroes appeared in Police Comics: #1 also had the Human Bomb (a laboratory accident left the hero able to cause explosions on physical contact, so he dresses in a protective suit) and the Phantom Lady (briefly discussed in Miss Fury) who has a torch that shines a cone of black light; others wore costumes but had no Superpowers or advanced Technology – such as Firebrand (who wears a transparent shirt, presumably to flaunt his physique), the nondescript #711 and rapier-wielding Chic Carter. The Human Bomb was the longest lasting of these (final issue #58), though Phantom Lady (final issue #23) got her own comic in 1947. One of the longest running characters was Manhunter, another costumed hero without powers (but with a dog sidekick named Thor), who began in #8 and ended with #101. Of note are the reprints of Will Eisner's The Spirit that began in #11 (running until #102), which seems to be the first time it was distributed nationally (having previously been a syndicated newspaper comic-book insert). #102 saw the end of Police Comics' regular superhero strips.

Plastic Man's origin story in Police Comics #1 has criminal "Eel" O'Brien covered in acid whilst robbing a chemical works, then fleeing into the countryside where he is rescued by a monk. Recuperating, Eel tells how he was orphaned when 10 and quickly lost his faith in mankind – but it was been restored by the monk's kindness. He also discovers the acid has made his body rubbery and stretchable; he vows to atone for the evil he has committed by making a rubber costume and fighting crime using his Shapeshifting talents (including the ability to impersonate people). Though the earlier stories have some Humour, they become increasingly offbeat and surreal from #4, and the final ingredient is the introduction of overweight bumbling sidekick Woozy. After rescuing a soothsayer, Woozy is granted immunity to harm from mother nature, not suffering pain or injury: tossing a coin to decide whether to use this power for good or evil, evil wins; but Plastic Man – believing him weak-willed rather than bad – persuades him to change his ways. His invulnerability is eventually lost. After two years Plastic Man was given his own comic.

With regard to the Plastic Man comic, Jack Cole drew many of the strips up to #26, and wrote some of their scripts: this era is considered the comic's heyday (he also provided a strip for #30 and #33's cover). There are good later stories too, occasionally capturing Cole's style; others – though sometimes of merit – seem suited to a more formulaic superhero strip. Plastic Man's elastic nature means he is drawn in something akin to animation's "rubber-hose" style, in contrast to other characters and landscapes: this visual dissonance provides part of the comics surreal edge, along with visually interesting artwork – using unusual angles and suchlike – and wilder plots. Though the number of stories means there is inevitably less memorable work (these often overuse Woozy, who is nevertheless one of the better comic sidekicks), the best are freewheeling, funny and occasionally dark (see Absurdist SF; Horror; Humour).

Plastic Man #1 opens with one of the darker tales, "The Game of Death", a 1944 Retro Hugo Award finalist for Best Graphic Story or Comic. After breaking up a gambling den which incorporates cruelty to animals into its games (see Games and Sports), Plastic Man searches for a corpse Woozy had found on the premises which then vanished. The den turns out to be a recruiting station for the secret society of Blood Worshippers, whose members participate in an annual Game of Death, armed with whips and "fighting like animals for the right to live"; the first to fall is sacrificed to the "Goddess of Blood" by being fed to a tiger. #2 includes "The Gay Nineties Nightmare" where the location of a City was lost by the authorities 50 years ago, whereupon it chose to remain isolated from the rest of US and retain the culture of the 1890s. In #6 Woozy refuses Government Mad Scientist Professor Breen the Moon Wizard's offer to send him in a Rocket to the Moon as he will not be paid for it; but evil Scientist Scientific Sherman knocks out Breen and launches both Woozy and Plastic Man to the Moon. It has a breathable atmosphere, but they begin to freeze to death. Fortunately Sherman sends for Mabel the Moocher, thinking she will enjoy watching them die; Plastic Man has always been kind to her, so she goes to rescue him in one of Breen's spare rockets. It also emerges that this moon is only a copy made by Breen. One of #10's stories features the electrically charged Supervillain Electra who hates humanity, is particularly irritated by how her beauty attracts "stupid masculine fools" and eats red hot coals to power herself: she turns out to be a Robot. In #17, a plague over 3.45 million years in the Far Future has wiped out all of humanity, save for Uno, who uses a Time Machine to visit 1949 in search of people to repopulate the Earth. He first meets a gangster and his moll: the former wants his Technology but the latter is won over by Uno, who ends up taking her and another women back to the future with him (see Sex). #21 has the Alien Amorpho crashlanding on Earth in his Spaceship; they are a salt-hungry blob of protoplasm that can shapeshift into a copy of anything it sees, including Plastic Man and Woozy. In #36 Scientists from Saturn (see Outer Planets) arrive on Earth to study the human race and decide whether they are worth conquering (see Invasion). Able to become Invisible, they decide Woozy would be the perfect specimen to study. #37 has two atomic scientists who create a race of giant, talking Intelligent ants to conquer the world; however, the ants choose to rebel – but are seen off when Plastic Man imitates a giant anteater. In #39 technology gives criminals access to the nightmarish Fourth Dimension where they can counterfeit money in secret; and any visitor attempting to return to our world is hideously afflicted unless they use the correct device. #46 has a scientist stealing another's invention of super-strong wire, then dressing up as a humanoid spider, with a gun that fires webbing made of that wire, to commit crimes.

Other sf elements in stories include: Scientist Professor Topps, with his camouflage spray that renders objects invisible (and the de-camouflager spray that renders them visible again) (in #1). Body swapping (see Identity Exchange) achieved through staring too hard (#2). Criminals cornering the supply of ambergris by building a mechanical whale (#3). A crook who gains the leaping power of a grasshopper after a scientist injects him with a serum extracted from that insect's leg muscles (#6). Dr Volt and his box that fires lightning bolts (#7). The last of a race of fish-men who were exiled by a hostile humanity into the rivers (#12). A Neanderthal man (see Origin of Man) is unfrozen from a block of ice, still alive (see Suspended Animation) (#19). Ponce De Leon's Fountain of Youth is found, but it confers age rather than Rejuvenation (#23). A remote controlled Plastic Man robot made by an amiably evil scientist (#26). An Antigravity invention worn on the wrist, enabling the wearer to float (#30). Pills, made of extracts from different animal glands, give the swallower their abilities (#31). A criminal falls into a cyclotron that uses "a new type of fissionable material": instead of dying, he can now fire radioactive Rays (#32). Our heroes falling through a hole to find an inhabited subterranean world that plans to conquer Earth's surface (see Hollow Earth; Underground) (#37). A Time Viewer that can also re-run an event, with different choices made (#40). A modern-day witch employs voodoo-like techniques, traditionally used on individuals, to destroy a whole city (#41). A communist villain, Sandman (actually a woman), wears a headset that sends people to sleep (#51).

When Quality Comics closed down at the end of 1956, Plastic Man was one of the characters bought by National Comics Publications (now DC Comics). Subsequently DC published new Plastic Man comics: volume 2, 20 issues, 1966-1968 and 1976-1977; Volume 3, 4 issues, 1988-1989 (by Phil Foglio) and a special in 1999 (Foglio not involved); Volume 4, 20 issues 2004-2006 (by Kyle Baker, winning an Eisner Award for best new series). He has also been a member of the Justice League of America, particularly during the era of Grant Morrison writing the series (1997-2000), but also under other creators; and has made other appearances in the DC Extended Universe, including as a member of the The Terrifics (31 issues, 2018-2020).

Presumably, despite his rubbery nature, Plastic Man was so-called because a comic character named Flexo the Rubber Man already existed. [SP]

further reading

Plastic Man: Volume 1 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2023) [graph: collects issues #1-#4 of Plastic Man comic: illus/pb/Jack Cole]
Plastic Man: Volume 2 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2023) [graph: collects issues #5-#8 of Plastic Man comic: illus/pb/Jack Cole]
Plastic Man: Volume 3 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2023) [graph: collects issues #9-#12 of Plastic Man comic: illus/pb/Jack Cole]
Plastic Man: Volume 4 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2024) [graph: collects issues #13-#16 of Plastic Man comic: illus/pb/Jack Cole]
Plastic Man: Volume 5 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2024) [graph: collects issues #17-#21 of Plastic Man comic: illus/pb/Jack Cole]
Plastic Man: Volume 6 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2024) [graph: collects issues #22-#26 of Plastic Man comic: illus/pb/Jack Cole]
Plastic Man: Volume 7 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2025) [graph: collects issues #27-#30 of Plastic Man comic: illus/pb/Alex Kotzky]
Plastic Man: Volume 8 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2025) [graph: collects issues #31-#35 of Plastic Man comic: illus/pb/Jack Cole & Sam Burlockoff]
Plastic Man: Volume 9 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2025) [graph: collects issues #36-#40 of Plastic Man comic: illus/pb/Alex Kotzky]

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