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Plastic Man #1
Publisher: DC
Story: Gail Simone
Pencils: Adriana Melo
Inks:  Adriana Melo
Colors: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Letters: Simon Bowland

Another one of DC’s six-issue mini-series that, for the most part, tend to focus on characters not seen much since 2016’s Rebirth Event, Plastic Man acts as a return for fan-favorite writer Gail Simone to DC Comics. Although Plastic Man is typically seen more as comedy relief, this version of the story is darker in tone, fitting more with Simone’s run on Secret Six than with typical portrayals of Plastic Man in the past.

This is the second book featuring Plastic Man coming out of the Dark Nights Metal event (the other book being Jeff Lemire’s The Terrifics). To help Simone’s mini-series stand apart, it focuses mainly on Plastic Man’s origins, illustrating how low-level criminal Eel O’Brien gained his elasticity powers during a robbery gone bad. Although originally thought dead by his partners-in-crime, O’Brien returns and is determined to find out which one of his old crew murdered a night guard during their last job together. However, in an interesting twist, Plastic Man may not like the answer that he’s seeking.

The atmosphere and concept of the story is very film noir, which fits with Plastic Man’s original deubt in the early 1940’s, and also with the criminal undertones of the main character. Simone adds nice touches like making Plastic Man’s “day job” that of a bouncer at a seedy strip joint, where he also has a small apartment upstairs. He has an on-going inner-dialogue that is very reminiscent of the old film noir style, in which characters would explain to the audience what they were thinking and feeling. And, just like those old detectives from the film noir stories, Plastic Man has a dark side, and some self-loathing to go along with it. At one point, while talking with a girl at the club who has invited him to go to a concert with her, Plastic Man (in his civilian guise as Eel O’Brien) says to himself, “See, she’s a nice kid. And she likes me. That’s why it could never go. I don’t seem to want any girl who has so little taste that she wants me back.”

Accompanying this darker tone of story is suitably moody, noir-style art by Adriana Melo. Her costumes, hair styles, character designs, and even the architecture evoke a 1940’s sensibility, even though this is clearly a modern-day tale set in the current DC universe. It’s very reminiscent of the “Batman: The Animated Series” aesthetic dubbed “Dark Deco,” with a timeless, classy look that just seedy enough around the edges. While the book tends to focus on Plastic Man in his alter-ego civilian identity, and the other regular characters with whom he interacts, Melo also has fun in the fun scenes during which Plastic Man gets to let go and have some wild, goofy gun. Melo’s design of Plastic Man pretending to be Wonder Woman is hilarious, and there’s also the requisite “Plastic Man turns into a giant bouncing ball” scene, which seems to be mandatory in every story featuring Plastic Man. Fitzpatrick’s colors complement Melo’s artwork perfectly, with moody, darker tones for most of the street and night club scenes, accompanied by punches of red and yellow to highlight Plastic Man’s crazy antics.

There are a lot of new characters introduced in this one issue, and it does start to over-complicate things. The last few pages move at a very brisk pace, and while it makes sense in order to create a cliffhanger ending, it might have worked a bit better to space it out a bit more over two issues.

Plastic Man #1 is a great start to what looks to be an intriguing mini-series, with a much deeper and more complex story than one might originally perceive when thinking about the title character. Simone’s Plastic Man is much more than just goofy comic relief, but he retains an air of light-heartedness and humor to balance the gritty undertones of the story.

Martin Thomas
martin@comicattack.net