Plastic Man

Plastic Man (2018) #1-6

by Gail Simone, Adriana Melo (Illustrator)

Eel O'Brian has a lot going he's a petty thief, a con artist who manages a strip club and, last but not least, the pliable paladin Plastic Man. And now he may also be the world's only hope against a secret society of sociopaths who have infiltrated the Justice League!

Written by Eisner Award-nominated author Gail Simone ( Secret Six , Domino ) with art by her Birds of Prey collaborator Adriana Melo ( Catwoman , Ms. Marvel ), Plastic Man finds Eel trying to bounce back from a life of bad intentions and worse deeds, a struggle made all the harder when he gets recruited by an agent who's absolutely certain a sinister cabal has worked its way in with the good guys. How will Plastic Man uncover the truth? He has no idea, but you can find out here. Collecting the entire six-issue miniseries.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Mystery, Crime

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 2019

About the author

Gail Simone is a comic book writer well-known for her work on Birds of Prey (DC), Wonder Woman (DC), and Deadpool (Marvel), among others, and has also written humorous and critical commentary on comics and the comics industry such as the original "Women in Refrigerators" website and a regular column called "You'll All Be Sorry".

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prior to this the only comic I'd read featuring Plastic Man was Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Four, Vol. 2. But that one made me a fan.
So when I saw this sitting on the shelf in the library and noticed that Gail Simone was the writer? I just grabbed it.



Turns out, it wasn't bad.
It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.
I can't quite put my finger on what it was missing, but it was (and this sounds crazy b/c PLASTIC MAN!) almost too silly at times. <--I know, I know, I know!
But there was all this small time mob Pay up, pally! *meeeh, meeeh* Or you'll be sleepin' with the fishes, see? stuff that seemed kind of out of whack with the rest of...everything.
And, yeah. I get that Plastic Man (aka Patrick Eel O'Brian) started out as a criminal, so that part makes sense. And as far as a retelling of his origin story, it was ok. There was some kind of oomph missing for me, though.



However, it did feature a young trans person who was trying to decide who they wanted to be when they grew up. From my (pretty ignorant) view, it seemed like Simone did a nice job representing trans people. There was evidently some sort of internet kerfuffle where she (preemptively?) apologized for this (below) image of Plastic Man as Harley because of the 'bulge' in his pants. I think Simone was worried that her meaning (Plas is poking fun at Harley but still himself at his core) would get mixed up and twisted into the myth that trans women try to 'trick' straight men. Again, I'm not in the know about any of that, but it truly seems that Simone is a caring writer and didn't do anything offensive on purpose. I had no idea this was even a thing until I looked up the comic, and it honestly seemed like most everyone was super nice to her about it.



Ok, so the gist of the story is about Eel getting these powers due to a botched robbery, meeting a kid that needs him, finding out about some bad guys who are infiltrating the Justice League/Teen Titans/Etc., and trying to make amends for being a shitbag.



The beginning was interesting, the middle was ok, the Big Showdown was a massive WTF, and the ending was sweet.
Overall, worth reading if you are jonesing for some Plastic Man.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gail Simone and Adriana Melo’s Plastic Man miniseries is disposable trash! The story is all over the place - Plas takes it upon himself to be the guardian to an annoying street urchin and goes looking for her (or “him”, as the kid prefers to be labelled, though I don’t buy that kids that young and not on social media give a shit about gender pronouns), only to later drop the kid.

Plas is then framed for murder, though why escapes me, and then he finds out through another awkwardly introduced new character that a cabal of supervillains are trying to infiltrate the JLA for some reason. Why don’t any of the JLA get involved as well then - why is it down to Plas alone? Why was Man-Bat involved again?

There’s a side story that goes nowhere. A blonde (who, confusingly, is drawn identically to another different blonde character) who’s connected to one of Plas’ stereotypical gangster associates, gets weird powers in an attempt to be like Plas and decides, even though it was her gangster boyfriend who forced the change upon her, to get revenge on Plas? The fact that that storyline ends abruptly shows you that DC pulled the plug on this series early. Good choice for once, DC!

It all amounts to one big Who Cares? Besides being incoherent, who finds Plastic Man’s incessant wittering on remotely entertaining? It’s the Deadpool effect - the main character can’t stop blathering on with one bad pun after another bad joke after another bad pop culture reference. It wouldn’t be so bad if anything Plas said was funny but it’s not - it’s just plain irritating!

I thought Melo’s art was pretty good for the most part and reminded me of Darick Robertson’s stye. Plas’ constant shape-changing called for a lot of imagination and she certainly showed she has the talent and range to make this comic work.

Mostly though, this book showed once again why Plastic Man is nobody’s favourite character - don’t bother with this tripe.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adriana Melo's art is very good. It reminds me of Aaron Lopresti or Barry Kitson. I typically enjoy Gail Simone's writing but the main story was very fractured and all over the place. It made it hard to follow. Plastic Man may suffer from ADHD the way he flittered back and forth between different story points. The book wasn't very funny even though Plastic Man was cracking nonstop jokes. Probably the best part about the book was the street kid Pado who Eel begins to look out for and their relationship.

[Dena Burnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong start, but didn't really stick the landing.

[Chelsea &#x1f3f3;️‍&#x1f308; · Rating 5 out of 5]

She's done it again!

Okay, you wanna know why Gail Simone is one of my all time favorite writers and why I wish she’d be given a lengthy Iron Man run? It’s because she does SO well with the lovable screw up. Whether you see Tony that way or not, SImone does a fantastic job at making you love the character who’s story revolves around trying to right past wrongs. She gives them goals - realistic goals, and actually gives them the time to find the tools to attain them. She centers the story around the character and does so without the not so subtle “clearly I hate this character” vibe that other writers slip into stories about these characters. Quite simply put: you always get the sense that Simone believes in them and that she wants them to save the day.

In this story, she took a character I never gave much thought to and made him someone I really, really wanted to root for. She made me love Eel O'Brian. This book is so character focused that the bad guys are actually in the background - which is something that's a bit rare these days in the comic book industry. I don't know why there's all this focus on making the villains just as front and center as the good guys but, part of me wants that to stop? Or, take a backseat at least? I want to see more of the good guys. Here, we see a lot of Eel's world as he meets Pado and works at the club with Spencer and Doris. There's a lot fo quippy and fast talking and banter but it actually works and it's funny? Eel is hilarious! I laughed out loud several times while reading this book.

I love Pado and I love Eel's easy acceptance of taking responsiblity for this kid. He really does his best to do right by the kid and, while it didn't work out, I really thought he did the responsible/right thing in trying to get CPS to find Pado a good home. And, realistically, it didn't quite work out. I loved Eel's own admission that he wasn't interested in women that were interested in him. It felt realistic and grounded. Also, I really loved the seedy underbelly here and the fact that this book didn't try to say everyone in Eel's old crowd were gems.

So... safe to say I loved this book? It's a total recommend. It's one of Gail's best and I'll probably buy it on paperback, too (I bought all of them on Comixology digitally).

[Diz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like Plastic Man as a character because he has a lot of heart. As a former criminal, he's used to being around the outcasts and outsiders in society, so he has an understanding of people that other more straight-laced heroes might label as "bad" people. The parts of this story is when Plastic Man makes connection with people like this. Unfortunately, the villains featured here are not that interesting, and it's not really clear what they are doing and why Plastic Man is involved.

[Bill Riggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like how the character of Plastic Man is written in this book but unfortunately the story is all over the place. It could have been so much better and it should have wrapped up cleanly instead of being left wide open.

[Wing Kee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Janky as hell but there is some potential here.

World: The world building is pretty fractured and choppy and this makes for a choppy read. I like it when writers create a little slice of the DCU for the character and Simone does try here to give it a hard boiled noir setting for Eel but it’s not detailed enough and the story jumps around in the first two issues to allow the world to fully be set in place. When it does come together it’s a fun little slice of the DCU. I like the characters that she has chosen to cameo and use for Eel’s story and it does call back even to Simone’s writing days for DC. The tone I also like balancing the humorous with a Dick Tracy vibe to the book.

Story: The story is janky and fractured and far to convoluted for it’s own good. I miss Plastic Man and a new mini series was what I had hoped DC would do to possibly springboard into a monthly series and for the most part the pieces are here for a potentially fun book. The humour is often on point, the characters are interesting but the story is overly complex when it should be simple to draw in new readers and remind old readers why Eel is a fun character. There’s the stuff with the old gang, there’s the stuff with the Cabal, there’s the stuff with the kid and the girls at the club, there are too many storylines for 6 issues. When the book hits the right note, it’s fun. But for the most part it’s like Eel, it’s formless and shifts around and is inconsistent. I expected more from Simone.

Characters: I like Eel he’s a fun character and I find his brand of humour way more fun than Deadpool and his creativity in shapes a much more enjoyable and creative read. I see glimpses of the arc that Simone is trying to give him and for the most part it works, it’s the same arc of him trying to do better, but the story is fractured making his arc also fractured. He’s pulled in too many places. There are moments when the emotions are great but they are unearned, especially with the prince, it’s cute but unearned cause of the limited page count. The rest of the cast are rather ho hum and don’t really have a personal voice, I would have wanted more time with each of them to establish them as his new family but 6 issues with that many characters was asking too much. The villains we see here are great, weird, odd and zany which fit the tone of this book, good choices.

I liked it, but I didn’t love it and I see a lot of flaws and potential here.

Onward to the next book!

*read individual issues*

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn on this one. I like Gail Simone's writing usually, and there's some good stuff here. But it feels like there's a gauzy layer over it that just manages to keep anything from really sinking in to really hit the feels. Eel O'Brian is a loser with stretching abilities who gets caught up in a fight against a secret Cabal called... the Cabal, while also dealing with relationship issues and a street kid dealing with gender issues (a topic that is handled pretty well - it's not Pado's defining feature, just something that he's dealing with). There are a lot of good ideas here, and Plastic Man's quips range from groaners to great, with some action sequences that make very good use of his abilities. But the main plot never really gels, and the final confrontation, while smartly played, doesn't end the way I would have liked it to. The art is good, capturing the absurdity well and managing to make Eel recognizable in almost every form he takes. Ultimately, it's a relatively fun ride with a slightly serious side that ends up feeling a bit too slight for my tastes. Still worth the read, but I don't think it's going to stick with me for long.

[Vinicius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Para dar início ao DC Renascimento, decidi começar leve, com uma leitura despretensiosa, algo que certamente um personagem como o Homem Borracha conseguiria proporcionar. Realmente, esse objetivo foi alcançado, a leitura é bem tranquila, no entanto, o roteiro por vezes é cansativo, com uma construção confusa entre os pensamentos do personagem e suas ações, algo que gera uma estranheza durante a leitura.

Sobre a história, ela é ok, contando brevemente como o Homem Borracha adquiriu seus poderes e como ele busca se redimir de um passado criminoso, já que com poderes, ele pode tentar agir como um herói e “pagar seus pecados”. Assim, acompanhamos em um arco de 6 edições, o Homem Borracha batendo em bandidos, mas com um conflito interno envolvendo a sua moralidade.

Esse dilema do personagem é interessante, ainda mais quando uma criança de rua entra em sua vida e exige uma responsabilidade do personagem para qual ele não está preparado, porém novamente o roteiro é confuso, mesclando hora o herói enfrentando bandidos, que foram seus amigos no passado e possuem relação com sua origem, hora ele está enfrentando super vilões, que nem sequer aparecem com firmeza e demonstram objetividade com seus planos. Fora que o plano citado, que está em execução, soa audacioso e ousado, acredito que para um primeiro arco de personagem pouco famoso, ficou sem sentido.

O que me agrada no personagem, e até foi mais legal de se ler, é a moralidade do personagem sendo testada e ele aprendendo com seus erros. Apesar do personagem ser todo extrovertido e caricato, ele possui uma boa índole, e tenta deixar seu passado de crime em busca de ser uma pessoa melhor.

[Eli Seibert · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars! full of the goofy and devil-may-care humor that makes eel o'brien fun, but still has good characterization that shows that the man of plastic just might have a heart of gold (ba-dum-tss)

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was a short easy read for me. A small self-contained story that gave a comic pleb like me enough room to understand what was going on without feeling like I had to browse the DC wikipedia page to get all the info.

Plastic Man is basically like the Deadpool of the DC setting although without the fourth-wall breaking meta stuff. He's a mouthy, goofy character whose exploits basically amount to making the villains look as goofy as possible before kicking their arses. His powers meanwhile allow good writers a lot of room for creativity and Gail Simone's run on Plastic Man is nothing if not creative.


Okay maybe he's a little fourth-wall breaking....

The story is such. Eel O'Brian - AKA Plastic Man - is a small time mook, formerly part of Cole City's mafia family, on the trail of the mobsters who left him for dead after a chemical heist went wrong, turning Brian into Plastic Man. Along the way, he gets conscripted in working for the covert agency Spyral to infiltrate the Cabal, a secret organisation dedicated to infiltrating the governments of the world. He also has to contend his love life hitting the skids and the introduction of Pado Swakatoon, King of the Street. And that's not even getting into Eel's former mob mate Sammy Mizzola turning his current squeeze into a supervillain.


I am so conflicted right now.

Sounds like a mouthful over six issues? That's because it is. The overall plot is schizophrenic as all fuck, constantly switching back and forth across different plotlines, trying to juggle them all at once, occasionally getting them right but sometimes dropping them all over the floor. It's like Gail Simone saw the mini-series format and just decided to chuck everything at the wall and hope it stuck. And a lot of it doesn't.

Let's jump to something good; the artwork by Adrian Melo and Kelly Fitzpatrick is gorgeous with plenty of bright colours, distinctive designs and expressive characters. Every character no matter how small is distinct and memorable and I love it. They did a great job here.

Let's bounce back to something critical; the dialogue. For the most part the dialogue is decent with Plastic Man getting most of the best lines and the best emotional bits. That being said however, some of the dialogue feels clunky. Here's an example:

Plastic Man: Oh and look, look at the delicate beauty. What are you gonna do lady...hit me with your throne?
Silver Banshee: Something like that. Feel the grief agony of the full scream of a banshee peasant! Feel what it was like when they chopped my head off!

.....this is in the middle of a fight scene.



Let's rebound back to something good: Plastic Man himself. In almost every scene he's in, he jumps off the page, hamming it up at every opportunity, cracking jokes and one-liners, transforming into a whole shtick of creative things to beat down the baddies. It makes for an engaging read even if not every joke lands.

Let's speedball it back to something critical: the other characters. There's too many of them. Way too many. We're talking Eel's stripper friends, his former mob mates, Sammy Mizzola's broad Janet (who gets mutated into a human lawn gnome with anger issues), the Cabal, the Spyral agent, an alien shapeshifter and Pado Swackatoon, Prince of the Street. And off those characters, we get only a light sprinkling of characterisation. The blonde stripper has a crush on Eel, the Afro-American stripper hate/likes him, the mob flunkies are thugs who disappear into the aether around issue 4, Sammy is a braindead mook who gets shoved to the side when Janet takes the stage, and Janet goes from brainless floozy to granite-covered psycho in the short time she's on the page. The alien shapeshifter is just a flunkie under the control of the Cabal and the Cabal are a Council of Vagueness, working behind the scenes towards.....something.

And then there's Pado. Let's address the elephant in the room. Pado's eleven and he's trans. I.e; A girl who identifies as a boy. Okay, fair, cool. Let's make this clear for all the emotionally delicate ninnies and perpetually angry whiners with an axe to grind. I've got no issue with LGBT matters being put in creative media. None whatsoever.
BUT:



Good intentions doesn't excuse bad writing. You can have the most honest, sincere intentions in the world - whether it be environmental issues, matters of gender/sexuality/religion etc - but if you don't respect your readers enough to write well, then your readers will notice and it comes across as hacky/lazy/patronizing.
Pado isn't necessarily the worst trans character I've read in creative media. That honour still goes to Mizzema from the video game Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, a character who was so bland and uninteresting who just felt the need to blurt out they were trans when you enquire about their name. But Pado as a character was....clunky. Beyond being trans, he doesn't really have a lot going for him. He lives on the street, becomes a kid sidekick to Eel, puts up a tough front to hide his pain. That's it. That's base level characterisation. It's made all the worse when a social worker comes and picks him up and makes it clear to the reader that she's the villain because she misgenders Pado and insists on buying him a dress.
That's some Saturday morning cartoon special shit right there.



Let's be clear here, I don't think Gail Simone is a bad person for attempting this. And she's not the first writer I've seen in my life to stumble over ideologies/concepts so badly they break their knees and their shins puncture their thighs. I haven't given Terry Goodkind any leeway, neither Kevin Hearne, nor Kelly Sue DeConnick, nor Matt Fraction, neither Robert Heinlein or Alan Moore. If you're going to address adult matters, do it in a way that respects the reader's intelligence.

Aside from that though and despite whinging myself into a pretzel, Plastic Man is still a decent read. It's not great, but it's fun and engaging, more for its smaller moments than its overall story. Plastic Man is funny most of the time, his antics are worth a chuckle and despite the flubbing of Pado, there are still some real human moments between Eel and Pado throughout.

Not bad, but not great, just middle of the road.

[Jakkus · Rating 4 out of 5]

totally wang

[Alex Sarll]

Gail Simone seemed the perfect match for Eel O'Brian, given how well Secret Six found both humour and pathos in the disregarded lowlives of the DCU. But this time out, the attempt to do comedy noir in the gutters of a superhero universe doesn't come off nearly so well, feeling somehow disjointed – perhaps the result of editorial meddling? Certainly I don't think the fault is with Adriana Melo's art, which captures the amusement value but also the body horror of a character so polymorphous and cartoon-like operating in an otherwise fairly realistic world. The story about O'Brian's faltering attempts to go straight occasionally lapses into mawkishness, the conspiracy plotline is too often just confusing, and I feel there was more to be done with the idea that Eel can change his body so much more easily than his ways, and has an ironically difficult time accepting malleability in others, which as is comes off a bit too much the clanging moral of an old US sitcom. Although, thinking back, the last solo Plastic Man book didn't work for me either, despite being by another creator whose stuff I generally love, Kyle Baker. Maybe he's just not a viable solo character, more someone to lighten up a team book.

[Adam Marquis · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a previous non innocent civilian, a lot has changed for O'brien. He is faced with new unwanted problems that aren't his fault this time. I did like the art of this book but it got a little confusing as the author used a lot of weird phrases and sentences to explain plastic man and his side kick woozy winks. I would recommend this book for a person that can understand the ending, because it gets out of place and weird but otherwise I liked the book.

[Emmanuel Nevers · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you were ever interested in jumping into Plastic Man here's your chance! This story touches on Eel O'Brian's origin and at the same time adds to his story. I hope this story continues because some of the plot threads introduced are left up in the air. Gail Simone does a fine job in painting Plastic Man as relevant, Irrelevant, funny and tragic all at the same time.

I would recommend this if you want a fun read or wanna take the plunge into what makes Plastic Man great!

[Ale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always liked Gail Simone writting since her run on Batgirl, and this is no exception. Plastic Man takes the character in a moment of his life in which he has to decide what he wants to become, and wheter he wants to turn back to normal or keep his new powers.



Althrough it was a good take at the beggining we ended up with basically nothing at the end, there was no closure of any kind, and I think that they should have closed at least one part of the story properly before just saying: "Don't worry, we know we didn't closed anything and this led nowhere, but hey, Plastic Man is coming back" when? and how? I don't know, but I hope it gets better.

[Will Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way Gail Simone writes Plastic Man is fun, but a little crass for my taste. There's some interesting mysteries introduced, but since the series got cancelled only 1 of them is resolved in any sort of way. Not my favorite story, but helped me scratch my itch for more Plastic Man. Might pick up the Terrifics when I get the chance since I like Plas having other characters to bounce off of.

[El Neo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty manic yet, enjoyable.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Allow me to start by saying this: Plastic man comes from an era of DC Comics that I was not reading. I only really got heavily involved in reading DC Comics with the beginning of The New 52. What I do know about Plastic Man is that he is always incredibly silly while still not being a copycat of someone like Harley Quinn or Deadpool.

This Volume, which is the start of a solo title for him, shows that Plastic Man (real name Eel O'Brian) is heavily involved on the wrong side of the law. He is the night manager at Superior's Gentlemen's Club, which ( I don't know how this hasn't been in a comic book before) has all of the strippers dressed as superheroes LOL. He also seems to be involved with the mob. His turn towards hero comes when he meets kid on the street, Pado Swakatoon, self-dubbed "Prince of Pine Street" who goes missing. Not only does he search for the kid (who is later revealed to be a girl), but he is also dealing with a friend and former gang member named Benny being murdered. Benny scrawled out the initials JLA in blood on the wall, leading Plastic Man to believe that there might be a traitor in the Justice League.

In trying to solve this crime, he gets involved with Agent Obscura of Spyral. Obscura believes that there is a cabal of criminals who are running the city. While search for "The Cabal", Plastic Man is forced to fight a group of low level criminals, and he steadily defeats them. They reveal to him they were hired by older ladies in the neighborhood watch and not "The Cabal", so he turns against Obscura, thinking she is trying to get Eel to do her dirty work. This was The Cabal's plan all along, as they can continue to operate and not be detected.

There is also an entire side story about Plastic Man being copied by an alien, and a gangster's woman who obtains the power of stoneskin, both ruining her fashion career, and blaming Plastic Man in the process.

I'm not sure I will continue with this title if it goes on, but I am interested to see how Plastic Man will continue to affect the current DC continuity. Recommend, especially if you enjoy silly crime noir stories.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

🅡🅔🅥🅘🅔🅦

Plastic Man
2018
Comic
Rating: 4/5

Plastic Man is a bold and gleefully bizarre reintroduction of one of DC Comics most offbeat heroes. Spanning six issues, this series dives headfirst into the absurdity of its lead character while also grounding the story in themes of redemption, identity, and morality. This run offers a fresh, smart, and sharply funny take on Eel O’Brian, a former crook turned elastic superhero.

The story picks up with Eel struggling to make sense of his bizarre transformation and his murky past. Writer Gail Simone cleverly balances his existential crisis with screwball humour, creating a version of Plastic Man who is funny and unexpectedly complex. The plot weaves noir-inspired mystery with superpowered chaos as Eel investigates a shadowy conspiracy involving the mob, a mysterious child, and a potential world-ending threat. The pacing is snappy, offering a mix of action, introspection, and off-kilter humour.

The art is a perfect match for the tone of the book. It captures the wild, rubbery antics of Plastic Man with kinetic energy while keeping the characters expressive and human. The work grounds the surreal elements in a gritty urban environment, blending crime drama with cartoonish set pieces in a way that never feels disjointed. The stylised visuals add to the comic’s identity, over-the-top but never messy, and always in sync with Simone’s sharp dialogue.

Simone doesn’t shy away from Eel’s criminal past, nor does she gloss over the trauma and confusion of his transformation. She avoids turning the book dark, instead offering a redemptive arc laced with sarcastic wit and genuine emotion. The relationship between Eel and the street-smart kid is effective, giving the story a heartbeat amongst the chaos.

Plastic Man is a wildly entertaining, surprisingly heartfelt story that respects the character while updating him for a modern audience. Simone’s writing is razor-sharp, and the visuals bring the elastic hero to life. It’s goofy, gritty, and emotionally charged all at once, a rare combination that makes it one of the most memorable comics of the character.

#plasticman#gailsimone#dc#dupreewenttothemovies

[Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a very fun time reading this story. Funny, spunky, and emotional at times. It doesn’t follow the normal formula for superhero comics and centers completely around Plastic-Man instead of over the top fights and character development. Almost feels like a PG-13 Lobo comic to me. This series offers an origin to Patrick Eel O’Brian and slight nods to the universe as a whole. Although a fairly boring introduction, it’s funny as all hell. The whole story is.

While reading other reviews on the other hand, I can see the many issues with the series. Man-Bat…why are you here? The bad guy team (don’t care to remember the name)… what are you doing? Weird shapeshifting alien thing…where did you come from? It seems as if they added other heroes villain rosters just to show how powerful Plastic Man is. As I said - I enjoyed every moment from this series and I can definitely see that they were completely random to the story.

The story as a whole is a street level one. Patrick getting revenge on his old gangs boss, who left him for dead and turned him into the Plastic Man. Along the way, Patrick finds a child and an agent who begs to help her with a mission. Although I see that they went for the ‘lighthearted’ superhero montra who has a soft spot for kids…why??? He feels like a Deadpool or a Lobo, there’s no need for this? (That’s why Deadpool 2 sucked)

Either way, I personally enjoyed the story and all of Plastic Man’s quips and creations. I would love to read more about the character and find a comic series better fit for me.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me... so long to read this that I hardly even remember the main plot points. I mostly got bored and confused when this team of villains was introduced and I only went back to finish this today so I could finally put it aside once and for all.

It was a fun introduction to the character and I love all the references when he turned into, like, Wonder Woman and a very familiar little pony form, LOL. This miniseries definitely makes for a nice pitch for a film, which is most of the reason I decided to read this series, to get prepared for the Plastic Man movie, whenever WB actually gets around to making it. I assume that it'd be based around these more recent comics but who knows, anymore, with all the changes going on at DC's film division.

ANYWAY other than the villains, I guess my other issue with this series is the ending. Because, it's a miniseries. Miniseries should be one story with a beginning, middle, and end and nothing left to tie up. The main story was kind of resolved by the end but there was also a villain origin that just got left hanging. Like, cliffhanger endings are fun but only if they actually continue the story. I don't think there's been any announcements of another Plastic Man series since this one so I feel like the ending didn't satisfy me since I have yet to see any continuation. Maybe there will be one soon, since Shazam went several years without another solo comic run. I'll be optimistic fpr but I hope it's not too long a wait.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s definitely a mixed bag: An origin story, a government conspiracy, a messy mashup of friendships and hero moves, and some raunchy humor. This version of Plastic Man is a bit different than the one I remember from the cartoons of my youth! A con artist/ thief/ strip club manager… Yep, not Saturday morning friendly. But there are some real good intentions. It starts with a robbery gone bad that turns into Plastic Man’s origin story. He gets pretty ridiculous in his combat moves, which is funny and silly at the same time. And he tries to get a bit of revenge, at times against himself for all his wayward ways in his past. And then along comes a little kid Eel can help.

Eel is a rubberband Deadpool of sorts… with a lot of wit and torture to share with his enemies. And the enemies of the Justice League as there’s a mysterious plot against the team and it seems that Plastic Man may be the only person who can save them.

But there’s some side stories that peter out and are vague in their connection to the main arc. The art is definitely a plus for this one. Detailed in the action scenes, but the many mobsters Eel encounters all start to look the same towards the end of the book.

This one is fun and filled with great scenes, but at a whole it is middle of the road as the the pieces don’t add up to much.

For my full review: https://paulspicks.blog/2019/12/02/pl...

For all my reviews: https://paulspicks.blog

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprisingly enjoyable read. One of the better interpretations of Plastic Man I've come across. When done right, he can be pretty funny. And when not done right... he's just plain stupid. This take gives the character a nice, sarcastic update; throws in some fourth-wall breaks; and adds just enough heart to make the reader care. I love characters who feel like they shouldn't be parents realizing how big their hearts truly are and wanting to take care of kids. There were some nice sweet moments alongside the funny ones; that sweetness also supplied some nice balance to the more "adult" themes. Not to say that this comic is as mature, as say, Deadpool, but it definitely wasn't strictly for kids either. In fact, I'd summarize this story as a "classier Deadpool." It had his sarcasm, some of his fourth-wall breaks, but it also knew when to hold back, and it gave us a hero who is genuinely trying to do good and be better rather than a anti-hero who...sometimes does that. If you're like me and you like a "lighter" Deadpool, then you'll probably find this comic worth reading. I know I'll be keeping a look out for the next volume--if for no other reason, than simply because it's a lot of fun.

[Casper · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun mini-series about the goofy elastic man. 3.5 probably if they had decimal scores.

I had kind of high hopes going into this, as Plastic Man has, by reputation, been a character that has interested me, but I wasn't intierly impressed with him in this book. I thought when he wasn't wallowing in his own misery it was pretty good and he was pretty funny. I definitely chuckled out loud several times.

Honestly where I though this book was lacking a bit was in the art. Melo did a fine job, but I thought it should've been way more creative, since Plastic Man is literally endless possibilities in human form. There was a couple of funny transformations, but very few memorable ones. Although credit where credit is due: the variety was great. Almost a new transformation on every page of action, although rarely any in conversation scenes (where they are really good for breaking up the monotony of the scenes) which was a little disappointing.

Overall I thought this was a fine story, but it was a little sad to see that it ended on a cliffhanger that had been spent way too long setting up. There was never any follow up and thus a lot of the comic's time was wasted.

Buy it if you want some Plastic Man or if you find it cheap.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

O Homem-Borracha é, sem dúvida, um dos mais divertidos e cheios de recursos personagens da DC Comics. Contudo, fora uma curta fase na Liga da Justiça, e uma revista própria de curta vida por Kyle Barker, o personagem sempre foi deixado de lado pela editora. Assim, desde os anos 1940, quando foi criado pelo genial Jack Cole na Quality Comics, o Homem-Borracha não tem ganhado os holofotes. Quando isso finalmente parecia que ia acontecer, pelas habilidosas mãos da roteirista Gail Simone e da brasileira Adriana Melo, o resultado saiu meia-boca. Gail até tem tem seus bons insights aqui e ali, mas a trama parece cheia de remendos de algo que era para ser uma série regular e se tornou minissérie. Tanto que acabamos com pelo menos uma ponta solta de algo que aprecia ser a trama principal. Já os desenhos de Adriana Melo também são irregulares, contudo, preciso dizer que nuca vi Eel O'Brian, ou o Homem-Borracha, desenhado de maneira tão sexy. Deixo para vocês julgarem se acham isso bom ou ruim. Acho uma pensa que um personagem com tanto potencial mais uma vez volte a amargar no limbo dos "personagens na geladeira", só para parafrasear o site que deixou Gail Simone famosa.

[Rizzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's alright. It's unfortunately a fairly standard superhero comic, never really going for the full cartoonish wackiness that Plastic Man is known for. It's well-written for what it is, but don't expect to be blown away. I wasn't quite a fan of Eel's characterization here, but your mileage may vary. I like my Plastic Man a bit more annoying and humorous, less heroic and sincere. There's humor to be sure, but nothing akin to past iterations. It also had the nerve to spend time setting up a subplot completely unrelated to the main plot, just to use it as a cliffhanger at the end as a plea for further issues to be greenlit. I really fucking hate this tactic, because it ruins the self-contained nature of a miniseries.

I hate to drag on a Simone comic, but it was pretty disposable. Not bad, not good. Stick to the Kyle Baker run unless you've already read it and are desperate for more!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven’t laughed this much while reading a comic since the last time I read Plastic Man.

There’s a special place in my heart for Plastic Man. When my oldest (now 20) was a kindergartner, I read him Plastic Man at night. Every month, we’d go to the comic store to pick up the latest issue, and we’d laugh and laugh.

Well, my oldest picked up this volume of Plastic Man stories as a nostalgia play a couple of weeks ago. I read it today, and I laughed laughed. Out loud. And even got a little choked up at one point, too.

If you enjoy silly jokes and comics that are actually comical, you cannot go wrong with Plastic Man. One word of advice, however: don’t read it somewhere quiet is required. You’ll laugh and laugh.

[Norman Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This captures most of the goofy fun of Jack Cole's original Plastic Man, minus most of the problematic sexist and racist aspects. It's updated to a more modern sensibility without losing it's innate humor. But at the end of the day, there's also nothing much of substance, either. Perhaps this is because some, but not all, of the plot threads are left dangling. One highlight is the dignity shown toward the girl who identifies as a boy. The artwork is very good, with Plas morphing into lots of zany shapes. This is really the best part of the character, even if none of it makes sense based on real physics.

I read this as individual comic book issues.