Web hosting Custom Email SiteBuilder

Recycling Plastic

The oft-duplicated Plastic Man remained distinct from all of his successors, owing to different views of the stretchable hero as scientific adventurer, masked detective, and disposable clown.

Plastic Man, the Original

Elastic Man became an iconic character in several ways, first by providing an innovative set of powers that would eventually reside almost unaltered in later superheroes and secondly by creating the whole genre of the shape- shifting costumed superhero or supervillain.

Plastic Man enjoyed a typically period origin involving the mysteries of chemistry, since comics readers in general typically neither knew nor cared about the specific and imagined properties of radiation, particularly as a mutagen. He began as the world's worst gangster, a pathetic thug named "Eel" O'Brian, who fell into a vat of acid on a job gone terribly wrong. He woke up in a monastery called "Haven" amid helpful monks who had nursed him back to health and discovered his stretching powers; and he took this as a chance to go straight again, though later retconning would modify details of his origin.

The original days of Plastic Man in such Golden Age works as Police Comics treated the concept with considerable humor; and this humor would continue with his short-lived sixties revival, ultimately evolving into a pervasive strangeness that permeated the character and his worldview. In the modern synthesis, Plastic Man sees the world in cartoon as a consequence of the accident that gave him his powers, and this minor derangement contributes much to his unserious viewpoint and the twisted gags he pulls with shapechanging.

Derivative characters that echoed Plastic Man's abilities would each succeed to a different degree, depending upon other elements than the powers themselves.

Mr. Fantastic

By 1961, America had entered the nuclear age, had read two more decades of science fiction, had seen "Twilight Zone" and "Outer Limits," and had become concerned about the real and imaginary physics surrounding nuclear weapons. Such an interest expressed itself in the formulaic Marvel origin story of the day, which typically used radiation as the mechanism for embuing normal humans with powers (see the Hulk; Spider-Man; the Fantastic Four; the Leader; Doc Sampson; the Abomination; and others).

Therefore, Lee/Kirby's Mr. Fantastic gained his powers by exposure to cosmic rays, a particularly fearful radiation composed of electrons travelling near lightspeed. Rather than bleeding at the gums, going bald, becoming incontinent, and dying in outrageous agony like one would have expected a normal person to, Mr. Fantastic gained the ability to stretch his body like taffy yet somehow retain enough physical integrity to keep his fists solid.

Appearing by himself, Mister Fantastic might have represented an annoying pilferage of concept, but he constituted one element of a thematic quartet in which each member's ability echoed one of the four classical elements, although Lee and Kirby never explicitly explained such a connection in their early Fantastic Four work. The Thing represented earth (an obvious choice for a being made of orange rocks); the Human Torch represented fire; the Invisible Girl represented air (her invisibility power gave her a property of air), and Mr. Fantastic's power reflected the fluidity and malleability of water. To add to this more complex relationship of powers, Mr. Fantastic also possessed a scientific background.

Mr. Fantastic presented an altogether different character who simply shared powers with Plastic Man. He enjoyed a much more avuncular appearance than conventional heroes, bearing grayed temples, a pipe, and, had he not worn a uniform, probably tweed with leather patches as well. Furthermore, he frequently completed adventures as a scientist rather than a slugging superhero; whole adventures might pass in which Mr. Fantastic never stretched anything as he pored over a console or a set of laboratory glassware. Furthermore, Mr. Fantastic lacked the shape-changing aspect of Plastic Man's powers.

Thus, Mr. Fantastic could have retained his conceptual essence with an altogether different set of powers. The character would remain recognizeable through the rounded-out traits that preceded the accident that gave him powers.

Elongated Man

Elongated Man mixed a very silly origin, an atrocious name, and a lack of self-importance into a package that had considerable charm. Again, in spite of the derivative nature of his powers, this character refused to act as a simple clone of Plastic Man. Like Mr. Fantastic, he engaged in altogether different adventures.

One must ignore some rather inane baggage to properly appreciate the character. Though falling in a vat of acid or bathing in cosmic rays do involve considerable suspension of disbelief to accept, the Elongated Man gained his powers by investigating the culture of sideshow rubber-men. Acting as the amateur detective, Ralph Dibny discovered that all of these performers enjoyed one thing in common: all drank "Gingold cola." So, to discover what this product had going for it, Dibny boiled down an extract of this soft drink and found that it gave him stretching powers.

Writers might find such nonsense difficult to reconcile with the more self-important, hyperserious portrayals of contemporary superheroes; perhaps his current absence from comics reflects something of an embarassment at this. However, the silly origin aside, Elongated Man represented a unique version of the human rubber band character, really not like either Plastic Man or Mr. Fantastic; where Mr. Fantastic appeared as a fifties-style scientist with powers attached, Dibny retained his character as an amateur sleuth.

The detective came first in this portrayal, and the powers provided one in an arsenal of detecting tools he might employ. Luck and intuition played similarly important roles in a typical Elongated Man story from his heyday. Although he relied consistently upon his powers to allow him some necessary breaking and entering by way of doorjamb or keyhole, he adventured by following clues and creating hypotheses. Slugging it out remained a minor element of his repertoire.

An Elongated Man story does not read like a Plastic Man story or a Fantastic Four story, and that, at least, serves to justify the character. Though he has appeared in print rarely since his days as a regular member of the Justice League, he still retains the loyalty of a quiet but sincere body of fans who recognize the potential of the character and acknowledge the value of the optimistic approach used in his portrayal.

Elastic Lad

Here the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns seems to have applied. Said law notes that the market value of a product declines as a producer makes more of it; in general, the demand of component resources drives their price up until production costs become greater than profits. However, in Elastic Lad's case, writers seem to have used up any resources available for creating such characters.

Of course, the context in which writers created him may have contributed to the overall weakness of the character concept. In the sixties, DC played with the Legion of Superheroes concept in a number of unfortunate ways. In one type of story, Superman or Superboy's supporting cast would attempt to nose into the act, such as through Lana Lang using a magic ring to become "Insect Queen." Some sage scribe thought that throwing Jimmy Olsen into the mix would provide considerable hilarity and did this without concern for the fate of the medium.

The name "Jimmy Olsen" should set off a few alarms for those readers wary of woefully stupid stories rich in corniness and illogic. Stories where Jimmy turned into things, like the "Turtle Boy" (about whom DC still makes nasty self-deprecating jokes now that another generation of writers and artists have taken the reins), generally promised a groanfest without peer elsewhere in comics.

We may recognize the "Elastic Lad" stories as belonging to this set. Jimmy managed to get his stretching power by way of someone's secret formula (probably not Gingold Soda, though) and cobbled together a costume of a truly awful combination of magenta and forest green; then, to make it dynamic, he wrote the words "Elastic Lad" on the chest, perhaps to suggest to readers that Jimmy served as an amateur superhero not as versed in costuming as his "real" heroic peers.

He appeared in stories such as a Legion of Superheroes tale in which all of the female Legionnaires found his masculine magnetism altogether overwhelming and got into a huge pulling match for possession, stretching out his limbs in an insane pheromone-heavy tug-of-war. The other stories did not represent a major deviation from this standard.

By the time Jack Kirby first made his debut within the pages of Jimmy Olsen, DC already demonstrated a keen desire to resuscitate the entire Superman stable of characters, including aborted attempts at revision in 1968 (which got no further than adding Ross Andru to Action Comics), 1970 (Kirby and Jimmy Olsen), and 1971 (Dennis O'Neil and Swan/Anderson on Superman). However, by 1970, DC seemed to dispense with the "Elastic Lad" concept for good, showing a change that would require another fifteen years to achieve for other undesireable elements of baggage in the Superman mythos.

Offspring

This character, while theoretically enjoying the status of a knock-off, at least connects with the original in a significant way: "Offspring" supposedly had Plastic Man as a father, and acts as his superheroic heir in the near-future scenarios derived from Kingdom Come. Initial portrayals do less for this character than for his purported sire; Plastic Man within recent DC comics distinguishes himself with a disturbing sense of humor characteristic of an uninhibited mind. Offspring, on the other hand, demonstrates the formulaic lack of self-confidence typical of kid sidekicks promoted to fill the boots of a mentor (such as Kid Flash's earlier days as the Flash).

However, if DC chooses to do something with the character, rather than plunk a set of powers down in a costume, give the result a coupon for a free origin story, and set him off adventuring, Offspring could prove another valuable heir to the Plastic Man legacy. DC should know, from Elastic Lad, how to do the concept badly; and should also know, from the Elongated Man (and the extramural Mr. Fantastic), that good conceptualization will allow the development of a good and original character even where his powers reflect an earlier character design.