There’s never been a man like Plastic Man, but with his body breaking down, the fun and games are over for Eel O’Brien. Your Major Spoilers review of Plastic Man No More #1 from DC Comics Black Label awaits!

PLASTIC MAN NO MORE #1

Writer: Christopher Cantwell
Artist: Alex Lins/Jacob Edgar
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Becca Carey
Editor: Matthew Levine
Publisher: DC Comics/Black Label
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: September 4, 2024

Previously in Plastic Man No More: Eel O’Brian might be a superhero now–but before he was anything else, he was a crook. Until the accident that turned him into the pliable Plastic Man, Eel was bad to the bone…and just because he no longer has bones doesn’t mean that’s not still true. When an incident on a Justice League mission leads to catastrophic cellular damage, Plastic Man discovers he just might be out of time to make amends for the past he’s tried hard to outrun–or to save the soul of his son, who (unfortunately for him) might have inherited more from dear old Dad than just his superpowers…

THE SINS OF THE FATHER

Plastic Man No More #1 opens in the past, as Mammoth City is menaced by jewel thieves whose brazen daylight attacks have the police flummoxed. The leader is described as “slick as an eel,” but when he fixates on stealing a particular watch, even Eel O’Brien can get busted. After a (very clever) single-page summary of Plastic Man’s origins, we find him in the thick of battle with the heroes of the JLA, shielding his colleagues from a blast from the villain Solaris (who died in 1977, making the chronology of this story a bit wonky.) That night, Plas awakens to find his right arm melting away and depolymerizing, which in itself isn’t as disturbing as it might be for you and me. The fact that his hand doesn’t reform is quite strange, as well, but when he tries to tell the League about his condition, they all literally laugh it off. All of them save for Detective Chimp, who gets Batman to recommend a petrochemical scientist whose analysis of his body makes one thing clear: “Hypothetically, this is how an organism like you would die.”

EXTREMELY DEPRESSING

The issue ends with an extremely dark plot point/joke about how to reverse the depolymerization, but rather than feel like an important step for Plastic Man, it just feels cruel. This issue piles on the grimdark, from his son Luke rejecting him and telling him NOT to call him “son” to the Justice League literally laughing over Plastic Man’s attempts to ask for help with his condition to the sight of bits of Plastic Man slurping away down the drain and into the streets of Mammoth City. This issue describes itself as “body-horror Plastic Man noir,” and the coloring leans hard into that horror aspect, contrasting the bright, colorful superhero battles with huge swathes of black ink. Using different artists for the superhero flashbacks is a very good decision, but it’s a decision that makes the darkness of Lins’ portions that much more noticeable. There’s also a moment that implies that Plastic Man’s trademark goggles/glasses are, in fact, a throwback to his night vision gear as a sneak thief, which feels both unnecessary and unimaginative, thanks to the Hathaway movie version of Catwoman.

BOTTOM LINE: WHO IS THIS FOR?

While I understand and even applaud the desire to create stories that tap into new ground and examine unseen facets of DC’s stable of heroes, Plastic Man No More #1 leans so hard into undermining the idea that Eel O’Brien is all about laughs that it circles back around into making him feel like a joke, earning 2 out of 5 stars overall. The build to the overly cruel ending is successful, and Detective Chimp has seldom looked better, but the overall effect of the issue was to leave me confused.

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