Plastic Man....

[DR.MID-NITE]

I read in another post. That they are thinking of having a Batman/Plastic Man team up. I normally cannot stand Plastic Man. He is too much of a goof. But, in a recent JLA issue all the heroes are split from their alter egos. This is where we see the other side of Plastic Man. He was a crook, who I thinkneeded his powers and sense of humor to control his bad side. He was the one who helped get the team back together. He even beat up Bruce Wayne. It was a very interesting side to his character.

ps- I still would like to see a fight between Plastic Man and Elongated Man. ;)

[SilentBob173]

Plastic Man was also a character that I used to not be able to tolerate. BUt then I read some of the stories written by well known artists. Then I realized that when Plastic Man is written by an untalented writer who's struggling just to keep an audience mildly interested is not going to be able to pull off an effective comic relief and then Plastic Man will come off as strained and just trying too hard to be funny, because that's exactly what the writer was doing. It all depends on who writes a character.

Hell, I think someone like Allan Moore, Mark Waid, or Kevin Smith could make someone as asinine as someone like Snapper Carr or the Guy Gardner interesting and maybe even tolerable.

[kid_flash]

EXACTLY!

I remember a moment in JLA #39 where Plastic Man figured out how to defeat the Queen Bee. It was a pretty funny conversation (he was talking with Wonder Woman and Big Barda), but it also showed just how smart Plas is.

And, of course, the most famous proof of how great a character Plas is: JLA #51-54 (just read it yesterday, as a matter of fact). When I first heard from Waid that he'd be writing a JLA story the focused on Plastic Man, and WASN'T humorous, I was thrilled. And he delivered perfectly. This is the side of Plas, the Eel O'Brian side, that makes the character very interesting.

And a fight between Ralph and Plas? Doubt it'd happen.,But a fight between Mr. Fantastic and Plas? Ohhhhh yeah!

[Calhoun07]

Plastic Man, Elongated Man, and Mr Fantastic....how many stretchable heroes do we need??? Sure, one is in Marvel, but why did DC feel the need to have TWO characters like that!

[Nightwing]

That Marvel/Mr. Fantastic thing is something you gotta get used to, Cal. A lot of times it feels like for each Marvel character, we can also find a mirror image of him or her in DC, or equally vice versa. Like Catwoman and the Black Cat. Not that I don't adore them both though. I guess 2 comic creator greats being around that long'll make that coincidence for ya.

[Joe Tully]

Marvel also has a character known as the Thin Man. He also has the power to stretch, which he gets when he turns his body 2-dimentional (that's how he got his name). I remember reading an essay about how he was the first documented stretching hero, showing up a litle while before Plas waaaaay back when. He only appeared a couple of times when he was first created, but resurfaced in The Invaders series, which I think was in the 70s. He was also in the Invaders miniseries from the 90s. I think that, in current Marvel continuity, he's gone kind of crazy and is in jail. I think his powers helped keep him from aging.

[DR.MID-NITE]

Calhoun07,
Don't quote me. But, I think this is the reason for DC having 2 streching heroes. Elongated Man was created in the early sixties, making his first appearance in the Flash. Plastic Man was created by another comic book company that was eventually bought out by DC. Who then absorbed their characters, similar to when DC bought Fawcett and took over the Shazam characters.

[Calhoun07]

That makes sense. I forgot that Plastic Man wasn't a DC property from the beginning. That's ok, cuz I like Plastic Man more than Elongated Man anyway!