Plentifully Prodigious Plastic Men

Although this blog primarily focuses on the red and yellow clad crusaders of Fawcett Comics, a special exception could be made for today’s entry. Tied to an honorary member of the Fawcett Family, as we shall see.

One of the iconic heroes in comic book history has to be the stretch sleuth known as Plastic Man, created by legendary writer Jack Cole. And from his initial 1941 appearance in Police Comics #1 through that series' conclusion and that of his own title published during that decade, the former Eel O'Brien became a legend. And a desired property for other publishers, particularly DC Comics which acquired the Quality Comics character.

So in 1966 Plas was reintroduced, or rather it turned out to be his son. Then, the original turned up in a couple of early 1970's Brave and the Bold issues teaming up with Batman. But was this the original? And what became of his son? Well after his own revitalized mid-70's series had concluded, he had a string of Adventure/Super Friends/Worlds Finest Comics solo tales. Intermixed, he was affiliated with at least three teams of champions of three Earths!

Once the dust cleared and time helped place things in perceptive, a few facts were made somewhat clear. The initial incarnation of Plastic Man resided on Earth-Two, home to most golden age heroes. Joining the All-Star Squadron as their FBI liason, he would stick around. During this period he met Captain Marvel from Earth-S, and Uncle Sam who moved to Earth-X. Around this time, an inventive crook created synthetic Plastic Men to bedevil the original. Even Woozy Winks became a stretchy sidekick accidentally and helped his pal to defeat them.

It was the latter that finally motivated Plastic Man to journey with fellow heroes from Earth-Two to this hero-less world to protect it from the Nazi hordes. Sadly, this journey was not kind to this incarnation of Plastic Man, as alluded to by Uncle Sam's cryptic comments decades later. And yet, acording to his "Who's Who" entry, this golden age Plastic Man still survived into the present day even though he was thought deceased on Earth-X!

During the Convergence event that pulled various cities and their heroes to a planet outside space and time, Plastic Man along with you fellow Freedom Fighter battled the Nazi villain Silver Ghost. During the conflict, Plas and the Ghost formed an uneasy alliance to track down the origin of deadly cyborgs threatening the citizens of their displaced New York City. After a final battle when the Ghost betrayed his foe turned ally, Plastic Man was left outside and separated from the Fighters. Where this version of the hero ended up in the multitude of cities on Telos is hinted at in an encounter Plas would have with Kid Eternity. He didn't return to Earth-Two, as the Senate hearing that tried the Justice Society in the 1980's said that Plastic Man disappeared in the 1940's. He would travel to a city originating on an Earth where he settled down and sire a son in his image!

The Earth-One Plastic Man first appeared chronologically alongside the Justice League of America in their origin story and later team up with that world's Batman in Brave and the Bold, then would go on to have solo tales in the 1970's in his own title, Super Friends Adventure and World's Finest Comics! This pliable protector found a foe in the young Robby Reed, the possessor of the H-Dial, enabling him to "Dial 'H' for Hero" which he did over a dozen times in his brief career. Twice Robby become a clone of Plastic Man. Robby's Dial-generated Plas was similar to the faux Plastic Men created on Earth-Two by Doctor Gleason for crime lord Pinky in order to battle that world’s Plas. The extra Plastic replicants mirrored those created by Doom Patrol adversary Gaurgax.

Then there was the wacky 1960's son of the original, Eel O'Brien Jr. and a Plastic Man who had teamed up with the Inferior Five in their issue #6. This Eel existed contemporaneous to the Inferior Five, who were said to reside on Earth-Twelve, on that parallel world prone towards comedic circumstances. However, despite being a second generation hero like the Five (who themselves were the offspring of the golden age Freedom Brigade) Junior did not deem it worthy of joining them.

Another Plastic Man who appeared alongside Kid Eternity on Earth-S. While this may, on the surface, seem similar to when Earth-One's Robbie Reed used his Dial "H" for Hero device to transform into the malleable manhunter himself on two occasions, this was the Eel O'Brien from the Kid's Eternity dimension attached to Earth-S. It was this Plastic Man's exploits in the middle to latter part of the 1940's that were being chronicled in his own self-titled comic and in Police Comics, as mentioned in this particular story... on the Kid's Earth. Additionally, Blackhawk had tales in his own series during this time and also aided Kid Eternity on occasion. As with Plastic Man, it seems Blackhawk... and by extension his six teammates...migrated from Eternity to Earth-S. These heroes continued to operate into the mid 1950's on this world as chronicled in their Quality Comics tales.

Indeed, this legend stretched himself quite thin, in a sense... as five versions of him helped to protect five worlds! So in the end, there was Plastic Man of Earth-Two who was a founding member of the All-Star Squadron and later moved to Earth-X thanks to Uncle Sam, then due to the Convergence moved to Earth-Twelve where he sired that universe's native version of Plastc Man, the Plastic Man from Eternity that Kid Eternity brought to Earth-S where he remained, the Earth-One Plastud Man and his Robby Reed clone. And we aren't even counting the dozens of synthetic Plastic Men that one of the original's foes created in the early 1940's on Earth-Two. Whew!