Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Plastic Man

Is anyone else getting this book?

I'm strongly considering DROPPING it after having been there since #1.

Love Baker's artwork, and the continuity stories (7-9) were very good. So was the stand-alone with the Glue guy.

But ... the plots just aren't grabbing me.

Thoughts?

I'm where you are. A big fan of Kyle Baker, and the the book is cartoon-funny, but it seems cartoon-thin as well. There are clever depictions of Plas, a few digs at comic books and our security-minded society, but there isn't much story - more like a running gag. I'd agree that 7-9 were the best issues plot-wise.

With books like this, I sort of hope the company drops it before I do, and saves me the trouble of deciding.

DC seems to have changed tactics regarding the book. It's gone bi-monthly, and they appear to be pushing it as a childrens' book now.

And so, it ends. The last good DC title... gone.

At least it took time to piss all over the wreckage of the DCU on it's way out

He did piss on the overblown IC - and I thought he made a good point about comics for kids. Baker, in interviews, has bemoaned the lack of good children-oriented comics; I guess Plastic Man was his attempt to address that. Too bad it didn't have a kiddie price tag. I quite liked this final issue.

Not sure I got the final page, though. DC in limbo?

Just recycling this topic to mention how totally awesome the Golden Age Plastic Man is!

Seriously, here's the plot of a story I read tonight:

This 17th century English mad scientist is apparently killed in a laboratory accident which somehow leaves his brain immortal, though his body completely stops functioning. So they bury him, and everything decays but his brain.

Fast forward to WW2, where a young American soldier is caught in an air raid which also happens to uncover the grave of the mad scientist. Thinking the brain belongs to the soldier who has suffered severe head injury, emergency surgery is performed which inserts the brain into the young soldiers body, but leaves him crippled.

Posing as the crippled soldier, the mad scientist comes to America and lives with the soldier's family until he can invent a formula which allows him to turn into a giant and walk on his hands in giant form!

And all of this is before Plas even gets involved!

I mean... can we say totally awesome!

Good Lord! Now **THAT** is a PLOT!

From the little I've seen that plot is a good example of the creative and totally off the wall type stories Plas would have. My Dad and I scored 5 late 40's / early 50's Plas comics last year and they are hella-kewl.

Jack Cole was a genius and it's a shame he died early (and how). There is definitely a place for comics that are a bit of a running gag and full of whimsy. Awesome to kids but groovy to adults.

It's fun reading in the context of the early Police Comics issues (which I've been reading over on Digital Comics Museum , because Plastic Man obviously stands out even in the first couple of issues as the most interesting feature, but watching it move from a "middle-of-the-book" series, then ousting Firebrand as the main cover feature, and then taking over the slot as the lead feature in the book, all the while pushing things further and further into wackiness is just fascinating.

Fans of Plas should avoid Flashpoint: Legion of Doom. At all costs.

Incidentally, biggest disappointment from reading Police Comics: Phantom Lady. For one of the longest running features of the Golden Age, and one of the earliest super-heroines, and who ended up being published by multiple companies, her early adventures are pretty much Dullsville.

The Quality Manhunter is showing a surprising amount of grooviness, however. #711 is quite a bit of fun as well, despite being set in a prison whose security makes Stalag 13 look like Alcatraz.