Plastic Man: On the Lam
"Plastic Man: On the Lam" is a graphic novel that reimagines the classic character Plastic Man, originally created in 1941 by Jack Cole. The story follows Eel O'Brian, a former criminal turned superhero with the ability to stretch and shape his body. The narrative kicks off with Plastic Man working with the FBI alongside his sidekick, Woozy Winks. However, he soon finds himself framed for murder, leading to a comedic and action-packed investigation to clear his name. The story introduces a range of characters, including Agent Morgan, who harbors a personal vendetta against Plastic Man.
Artfully crafted by writer and illustrator Baker, the graphic novel employs a cartoonish style reminiscent of classic animation, filled with sight gags and humor intended for a more mature audience while remaining accessible to younger readers. The plot satirizes superhero tropes and incorporates subtle critiques of the genre, all while maintaining an engaging storyline. Despite its critical acclaim, the series had a limited run, reflecting the niche market for superhero spoofs. Baker's version of Plastic Man is often viewed as one of the more successful attempts to breathe new life into the character, offering a blend of humor, action, and social commentary that resonates with both long-time fans and new readers.
Plastic Man: On the Lam
AUTHOR: Baker, Kyle
ARTIST: Kyle Baker (illustrator)
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 2004
FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2004
Publication History
The character Plastic Man was originally created in 1941 by Jack Cole for Quality Comics and became one of the most popular characters of the period. Cole left Plastic Man in 1950 and comic books entirely in 1954. DC Comics acquired the rights to Plastic Man in 1956 but did not feature him in any comics until 1966, when it began a pattern of reviving him once or twice a decade, but without long-term success.
In 1998, Plastic Man became popular as the comic relief for The Justice League of America and as an action figure, so DC attempted to revive him again. They chose Baker as writer and illustrator because he had previously drawn a character named Splash Brannigan. Made of ink, Splash had powers similar to Plastic Man. Baker had also worked in animation, and DC felt that his manic style would be a good match for Plastic Man’s inherent wackiness. Since the character was not one of DC’s major sources of revenue, Baker was given considerable creative freedom. Plastic Man: On the Lam was originally published in single magazine format as Plastic Man, issues 1-6, in 2004 and was published in book format later in 2004.
Plot
Plastic Man has always been a spoof of superheroes. Although it can be read by audiences of all ages, Baker’s version is aimed primarily at readers old enough to understand the jokes. The opening scene shows Plastic Man and his sidekick, Woozy Winks, working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). One night, Plastic Man has a dream in which he recaps the origin of his superpowers. As a criminal named Eel O’Brian, he was splashed with acid while robbing a chemical factory. He then ran through a swamp and halfway up a mountain before collapsing. The monks at a nearby monastery found him and nursed him back to health, but he discovered that his body had turned into plastic. He had a spiritual crisis and decided to become a superhero.
Plastic Man’s dream is interrupted by a phone call summoning him to a murder scene, where Woozy discovers a wallet containing O’Brian’s driver’s license. No one knows that Plastic Man’s real name is Eel O’Brian, so Plastic Man realizes that he has been framed. The local FBI chief, Branner, assigns Morgan, a female agent from FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., to be Plastic Man’s partner in the investigation. Plastic Man then drops his own wallet, which reveals that he is Eel O’Brian.
The FBI apprehends Plastic Man by turning up the air-conditioning and freezing him. Plastic Man escapes while being transported to another location. Meanwhile, Woozy attempts to foil a mugging, but it turns out to be a trap set by the criminal who framed Plastic Man. The criminal then uses Woozy as the bait to trap Plastic Man at the same chemical factory where he originally became Plastic Man. Woozy, however, does not cooperate; he springs the trap and is killed before Plastic Man arrives.
The only mourners at Woozy’s funeral a few days later are his mother, Agent Morgan, Chief Branner, and Plastic Man, disguised as the officiating minister. Later, Chief Banner concludes that Plastic Man could not have committed the original murder. Consequently, Agent Morgan poisons the chief before he figures out that she is the one who framed Plastic Man.
During this time, Plastic Man has returned to the monastery, at which time it is revealed to the reader that all the monks have superpowers. Led by Agent Morgan, the FBI attacks the monastery and uses nerve gas to overcome Plastic Man and the monks. Agent Morgan reveals that she is really Eel O’Brian’s former girlfriend, Nancy. She had her appearance surgically altered, changed her hair color, and joined the FBI under an assumed name to get revenge. Plastic Man tells her that he broke up with her only to protect her.
Morgan repents just as Chief Branner, who faked his death, arrives. She reveals that the original murder victim had committed suicide, and she only used the body to frame Plastic Man. Meanwhile, one of the monks resurrects Woozy. Finally, everyone is forgiven, and Plastic Man and Morgan resume their duties with the FBI.
Characters
•Plastic Man, a.k.a. Eel O’Brian, is a burglar turned superhero. He has the ability to stretch into any position, can disguise himself, and is invulnerable to bullets, electricity, telepathy, and old age. However, he is unhappy at the beginning of the story because he knows he can never have a normal life. He is still in love with a woman named Nancy but fears for her safety if she were to become his wife.
•Woozy Winks, a.k.a. the Trouncer, is Plastic Man’s dim-witted sidekick and best friend. He is immediately recognizable because of his obesity and tacky shirts. While Plastic Man is working with Agent Morgan, he dons a costume, which consists of wearing his underwear outside his clothing, a cape, and a mask, and he tries to become a superhero himself. Unfortunately for him, he is not successful. Although a buffoon, he is genuinely brave, as illustrated by when he sacrifices his life for Plastic Man.
•Chief Branner is the head of the local FBI office.
•Agent Morgan, a.k.a. Nancy, is Eel O’Brian’s former girlfriend and has become a beautiful, hard-boiled FBI agent under an assumed name. She joined the FBI so she could torture and kill Plastic Man legally.
•Woozy’s mother and her husband adopted Woozy after Plastic Man put their natural son, a gangster named the Lobster, in jail.
•Flaming Monk is a monk who has the ability to turn into flame.
•Brother Mountain is a monk with superstrength.
•Ephemeral Monk is a monk who can turn both invisible and immaterial. He also is able to go back and forth to the afterlife, where he resurrects Woozy.
Artistic Style
Baker wrote, penciled, inked, colored, and lettered this graphic novel all by himself, although he did make use of computer-generated backgrounds. This level of involvement is rare in an independent publication, let alone in a comic from one of the biggest comic book companies. Baker’s style is cartoonish, reflecting the Looney Tunes style made popular by the old Warner Bros. animation division and its most popular directors Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Chuck Jones, and each panel looks like an animation cel.
Baker makes extensive use of sight gags, such as when Plastic Man disguises himself as graffiti, and there is a joke of some kind in every panel. For example, Plastic Man transforms into a bicycle and offers Agent Morgan a lift, he transforms into cartoon character Scooby Doo, and he transforms into Nick Charles of the Thin Man film series from the 1930’s and 1940’s. The book’s cover, which is plastic, is designed to look as if Plastic Man has disguised himself as a book and is hiding on the reader’s bookshelf.
The page in which O’Brian realizes that the acid from the chemical factory has turned him into plastic is drawn in the style of underground comics artist Robert Crumb, and the word “acid” is lettered in the style of 1960’s rock-and-roll album-cover art. “Acid” is also a reference to the hallucinogenic drug LSD. For the few pages in which Superman, Batman, and the other members of the Justice League appear, Baker uses the traditional superhero style, in which the heroes are all presented as athletic bodybuilders.
Themes
Baker’s challenge was to take Cole’s original creation and update it for the twenty-first century. His Plastic Man does not resemble traditional superhero graphic stories as much as it does a MAD magazine parody of one. His primary intent is to spoof superhero comics, and the plot is intentionally silly and goofy. However, he does slip in some subtle criticisms of superheroes. For example, in Batman’s brief appearance, he is shown to be on the verge of psychosis.
Another aspect of superhero stories that Baker critiques is that the dead do not stay dead. For instance, decades ago, the writers of Batman killed off his butler, Alfred. Then they brought him back to life when he became a regular character on the old Batman television show (1966-1968). In this story, Baker kills off Woozy and brings him back to life.
Baker also engages in political satire. For instance, when Agent Morgan launches the assault in the monastery, one of her subordinates objects to massacring “civilians in a house of worship.” Her reply is, “You must be the new guy.” This is an obvious reference to the FBI assault on the Branch Davidian compound in 1993. Morgan also states that she joined the FBI in order to kill and torture Plastic Man “legally.”
Nonetheless, the story is comprehensible to children even if they miss some of the finer points. Baker believes that good graphic storytelling should be so visual that someone who does not read or can only read at a grade school level should be able to understand it.
Impact
Despite its critical success and its awards, the latest incarnation of Plastic Man only lasted twenty issues and was discontinued after 2006. It turned out that the market for a superhero spoof is too small for a major comic book publisher like DC, which is a division of the media conglomerate Time Warner. Baker wrote and illustrated all but one of those twenty issues.
Most comic book historians have evaluated Baker’s efforts with Plastic Man as the best of several attempted revivals of Cole’s character but feel that it still falls short. However, a minority believe that Baker’s version of the character is actually better than Cole’s. Although Cole retired from comics the same year that Fredric Wertham’s The Seduction of the Innocent (1954) was published and before the Comics Code was adopted, he was still constrained by the self-imposed limits of a 1940s medium aimed at children. Baker, on the other hand, works at a time when comics are aimed at young adults and have greater freedom regarding sex and violence.
Baker believes that in both graphic novels and animation there is too much dialogue. He feels the story should be told visually instead, as he demonstrates with Plastic Man. That is not to say that Baker’s graphic novel is without witty dialogue. Quite the contrary; the dialogue and puns are quite clever. However, the words are subordinate to the visuals.
Further Reading
Baker, Kyle. Plastic Man: Rubber Bandits (2005).
Cole, Jack. The Plastic Man Archives, Volumes 1-8 (1999-2006).
Spiegelman, Art, and Chip Kidd. Jack Cole and Plastic Man (2001).
Bibliography
Flagg, Gordon. “On the Lam.” Review of Plastic Man: On the Lam, by Kyle Baker. Booklist 101, no. 2 (September 15, 2004): 217.
Galuschak, George. “Plastic Man: On the Lam.” Review of Plastic Man: On the Lam, by Kyle Baker. Kliatt 39, no. 4 (July, 2005): 32.
Goldstein, Lisa. “Plastic Man: On the Lam!” Review of Plastic Man: On the Lam, by Kyle Baker. School Library Journal 51, no. 7 (July, 2005): 124.
Raiteri, Jeff. “Plastic Man: On the Lam.” Review of Plastic Man: On the Lam, Kyle Baker. Library Journal 130, no. 9 (May 15, 2005): 98.
Spiegelman, Art, and Chip Kidd. Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001.