Plastic Man #4
Joe Bainbridge
Recap
The issue opens with Sammy the suitcase visiting his girlfriend after he shot her into some chemicals. She appears, her skin looking like stone and in agony. Unfortunately Sammy blames Eel for this as he had believed that she would get abilities when she fell into the chemicals.
Meanwhile, Eel is taking Pado out shopping for clothes. Someone tries to pickpocket Eel when out but he notices and takes them out, with Pado begging to let them go. They stop various crimes and eventually Eel calls Obscura out shopping, disguising it as an emergency. As this happens, Eels dancers go to a professor to find out what the writing meant in the last issue and he finds something disturbing.
Eel attempts to romance Obscura and finds out about her life, and that she occasionally sees her mother but in a disguise and with her voice disguised too. While in the middle of a dance, he gets a call from his dancers saying that they are being followed. He finds the followers and is attacked by Banshee and a few other villains. A short battle ensues and ends with Eel realising that they were hired by old ladies to protect their street after Benny was murdered there by a Plastic Man lookalike.
When Plastic Man returns to Obscura and Pado, he tells her that he lifted a voice modulator off of her and tells her that she lied about the cabal ever existing and that she kidnapped Pado and tried to kill him. She protests but has no evidence of their existence. Of course, by the end of the issue, it is revealed that Hugo Strange and other villains are in fact running the show.
Review
This issue continues the Plastic Man miniseries trend of being mediocre and not particularly original. The panels felt rushed and didn’t have much flow going through everything. This issue drops the more fun aspects of the story and replaces it with some boring shopping stuff and an odd love story between Obscura and Eel. The involvement of minor villains such as Banshee also made no sense in the story, as they were hired by Old woman. Though this was meant as a joke, it had no place in the story and ultimately fell flat.
Obscuras character has shifted drastically from her first appearance which makes no sense as she began as a very straight woman and has become quite a soft character. Eel remains a constant as he is quite an easy character to understand and unlike many characters is best when he’s done in a simple way. The interactions between Obscura and Eel were sweet but would’ve made more sense with one of the dancers that were helping him. The ending panel with Strange and other villains was somewhat satisfying as now we know of their existence we can see some actual villainous plan take hold instead of just ‘some evil society is doing evil things’.
Final Thoughts
This issue left a lot to be desired and as we near the end of this series I pray for a good, satisfying ending that I fear will never come. I can only say that the art was pleasant at time as they can draw Plastic Man's abilities nicely. Apart from that, Simone needs to up her game.
Plastic Man #4: Obscuring the Truth
- Writing - 5.4/105.4/10
- Storyline - 5.3/105.3/10
- Art - 5.9/105.9/10
- Color - 5.8/105.8/10
- Cover Art - 6.1/106.1/10
