Plastic Man #5
Joe Bainbridge
Recap
In a tower in the middle of the sea, the secretive cabal make plans to deal with Plastic Man and Obscura now that Eel no longer believes in their existance. Per Degaton, Amazo, Hugo Strange, and Dr Psycho discuss letting other people into their group but are reminded that this group is only for the greatest minds. Dr. Psycho doesn't want to kill Plastic Man but rather wants to discredit him. He takes some food to the cages in the tower and gives the meat chunks to a beast resting in the cell, telling him that he has someone he wants dead. Meanwhile, in his lab, Kirk Langstrom hears noises coming towards him and drinks some of his special formula, causing him to turn into Man-Bat! But Plastic Man comes out of the shadows, beats him down and asks Langstrom for his help in turning him back into a normal person. Man-Bat tells him that it would take too long and, like Langstrom, he would likely turn into a monster instead of being cured.
Plastic Man returns home and takes out Pado and Doris to the fair where he treats them to whatever they want. After a warm conversation, child services arrives to take Pado away after being informed by Eel. Pado goes off with the men, mad at Eel and Doris is disgusted by his actions. Eel quickly receives a call from Obscura telling him that she is being attacked by him! The impostor destroys her motorcycle and she goes flying. Plastic Man shows up in the nick of time just before she is killed and a Plastic battle ensues with the villain transforming into grotesque shapes and tries to bite Eels head off but he escapes.
After picking up Obscura they turn around and are faced with the disgusting alien creature. Elsewhere, Sammy and his girlfriend are still looking for a job for her, but now that she is a stone skinned monster, she is rejected. This causes her to kill him and cry out for Eel O'Brian.
Review
This issue of Plastic Man is much better than I had expected given the standards of previous issues. The story advances with the identity of the Cabal members being revealed and the Plastic Man impostor identified as an alien sent by said evil group. The Cabal themselves aren’t exactly the big names but they are some smart humans and they are being utilized to their full potential no doubt. Simone is trying to wrap up the story quite quickly as seen by her writing and that she only included three pages of Pado. She is one of the least interesting characters in the story and I am glad she has been phased out of the issue. Eels relationship with Doris is barely expanded upon and its inclusion in this issue baffled me given that its been barely noticeable in the last four issues. Though this is the case Man Bat was a nice face to see here and the fact that Eel tried to turn himself normal before sending Pado away was a beautiful moment that let us actually understand the reasoning behind Eels actions.
The art by Adriana Melo was creepy and the image of the Plastic Impostor was some eerie art. I never thought that plastic man with a straight face could be so creepy, but Melo, who hasn’t impressed me much before has managed to make it happen.
Final Thoughts
The issue is much better than the previous ones and Plastic Man becomes much more of an understandable and enjoyable character. I believe that Simone may be able to make the final issue of the series worth reading.
Plastic Man #5 Plastic Wars
- Writing - 6.9/106.9/10
- Storyline - 7/107/10
- Art - 6.5/106.5/10
- Color - 6.1/106.1/10
- Cover Art - 5.5/105.5/10
