Plastic Man #1
By Koppy McFad
December 7, 2003 - 15:13
DC Comics
Writer(s): Kyle Baker
Artist(s): Kyle Baker
Cover Artist(s): Kyle Baker
32 pages, color, $2.95
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Writer-artist Kyle Baker opens with a cartoonish sequence involving Plas and a pair of thugs that seems taken from the storyboards of a 1940s animated short. He continues with madcap scenes showing some traces of Ralph Bakshi or John Kricfalusi. Then, the story suddenly takes a somber tone as we learn that the criminal persona of Eel O'Brien is still very much alive deep in Plas's rubberized soul. Baker mixes subtle humour with outrageous pictures, like Eel's eyeballs melting out of their sockets as he ponders how he has miraculously become "soft, pliable and easy to clean." Baker may be paying tribute to Jack Cole but the Plas and Woozy Winks we see in this story are distinctly his. Those expecting a Cole-copycat will be disappointed. While the work shows promise, it doesn't yet reach the heights of hilarity that Baker has achieved elsewhere.
There is no reference to recent JLA stories or the rest of the DC universe in this title so the continuity-cops might be better off learing to accept that or by simply skipping the book entirely.
At times, it is painfully obvious that issue was simply part of a longer book that was chopped into pieces. The flow of the story seems too languid at times but the cliffhanger at the end does introduce a crucial element of tension in the story. Hopefully, enough readers will stick around to see Plas and Baker finally hit their stride.
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