DC Comics Plastic Man #1 By Koppy McFad December 7, 2003 - 15:13 Publisher(s): DC Comics Writer(s): Kyle Baker Artist(s): Kyle Baker Cover Artist(s): Kyle Baker 32 pages, color, $2.95 This title stretches the boundaries of what will be accepted by today's superhero-reading comic market. The art style and the absurdly comedic nature of the book will attract fans eager for something different even as it alienates and angers many others who will find it too bizarre or simplistic for their tastes. 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. © Copyright 2002-2026 by Toon Doctor Inc. - All rights Reserved. All other texts, images, characters and trademarks are copyright their respective owners. Use of material in this document (including reproduction, modification, distribution, electronic transmission or republication) without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.