Plastic Man Has Just Killed Another DC Hero – Will This Ever Stop?!

DC Comics was established in 1934 and became one of the two major mainstream American comic book publishers in the decades that followed. Over the course of its long history, the publisher has introduced us to a lot of intriguing characters, some of which have become cult classics, others of which are less well-known but nonetheless part of the canon, and still others that have found their way into popular culture.

The character we are going to focus on today is, in many ways, a special character. He has some of the most unique abilities in the world of DC Comics, but he is also one of the quirkiest personalities in that same universe.

His real name is Patrick “Eel” O’Brian, but he is better known by his superhero alias, Plastic Man. The character was, due to his quirky nature, never a mainstream superhero, but he remains an important part of the lore, and this report will be dedicated to his most recent comic book storyline.

Plastic Man is one of the first superheroes to incorporate humor in mainstream action comics and while he was never a mainstream character himself, he has interacted with numerous major superheroes and he even became a member of the Justice League at one point. But, the recent storyline might see him lose his superhero status.

The Plastic Man No More! storyline by Christopher Cantwell, Alex Lins, and Jacob Edgar is very, very interesting. Namely, it shows that Plastic Man is “depolymerizing”—essentially “coming apart” on a molecular level.

This means that he is on the verge of dying, and he is worried that this condition might affect his son as well, which – naturally – causes the hero to panic.

After consultations with a scientist, Plastic Man learns that there is a way to stabilize his and his son’s physiologies, but he needs to create a “fusion reaction of incredible magnitude“.

In order to do that, Plastic Man decides to make a risky and dangerous plan: he plans on making a massive nuclear bomb and detonating it while he and his son are inside its core. That would work, yes, but you can understand just how dangerous that is.

And while he is working on endangering the whole world, Plastic Man is also killing off characters in the series. In a previous issue, he killed six of the Metal Men (Gold, Iron, Lead, Mercury, Tin, and Platinum), which happened as part of his plan to use Uranium to fuel his nuclear bomb.

The plan horribly misfires after Plastic Man and the six other Metal Men fall into a molten vat, causing the six of them to melt and Uranium to say: “Wow. You killed them. You killed them all.”

Later, Plastic Man informs the Justice League of what happened but leaves out a series of important details and Detective Chimp simply does not believe his story. He starts his own investigation and finds out the truth, but before he can say anything, the scientist and No-Face—who are helping Plastic Man build the bomb—intervene by igniting Plastic Man’s outer dermal polymer layer.

This leads to an increase in the release of ethylene gas that O’Brian had already been emitting, and the toxic gas that comes ultimately poisons Detective Chimp and kills him.

This increases Plastic Man’s death toll to seven now, and with his plan moving forward at an alarming pace, it remains to be seen just how many people will die as part of his dangerous mission.

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