365 DC Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes – One Hero, Every Day, All Year…
August 18th – Plastic ManPatrick Edward “Eel” O’Brian had been orphaned at an early and forced to live on the streets. He ended up falling into a life of crime to get by and became an accomplished safecracker. One night, Eel and his gang burgled a chemical factory and stumbled upon an armed security guard. The guard shot Eel wounding him in the shoulder. The shot additionally burst a vat of strange chemicals that doused onto Eel, getting into his wound. His gang fled without him and Eel struggled to get away, passing out on the street.
He awoke in a monastery with his wound bandaged. A monk presented himself and said that he sensed a goodness in Eel and for this reason he dressed his wound and sheltered him from the police. This kindly action coupled with his gang’s having abandoned him convinced Eel that he was going to give up on a life of crime and try to of benefit to society. While he recovered, Eel came to find that the chemicals that had gotten into his blood had changed him in a dramatic fashion. His physical form now had all of the properties of rubber, allowing him to stretch, bounce and mold himself into any shape he so wished.
He decided to use these new powers to become a superhero and dubbed himself ‘Plastic Man.’ He and his old friend Woozy Winks opened up a detective agency and Plastic Man would go on to have numerous adventures. Eel maintained his civilian alter identity and pretended to still be part of the criminal underworld so to keep tabs and get the inside scoop on capers he could thwart as Plastic Man.
Prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, Plastic Man adventures took place in the 1930’s and 40’s; and he served among the All-Star Squadron during the Second World War. Following the crisis, Plastic Man was retconned into the contemporary age and he was recruited as a member of The Justice League. My recently, Plastic Man has joined Mr. Terrific’s team of heroes, The Terrifics. Actor Taylor Marks portrayed a version of Plastic Man introducing episodes of the cartoon series, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show. The hero first appeared in the pages of Police Comics, 1941