Plastic Man (2003 Series) #4

February 28, 2004

Quick Rating: Great
Title: It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Plastic Man is out to discover who framed Eel O’Brian, but Woody Winks has lost faith in his hero.

Writer/Artist: Kyle Baker
Editor: Joey Cavalieri
Cover Art: Kyle Baker
Publisher: DC Comics

Kyle Baker is absolutely amazing. I think of anybody else in the comic book industry who could take equal parts Chuck Jones and Charles Dickens, mix them into a comic book together and make them work so well. For those who came in late, Plastic Man used to be the crook named Eel O’Brian before he got his powers. Since then he has maintained his criminal identity to infiltrate the underworld, making his career as a superhero much more effective. At least, until the first issue of this series, when someone framed the Eel for murder. Plas is on the run now, his secret blown, and he’s got to prove the innocence of both his identities.

Plas’s efforts at detective work are shone off this issue, but what really got to me was the pain we see in Plas’s goofy sidekick, Woozy Winks. Woozy has always been a silly, often superfluous character. In this book you really start to feel for this broken man who thinks his hero has turned out to be a crook. Baker makes Woozy really tug at your heartstrings, and I was genuinely upset at the last page of this issue, because it was done that well.

We also get a glimpse of the big villain of this story arc. I have my suspicions as to who it may turn out to be, but I’m hesitant to mention the name of this longstanding DCU villain because, first of all, I can’t think of any reason he’d have a grudge against Plastic Man, and second, I can’t quite remember if he’s alive or not at the moment.

Baker’s artwork continues to shine in this book. He has a very lively, animated style, and he makes use of Plastic Man’s incredibly versatile powers better than anyone since Jack Cole himself. This is easily the funniest superhero comic currently published by either of the Big Two publishers, and one of the funniest superhero comics of all time. If you’re not reading and loving this comic book, you mustn’t have a funny bone in your entire body.

Rating: 9/10

Plastic Man (2004 Series) #3

February 2, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Rubber Banned

Plastic Man is on the run… and everyone is after him!

Writer/Artist: Kyle Baker
Editor: Joey Cavalieri
Cover Art: Kyle Baker
Publisher: DC Comics

Baker is quickly making this one of my favorite titles on the racks. As Plastic Man’s bosses learn his true identity, wanted criminal Eel’ O’Brian, he’s forced to try to break out of headquarters from under their very noses.

This issue also proves me wrong in my prediction that there wouldn’t be any guest stars in the first arc of this title – we have a brief cameo appearance by the entire Justice League in this issue. Baker shows them in a very silly, yet still respectful light. He also shifts his art style for those pages, using a style not quite as cartoony but not as strict as most superhero comics… a suitable middle ground that allows these heroes to exist in Plastic Man’s universe and still feel appropriate.

Plastic Man’s sidekick, Woozy Winks is really one of the bigger stars of this issue. They’ve got him tracking down his mentor and his best friend, plying him with his dreams of becoming a hero. He actually gets good character moments here, something that will surprise a lot of people.

There isn’t too much more to say about the artwork that hasn’t been said already – Baker draws some of the funniest comic book pages you’ve ever seen, packing each panel with jokes and gags, both visual and verbal. There are plenty of one-liners to go around, and he shows a lot of respect for classic comedy bits and for Plastic Man’s origins in Jack Cole’s strip. He gives us a last panel that borders on the grotesque while still situated firmly in the goofy.

Overall, this is one of the most consistently enjoyable, lighthearted and just plain fun comic books on the market these days, something that will crack you up again and again. In a day and age where things seem to get more and more serious, more and more bleak, it’s wonderful to find a comic that doesn’t take itself or anything else seriously. This book is only for readers who want to enjoy themselves.

Rating: 8/10

JLA #93

February 23, 2004

Quick Rating: Poor
Title: Soul Survivor (Extinction Part Three)

Peppy wants to destroy the world, so let’s talk to him!

Writer: Dennis O’Neil
Art: Tan Eng Huat
Colors: David Baron
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Mike Carlin
Cover Art: Doug Mahnke & Tom Ngyuen
Publisher: DC Comics

Remember when Dennis O’Neil wrote poignant comics? Remember when his stories were smart and thought-provoking? If you want to continue treasuring those days, avoid this issue.

Over the last two issue the Justice League met an alien called Peppy (I’m not making this up) who arrived to rescue an endangered silver-masked monkey and, failing that, destroy the world. The Justice League, of course, is out to stop him, but it isn’t easy to find a shapeshifter among six billion people.

Aside from the clichéd plot, this story is dragged down with poor pacing. Single panels with three-word lines, lines stretched out over two panels or scenes over and over again… it’s like reading a comic book written by William Shatner.

As if that weren’t bad enough, just when the story seems like it’s gotten as trite as possible O’Neil gets on his soapbox and starts to preach, preach, preach! People are terrible! Everything is bad in the world! Only this poor lonely alien who wants to kill all of humanity can recognize that! Even if the Justice League were simplistic enough to accept this creed, forgiveness comes way too quickly and the ending comes way too easily.

The artwork is no great shakes either – every panel is sketchy and every character is ugly. Plastic Man is not only superfluous in this issue, he’s annoying too, and for a character that great, that’s seriously bad writing and art.

There were a couple of good points in this issue, which gives it the point and a half it gets. First, O’Neil does do very good characterization of Superman (at least, when he’s not at his pulpit). He comes across as strong, confident, decisive and a real leader. Also, Eng does a clever effect on The Flash for his super-speed scenes – almost like a television screen blanking out.

But those two bits aren’t enough to save an issue that is seriously played out. Next month the much-ballyhooed story arc by Chris Claremont and John Byrne begins, and even if you’re the sort of reader who thinks those two legends of the form are past their prime, even at they’re worst they’re a lot better than what we got this month.

Rating: 3/10

JLA #92

January 27, 2004

Quick Rating: Average
Title: The Lesson (Extinction Part Two)

When the alien Peppy finds his mission on Earth had failed before he arrived, will the Justice League be able to show him Earth is worth saving?

Writer: Dennis O’Neil
Art: Tan Eng Huat
Colors: David Baron
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Mike Carlin
Cover Art: Doug Mahnke & Tom Ngyuen
Publisher: DC Comics

Last issue, an alien called Peppy came to Earth to find a silver-masked monkey, only to arrive just in time to see the last member of that species die. This issue, the Justice League learns what made that monkey so important. Meanwhile, fandom let out a collective yawn.

It’s sad to say this about a writer with such a varied and impressive career as Dennis O’Neil, but this arc is really just sort of humdrum. Been there. Done that. An alien comes to Earth to protect and endangered species and make all us humans feel bad about ourselves. It’s just not anything new, and after a seriously lackluster JLA title for the last year or two, that’s what this book needs.

That’s not to say that there’s really anything wrong with this book — for the most part it’s okay, and in fact, this story would be much more entertaining if it were printed as a silver age pastiche rather than an in-continuity story arc. He does good characterization on Superman, on Batman (a character he edited for many years) and his characterization on Plastic Man is almost too good (yes, he’s a wacky character, but in this title he doesn’t have to have a sight gag and a one liner in every panel he appears in).

The alien character really isn’t that interesting either. On top of a really bad name (Peppy?), if he’s telling the truth about his mission, that flatly contradicts one of the most important parts of Green Lantern continuity of the 80s — one would think Jon Stewart, who was present for those events, would make mention of it.

Huat’s artwork just isn’t working for me, and it may be because he’s either inking it himself or because it’s being colored straight from the pencils, I can’t tell which. In either case, he needs a good inker to work with. His storytelling and formatting is fine, but things look sketchy and unfinished. Sometimes his faces remind me of Joe Staton and sometimes his layout reminds me of Leinil Yu, and in both cases he comes up wanting compared to those great artists.

As I said, JLA has been a lackluster title for a long time, way too long, and this arc really isn’t changing that (although, to its credit, it does not suffer from a lot of the problems that marked the run of the previous creative team). With the new rotating creative team format, it is to be expected that some arcs will be better than others. Editor Mike Carlin should have started that format with a home run story arc, though, and at best, he’s given us a ground-rule double.

Rating: 5/10

JLA #91

December 26, 2003

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: The Coming (Extinction Part One)

An alien creature comes to the JLA Watchtower to find something unique to planet Earth.

Writer: Dennis O’Neil
Art: Tan Eng Huat
Colors: David Baron
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Mike Carlin
Cover Art: Doug Mahnke, Tom Nguyen & David Baron
Publisher: DC Comics

With this issue, JLA begins its new status quo as a book with rotating creative teams, and the first of these teams includes one of the revolutionary writers of the 70s taking the Justice League and telling what he’s most famous for – a “relevant” story. An alien spacecraft comes into Earth orbit, accompanied by a meteor shower that does damage to the Watchtower and sends Plastic Man into a panic until help can arrive. (He gets the best line in the issue here, calling for help from “One of you super-guys who can do more than stretch…”)

Predictably, the alien seems benign when actually recovered, and is only interested in studying a species of mammal indigenous to Earth, but near extinction. Always helpful, the JLA agrees to help the alien find the species he seeks… but will they arrive in time?

For a writer as revolutionary as O’Neil once was, this is just an “okay” issue. Granted, it’s a step up from the severely lackluster JLA we’ve been treated to for the past year or so, but it’s not really anything special. O’Neill has a pretty good handle on most of the characters, but some of Green Lantern’s dialogue seems too flippant – almost as though he wrote it as Kyle Rayner but the penciler drew him in as Jon Stewart – and the team as a whole seems a tad naive. Okay, granted, two of their members are aliens, but don’t you think they would have learned to be a bit more skeptical by this point?

Tan Eng Huat’s artwork, like the writing, is okay. His backgrounds are solid, and he does some imaginative stuff with Plastic Man, but most of the other characters seem sketchy and unfinished. I can’t tell by looking if this book was inked or colored straight from the pencils, but either way, a good inker could have greatly improved the artwork.

This is a decent start for the next chapter of the Justice League, but it’s not spectacular, and that’s what this title needs right now. Hopefully, for the rest of this arc, O’Neil will deliver.

Rating: 6/10

Formerly Known as the Justice League #6

December 2, 2003

Quick Rating: Great
Title: A League of Their Own

The Justice League watches on as the Superbuddies face down the forces of Manga Khan.

Writer: Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis
Pencils: Kevin Maguire
Inks: Joe Rubinstein
Colors: Lee Loughridge
Letters: Bob Lappan
Editor: Stephen Wacker & Mike Carlin
Cover Art: Kevin Maguire, Joe Rubinstein & Lee Loughridge
Publisher: DC Comics

The fantastic revival of the Giffen-era Justice League concludes just as hysterically as it began. The current JLA watches from above as the much-maligned former members try to stave off the invasion of evil alien robots.

It’s almost as if Giffen and DeMatteis have been reading my recent rants about a lack of accessibility in comics. The first couple of pages are full of expository dialogue, interspersed with jokes about why everyone in this group speaks in expository dialogue. It brings any new readers up to speed and is side-splittingly funny for old readers at the same time.

The greatest thing about how this book was put together, though, is that the writers did not simply ignore the changes that have come about in these characters since their run on the title ended. Instead, they incorporated them into the story. Nowhere is this felt more sharply than in the schism between one-time best buddies Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. Their friction is explored a bit more in this issue, as is relationship between Elongated Man and his wife, Sue Dibney, and even (in a surreal and wonderful comic moment) Manga Khan and his once-time servant, L-Ron.

The JLA is put to good use in this issue, with former teammates of the Superbuddies like Batman, Flash and the Martian Manhunter watching on in trepidation, Wonder Woman gets frustrated at their ineptitude and Plastic Man makes jokes about how their pliant hero only uses his powers to stretch.

It would be inconsistent of me, I suppose, not to point out that Batman in this issue is written a little off, a little more sadistic than the Bat usually is, but it’s funny enough for me to forgive.

Maguire continues to prove that he’s one of the most underrated artists in comics, drawing big heroes, strong heroes, goofy heroes and giant robots all with the same aplomb.

But you know what the best thing about this book is? The “next issue” box, where we are promised that I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League will premiere in a few short months.

I can’t wait.

Rating: 9/10

Plastic Man (2003 Series) #1

December 1, 2003

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Rebound

Plastic Man drifts through a recap of his origin and is called in on a murder case

Writer: Kyle Baker
Art: Kyle Baker
Editor: Joey Cavalieri
Cover Art: Kyle Baker
Publisher: DC Comics

It’s worth noting that this book was originally intended to be published as an original graphic novel before the powers that be at DC decided to bump it up to an ongoing series, so what you’re reading in this issue is essentially the first section of that graphic novel. As such, we don’t get a lot of new material, but what we get is pretty good.

In the opening sequence we see Plas and his partner, Woozy Winks, as they track down bad guys, live the good life, and essentially enjoy their lot. But then we see a different side of our malleable hero – Plas uses his powers to put up a good front even as his real consciousness is left alone, brooding over how lonely he is. We then get a dream sequence where Baker recap’s Plas’s origin sequence from the classic Police Comics #1, even including some of the original dialogue and imagery that creator Jack Cole used. He puts the whole thing through a manic filter, though, using the sort of imagery Chuck Jones put into the greatest Looney Tunes cartoons – wild takes, irreverent comedy, snappy one-liners that are clearly intended for the adults in the audience rather than any children who might be reading.

Baker is the perfect choice for this title – his goofy, zany style works for Plas flawlessly. This issue is a bit sparse, as I said, but I’m willing to give it until the second issue to grab me, because the mystery that gets introduced in the last few pages of the issue has some great comedic potential.

I’d be lying if I said I had no concerns, though. The crazy, Looney Tunes comedy style, while responsible for some of the greatest cartoons ever made, has never been one that translated that well to the comic book page. Also, I’m left wondering if Baker intends to address recent developments in Plas’s character, such as the young son he has in JLA. Things like that have fleshed out the character and made him popular enough to take a chance on publishing a solo series for him in the first place, and while they shouldn’t dominate this title, it would be a shame to dismiss them entirely.

Rating: 7/10

Plastic Man Lost Annual #1

December 13, 2003

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Various

A collection of Plastic Man comics to whet your appetite for the new series!

Writers: Jack Cole, Dave Wood, Arnold Drake & Steve Skeates
Artists: Jack Cole, Jim Mooney, Gil Kane, Ramona Fradon & Teny Henson
Editor: Dale Crain
Cover Art: Jack Cole, Jim Mooney, Gil Kane, Ramona Fradon & Teny Henson
Publisher: DC Comics

One of the best specialty products DC Comics puts out these days are the occasional “lost” 80-page giants with classic stories to go with their current hits. This book, timed to coincide with this month’s new Plastic Man #1, serves up six old Plastic Man comics and one prose short story.

The first two stories in this books, “The Origin of Plastic Man” from Police Comics #1 and “The Man Who Can’t Be Harmed” from Police Comics #13, both by Plastic Man creator Jack Cole, are the real treasure here. Cole had a beautiful art style and a wicked sense of humor. Parts of “The Origin of Plastic Man” were “borrowed” by Kyle Baker for the first issue of the new series. People who enjoyed that book will want to read this to see how the creator drafted those same scenes. “The Man Who Can’t Be Harmed” is significant in that it introduces Plastic Man’s sidekick, Woozy Winks. Folks who wonder who Plas wound up with this dumpy partner – here’s your answer.

“The Wizard of Light” from House of Mystery #160 is an odd addition, but delightful for fans of silver age camp. In this book Robby Reed, the first star of DC’s Dial “H” For Hero series (recently resurrected as the very good H-E-R-O) spins his magic dial and transforms into… the lost Plastic Man! Why? Well… most likely, because DC had acquired the rights to the character and needed to use him somewhere for copyright purposes, but it still made for a clever read.

“The Dirty Devices of Dr. Dome,” from 1966’s Plastic Man Vol. 2 #1, is a fairly unremarkable comedy/superhero story where Plas faces off, of course, against a goofy villain named Dr. Dome. This story is remarkable only for two reasons – it has artwork by the immortal Gil Kane, and because Kane, as magnificent an artist as he was, frankly didn’t draw a very good Plastic Man. It’s like looking at Jay Leno in the costume.

The final story is “The Hamsters of Doom” from Plastic Man Vol. 2 #11 – from 1976, according to the table of contents (11 issues in 10 years – it’s like reading The Ultimates). Another unremarkable story, but not a bad one.

The first three stories in this book are well worth the price of admission, however, especially the Jack Cole stories. It may not be required reading for the new Plastic Man series, but it’s certainly recommended reading.

Rating: 8/10

JLA #89

October 25, 2003

Quick Rating: Average
Title: Trial By Fire Conclusion

The Justice League makes a last stand against the incendiary monster that was once their teammate, the Martian Manhunter.

Writer: Joe Kelly
Pencils: Doug Mahnke
Inks: Tom Nguyen
Colors: David Baron
Letters: Ken Lopez
Editor: Mike Carlin
Cover Art: Doug Mahnke, Tom Nguyen and David Baron
Publisher: DC Comics

I have not been an enormous fan of Kelly’s run on this title, and this issue reflects exactly why. He often brings good ideas to the table, such as the Martian Manhunter attempting to overcome his weakness to flame only to unleash a far more dangerous threat, but then the climax seems to fall short. The ending of this storyline is similar to a hundred other “psychic battle,” “man against self” conclusions we’ve seen before.

One of the few things I did like about this storyline, the good use of Plastic Man, also fell flat in the end. In previous issues, Batman built up Plas as the only one who could stop Fernus, but in the end it’s hard to tell what he brought to the table that was really so unique. Not to say he wasn’t valuable, but there are a dozen other JLA-affiliated metas who could have done the same thing.

I liked Nguyen’s artwork back in his Superman: The Man of Steel days, and he still does a good job here, but there’s really nothing that stands out.

I’m looking forward to a few months down the road, when this title will (for at least two years according to editor Mike Carlin) switch to a rotating creative arc structure. True, books like that are often hit and miss, but somehow I prefer that to a book that’s so consistently average.

Rating: 5/10

(2010 note: As it turned out, the “rotating creative arc” didn’t do much for this book either.)