Plastic Man #5
story and art: Kyle Baker
Kyle Baker's nuts, man!
First, he takes one of the losing-est heroes of the DC pantheon
and strips him back to the essentials. Then, he applies his
semi-Hirschfeld influenced, unapologetically cartoony style
to a character who's been milling around the muscle-bound
superhero B-list for decades. And now- now that ol' Plas is
bouncing around like the maniac he is, gags attacking the
reader mercilessly and probably causing some minor asphyxiation-
NOW that the book has proven itself as a perfect marriage
of artist and franchise, what does he do? He gets somber.
And it's
perfect.
Woozy
Winks, having sacrificed himself to save Plastic Man from
a fiendish trap, is dead, and the first half of the issue
focuses on the funeral for the boy blunder, attended only
by his mother. However, Agent Morgan and The Chief, still
on the hunt for master criminal Eel O'Brian/Plastic Man, know
Plas would never skip out on his only friend's funeral, so,
spotting Mother Winks' brilliant red socks, they quickly move
in for the kill. Plas still has a few tricks up his sleeve,
of course, but there aren't any laughs, here; for the first
time in his life, he truly has nothing and nowhere to run
to. The Chief, on the other hand, is beginning to realize
that facts aren't adding up like they were supposed to, and
Plastic Man's guilt may not be as certain as it first seemed.
Kyle Baker's
take on Plastic Man has succeeded largely based on the wacky
humor he brings to the book, so a good question this issue
brings up is "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!?" Plas
does a bit of his patented shape-shifting, sure enough, but
almost all that Baker humor readers have come to love has
been left at the door. He manages a couple of gags, but this
is almost certainly the least funny issue yet. So, again,
why?
Simply
put, Baker REALLY knows what he's doing. Choosing to be as
fine a storyteller as a humorist, he knows Plastic Man has
to be crushed by the loss of Woozy, and he wants us to feel
that, too. This probably couldn't have come at a better time,
now that things seem to be shaping up for the end of the storyline.
Another issue full of shape-changing gags could have worn
thin, but this respite comes at just the right time for us
to consider Plas more as a person than a running joke in a
red leotard; a dignity not given to this old Golden Ager in
so long, it's a crime.
I wonder
if Baker could do the same for Blue Beetle…
Anyways,
it'll be nice to see where he takes the stretchy guy in the
final chapter of this story. While this book has been much
more of a return to many of the classic ideals that defined
Plastic Man than a radical revamp, there can be no doubt that
we're at a crucial point in his continuing evolution. Since
issue #3 reintroduced the monk who nursed Eel O'Brian back
to health and influenced him to turn his back on a life of
crime (during another near death experience, no less), the
feeling that Plas will turn over yet another new leaf has
been building. After Woozy's death, things definitely won't
be the same, but where will he end up and what shape (or shapes)
will he be in? Can the character go through a major transformation
while remaining true to the lovable freak we've come to identify
with?!
Well,
probably not, so I'm trusting Baker to be sane, for once,
and keep the changes as light and simple as his entire run
so far has been. It may not seem like much to hope for, but
I think we've all been through enough revamps to know that
you never steer a comic away from the place where it works
best, and, I'll be damned if this isn't the best Plastic Man
has ever been.
Rating: 
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