I’ll admit it. If someone were to ask me if I were a Marvel or a DC, I would always answer DC. That being said, a good number of my favorite DC characters used to belong to other companies. I’ve already talked about my favorite, Captain Marvel, who was originally published by Fawcett Comics. Today’s origin is Quality Comics’ most famous character, Plastic Man!

Plas’ origin has been told many, many times over his nearly 70-year history. Sure there are minor tweaks to make it fresh or “relevant”, but it always invariably starts with gangster “Eel” O’Brian cracking a safe with his gang. Eel and his fellow criminals are drooling over the take when a guard shows up. The boys take in on the lam, but Eel gets shot and a vat of nameless chemicals tips over and seeps into the wound. What follows next is the gang leaving without The Eel, and no matter the date of publication, he always calls the guys who abandoned him the same thing:

"Putrid Punks" The insult so awesome it's lasted 7 decades.

The Eel tries to get away on foot, but loss of blood coupled with a foreign substance running through his veins makes it too difficult. O’Brian manages to make it through swamps and even to a mountain before he finally collapses. When he wakes up Eel finds himself in bed with a gent who looks like Friar Tuck watching over him. The monk explains that Eel is now in rest haven. Eel mishears this as “heaven” and laughs, explaining where he’s headed the coldest day is 300 degrees! The kindly old gent corrects O’Brian and calls him by name. It seems he turned the police away when they came looking for Eel. Why would he do that? Well, take a look for yourself.

"Yes, and don't leave out the spicy parts, young man."

Eel tells the monk his sob story about how he tried to be good, but sick of people pushing him around… eventually losing complete faith in humanity. He notes that the monk has given him a new slant on things. The monk exits and leaves Eel to contemplate his fate and get some well needed rest. Mr. O’Brian takes a much-needed stretch and his entire world changes!

I bet if he pressed his face on the newspaper, he'd have hours of silly putty fun!

Man, but Jack Cole draw! Anyway, Eel realises his new-found abilities could be used to make up for his shady past. He decides his first job will be to arrest his old gang. I guess this way, he can not only directly atone for past misdeeds, he can also get a bit of revenge. Way to walk the straight and narrow, Plas. He surprises his old gang, asking for his cut of the take. The gang is “glad” to have him back as they could use him for another job. Eel insists that he be the driver this time. Learning from your mistakes is fun! The gang goes to a ritzy style building where a messenger is delivering half a million in bills. While the rest of the gang think Eel is cooling his heels and leaving the motor running, he takes this opportunity to change his facial features and don the costume he procured for just this occasion.

Meanwhile, the gang are taking the elevator with the messenger. They abruptly stop the car between floors and take the man’s briefcase. Then they leave through the top of the elevator car to the service ladder (they wrecked the controls by stopping so abruptly, you see). But “Just Then” the long arms of the law (Punderful!) creeps the heck right out of the thugs, and if it happened to you, I bet you’d be freaked do, just look:

After this, I'd wear brown pants next time, just in case.

Unfortunately for Plas, the rest of the gang is above him and start spraying the elevator shaft with bullets (At this point, Plastic Man doesn’t know he’s bulletproof). Luckily, Eel is a smart egg. He knows the bad guys will have to come down the stairs eventually and does the first of what will be one of his trademarks, shapeshifting:

"For my next trick, I'll wear a lampshade on my head, without the lampshade!"

True to form, the baddies return, and Plas pulls the rug out from under them! He starts wailing on the hoods, enjoying himself thoroughly. Unfortunately, two of his old gang takes this opportunity to escape to the roof, like they’re in a bad horror movie. The stretchable sleuth finally notices and:

I didn't need to include this panel, but it's the best shot of the costume in the story.

On the roof, a scuffle ensues and the gang tries to scuttle down the building with a rope. They must be pretty desperate at this point. Plas sees what’s going on and then yanks them back up. His overconfidence may be his undoing though, as one gang member who stayed behind promptly pushes Plastic Man off the roof! The evil men figure he’s done for as a twenty story fall would kill anyone, even this red and black clad freak. Rubber does bounce tho, so the artist formerly known as Eel springs to safety, and takes this opportunity to change back into Eel.

In the getaway car, Eel is ordered to speed off. As he does, his former gang explains to them what happened. Smugly, he tells them they must be “hittin’ the pipe”. At the same time he pulls what could be considered a dick move if these guys hadn’t tried to kill him repeatedly a few seconds ago, and stretches his arm out the window to the other side of the car and freaks everyone out all over again! Int he same motion he grabs all the bad guys (he must also have rubber enhanced strength as well) and crashes them through the window of police headquarters! His job done, Eel realizes his life has taken a turn for the better!

He actually keeps the "Eel" identity so he can wear those sweet suits.

So there you have it. This incarnation of Plastic Man would go on to abandon the Eel identity entirely, and gets recruited by the FBI. Later incarnations would play up the inherent silliness of the character, and even earn a coveted spot on the JLA, but in my mind, the original is the best. If you’d like to see more golden age Plas, might I suggest the DC Archives?

Well, that wraps it up for this installment of Secret Origin Sundays, you’ll never know who I might write-up next, but I’m giving you a say! Leave me a comment, twitter message, or email and I’ll do the secret origin of the character/vehicle/organization of your choice! So until next time!