Welcome to Comics Wiki Adventures, a weekly deep dive into just how unhinged comics can be. I will randomly select a character from DC or Marvel (maybe Image on special occasions) and read their wiki each week.

I will then take only the choicest bits and serve them to you, over easy. What does that mean? I don’t know.

Anyway, today’s randomly generated character is: 

Plastic Man: The Biggest Intentional Joke in DC Comics

Patrick “Eel” O’Brian was a small-time crook. Well, I say that, but in his origin, Eel is robbing a chemicals company. Which, for some reason, Gotham criminals see as desirable targets. Maybe a chem job is how you break into the big time.

Eel hits Cole Chemical, which isn’t even the same one Joker tried to rob. How many chemical companies have active factories in Gotham at any given time? Even two seems like a lot. 

How much money does a chemical factory even keep on hand? I’d google that to find out, but that sounds like the sort of thing that would put me on a watch list. Luckily, they spell out exactly how much: fifty grand in gold. It’s also in bags, so it’s clear this chemical company has been robbing old prospectors.

There’s also fifty grand of cash, along with an entire fish in a hamburger bun. They call that someone’s lunch, but I call putting a dead fish in the company’s safe a fireable offense. The only thing worse would be the microwave.

Call the Hague.

Enough With the Fish, Get on With the Comics Weirdness

Fine. So I’m sure it will shock you to discover that there is an accident and Eel is shot and exposed to an unknown acid. Maybe the comic gives more context on the acid, but that’s not what we do here. It’s mystery acid, and that’s that. 

As acid is well known to do, it makes Eel stretchy. And invulnerable. He can shrink or grow. Shape-shift into people and items (though he can’t easily change colors). Also, he doesn’t age. Plus, he’s immune to mind control for some reason. Oh, and he wears snazzy goggles. 

Bummed out about being a bit scary, he runs into a former Arkham asylum patient named Woozy Winks. They decide they need money (same, man), but they can’t agree on if doing crimes or fighting them is more profitable. So they flip a coin, and fighting crime wins.

I am sure you are thinking this is even more ridiculous than usual for a comic book. You’re very wrong of course, but Plastic Man did indeed start as a comic book. Sorry, I already said that, I mean a comic comic. Like it was meant to be funny.

Ok, not a great joke but at least it’s maintaining the fish theme we got going.

Last Warning on the Fish Thing, Stick To Comics

Right, right. So DC bought the company that owned Plastic Man, and they folded him in with their other characters. See, the chemical plant Eel robbed in his original origin was Crawford Chemical, not Cole Chemical. It was called Cole in the remade origin as a nod to his original creator, Jack Cole. And it was in “the city” not Gotham. Totally different thinly veiled New York analog, I assure you.

Anyway, despite his intentionally off-the-wall origin Plastic Man fit right in with the other DC characters. He joined the Justice League with All-Stars like Batman and Superman. Then FDR recruited him for the All-Star squadron with future Comic Wiki Adventure stars/losers like Judomaster (Power: Kicking) and Dr. Mid-Nite (Power: Seeing in the dark). He also joined a related group called the Freedom Fighters. Looking them up, they appear to have been a group that fought Nazis in an alternate timeline where the Germans won WWII. Pretty grim for a guy who once cracked a safe with a fish in it.

Like this.

Nope. Fish Picture Deleted and Replaced With Something at Least Vaguely Comics Related.

Rule of three, right? Went back to the well one too many times, I get it.  Eel is also a weirdly close friend of Batman, considering he used to be a criminal. Bats helped deal with his kid (a relationship later adapted into the movie “Son of the Mask”).

Jaime Kennedy, sorry, I mean Eel and his son did eventually reconcile, though. Eel was ripped to pieces while traveling in time to visit Atlantis 3000 years ago. I promise this is not a non-sequitur. Everyone naturally figured Eel was dead. However, when they returned to the present, they found the pieces were still alive and trying to put themselves back together.  

Bats helped put him back together, but Eel was a bit severely traumatized. So he gave up being Plastic Man and went to live with his kid. It was a happy ending, but I assume it only lasted until they came up with a reason for him to superhero some more later.

So That is Plastic Man!

Thanks for reading! If you liked this article you may also like this article on some cool demos. Or if for some inexplicable reason, you want to check out something I didn’t write, you can check out this article on a possible sequel to Civilization VI! No real connection, I just really like Civilization.

Let me know in the comments below what you think is the most intentionally funny character in comics, and what character I should randomly select next!