Plastic Fantastic

Plastic Man #1 (Dec 1966)

Not quite a grail book, but Plastic Man #1 (Dec 1966, DC Comics) is a comic I've wanted for a while. One of my first comics was a coverless copy of #11 from this series, which I have since re-acquired, with an attached cover. After snagging #1 and #19 during SDCC, I now have 10 out of the 20 issues of this run.

Where does this land in Plastic Man history? Well, Plas first appeared in Police Comics #1 (Aug 1941). He didn't get his own series till later, and there have been multiple series named for him. The CLZ app refers to this run as Plastic Man Vol. 1 while Comic Book Realm considers it Vol. 2. The earlier run by Vital Comics / Quality Comics Group (1943-1956) is Plastic Man Vol. 1 at the Realm, while CLZ files the series under the moniker of Plastic Man (Quality Comics). I'll probably never own any of those QCC books, or Police Comics for that matter. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

Anyway, this issue has the 1st appearance of the Silver Age Plastic Man (Eel O'Brian Jr), considered the son of the Golden Age Plastic Man (Eel O'Brien). After 1977, the son is all but forgotten, and DC Comics focuses on Eel O'Brien. 

Well, that's not entirely correct. The "Jr." version of Plastic Man's son is gone, but he got a son called Offspring in The Kingdom: Offspring #1 (1999), and JLA #65 (June 2002) gave Offspring the civilian name of Luke Ernie "Loogie" McDunnagh O'Brian (Luke O'Brian for short). 

The New Gods #6 (2024): And Then There Is The Darkness

There may be some who dislike the change in art throughout THE NEW GODS #6, but I felt that the Racer's story in this issue was quite beautiful. 

Image: The New Gods #6, bottom panel of digital page 9. 

Text in the Racer's three word balloons: 

• The concerns of the living are for you no more. There are many perils between here and the end of our journey. 
• Unborn and unliving concepts roam the Waiturnum current. Ready to devour the real, the existing, to imbibe some of their essence -- to break through into the world outside. 
• And then there is the darkness.

This issue is, apparently, the first appearance of the Waiturnum, some kind of continuum or channel beyond the dimensions that living beings know.

A Transformed Impression

I'm really not a Transformers fan. But I somehow had a digital copy of Transformers: Autocracy - Collected Edition in my Kindle library. I'm guessing I had a special deal or a discount code back in the days of Comixology. So, I read it. And I enjoyed it. The art is fantastic, and it is a well plotted origin story of the Autobot/Decepticon conflict. But more than fleshing out the background of the conflict, this 12-chapter run provides an origin story of Autobot leader Optimus Prime (from humble origins as Autobot officer Orion Pax). 

It's also kind of inspiring in how Optimus Prime learns about oneness and freedom.

Here are pages 85 and 86 from the collected edition.

Transformers: Autocracy – Collected, p85
(Prime in the Undergrid, finding the Matrix)

Transformers: Autocracy – Collected, p86
("I am Optimus Prime, and I have a world to set free.")

Prez Was Prescient

 

"With the election in chaos and a Congress mired in corruption, Twitter sensation @corndoggirl becomes the first teenaged President of the United States!"

Damn if that just doesn't mirror politics-as-reality-TV that we've suffered through since 2016. Interestingly, the above quote is a description of the second Prez comics series (Prez, Vol. 2), which ran from August 2015 through February 2016. The 2015-2016 series was an update of the 1973-1974 comic series (Prez, Vol. 1). Both series were published by DC Comics. Probably the most direct connection between those comics and modern day politics, whether the 1970s or post-2016, is the shady businessman Boss Smiley, a political boss with a smiley face for a head who appears in both series.  

Sure, the second series is a more direct satire on modern politics, what with it intertwining social media, particularly the former bird app, with elections. Considering the past few months, that take kinda makes the second series feel prescient, no?

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Image description (for collage at top of post): Starting in the top left and moving clockwise, we have the cover for Prez, Vol. 1 #1 (1973); a panel from that issue featuring Boss Smiley; cover of Prez, Vol. 2 #2; and the vol 2 version of Boss Smiley. 

Absolutely Martian

I don't know if it's my favorite (yet) of the Absolute universe, but the opening volley of Absolute Martian Manhunter definitely made a case for it. 

Strong concept.

Excellent script. 

Fantastic art. 

Oh, and this issue absolutely (heh) makes a case for owning and reading the comic in paper rather than digital format. I won't spoil why I say that.

Absolute Martian Manhunter #1 is currently on the stands. 

Creative team:

• Deniz Camp (writer)
• Javier Rodríguez (artist, colorist)
• Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer)
• Katie Kubert (editor)

Description of images used in this post: 

1. Top of post: Absolute Martian Manhunter logo in gren.
2. Bottom of post: A page from Absolute Martian Manhunter #1. Agent Jones is experiencing strange, colorful smoke that no one else seems to notice.

Superman ... and Metamorpho!

So, the teaser trailer for SUPERMAN (2025) came out today. For the most part, I'm trying to remain cautiously optimistic about the upcoming film. But two scenes in the trailer do ratchet up my potential excitement for the film, and both of them tease the first live-action appearance of ... Metamorpho the Element Man!

Writer Bob Haney and artist Ramona Fradon co-created Metamorpho in 1965. He has been a solo hero as well as a member of several teams, including the Justice League. 

Image description: Two screen grabs from the SUPERMAN teaser trailer and a comic book scan. Top left is a screen grab showing the Stagg Industries logo above Superman (Metamorpho worked for Simon Stagg in the comics). Bottom left is a screen grab showing a closeup of Metamorpho. Image to the right is a scan of The Brave & The Bold Vol. 1 #58, the second appearance of Metamorpho. 

The Man Who Didn't Know Halloween

Over on my Facebook page, I have been sharing, more or less annually, a holiday post on the night before Halloween – the eve of All Hallows Eve, if you will. I made the first such post on October 24, 2016. Why that date? Well, it was the day after the death of the one and only Jack T. Chick (April 13, 1924 – October 23, 2016). He was the guy who created all those nifty "Chick tracts." 

You do remember those illustrated religious tracts, those little evangelizing booklets, don't you? I sure do!

I love how misinformed and over-the-top they were. But, as a comic book fan, I will admit that Chick's drawing style was very accessible, and it definitely lent itself to storytelling – even if that storytelling was uneven and laughable. Perhaps it was the former aspect, the accessible one, that compelled so many Protestant churches to display Chick tracts in their narthices. At least, I certainly recall seeing them in churches during the 1980s. 

On one hand, Chick might very well have been "the most widely read theologians in human history" – according to Daniel Raeburn, who said that of Chick in his 1998 booklet, The Imp number two (The Holy War of Jack T Chick). On the other hand, Chick was strongly anti-Catholic, hyper-critical of other faiths, and allegedly running an active hate group (i.e. Chick Publications is categorized under "General Hate" by the SPLC). 

Funny that Chick passed in October 2016; I wonder if ol' Jack would have been pleased that he passed so close to his beloved – er, bedeviled – Halloween. He certainly had a thing for the holiday ... and anything he could associate with it.

If you have never read a Chick tract, or if you just want to be reminded of them, jump on over to Paste's "8 Halloween-Themed Chick Tracts to 'Chick Out' This Halloweekend!" (dated October 28, 2016). "Boo!" is #4 on Paste's list. The cover of "Boo!" is this post's lead-in image, and Pages 16-18 of that tract are featured below. And you can read "Boo!" in its entirety at the Chick Publications site, which is *still* very much up and running!