10 Things DC Fans Need To Know About Plastic Man

1. Plastic Man Taken Seriously

One of the few instances where Plastic Man is portrayed in a psychological sense comes from the “Divided We Fall” storyline of the JLA series. In it, several heroes baring a secret identity and a superhero alias have said identities separated from one another to become two individual entities.

Eel O’Brian himself is separated from his Plastic Man alter ego, and it's this which creates two different portrayals of his personality. One as a superficial version of Plastic Man as an ineffectual dolt and the other being a former thief struggling to resist falling back into a life of crime.

With the latter of the two, Eel often questions whether he is actually any different from the man that he was in the past, or if his superhero status as Plastic Man is nothing but a joke.

Overall, this was a refreshing take on the usual presentation of a wisecracking jokester, that allowed for Plastic Man to deal with internal qualities, such as introspection. A feat that’s rarely, if ever done, for this character’s arch.