One of the iconic heroes in comic book history has to be the stretch sleuth known as Plastic Man, created by legendary writer Jack Cole. And from his initial 1941 appearance in Police Comics #1 through that series' conclusion and that of his own title published during that decade, the former Eel O'Brien became a legend. And a desired property for other publishers, particularly DC Comics which acquired the Quality Comics character.
So in 1966 Plas was reintroduced, or rather it turned out to be his son. Then, the original turned up in a couple of early 1970's Brave and the Bold issues teaming up with Batman. But was this the original? And what became of his son? Well after his own revitalized mid-70's series had concluded, he had a string of Adventure/Super Friends/Worlds Finest Comics solo tales. Intermixed, he was affiliated with at least three teams of champions of three Earths!
Once the dust cleared and time helped place things in perceptive, a few facts were made somewhat clear. The initial incarnation of Plastic Man resided on Earth-Two, home to most golden age heroes. Joining the All-Star Squadron as their FBI liason, he would stick around. During this period he met Captain Marvel from Earth-S, and Uncle Sam who moved to Earth-X. Around this time, an inventive crook created synthetic Plastic Men to bedevil the original. Even Woozy Winks became a stretchy sidekick accidentally and helped his pal to defeat the fakes.
It was the latter that finally motivated Plastic Man to journey with fellow heroes from Earth-Two to this hero-less world to protect it from the Nazi hordes. Sadly, this journey was not kind to this incarnation of Plastic Man, as alluded to by Uncle Sam's cryptic comments decades later. And yet, according to his "Who's Who" entry, this golden age Plastic Man still survived into the present day even though he was thought deceased on Earth-X!Prior to his departure from Earth-Two, however, a gangster allied with a criminal mastermind created synthetic Plastic Men, with the same abilities and appearance of the original, which he used to initiate a crime wave. During this caper, Woozy Winks had himself transformed through this process into a version of his partner Plastic Man. After the pair defeated the crooks behind the elastic clones, apparently all the Plastic Men were eliminated, although conceivably at least one may have remained behind to aid Woozy in crime fighting when the original journeyed to Earth-X.
The Earth-One Plastic Man first appeared chronologically alongside the Justice League of America in their origin story and later team up with that world's Batman in Brave and the Bold, then would go on to have solo tales in the 1970's in his own title, Super Friends Adventure and World's Finest Comics! After a notable career, this Plastic Man assumed the guise of explorer Kyle Morgan, and was engaged to corrupt businesswoman Ruby Ryder. From this experience, he saw the futility of having a life separate from his superhero persona, and resumed his career as the pliable protector and as an agent of the National Bureau of Investigation with pal Woozy Winks.
This pliable protector found a foe in the young Robby Reed, the possessor of the H-Dial, enabling him to "Dial 'H' for Hero" which he did over a dozen times in his brief career. Twice Robby become a clone of Plastic Man, first as a hero and years later as a misguided villain for a brief period.
Robby's Dial-generated Plas was similar to Burp the Twerp aka the Super Son-of-a-Gun, who had various shape-changing powers and met Earth-Two's Plastic Man on at least two occasions during his chaotic crimefighting career.
Rather, this was a more lighthearted Earth, and it appears it was there that he carried on his adventures in his self-titled own magazine during the late 1940s and early 1950s. He eventually married and accidentally bequeathed similar powers to his son, who carried on his legacy. This son Eel Junior would be, in effect, the Earth-Twelve doppelgänger of his dear old, dad the original Plastic Man of Earth-Two.
Eventually, the rigors of stretching his body in various ways causes the original Plastic Man crippling pain, leading to his retirement until called upon to aid his son later on.
Eel Junior existed contemporaneous to the Inferior Five, who were said to reside on Earth-Twelve, on that parallel world prone towards comedic circumstances. However, despite being a second generation hero like the Five (who themselves were the offspring of the golden age Freedom Brigade) Junior did not deem it worthy of joining them. What became of him after his dozen chronicled tales is unknown, as his Earth also encountered the Crisis that had engulfed the Multiverse.
Another Plastic Man was one who appeared alongside Kid Eternity on Earth-S. While this may, on the surface, seem similar to when Earth-One's Robbie Reed used his Dial "H" for Hero device to transform into the malleable manhunter himself on two occasions, this was the Eel O'Brien from the Kid's Eternity dimension, which was attached to Earth-S. It was this Plastic Man's exploits in the middle to latter part of the 1940's that were being chronicled in Police Comics, as mentioned in this particular story... on the Kid's Earth-S. Additionally, Blackhawk had tales in his own series during this time and also aided Kid Eternity on occasion. As with Plastic Man, it seems Blackhawk... and by extension his six teammates...migrated from Eternity to Earth-S. Or perhaps remained in the Eternity dimension These heroes continued to operate into the mid 1950's as chronicled in their Quality Comics tales.
Indeed, this legend stretched himself quite thin, in a sense... as five versions of him helped to protect five worlds! So in the end, there was Plastic Man of Earth-Two who was a founding member of the All-Star Squadron and later moved to Earth-X thanks to Uncle Sam, then due to the Convergence moved to Earth-Twelve where he sired that universe's native version of Plastic Man, the Plastic Man from Eternity that Kid Eternity brought to Earth-S where he remained, the Earth-One Plastic Man and his Robby Reed clone. And we aren't even counting the dozens of synthetic Plastic Men that one of the original's foes created in the early 1940's on Earth-Two. Whew!
Indeed, this legend stretched himself quite thin, in a sense... as five versions of him helped to protect five worlds! So in the end, there was Plastic Man of Earth-Two who was a founding member of the All-Star Squadron and later moved to Earth-X thanks to Uncle Sam, then due to the Convergence moved to Earth-Twelve where he sired that universe's native version of Plastic Man, the Plastic Man from Eternity that Kid Eternity brought to Earth-S where he remained, the Earth-One Plastic Man and his Robby Reed clone. And we aren't even counting the dozens of synthetic Plastic Men that one of the original's foes created in the early 1940's on Earth-Two. Whew!
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Robby Reed turned into Plastic Man in House of Mystery #160 (1966). This was presumably the original (1940's) version, since the headline called him "a new old hero" and DC's Silver Age Plastic Man comic didn't premiere until a few months later. (Maybe DC was testing the waters.) Robby appeared in Plastic Man #13 (1976). And Dr. Caulder, the Chief of the Doom Patrol, made a cameo appearance in Plastic Man #8 (1966-67). So either the 1960's Plastic Man was on Earth One, or Earth 12 had counterparts to the original Doom Patrol.
Earth-Twelve obviously had counterparts of several Earth-One characters including Invisible Kid, Robin and Superman. The Chief aka Niles Caulder who met Plas Jr picked up his wheelchair and stood, showing it was not the same Chief as that on Earth-One.
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