The Mystery of Rubberman: Plentiful Plastic

Among the rogues gallery of adversaries which the golden age Robotman faced throughout his lengthy career on Earth-Two, one undoubtedly bore him a striking resemblance to a long-lost All-Star ally of his years earlier. In fact, the resemblance wasn't just uncanny, but his true origins were even more so, as we unwind this mystery.

This foe known as Rubberman led a gang in a payroll heist, witnessed by scientist Paul Dennis and his intelligent cybernetic canine Robbie. In fact, Dennis and his pet were Robotman and Robotdog, and shortly after witnessing this crime in action, they purused the criminals and were rebelled by their pliable leader.

This led the robotic duo to visit a local circus, where the attraction's owner refers them to the local fire eater who knew the recently departed Indian rubber man personnally. However, when approached by the metal man and his dog, the fire eater breathes intense flames that nearly melt the pair's metallic frames. Dousing their fiery-tempered foe, Robotman and Robbie track down Rubberman himself, who ensnared them in liquid rubber hardened around them. Despite this, the heroes escaped and subdued Rubberman and his gang.

But some questions can be asked: Who was this Rubberman? Why did he resemble a former teammate of Robotman who disappeared years earlier? In fact, this artificial being was a replica of the original Plastic Man, himself a member of the All-Star Squadron who joined the Freedom Fighters and left their native world of Earth-Two to protect the parallel planet of Earth-X.

Prior to Plastic Man's departure from Earth-Two, 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 seemingly remained behind. This being reverted to the criminal mindset of Plastic Man's former identity as criminal Eel O'Brien.

And on another parallel planet, Earth-One. the young hero known as Robbie Reed. the possessor of the H-Dial. This lad could "Dial 'H' for Hero" , allowing him to become various superheroes. Twice, Robby become a clone of Plastic Man, first as a hero and years later as a misguided villain for a brief period. During his second adventure in this identity, Robby was defeated by the Plastic Man native to his world, who helped Reed recover his sanity once their battled had concluded.

Wildly Wacky and Weird: Dial H for Hero and Burp the Twerp

Robby Reed was arguably the most powerful superhero of Earth-One, in so much as he had access to an immense variety of superhuman abilities at any time he needed it. Reed accidentally uncovered an ancient H-Dial in a cavern, which he deduced would grant him various powers when he dialed H-E-R-O. This led to dozens of adventures and scores of alter egos, each time he became someone different. Defending his home town of Littleville, Colorado, Robby would face various supervillains including his arch-enemy in Erick Bolton aka the Moon Man, who led a criminal organization known as Thunder. Given the location he lived, Robby never met more well-known superheroes, save one much later.

Despite defeating these cadre of crooks, the temptation toward criminality would tempt him. Robby didn't always use these gifts in the wisest manner, which led to as much trouble as what he had battled.

An individual on Earth-Two who matched the diversity of Robby's powerset was a man known only by two aliases, Burp the Twerp*, of the Super Son-of-a-Gun. The origin of his abilities, and his actual birthname, are unknown... although it does not seem he relies on a device like an H-Dial to manifest these metahuman attributes.

Unlike other mystery men of the 1940's, Burp kept mostly to himself while being preoccupied in some mundane misadventures. However, on at least two occasions, he encountered Plastic Man. And like Plastic Man, Twerp could contort his body into various shapes and likewise favored a red and black costume during his capers.

Robby had himself once device dialed himself into a clone of Plastic Man, a version of whom also lived on Earth-One and had similar tales as that of his Earth-Two counterpart. Shortly after this, the original Plastic Man came out of retirement and assisted Batman on several cases, reestablishing himself once more as both a superhero and a law enforcement officer.

As for Reed, after several successful tales, his situation started to turn dark. First, his evil side manifested when the pitch of a jet booster used by criminals affected him in his heroic personas. This led to partial amnesia, wherein he forgot he had possessed the H-Dial, and when he suddenly remembered his psychke was too fractured to wield the power without becoming corrupt. After this occasion, Robby attempted to resume his heroic activites, and while attempting to save Earth was forced to dial S-P-L-I-T on his H-Dial so he could be two places at once, which led to the creation of a superhero and a supervillain.

As for Burp the Twerp, he would later appear once more in the company of Plastic Man and Plas' partner Woozy Winks, having come to be obsessed with his fellow shape changer. Noticing that the Super Son-of-a-Gun was stalking his pal, Woozy confronted the creepy contortionist and discovered that... but for his lack of attention span... Burp was a serious threat to not only Plastic Man but all other costumed contemporaries. That said, Burp left the pair once proving his point.

In one tale, Burp sought to marry a woman he had been pursuing for quite some time. When she rejected him due to his appearance, he displayed the ability to change heads, though now having handsome features he found she still wasn't satisifed. Next, in his bag of tricks, he pulled out a more fit physical form, which she definitely approved of, and accepted his marriage proposal. However, the original head of Burp recognized this and reasssembled his old body oce more, realizing he was "too good for his own good". This occasion seems to indicate that perhaps he was an artificial life form, such as an adaptable android.

Between the occasion when Robby first turned evil and when he dialed S-P-L-I-T, after recovering from amnesia and regaining his dial, he encountered the actual Plastic Man while acting out some criminal tendencies once more. Plas fought Robby in various forms, including Robby as Plastic Man II once more. After defeated Reed, Plas took possession of the H-Dial to keep the lad from abusing its power. Robby somehow recoved the dial later on, perhaps after Plastic Man deposited it with the law enforcement agency he was working for. It was at this point, when he split himself in two, that he created two versions of himself. Unlike Burp's handsome and original bodies, each of which was still inherantly good, Reed's two bodies were diametrically opposed. One was good, and the other evil. The evil version disposed of the good version, but not before that good version created two new H-Dials with power limitations that would prevent their inheritors from turning evil. These two, Vicki Grant and Chris King, carried on a various superheroes, fighting the artifical supervillains created by Robby's evil Master persona. 

Eventually, Reed regained his sanity and retired.

*  Burp the Twerp was quite possibly the cartoon creation of Scribbly Jibbet, the doppelgänger of Robby Reed, tapping into the metaphysical energy in his newspaper's office to bring Burp to life.

Dial "Q" for Quick: Spelling + Math Equals Adventure!

Robby Reed came upon an alien dial which, when he learned to transcribe it, allowed him to "Dial 'H' for Hero", or so the saying goes. Johnny Chambers acquired from his guardian Professor Gill the means to access a formula making him a superhero. These various formulas in Earth-Two's universe provided a wide range of superhuman abilities, similar to the dial's letter combinations would on Earth-One. However, it was another individual who mirrored Reed in all his strange forms, just as another crimefighter had mirrored Quick's speed superheroics. 

Robby's counterpart on Earth-Two, was young artist SScribbly Jibbet and his wondrously wacky and weird fictional creation known as "Burp the Twerp" aka the Super Son-of-a-Gun. While not relying on a formula like Johnny Quick or Mister Reed, the variety of superhuman abilities manifested by Burp was matched only by Robby. The origin of Burp's powers has never been revealed, although it was later shown that he and his world's Plastic Man had met on at least two occasions while comparing their powers. Although Burp could shapechange into elastic forms as well as displaying powers of other superheroes, his lack on intellect drew his attention away from serious use of his gifts to protect others. As for Johnny's cosmic twin, that would've been the equally quick speedster known as Kid Flash, nephew of Earth-One's Flash.

Robby once transformed into the Earth-One version of Plastic Man. On a later occasion, Reed’s evil persona manifested as a faux Plastic Man who battled the original pliable protector of his world. Robby later split into a hero and villain persona, before regaining his sanity after giving H-dials to two other teens... Chris King and Vicki Grant. 

Various alphabetic and alphanumeric combinations allowed these Robby and Johnny to become something more. Among these were the following awesome abilities:

H.E.R.O. and 3X2(9YZ)4A  unleashed superhuman power for good. 

O.R.E.H. and Z25Y(2AB)6 returned an individual to normal again, 

V.I.L.L.I.A.N. and 3X2(9YZ)4AX turned one into an evil superhuman.

H.O.R.R.O.R. and 4G-7E(3X3W)6X gave one a monstrous physique.

H.E.R.O.I.N.E. and ZYM04N13/1 always granted temporary powers.

S.P.L.I.T. and 5x3(99ZY)444AB provides extra abilities.

H-I-D-E-Y-O-U-R-S-S-E-L-F and 6x4(18yz)8A - helps to conceal these formulas’ powers.

Several undocumented combinations yielded similar effects.

After a series of adventures, Reed gained amnesia after he had saved Earth-One from destruction by dialing S.P.L.I.T. in order to become two individuals, the Wizard who flew off to defeat the villain behind the death trap, and the Master who ingeniously deactivated the global bomb. It was then realized by both individuals that the Wizard possessed all of Reed's inherent good, and the Master all his inherent evil. While the Wizard developed two more power dials like Robby's original dial, the Master slayed his good-nature clone. An evil seed then took root.

These two power dials ended up in the hands of Vicki Grant and Chris King, a pair of high school students in Fairfax who had a more substantial career in their various H-Dial alter egos than had Reed himself. Later, they discovered that they were heirs to a legacy, the locket that she wore and the watch that he wore originated from Robby Reed himself. As the Master, Reed attempted to reclaim both H-Dials using artifically created supervillains, before finally coming to his senses and forsaking evil. Any further career Vicky and Chris had as superheroes would be shortlived.

On Earth-Two, the power couple was the infants known as Sugar and Spike. Born Sugar Plumm and Cecil "Spike" Wilson, the blonde haired girl and red haired boy were instant friends since their first meeting in 1956. Dozens of their adventures, or rather mis-adventures*, were chronicled until 1971, and on a few occasions the pair briefly gained superhuman powers. For instance, on one occasion they were subjected to a size-altering ray that could shrink or enlarge them, another time to a volume X which gave Spike abilities comparable to those of Superman. On yet another occasion, a young brilliant frenemy of theirs developed a Tornado Tot costume for himself, which the kids borrowed while pretending to be the new superhero.

Tornado Tot was no doubt inspired by a previous superhero, Ma Hunkle aka the Red Tornado, who had operated in their neighborhood back in the early 1940s. In fact, Sugar and Spike eventually met the lad who told her tales through his artwork, Scribby Jibbett, who was now himself a father to Scribby Junior whom they met one fine day on the beach. While the devices they stumbled upon were seemingly unrelated, they were perhaps based on the same premise as Johnny Quick's mathematical formula. As for these kids, they later grew up to become professional investigators of strange phenomenon, perhaps inspired by their own past.

* As far-fetched as some of Sugar and Spike’s toddler tales were, this was matched by those of the younger versions of the Earth-One Superman and Wonder Woman, when they were Superbaby and Wonder Tot in Smallville and Paradise Island.

Plentifully Prodigious Plastic Men

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.

During the Convergence event that pulled various cities and their heroes to a planet outside space and time, Plastic Man along with you fellow Freedom Fighter battled the Nazi villain Silver Ghost. During the conflict, Plas and the Ghost formed an uneasy alliance to track down the origin of deadly cyborgs threatening the citizens of their displaced New York City. After a final battle when the Ghost betrayed his foe turned ally, Plastic Man was left outside and separated from the Fighters. Where this version of the hero ended up in the multitude of cities on Telos wasn't initially revealed. He didn't return to Earth-Two, as the Senate hearing that tried the Justice Society for treason in the 1980's stated that Plastic Man disappeared in the 1940's. It appears that this Plas journeyed to the Gotham City of Earth-Twelve, which was also listed as having temporarily been located on Telos, and on this Earth he ultimately settled down and sired a son in his own image!

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. 

Then there was the wacky 1960's son of the original, Eel O'Brien Jr. and a Plastic Man who had teamed up with the Inferior Five in their issue #6. It was then revealed that the golden age Eel (who originated on Earth-Two) made a home for himself on this third world he traveled to, one that unlike his home-world and his initial adopted world gripped by World War was more comical in nature.

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!