Hey kids! Want to see Plastic Man die? Well, now you can, because DC Comics is launching a new four-issue Black Label series titled Plastic Man No More! which explores the idea of what happens to the goofy, stretchy hero once his body starts to break down.
Written by Christopher Cantwell, with art by Alex Lins, DC teases that the series isn’t just a grand guignol of Eel O’Brian melting into goo — it’s also a hard-boiled noir.
“I don’t know about you, but when I think about Plastic Man, I immediately think of David Cronenberg,” said Cantwell via a press release provided to Comic Book Club. “There is an element of body horror to his story that I have always found fascinating. And I also found myself wondering recently—How would Plastic Man actually die? What would that look like? Is he immortal? And then I thought of the long and particularly nasty way real plastics and petroleum products break down when and if they finally do. That’s how I learned about depolymerization and the chemical process of ‘unzipping,’—from a particularly morose afternoon on the ol’ Internet, picturing what might happen to Eel if his entire cellular structure started to give way.”
In the series, Plastic Man suffers “catastrophic cellular damage” while on a Justice League mission. With time running out, he needs to confront the darker parts of his past, including his son, who might be following in his father’s former criminal footsteps.
“There are many superhero stories that play with the metaphor of our own inability to control our physical bodies,” continued Cantwell. “Plastic Man provided a way to take that allegory even deeper. How we look in the mirror and see one thing, then see a photo of ourselves and don’t recognize the person at all. How we all break down over time. What’s this strange itch? Why is this sagging? Why does this hurt now? Is my face permanently going to look like this? Or get even worse? With all these questions in the story comes a real and profound fear of aging, and yes, what lies beyond that—dying. And when someone like Plastic Man is suddenly looking at the end of the road, and now reflecting on his legacy, he begins to wonder: was he ever taken seriously by anyone? Did he even take himself seriously? The character also has a history of neglect and failure when it comes to personal relationships. So quite catastrophically, Patrick O’Brien suddenly finds himself desperate, asking WHAT NOW? HOW DO I FIX THIS? “THIS” being his very body, his very cells, as well his connections to the people he loves. And just WAIT until you see how horrifically and hilariously Alex Lins and Jacob Edgar have rendered this referendum on our vanguard ultra-bendable former-criminal-turned-hero-guy.”
The new series features a main cover by Lins, with additional art by Jacob Edgar, color by Marcelo Maiolo and lettering by Becca Carey. Variant Covers for the first issue are by Michael Allred, Chris Samnee, and Tyler Boss, with Riley Rossmo and Martín Morazzo featured on future variants. Each issue will be 32 pages long, with 32 pages of story, and the first issue of Plastic Man No More will hit stores on September 4, 2024.
Also, it’s 17+, so kids, you can’t see Plastic Man die. Sorry, kids. Check out a slew of interior pages and covers, below – and click for larger versions:
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