Plastic Man #3 Review and **SPOILERS**

Stretching My Heart Strings

Writer: Gail Simone 

Artist: Adriana Melo 

Colorist: Kelly Fitzpatrick 

Letterer: Simon Bowland 

Cover Price: $3.99 

On Sale Date: August 8, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Wacky good times and probaby broken noses ahoy, when Plastic Man comes steamboatin’ through town! And he could do that, you know, because he can take pretty much any form. Just saying. If he wanted to be a steamboat on dry land, he totally could. Have a look at my review of Plastic Man #3, how about it?

Explain It!

Everyone loves a tale of redemption. It doesn’t matter how scurrilous someone has been, most of us like to believe that sins can be wiped away with sincerity, or humility, or whatever folks think is the best path towards penitence. Eel O’Brien’s story is, for lack of a better description, one of redemption: once a criminal, now a hero that thwarts hoodlums by stretching out and flinging them in every direction. In the original, Golden Age story, O’Brien wakes up in a monastery after being doused in acid, and simply decides to be a good guy when he discovers he can pull his face like taffy. This miniseries attempts to expand on that spontaneous decision, making it more of an actual choice rather than an obvious recourse and centering it around his street-wise savior from the first issue, Pado Saskatoon.

For a guy that’s lost his nut, Plastic Man is pretty clever: he stalls Man-Bat, working for the Cabal, by offering to work with them. But when the mysterious Cabal announces that they can have no witnesses, and so will dispatch with Pado and Plas, he swings into action, grabbing Pado and holding her aloft with an outstretched arm, while hoodlums shock the shit out of him with batons. An extra shocky stick causes him to drop Pado—but then Man-Bat rescues her! Looks like he’s not quite the willing stooge for the cabal we might have supposed. Plas takes Pado to stay with some stripper friends and then it’s on to the next task: clearing his name from an accusation of murder, despite photographic evidence! And probably making his face look like a butt again to make Pado laugh.

The issue ends with Sammy the hoodlum attempting to turn his sexy and tone-deaf ingénue into another Plastic Man by dousing her in the same acid that Eel was…this probably won’t end well. And, as usual, I’ve described almost none of the wacky chicanery and laffs presented throughout the story—including a pretty funny riff on Harley Quinn that happens right in the beginning. The issue isn’t difficult to read, but a lot of the panels look cramped and some of the figures seem only mostly-finished…which is a sight better than mostly-unfinished. This series continues its high quality, and if you’ve enjoyed it thus far, then you’re probably going to keep feeling good about it. If you were looking for something less silly than this, then you are really barking up the wrong rubber tree.

Bits and Pieces:

Plastic Man continues to protect Pado Saskatoon, and in doing so nearly kills the kid. All in a day's work for the google-eyed goofball! The plot thickens, but it's more than likely you've come for the jokes, and you'll stay for the butt-faces. There's truly something for everyone here.

7.5/10