Today, DC has announced a new four-issue DC Black Label comic book miniseries launching in September, Plastic Man No More! The Eisner-nominated creative team of Christopher Cantwell (Batman: The Brave and The Bold, Briar, Halt and Catch Fire) and Alex Lins (Briar, Monarch, Immortal Hulk) brings you the five words you thought you’d never read in a press release: Hard-Boiled Plastic Man Noir.
“I don’t know about you, but when I think about Plastic Man, I immediately think of David Cronenberg,” said Cantwell. “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.”
Eel O’Brian might be a superhero now—but before he was anything else, he was a crook. Until the accident that turned him into the pliable Plastic Man, Eel was bad to the bone…and just because he no longer has bones doesn’t mean that’s not still true. When an incident on a Justice League mission leads to catastrophic cellular damage, Plastic Man discovers he just might be out of time to make amends for the past he’s tried hard to outrun—or to save the soul of his son, who (unfortunately for him) might have inherited more from dear old Dad than just his superpowers…
“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.”
Plastic Man No More! #1, written by Cantwell with art and main cover by Lins, additional art by Jacob Edgar, color by Marcelo Maiolo and lettering by Becca Carey, will have variant covers by Michael Allred, Chris Samnee, and Tyler Boss (1:25). Plastic Man No More! #1 will hit local comic book shops on September 4, 2024. Plastic Man No More! is a DC Black Label comic book series and carries an Ages 17+ content descriptor (for mature readers). Each issue of Plastic Man No More! will be 32 pages, with 32 story pages per issue. Artists Riley Rossmo and Martin Morazzo will be featured on additional variant covers throughout the new DC Black Label series.
Get a first look at each of the covers below:
