RAPT IN PLASTIC PT. 12

And so DC's first (but far from last) rendition of PLASTIC MAN ends with a bangless whimper, though at least Drake managed a few okay gags this time.

This time the hoary plot is "sidekick gets the main hero's powers." While Plas and Gordon participate in a parade, they're attacked by murderous doll-sized humans. Plas repels the attack but in the ruckus Gordon is injured. He needs a blood transfusion right away, so Plas donates his chemically-altered corpuscles, and Gordon gets stretch-talents.

Being a straight-arrow, the former sidekick presumably grows a Plastic Man costume out of his own skin and decides he'll show Plas how a proper superhero conducts himself. Naturally, he bungles all of his efforts, though at least this yields a peppy new version of the "Mabel, Mabel" song. 

Meanwhile Master Mannequin, the mad genius behind the doll-men, unleashes his shrunken pawns upon a party thrown by Miss DeLute.

Plastic Man shows up late to the party. He's almost stymied by a doll-man who takes Micheline hostage, but Gordon's inadvertent entrance distracts the crook, and so Plas is able to overcome both the dolls and their master. The hero also gets the last words of the series, "So who needs neat?" There's more poetry than truth in this statement, for the Drake PLASTIC MAN is kind of a mess. But every once in a while, he worked a few good jokes into the chaos.

RAPT IN PLASTIC PT. 11

 

Here's the weakest of the three Sparling covers.

It's also another weak Drake plot. Plastic Man prevents an assassination, and that honks off Thisbey, head of a cartel that arranges professional killings. Thisbey summons Killer Joe, the world's most artistic assassin, and Joe accepts the contract, under certain stipulations. Sparling not only manages to insert a "Mutt and Jeff" pair of identical molls, but a secretary named "Miss Zeftig." Such a in-joke, veiled by a foreign-language expression, is probably the only way the editors at Sixties DC would let even an indirect reference to female boobs be printed.

Joe traps Plas with ridiculous ease. But while setting the hero up for a murder-- so that the state will execute the innocent crusader-- Plas cleverly escapes imprisonment and finds a way to prove he was nowhere near the murder scene. 

Joe then sets a minor trap to lull the hero's suspicions, and then hypnotizes Gordon into becoming a super-strong murder-machine. The spell wears off, and this forces Joe to make a frontal assault. Ironically, Plas easily defeats Joe but is almost cancelled by Thisbey. But inevitably both malefactors end up in jail, while the reader ends up with a story with a shortage of clever gags.

RAPT IN PLASTIC PT. 10

 

For the last three issues of the doomed title, Jack Sparling furnished both covers and interior art. His rather scratchy art was an odd match but some of the stretch-feats are closer to Cole's model.

This time it's the old amnesia-trope. While Plas is speaking before a stadium full of people honoring his heroism, one of the grandstands collapses. Plas holds up the structure until all the innocent girl scouts get clear, but then it buries him.

The hero comes to, but not only has he lost his memory, he's absorbed the personalities of three different people he encountered. This unique diagnosis is provided by none other than Niles Caulder, the Chief of the Doom Patrol, which Drake had been writing for most of its history, and which would conclude later the same year. After the Chief delivers his diagnosis, Gordon pegs his true identity, and Caulder steps out of character to wield his wheelchair like a bludgeon.

Unfortunately, this sequence--  IMO the funniest one in all ten issues-- is succeeded by the tired plot of a villain roping the amnesiac crusader into committing crimes. The one cute idea is that Micheline is intrigued by the thought of a crooked lover-boy, and wants to be the Bonnie to his Clyde. Disgusted when she learns he's not a real criminal, she accidentally clonks him, brings back his memory, and-- you can write the rest. Sparling does draw the hottest women in all ten issues, though.