InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Be one with the orange"

dr_hermes (dr_hermes) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-11-11 20:37:00

Entry tags:

char: plastic man/patrick o'brian, creator: jack cole, era: golden age

The unfortunate side of Plastic Man's powers
Looking over some of the great Jack Cole's work on Plastic Man in the 1940s, something occurred to me.We see Plas eating and drinking occasionally. So when he pulls a stunt like this:

Well, wouldn't the natural digestive gases found in the intestines be forced out through their logical exit? And wouldn't this be much like squeezing a whoopee cushion, with similar attention-drawing noises? ("Did youse mugs hear that? It means Plastic Man's here!" "No, boss-- that wuz me, I had chili for lunch.")

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	taggerung301 2009-11-12 01:43 am UTC (link)
	heh, interesting hypothesis (Reply to this)

	aaron_bourque 2009-11-12 01:50 am UTC (link)
	Maybe he doesn't digest the same way as us puny mortals? I mean, his digestive system can't be standard . . . (Reply to this) (Thread)

	darkblade 2009-11-12 01:55 am UTC (link)
	Considering all the crazy stuff he is able to do I don't think anything about his physiology can be called "standard". (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	espanolbot 2009-11-12 02:02 am UTC (link)
	I think that they had him chopped up into chunks a while back and it was just solid, flesh coloured sections, not filled with tubes and things. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	toby_wan_kenobi 2009-11-12 02:05 am UTC (link)
	Didn't he get frozen and shattered in the Obsidian Age storyline? And pieced together after thousands of years? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

dr_hermes
2009-11-12 02:19 am UTC (link)

Well, I don't know what the current version of the character may be.. for all I could say, he might be a solid chunk of protoplasm like the movies' Blob, or a Lovecraftian shoggoth or something. But back when Jack Cole was writing and drawing his creation, Plas was essentially a human being with a strange power. That's what made me wonder about shape-changing flatus.

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	jlroberson 2009-11-12 03:42 am UTC (link)
	In the current version, Plas has no internal organs. His whole body is between solid and liquid. And yes, he's effectively immortal. This is how he could be shot in the brain and live. He wasn't keeping it there at the time. And yes, this too means Plas is all kinds of disgusting. Which I'm sure he's pleased with. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dr_hermes 2009-11-12 04:13 am UTC (link)
	The next question would be where he gets nutritional energy, assuming there's a certain amount of wear and tear, damage and loss. Possibly he absorbs food when no one's looking and disposes of waste products discreetly. Maybe at some point he will fission and there will be two identical Plastic Men. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	his_spiffyness 2009-11-12 04:28 am UTC (link)
	Maybe at some point he will fission and there will be two identical Plastic Men. Plastic Man Red and Plastic Man Blue? SHUDDER (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jlroberson 2009-11-12 04:58 am UTC (link)
	That's actually...an interesting idea whose dialogue would totally write itself. It does mean that he's immune to Black Lanterns. I think it would be hilarious to see them try. (Reply to this) (Parent)

icon_uk
2009-11-12 08:41 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, seems likely to me he can still eat (and possibly does, to enjoy the taste), and absorbs the mass from there by some sort of osmosis.

This was investigated more carefully in the 1980's Starman series, where Will Payton, who thought he was an empowered human discovered that the process which gave him his powers (Flight, heat generation, limited shapeshifting) him had actually barely left him human at all. He only breathed because it was a habit, he never needed to eat because his body was a dself regenerating energy source, and his body only formed discreet organs if he felt he should have them (He had fingers because he assumed he would have them, but who the heck thinks about their lower intestine as a matter of course?) and then he's told that he is now sterile, since he no longer has the internal equipment required, and won't be able to create it because it's too complex and he may not have the necessary elements in his body at all anymore.

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	comicoz 2009-11-12 10:18 pm UTC (link)
	That actually sounds like an intriguing read. Any idea of issues/names? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-11-12 10:25 pm UTC (link)
	The Will Payton Starman was a great series, though it went a little downhill after the first few years. I keep meaning to posts scans for it, I'll try and get motivated for it with the new community. (Reply to this) (Parent)

freeman333
2009-11-12 11:06 pm UTC (link)

There was a Plastic-Man centered annual a few years back which dealt with the introduction of Plastic Man to Woozie Winks. During that adventure, Plas is shot with a number of darts that cause him to "bleed", and Winks notes that his blood "smells just like airplane glue". (Winks, who was previously a talented spy and assassin, is made permanently "woozy" by his exposure to this blood while in an unventilated space.)

I have no idea if this story is considered canon or not, and we've certainly seen Plas get injured in a number of other instances and not bleed glue, but if you're willing to accept for the moment that he does have some sort of chemically volatile bodily fluids flowing around in him, it's not out of the question that his digestive process involves some kind of super-potent solvent that immediately dissolves anything taken into his body and distributes it throughout his form in moments (he doesn't seem to have a functioning heart, either, so it's safe to say that he could move fluids around his body at will, given his powerset). That would eliminate gaseous byproducts, or distribute them out far enough that they could be released in tiny amounts through pores rather than in big...er...eruptions.

Fanwank! Ruining harmless jokes since 1938.

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	saralakali 2009-11-12 05:18 am UTC (link)
	Given Plas's personality, I can't imagine intestinal gasses staying in him long enough to be a problem in situations like this. Bodily noises would be like free entertainment. And should he need to void those gasses sliently, a man who can control the shape of his body could surely do so. Think about it. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-11-12 05:43 am UTC (link)
	And knowing Plas, I have absolutely no confidence he would do so silently. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	megami 2009-11-12 06:18 am UTC (link)
	I suppose "left cheek sneak" has a whole new meaning when the cheek in question could be anywhere. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	earthelemental 2009-11-12 07:31 am UTC (link)
	He's Plastic Man. He could be eating and drinking in the kitchen AND be in the bathroom answering nature's calls, AT THE SAME TIME. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-11-12 08:52 pm UTC (link)
	As in Grant Morrison's memorable moment in "Animal Man" (or Doom Patrol, I forget which), when Elongated Man pokes his upper body into the JLE command centre, and his wife says "Ralph! I thought you were in the bathroom?" to which Ralph offhandedly replies... "I am" The rest is left to our imagination! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	strangething 2009-11-15 04:27 am UTC (link)
	Not my scan, but I don't think it's from Animal Man. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	strangething 2009-11-15 04:32 am UTC (link)
	I gotta remember to preview these things. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	psychop_rex 2009-11-12 09:06 am UTC (link)
	Perhaps he has a super-fast and super-effective digestive system? (Reply to this)

	vic-question.livejournal.com 2009-11-12 11:52 am UTC (link)
	I find it amusing to think that he would form different instruments and play a song to get rid of the gases. I mean, surely he could stretch his behind into a trombone or a trumpet. (Reply to this)

	wizardru 2009-11-12 12:49 pm UTC (link)
	"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts (la la la), Then repeat to yourself, "It's just a show, I should really just relax" (Reply to this) (Thread)

	comicoz 2009-11-12 10:19 pm UTC (link)
	WIN (Reply to this) (Parent)