One of the reasons, I think, that Plastic Man is difficult to get right is that he was never really designed to work well outside his own title. If you read any of the original Jack Cole run, Plas is NOT played as a wacky comedian - he's played as the only sane man in an insane world. His body might contort into endless humorously bizarre shapes, but the comedy in Cole's Plastic Man doesn't come from Plas - it comes from the innumerable freaks, weirdos and lunatics that populate his world, and the countless off-the-wall background details. The Cole Plas himself is a bit of a straight man who just lets all the weirdness bounce off him, which is exactly the opposite to how he's been portrayed recently.