Plastic Man No More! #4 – Christopher Cantwell, Writer; Alex Lins, Jacob Edgar, Artists; Marcelo Maiolo, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: It’s the finale of what is definitely the darkest Plastic Man series ever, as Eel O’Brien is dying of molecular depolymerization, and has found something worth fighting for – preventing the same thing from happening to his son. He’s partnered wit supervillains, caused the death of the Metal Men, and even kidnapped the son who hates him – all in the service of essentially setting off a nuclear blast on the outskirts of Gotham. It’s a grim issue, but one that has a fantastic sense of tension behind it. Cantwell has combined the tone of a noir series with a whole lot of bizarre superhero science, and the choice to have a secondary artist to do the more “comic-booky” scenes is fantastic. Some of the art by Alex Lins gets truly grotesque as Eel’s body continues to betray him, forcing him to keep his head in a canister and later to just collapse into a bucket.
But all the body horror and betrayals wouldn’t work nearly as well if it wasn’t for the very human story of a father and son that grounded this whole series. The tension between Eel and Luke is all too familiar for anyone who grew up with a father who was a dirtbag but wasn’t awful enough to truly not care about anymore. And it’s clear that Eel sees Luke as the only worthwhile thing he ever did with his life – making his decision at the end of this series all the more heartbreaking. Black Label is always in an interesting place because most of them aren’t in continuity. What happens at the end of the issue makes that pretty clear, but this one feels just sideways of it. A lot of current characters like Tim Drake play key roles in the finale, and a lot of what happens feels like the natural outgrowth of character development for these leads. Very excited to see what Cantwell has planned next for the DCU.
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