In an interview with Syfy Wire, it was announced that Gail Simone (“Batgirl,” “Wonder Woman/Conan”) will be writing a new Plastic Man miniseries with art by Adriana Melo (who collaborated with Simone on “Birds of Prey”). “Plastic Man” will be six issues, and start in June. It will chronicle the adventures of the hero created by Jack Cole in 1941.
Plastic Man, a favorite amongst creators such as Mark Waid (“Kingdom Come”), Grant Morrison (Final Crisis”), and Frank Miller (“The Dark Knight Returns”) was once a thief and con-man until he was exposed to a liquid chemical that gave him the abilities to stretch and bend his body into any shape, along with other powers such as super strength. He currently is an integral part of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s (“Batman”) “Dark Nights: Metal” event as well as Jeff Lemire’s (“Animal Man”) “The Terrifics” series. With so many high profile creators taking a crack at Plastic Man, it only makes sense that Gail Simone will take over his solo miniseries, as she has wanted to work on the character for some time, focusing on the humor surrounding the character.
Of Plastic Man, Simone says “This character was so ahead of its time when it was created. The stuff we’re seeing in Deadpool and Harley Quinn now, Plastic Man was doing in the 1940s,” and “When I think about Plastic Man, he was genuinely the first funny super hero. I”m obviously attracted to that. There’s also this great mixture of tragedy in there, too, that I love. The humor comes from a place of pain.”
Simone says that the humor part comes easy for her because it can be off-the-wall silly, or go dark at any minute. According to the interview she’s very excited to be working with Adriana Melo once more stating “she draws the most gorgeous people. And this book has sort of a ’40s-style glamour to it. It’s updated a bit. But, Adriana is also tremendous at doing humor so I cannot wait to see what she brings to that.” The interview also revealed that Amanda Conner will be drawing the variant cover to issue #1 as well.
“Plastic Man” #1 will debut sometime in June from DC Comics.
