Occasionally, I hit upon an idea for a movie or a book that I would like to do. Usually, nothing comes of it because I lack the resources to do anything about it.
Well, lately I was thinking about how Marvel comics movies are usually better than DC’s… at least in the last two decades.
I think DC should push for a Plastic Man movie.
Why Plastic Man? Well, he was so different from any other character in their roster. DC Comics acquired many of the characters from Quality Comics when it was shut down in 1956, integrating Plastic Man into the mainstream DC Universe. The Plastic Man comics were more surreal and funnier than most other superheroes. I remember him from Saturday Morning cartoons when I was a kid. But, he was always a “D-list” character compared to big names like Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman.
He is a total wise-ass kind of character. He uses his powers for totally mundane things, like getting a beer from the fridge without leaving his chair. His backstory is kind of like The Joker’s. He was formerly a criminal, who was shot and then doused with a mysterious chemical which transformed him. Instead of becoming a super-criminal, though, he acquires powers kind of like Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic from the Fantastic Four. His morals aren’t always perfect. He is just like a regular dude who wants make an easy buck. He, in fact, once flipped a coin to decide whether to use his powers for criminal purposes or not. He decides to become a private investigator, and later an FBI agent, using his experience in the criminal underworld to fight crime. In some ways he is like The Green Hornet, using his old identity and connections to get what he needs to do so.
Guardians of the Galaxy‘s success as a movie last year proved that you could take a relatively unknown comic book property and make it into a big hit. It made Chris Pratt a movie star overnight.
The Wachowski siblings, who made The Matrix trilogy wrote a script for a Plastic Man movie twenty years ago. It almost got made in 2009 and would have starred Keanu Reeves. But, then it got shelved again.
Personally, I would like to see either Jim Carrey or Bruce Campbell play the role. Both of them share that style of physical humor. I would like it very much if the setting of such a film be created sort of like the 1990 film version of Dick Tracy. It just feels so appropriate for this kind of story.
Could I make this movie? Unlikely. I don’t have the kind of budget or connections that would be required to do it any justice. If Warner Brothers or some big studio wanted to throw a pile of money at me to make it I could try. But, I feel more comfortable as a writer than as a director. That is why I haven’t made The Island of Misfit Noise movie by myself already. I know that there are other people who could put the ideas onto the screen better than I could. I kind of feel like I could be a writer-producer in the way that Gene Roddenberry was for Star Trek. He knew where to find the people that were more talented than him and handed his ideas off to them and let them take it from there.
Powers and abilities
Malleable Physiology: Plastic Man’s powers are derived from an accident in which his body was bathed in an unknown industrial chemical mixture that also entered into his bloodstream through a gunshot wound. This caused a body-wide mutagenic process that transformed his physiology. Eel exists in a fluid state, neither entirely liquid nor solid. Plastic Man has complete control over his structure.
Density Control: Plastic Man can change his density at will; becoming as dense as a rock or as flexible as a rubber band.
Malleability (Elasticity/Plasticity): He can stretch his limbs and body to superhuman lengths and sizes. There is no known limit to how far he can stretch his body.
Size Alteration: He can shrink himself down to a few inches tall (posed as one of Batman’s utility belt pockets) or become a titan (the size of skyscrapers).
Shape-Shifting: He can contort his body into various positions and sizes impossible for ordinary humans, such as being entirely flat so that he can slip under a door or using his fingers to pick conventional locks. He can also use it for disguise by changing the shape of his face and body. Thanks to his fluid state, Plastic Man can open holes in his body and turn himself into objects with mobile parts. In addition, he can alter his bodily mass and physical constitution at will; there is virtually no limit to the sizes and shapes he can contort himself into.
Superhuman Agility: These stretching powers grant Plastic Man heightened agility enabling him flexibility and coordination that is extraordinarily beyond the natural limits of the human body.
Superhuman strength: He can alter his strength by growing or adding more muscle.
Color Change: The only limitation he has relates to color, which he cannot change without intense concentration. He generally does not use this ability and sticks to his red and yellow colored uniform.
Invulnerability: Plastic Man’s powers extraordinarily augment his durability. Some stories, perhaps of anecdotal quality, have showed him susceptible to surprise attack by bullets, in one case oozing a substance similar to liquid plastic. In most stories, though, he is able to withstand corrosives, punctures and concussions without sustaining any injury (although he can be momentarily stunned). He is resistant to high velocity impacts that would kill an ordinary person, resistant to blasts from energy weapons (Batman once mentioned that he could presumably even withstand a nuclear detonation), and is bulletproof. His bodily mass can be dispersed, but for all intents and purposes it is invulnerable.
Regeneration: He is able to regenerate and/or assimilate lost or damaged tissue, although he needs to be reasonably intact for this process to begin; he was reduced to separate molecules and scattered across the ocean for centuries, only returning to his usual form after the rest of the League were able to gather enough of his molecules and restore approximately 80% of his body mass, after which he began to regenerate what they hadn’t salvaged.
Telepathic Immunity: As stated by Batman (in JLA #88, Dec. 2003), “Plastic Man’s mind is no longer organic. It’s untouchable by telepathy.”
Immortality: Plastic Man does not appear to age; if he does, it is at a rate far slower than that of normal human beings. In the aftermath of the Justice League story Arc “Obsidian Age”, Plastic Man was discovered to have survived for 3000 years scattered into separate molecules on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. He is now over 3000 years old and is still active as a superhero.
Ultrasonic Detection: His body will start to “ripple” when an ultrasonic frequency is triggered.
Rubber-Organs: As stated by Black Lantern Vibe, Plastic Man’s internal organs such as his heart when Black Lantern Vibe try to rip it out couldn’t be killed unlike many of the Black Lanterns’ victims, this makes him immune to such attacks.
Skilled thief: Plastic Man was once a very talented professional thief.
Master Detective: Although no longer a criminal, he has insight into their mindset, enabling him to be an effective sleuth. He is also considered to be a lateral thinker and much smarter than he lets on.
Mike Nobody 