Plastic Man and Son

[arbre_rieur]

Ernie O'Brien wants nothing more than to be taken seriously as a grim 'n' gritty crimefighter. Too bad his dad's Plastic Man.





As you can see, his efforts aren't paying off.



Offspring goes home to his girlfriend, Micheline. He thinks his dad didn't want to come up because of her.





Much later, after going out to meet with his superhero friends, Offspring seems to return home and confront Micheline about how she doesn't seem to approve of how his dad raised him.





Yep, it was really dad himself, digging for the truth.

The real Offspring is actually still hanging out with his superhero friends. The word in their community is that something is going to end the world soon. He thinks that if that's true, he might not have much longer to become a true hero.

So, he tries to convince his friends to help him stop a group of small time supervillains (the bunch in the first page) from stealing an abandoned Brainiac spaceship. He sees this as his last chance before the end. His friends go along with him at first, tracking the criminals to Egypt, but they eventually tell him to let it go.





After Offspring's friends head off, his dad shows up.





Offspring tells his dad that he's not going to take armageddon lying down. He's going to try to stop it.



Writing by Mark Waid, pencils by Frank Quitely.

Comments

[domino_blue]

This was very good, I love Plastic Man, and his son is really fun too.

[proteus_lives]

Awww. A perfect offering for Father's Day.

[chocochuy]

Ditto and Motto.

This post reminded me that I need to give a hug to my Father today. It's not only Father's Day but his Birthday as well.

[proteus_lives]

Also, I go back and forth on whither I like Quitely's art.

Sometimes it rocks but it almost always looks like his characters are trying not to shit their pants.

[icon_uk]

Agreed, it's mostly his faces. Sometimes he can't seem to help drawing in a dozen more lines in a face than is necessary, which tends to make faces look... wizened, when they shouldn't be.

[auggie18]

I generally like him, though his people often look like elderly evil babies.

[turtlefu]

He's great for action scenes, because his art can be very kinetic and he understands movement in images.

But for everything else, ESPECIALLY talking heads, he sucks.

And this issue was mostly talking heads.

[nickfury90]

His complete mastery of body language makes up for any facial problems, in my book.

He's my favorite comic book artist, bar none.

[droolfangrrl]

Thanks, it's nice to not be the only person to like his stuff.

[arbre_rieur]

Agreement on the first sentence. It makes him especially well-suited for a story all about funny shape-shifting guys.

[icon_uk]

Awww, this is nice, and a great choice for Father's Day

[blackruzsa]

;_;
So so sweet. Really, I could not love this more.

[jlroberson]

Wait what hold on this is Quitely and I missed it what is this again?

[kamino_neko]

The Offspring one-shot from the Kingdom event from 1999.

[speedingtortoise]

This is wonderful!

Thank you for sharing this : )

[halloweenjack]

Quitely had me at the booze shooting out of J.D.'s nose.

[stubbleupdate]

I only need to know one thing about Plastic Man, and that's that he survived in pieces at the bottom of the ocean for millennia.

[bmaryott]

That was just the most perfect part of the most perfect issue.

[kenwyn89]

Not a big fan of plastic man but I loved the writing in this :)

[autumn_lily]

I like Plastic Man as a goofy guy - to me way to many heros are doing the brooding mysterious bull these days. And this story always makes go wibbly. And just in time for father's day too! I love you dad! Wherever you are!

Dad: "I'm in the kitchen"

.....YAY!

[darrylayo]

Frank Quitely is the best person.

[eyz]

Oh man... I'd love a whole Plastic Man or Offspring mini by Quitely!

[wizardru]

Wow, Waid and Quitely is a pair I hadn't considered...and this is actually the first time I've seen Offspring in action.

This is really, really good.

[blunderbuss]

Oh man, that is just so damn sweet. Extra-stretchy hugs and two goof-balls saving the day! :D

Also Offspring, ditch your asshole girlfriend. You don't need someone who disapproves of you and your father because it gives her a bad reputation.

[glprime]

Evidence not everything coming out of The Kingdom was crap.