Patrick O'Brian

Plas, Pat

Plastic Man, formerly Eel O'Brian

100+ years old.

Male

The nature of Plastic Man's powers makes giving a single appearance difficult, as he is able to stretch, squash, and shift into a nearly infinite number of forms.

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.

Plastic Man's powers extraordinarily augment his durability. 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, and is completely bullet proof. His bodily mass can be dispersed, but for all intents and purposes, it is invulnerable.

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.

Plastic Man does not appear to age. If he does, it is at a rate far slower than that of normal human beings. He is able to regenerate and/or assimilate lost or damaged tissue. Though it does take a long time, its far faster than an ordinary human, making him functionally immortal.

Plastic Man, having an inorganic nervous system, is immune to mind control and telepathy.

In the year of 1928, Plastic man was orphaned at the tender age of 10 and forced to live on the streets, where he fell into a life of crime. As an adult, he became part of a burglary ring, specializing as a safecracker. During a late-night heist at the Crawford Chemical Works in 1940, he and his three fellow gang members were surprised by a night watchman. During the gang's escape, Eel was shot in the shoulder and doused with a large drum of unidentified chemical liquid. He escaped to the street only to discover that his gang had driven off without him. Fleeing on foot and suffering increasing disorientation from the gunshot wound and the exposure to the chemical, Eel eventually passed out on the foothills of a mountain near the city. He awoke to find himself in a bed in a mountain retreat, being tended to by a monk who had discovered him unconscious that morning. This monk, sensing a capacity for great good in O'Brian, turned away police officers who had trailed Eel to the monastery. This act of faith and kindness — combined with the realization that his gang had left him to be captured without a moment's hesitation — fanned Eel's longstanding dissatisfaction with his criminal life and his desire to reform.

During his short convalescence at the monastery, he discovered that the chemical had entered his bloodstream and caused a radical physical change. His body now had all of the properties of rubber, allowing him to stretch, bounce and mold himself into any shape. He immediately determined to use his new abilities on the side of law and order, donning a red, black and yellow rubber costume and capturing criminals as Plastic Man. He concealed his true identity with a pair of white goggles and by re-molding his face. As O'Brian, he maintained his career and connections with the underworld as a means of gathering information on criminal activity. Plastic Man soon acquired comedic sidekick Woozy Winks, a bumbling but loyal friend. Plastic Man eventually became a member of the city police force and then the FBI. By the time he became a federal officer, he had completely abandoned his Eel O'Brian identity.

Over the years, Plastic Man teamed up with numerous crime fighters in what would come to be known as the "Golden Age" of superheroes- fighting nazis alongside Spy Smasher, stopping mobsters and thugs with The Shadow, and facing more severe threats like a team-up between nazi supervillains Captain Nazi and Baron Blitzkrieg alongside the All-Star Squadron- widely considered a precursor to the Justice League. Time and again, the All-Star Squadron would face threats to America from within and without. Eventually, with the start of the atomic age, the "Silver Age" of superheroes began. That was when things got weird. Atomic demons, space gorillas, martians, wizards, rainbow-spewing monsters- Plastic Man remembers the relative simplicity of the Gold and Silver age fondly.

In more recent years, he met Batman, and over a rocky start, the two became close friends despite Batman's skepticism toward reformed criminals and Plastic Man's jovial attitude. Batman's detective skills that reunited Plas with his estranged son, Luke. Batman even invited Plas to join the League, but he was more interested in being a part of his son's life. With the big 7 missing, Plastic Man's stepped up to help less experienced heroes.

Plastic Man's a reserve member of the Justice League, and a personal friend of Batman.

70+ years of crimefighting experience, detective skills, and being one of the first superheroes circa 1941.

He has two sidekicks: Woozy Winks (who the universe will bend over backwards to make sure remains unharmed) and his son Luke (who inherited Plastic Man's powers and fights crime as Offspring). He's in a relationship with Luke's mother, though his son was born out of wedlock.