Plastic Man #13 (1976)
plot by Steve Skeates
script by Steve Skeates, Jane Aruns & Mary Skrenes
pencils by Ramona Fradon
cover by Ernie Chan
Eight years after his last adventure, Robby returns to meet Plastic Man.
Which is actually Plastic Man returning a favor.
The chracter was created at Quality Comics in 1941. The rights to the character were acquired by DC Comics in 1956, but they wouldn’t do anything with him for a while.
House of Mystery #160, where Robby uses the H-Dial to turn into him, is actually the first comic book published by DC where Plastic Man appears. Well, “A” Plastic Man appears.
That was a July 1966 story, before the new Plastic Man regular series started out in November 1966.
So is Plastic Man going to hype Robby in order to facilitate a new Dial H series?
Well… not exactly.
It’s important to note that this is a comedy series: the fact that the first scene introduces one of the candidates for the National Hog Calling Contest makes that clear.
Plastic Man in this period works for the N.B.I. (National Bureau of Investigations… really); they’re sending him and his supporting cast to the small town where the above contest will take place.
Even if they’re supposed to be on vacation, they’re forced to go to the National Hog Calling Contest wearing disguises.
Including Plastic Man, who is going to disguise himself as a trombone.
I know it’s a comedy, but… really? The best way PLASTIC MAN can disguise himself is a trombone?
I should probably pause to introduce the rest of Plastic Man’s team.
Note: these scenes are from different issues.
The woman is Sundae Supplement… that, that is really her name… whose joke is that she’s very pretty but very dumb.
Hey I said it was a comedy, not that it was a funny comedy!
Don’t be confused by the presence of TWO people wearing Plastic Man glasses.
The stretchy one is indeed Plastic Man, but the other one is fellow NDI agent Foyle.
And finally there’s Woozy Winks, Plastic Man’s comedy sidekick from the Golden Age whose joke is… I don’t know, not really being all that funny? Why does PLASTIC MAN need a comedy sidekick anyway!?!? He’s ALREADY a comedy sidekick himself!
Anyway, back to the story. Because the waiter is a familiar face!
As mentioned before, it’s been eight years since the last Dial H story. So this story reveals that the reason why Robby never turned into a superhero again… is that he hit puberty.
Yeah, uhm, if you have even the slightest amount of respect for Robby as a hero… this story is going to hurt. A lot.
Also, I call bulls##t on Robby not being interested in girls during his series!!! Remember this?
Robby hears the girl from the opening scene practicing her hog calling…
…which makes him decide to recover the H-Dial.
Notice that Robby REPEATEDLY wonders what happened to Rachel Evans, the hot girl that made him lose interest in superheroes… but she doesn’t appear in this story, or ever again.
Which I guess is supposed to be funny?
And because this story isn’t done crapping on him, he turns into *sigh* Mighty Moppet.
Which is already dumb enough, but he doesn’t even use Mighty Moppet’s actual superpower: the bottles on his belt shoot age-reversing milk.
But here he just throws random stuff around, which has no effect except annoying people.
Plastic Man tries to stop him, but he reverts into Robby too quickly.
If that attitude looks out of character for Robby, that’s because it IS: being left in the snow has caused the H-Dial to rust (WTF?) which in turns makes Robby evil (double WTF?).
He does, however, bwhomp into the hog calling girl.
And it’s love at first sight, SOMEHOW.
There’s being naïve, there’s being dumb, and there’s falling in love at first sight with THIS GUY without noticing any red flags!!!
So… if the H-Dial can make you evil even when you dial H.ER.O., what’s the point of dialing V.I.L.L.A.I.N.?
I think it’s fair to say the writers had only a passing familiarity with the Dial H series, because Robby transforms into yet another two heroes we’re already seen, seemingly without a pause between transformations.
Plastic Man then catches him stealing money.
Robby transforms into ANOTHER previous hero, Human Starfish.
And once again during the fight, becoming Plastic man once again.
To be fair, there IS one funny joke in this: Woozy believing that if Plastic Man kills the impostor he’ll die, which is the reason why the story is called “If I Kill Me, Will I Die?”.
The fight itself, however, is nothing remarkable.
During the fight, the contest is on…
…and it has no impact on the fight itself, since Plastic Man defeats Robby very easily.
The girl wins the contest…
…and Robby transforms back, despite not even touching the H-Dial.
Notice Plastic Man saying he’ll be the one to keep the dial.
This is supposed to be a tragedy, because Robby doesn’t remember he proposed to her.
Well it’s definitely not funny, so it might as well be a tragedy.
And we end with the team being recalled immediately, unable to enjoy any vacation.
Historical significance: 0/10
Can I be the one suffering amnesia and forget this one? It will be completely ignored by other stories featuring Robby anyway.
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
The Silver Age would’ve played this completely straight, but it’s obviously tongue-in-cheek.
Does it stand the test of time?: 2/10
Comedy is subjective, so if you find any of this funny I won’t judge. But it’s a TERRIBLE use of Robby!!! It’s very clear that the writer was simply aware of the issue where he turned into Plastic Man, flipped through a couple issues to see the most ridiculous transformations, and didn’t bother to go into much more detail. It’s not like Dial H was a complex series, so not even trying is inexcusable. Saved from a 0/10 by the very distinctive artwork.
Dial S for SOCKAMAGEE! : 93
Three catchphrases.
Dial I for superhero identities: 46
Dial C for the superpowers count: 68
No addition since these are all repeat transformations. What a bummer.
Dial U for most used identity: Because of this story, there are now EIGHT transformations that have appeared twice each.
-Giant Boy
-Radar-Sonar Man
-Chief Mighty Arrow
-Mole
-Human Starfish
-Mighty Moppet
-Plastic Man
-King Kandy