History ComicBook / PlasticMan

** While overprotective, he was also a decent dad for Edwina in his 2004-2006 story and did care about her a lot, but the two argued a lot since Edwina was kinda goin through a RebelTeen phase at the time, but [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther Plas and her do see each other as father and daughter]].

* ShapeshifterWeapon: Plas can turn into pretty much ANYTHING he can think of, and he can alter his density to be as malleable or as hard as he wants. If he turns his hand into a sledgehammer, he can explode your head with one swing. Of course, he's too much of a nice guy to actually do something like that, but any bad guy that underestimates him is in for a [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass rude awakening.]]

* OnlySaneMan: Go read the original stories by Jack Cole. Yes, the adventures are cartoonish in a good way, but Plas himself is as serious as any other hero around at the time. In fact, that was the point - a serious hero with silly powers in cartoon capers.
** Later, DC semi-inverted this by saying that the Cole-style adventures were how Plas perceived himself and them due to the effects of the chemicals that gave him his powers; to everyone else, he was a kook in a world of (supposedly) sane people... [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and]] ComicBook/TheJoker.

* ShapeshifterWeapon: Plas can turn into pretty much ANYTHING he can think of, and he can alter his density to be as malleable or as hard as he wants. If he turns his hand into a sledgehammer, he can explode your head with one swing. Of course, he's too much of a nice guy to actually DO something like that, but any bad guy that underestimates him is in for a [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass RUDE awakening.]]

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooke%27s_law Hooke's Law]] is Plastic Man's best friend. Name a form of physical attack. Chances are, he's shrugged it off during his career. It's been said that he could shrug off a full-power punch from SUPERMAN without so much as batting an eye, and he has even bounced away energy attacks. Holy crap. Oh, he also survived having most of his body destroyed and buried in the bottom of the ocean... for 3000 years!

* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Stretching powers in comics are usually portrayed as pretty silly or downright lame, but Plas has proven he could be downright SCARY if he wasn't such a clown. He has shrugged off abuse that would kill other members of the Justice League outright, can harden himself to dish out SERIOUS hurt on bad guys, can form sharpened shapes like knives and scissors that can slice through pretty much anything, shape-shift into pretty much any object imaginable and of incredible sizes both huge and tiny, and is effectively ''immortal''. [[spoiler:In ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'', Plas is a bad guy, and has effectively proven one of the ''scariest'' antagonists in recent comics history by shoving his hand into a guy's mouth and ''shredding him from the inside out.'']]

''[[TropeCodifier The]]'' RubberMan Superhero.

* OverprotectiveDad: Was this to Edwina in the 2004-2006 series, and could be argued to be this for Offspring in most other continuties.

* He shows up late in the first season of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' to help fight the Injustice League around the world. He is among the heroes that the League considers for membership, and Flash mentions that Plastic Man has an extensive criminal record, but he does eventually join the League.

* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Stretching powers in comics are usually portrayed as pretty silly or downright lame, but Plas has proven he could be downright SCARY if he wasn't such a clown. He has shrugged off abuse that would kill other members of the Justice League outright, can harden himself to dish out SERIOUS hurt on bad guys, can form sharpened shapes like knives and scissors that can slice through pretty much anything, shape-shift into pretty much any object imaginable and of incredible sizes both huge and tiny, and is effectively ''immortal''. [[spoiler:In ''Comicbook/{{Flashpoint}}'', Plas is a bad guy, and has effectively proven one of the ''scariest'' antagonists in recent comics history by shoving his hand into a guy's mouth and ''shredding him from the inside out.'']]

* VoluntaryShapeshifting

** In Kyle Baker's run he offers an apology to female FBI agent Morgan by saying he'll give her a ride. So he proceeds to turn into a bycicle... with his head as the seat. Cue Morgan kicking his butt.

-->"He could kill us all. For him, it'd be easy."

** In ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'', Plas is... well... it's Creator/FrankMiller. Let's say it combines his Golden Age attitude with his DorkAge capabilities.

* ILoveNuclearPower: Parodied with Edwina's loser supervillain boyfriend "El" Ray, who got [[PsychoElectro electrical powers]] due to using a screw made from uranium [[{{Squick}} as a tongue stud]].

** In the miniseries ''ComicBook/{{The Kingdom|DC}}'' (the sequel to ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''), Plas's son reluctantly becomes a superhero named [[IncrediblyLamePun Offspring]]. It actually helps him understand what his dad went through and appreciate him even more. There's a hug between the two at the end of the storyline. [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/21/11/dd/2111ddb368e7734be088f4d95a10a04c.jpg Awwww!]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/709ws7uapny01.jpg]]

DC also published ten issues of a Plasticman comic in the 1960s, followed by ten more issues in the 1970s. After that was cancelled, Plas and Woozy starred in the anthology series ''Adventure Comics'' for a while in the early [[TheEighties 1980s]], with stories even sillier than before. It was around this time that an animated series also based on the character aired; instead of Woozy, however, a Hawaiian character named "Hula Hula" was his partner, and Plas was given a new love interest in a blonde woman named Penny, whom he married and later had a baby with the same powers.

* PersonalityPowers: Actually subverted in the first issues, as Plastic Man had a StraightMan personality to contrast his wacky powers and supporting characters. Later issues has Plas act just as cartoonish as the forms he shape-shifts into.

[[caption-width-right:350: "[[OvershadowedByAwesome Boy do I envy them! ]] They get to fly off into space and do cool stuff and I... [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower I get to stretch out here where it's nice and safe again.]]"]]

ComicBook/PostCrisis, a Creator/PhilFoglio miniseries changed Plastic Man's origin to make him DarkerAndEdgier...ish. Kinda. "Dimmer and Slightly More Pointed," more like.

--> '''Plastic Man:''' "You like '''burning?!?''' How about the '''burning inside your lungs''' as they choke for '''air?!? LIKE THAT?!?!"'''

** In ''ComicBook/DCeased: Dead Planet'', [[spoiler: A zombified Plastic Man is able to massacre some of the most powerful mystics in the DCU, all while resembling an EldritchAbomination rising from a sea of blood.]]

--> "He could kill us all. For him, it'd be easy."

Plas and Woozy starred in the anthology series ''Adventure Comics'' for a while in the early [[TheEighties 1980s]], with stories even sillier than before. It was around this time that an animated series also based on the character aired; instead of Woozy, however, a Hawaiian character named "Hula Hula" was his partner, and Plas was given a new love interest in a blonde woman named Penny, whom he married and later had a baby with the same powers.

** In the miniseries ''ComicBook/TheKingdom'' (the sequel to ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''), Plas's son reluctantly becomes a superhero named [[IncrediblyLamePun Offspring]]. It actually helps him understand what his dad went through and appreciate him even more. There's a hug between the two at the end of the storyline. [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/21/11/dd/2111ddb368e7734be088f4d95a10a04c.jpg Awwww!]]

* ObfuscatingStupidity: He is usually portrayed as being ''genuinely'' a bit dopey. During "World War III," Creator/GrantMorrison's final story arc for ''[[ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsJLA JLA]]'', however, he reveals that, thanks to his longtime friendship with a CListFodder hero named the Red Bee, he knows just about everything there is to know about "apian management." Since an alien [[EvilOverlord Evil Overlady]] named the Queen Bee is taking over New York City, and all the big-name heroes are busy on the Moon, Plastic Man ends up masterminding their victory. [[ComicBook/NewGods Big Barda]] even mentions how out of character this is for him, remarking, "This almost seems like a plan." To which he responds (while disguised as a big clown), "I only act dumb, sister."

* DependingOnTheWriter: Plastic Man's son is either Offspring or Baby Plas.

* MultipleChoicePast: The second issue of the 1966 comic had Plastic Man's archenemy Dr. Dome have his daughter Lynx split into three women and disguise themselves to interview Captain [=McSniffe=]. Mrs. De Lute and Gordon K. Trueblood in hopes of learning Plastic Man's origin so he can go back in time and prevent Plas from getting his powers. Each origin given proves to be inconsistent: [=McSniffe=] claims that Plastic Man used to be a reformed crook called the Eel who got his powers after the villain the Spider knocked him into a vat of putty (which is actually very close to Plastic Man's standard origin), Mrs. De Lute gives the account that Plastic Man was a Romani fiddler who chased after the Japanese Beetle on a train and gained his stretching powers from being exposed to milk and acid at the same time, and Gordon K. Trueblood states that Plastic Man was a yogurt farmer who fought a criminal known as the Frog and got his powers when he was accidentally injected with yogurt that came from a sick goat. The end of the story reveals that Plastic Man made up all these origins to throw Dr. Dome off and that the three people he confided with were in on the trick, with his real origin eventually being revealed in the seventh issue (where he turns out to be the son of the original Plastic Man and that he got the same powers as his dad from drinking a bottle of the acid that turned his father into a stretchy shape-shifter when he was a child).

* BumblingSidekick: Woozy Winks.

* CoolShades

* MultipleChoicePast: The second issue of the 1966 comic had Plastic Man's archenemy Dr. Dome have his daughter Lynx split into three women and disguise themselves to interview Captain [=McSniffe=]. Mrs. De Lute and Gordon K. Trueblood in hopes of learning Plastic Man's origin so he can go back in time and prevent Plas from getting his powers. Each origin given proves to be inconsistent: [=McSniffe=] claims that Plastic Man used to be a reformed crook called the Eel who got his powers after the villain the Spider knocked him into a vat of putty (which is actually very close to Plastic Man's standard origin), Mrs. De Lute gives the account that Plastic Man was a Romani fiddler who chased after the Japanese Beetle on a train and gained his stretching powers from being exposed to milk and acid at the same time, and Gordon K. Trueblood states that Plastic Man was a yogurt farmer who fought a criminal known as the Frog and got his powers when he was accidentally injected with yogurt that came from a sick goat. The end of the story reveals that Plastic Man made up all these origins to throw Dr. Dome off and that the three people he confided with were in on the trick, with his real origin eventually being revealed in the seventh issue (where he turns out to be the son of the original Plastic Man and that he got the same powers as his dad from drinking a bottle of the acid that turned his father into a stretchy shape-shifter when he was an infant).

* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: In his first appearance, his costume was red on one side, black on the other. (And in some reprints, has only one ''sleeve.'') Even Alex Ross seems not to know this.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In his first appearance, his costume was red on one side, black on the other. (And in some reprints, has only one ''sleeve.'') Even Alex Ross seems not to know this.

* SpinOffspring: The Plastic Man of the 1966 series was revealed in the seventh issue to be the son of the original Plastic Man.

* SomethingPerson

* LogicalWeakness: Once of Plastic Man's only veritable weaknesses is being frozen.