Plasmer is a Marvel Comics miniseries, written by Glenn Dakin, drawn by Pasqual Ferry and published as part of the Marvel UK brand in 1993.
Dr Oonagh Mullarkey is one of Mys-Tech’s most skilled scientists. She’s created and augmented numerous superhumans and monstrous minions for the corporation, and she’s definitely not a pleasant person. But Oonagh’s getting bored with working from the shadows - she feels she’s not getting the respect that’s due to her.
So this time she’s going to experiment on herself using a stolen magic ritual, becoming something much more than human. Or at least that was the plan.
Instead, it seems that the power - and what’s left of her conscience, along with any other 'good' parts of her personality - has actually been evicted from her body and become an entirely new being. Meet Plasmer, a shape shifting superhero who’s no fan of her former self.
Just to complicate things, when all this happened Dr Mullarkey was midway through uncovering some very dangerous old secrets. And without the positive influence that was the ‘Plasmer’ part of her personality, she’s now going to be more ruthless than ever.
The supporting cast includes retired World War Two superhero Captain Kerosene, century-old spy Jack Smithers and armoured (and unhelpful) government representative The Ambassador.
Hilarity ensues.
The comic was involved in a lawsuit by Marvel UK against Defiant Comics, a budding comic book company founded by Jim Shooter. The lawsuit concerned one of Defiant's upcoming monthly books, Plasm (retitled Warriors of Plasm when it started publishing), which had a similar enough title that Marvel argued that it and Plasmer would be confused with each other. Defiant won the lawsuit, with the judge even calling out Marvel for their actions, but the legal fees became so high they had to shut down.
Tropes included in Plasmer:
- Accidental Misnaming: Captain Britain repeatedly refers to “Plasmer Woman” and introduces Plasmer under that name, despite her attempts to correct him.
- All There in the Manual: Captain Kerosene’s origin is later fleshed out by an entry in Marvel’s Captain America: America’s Avenger handbook.
- Ambiguously Human: Discussed in-universe. Dr Mullarkey is frustrated that her ritual went wrong and Plasmer got the power, while she remains merely human. Plasmer, on the other hand, is pretty sure that neither of them’s human any more.
- Applied Phlebotinum: the “Freestate” technology that shifts between stone, crystal and light, allowing the UK to build “Sleeper” doomsday robots many decades ago.
- Ascended Extra: Plasmer / Dr Mullarkey. Mullarkey’s been present in many other Marvel UK books, but this is the first time she’s been the main antagonist. Or protagonist. Or both.
- Bad Boss: Oonargh Mullarkey, after her more positive aspects are expelled into Plasmer. An assistant gets kicked across a room for questioning her, a Mys-Tech squad leader is subtly murdered so that she can replace him on the next mission, and then the whole squad get gunned down when they suggest events should be reported back to Mys-Tech.
- Bag of Kidnapping: the Ambassador’s “diplomatic bag” falls into this category.
- Body Double: Captain Kerosene sometimes fulfilled this role for the original Human Torch during World War Two.
- Combat Stilettos: Dr Mullarkey wears these in her new mission outfit. Not very practical, but nothing about that outfit looks very practical.
- Create Your Own Hero: Dr Mullarkey was just trying to empower herself as a supervillain, not trying to create a new, separate heroic entity.
- The Dividual: Wychwood describes Mullarkey and Plasmer as dividuals (although they’re actually very different and don’t match the trope). Crowe accuses him of inventing words.
- Double Speak: The Ambassador, as a super-powered Obstructive Bureaucrat, does this a lot.
- Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Dr Mullarkey’s new look after the personality split. Lampshaded by Crowe, who suggests she wears a woolly jumper or something less distracting, as some people wish to concentrate on their work.
- Enemy Without: Inverted. Rather than Mullarkey’s inner darkness taking on a separate form, it’s her good side that becomes Plasmer. The inner darkness gets to keep her original body.
- Expanded States of America: Played with. The second Sleeper was designed during World War Two. When it wakes in modern London and sees the impact of American culture, it assumes that the USA has invaded and conquered the country.
- Fun with Acronyms: D.U.C.K (the Department for Unknown and Covert Knowledge), which has replaced the more established spy agency S.T.R.I.K.E.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: Aftermath, the third and final ‘Sleeper’. It knows it’s not defending London from an invasion, it just wants to kill everyone.
- Heel–Face Turn: ‘Tommy’, the first Sleeper, recognises Smithers, reverts to his original personality and becomes a lot friendlier once he recovers from the heroes stomping him.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Plasmer’s newly created and still working out her powers through trial and error. At one point she splits herself into multiple copies without realising it’ll decrease her intelligence, at another she shapeshifts into a giant hand and can’t change back.
- I Believe I Can Fly: Plasmer has the power of flight. But so does Captain Kerosene, as well as guest stars Captain Britain and the Silver Surfer. The Ambassador’s powered armor can also fly, and in the last issue even Jack Smithers gets an armored suit with some sort of flight ability.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: Plasmer, when first learning her powers. She’s briefly transformed into Dark Angel, Killpower and Elvis.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to most Marvel UK titles at the time, there’s a lot more comedy in this series. Dr Mullarkey still kills quite a few people, of course, but they’re bad people on her own side, so the series doesn’t dwell on it too much.
- Living Statue:
- The first Sleeper is disguised as a war memorial statue of a First World War soldier. Its shape shifts a little - and it gets a lot bigger - when it activates.
- The second Sleeper animates a whole squad of war memorial statues.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr Oonagh Mullarkey is a shining example, even before she loses the ‘good’ side of her personality to Plasmer, being Mys-Tech’s most prominent scientist and responsible for creating or enhancing many of their superhumans and monstrous minions. She eventually gets tired of working behind the scenes, attempts to give herself superpowers and makes herself an even worse human being by exporting her conscience and the ‘good’ parts of her personality into Plasmer.
- Logical Weakness: Mullarkey’s squad of mothmen are fatally attracted to a big, bright light.
- Most Common Superpower: Both Plasmer and her evil counterpart, Dr Mullarkey.
- Nailed to the Wagon: After being rescued from Mys-Tech and defeating the first Sleeper, Smithers really wants a cigar. Plasmer promptly confiscates them, as she’s worried about his health. Smithers retorts that cigar smoking is why he lived to a hundred in the first place…
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Dr Oonagh Mullarkey has a few moments of this.
- First, and most notably, her attempt to empower herself creates Plasmer, the new superhero who rescues Smithers and defeats the Sleeper robots.
- When she’s pressing a random button on the freestate control console, just for the feeling of power it gives her, she’s actually frozen the second Sleeper, halting its rampage.
- The cocktail of chemicals she uses to treat the frail century-old spy Smithers during his interrogation ends up revitalising and rejuvenating him.
- No Man Should Have This Power: After the third Sleeper is defeated Isaac/Doorman decides to remove all Freestate technology from earth, so that it can’t be used again. He makes an exception for ‘Tommy’.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Pritchard and D.U.C.K - and their superpowered muscle, the Ambassador, is sometimes a physically obstructive bureaucrat
- People Puppets: Mys-Tech has compromised the Ambassador armor and is able to remote control it. The wearer’s unable to do anything to stop them.
- Powered Armor: The Ambassador’s eventually revealed to be a government employee in a battlesuit, not a robot.
- Professor Guinea Pig: Plasmer’s created when Doctor Mullarkey - who has avoided this in her previous appearances - finally decides to experiment on herself.
- Projected Man: Doorman, a green holographic construct that watches over the hidden vault under London containing the “Freestate” technology. Subverted in that he’s not an artificial intelligence and is just playing dumb. He’s actually Herbert Isaac, the creator of the technology, who copied or transmuted himself into that form.
- Redemption Demotion: ‘Tommy’, the first Sleeper, loses much of his power when he reactivates and joins the heroes.
- Remember the New Guy?: Captain Kerosene and Jack Smithers both count. Smithers has apparently known Captain America since the Second World War, but has never been mentioned before. In Captain Kerosene’s case it’s partially justified - the nature and instability of his powers meant that he was mostly secretly doubling for the Human Torch to misdirect the Axis powers, not carrying out missions in his own right.
- Retired Badass: Master spy Smithers and WWII superhero Captain Kerosene both qualify.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Downplayed with Smithers. But when Plasmer takes his cigar away, there’s a rant about bossy women and why he never married.
- Servile Snarker: The Doorman is apparently an artificial intelligence with a holographic projection, left to guard the technology used for British doomsday weapons from previous wars. After the villains take control, he gets increasingly snarky in his “how can I help” speeches, although they don’t really listen. They should have listened.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Plasmer ends up stuck as a giant disembodied hand while learning to control her powers. Captain Britain assumes it’s deliberate and that she must have a good reason for it.
- Shout-Out: To Dad's Army, with ‘Tommy’ quoting Lance Corporal Jones’s “They don’t like it up ‘em”.
- Snarking Thanks: Captain Britain tells Plasmer that as he’s more experienced, she’d better follow his lead. When the first Sleeper then pounds him into the pavement, she gives him a snarky smile and “I’m taking careful notes, Captain…”.
- Stripperific: Plasmer’s costume (which may not actually be a costume). Doctor Mullarkey’s outfits had a touch of this before her transformation anyway - and afterwards they bypass this and accelerate straight to Dressed Like a Dominatrix.
- Superior Successor: The three Sleepers escalate in this way - understandably, a doomsday robot built during World War One is significantly less dangerous than an updated version built for the first Gulf War.
- Unrobotic Reveal: Two of them.
- The Ambassador is actual a very normal man in powered armour, not a robot.
- The Projected Man Doorman is Herbert Isaac, creator of the Freestate technology, not an artificial intelligence
- Useless Without Powers: The Ambassador’s useless without his powered suit.
- Virtual-Reality Interrogation: A drug-fuelled version. Dr Mullarkey presents Jack Smithers with people from his past in an effort to make him share the secret of the Sleepers.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Plasmer herself. After an initial learning curve.
- What Does This Button Do?: Mullarkey presses a button at random and freezes the second Sleeper, after actively stopping the Doorman from telling her what the button did.
- Wolverine Publicity: Less than many other Marvel UK titles.
- Captain Britain and the Black Knight appear, and are promoted on the cover, but with the tagline that ”Marvel’s mightiest heroes… …couldn’t make it. So these guys will have to save the day!”
- Captain America and the Silver Surfer appear in the last two issues, but aren’t mentioned anywhere on the cover.
