A surprising Justice League veteran has become the most dangerous hero in the deadly world of DCeased: Dead Planet.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for DCeased: Dead Planet #2 by Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Gigi Baldassini, Rain Beredo, and Saida Temofonte, on sale now.
The corrupted superheroes of DCeased have all been using their powers to terrifying effect, wiping out humans and spreading the Anti-Life Virus with frighteningly efficient speed. But it turns out one of the most powerful and brutal Blighted-Ones has been hiding on the other side of the world, until now.
In DCeased: Dead Planet #2, a Blighted-One Plastic Man just revealed himself and quickly decimated the Shadowpact, killing three otherwise powerful heroes within seconds.
PLASTIC MAN VS. SHADOWPACT
Upon arriving in Australia at the urging of Swamp Thing, the Shadowpact, a precursor to Justice League Dark, find themselves searching for a mysterious source of damage to the Green. The group consists of John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Detective Chimp, Zatanna, Blue Devil and Ragdoll. They survey the damage around them, along with a seemingly enchanted river of blood and hellfire. But upon closer inspection, the group is horrified to realize that the river is no such thing. In reality, it’s a river of living matter, and the red is actually the crimson coloring of the Blighted-One Plastic Man. The shapeshifter has long been established as one of the most quietly formidable forces in the DC Universe, with heroes like Batman taking particular care not to let him lash out too much.
Even though Eel’ O Brien began life as a small-time villain when he was created by Jack Cole in 1941. his potentially terrifying capabilities were limited by the heroic, jokey personality of Plastic Man. But now, that’s been replaced by a primal force of terror. The wave of Plastic Man quickly opens his shape-shifting mouth and unleashes a series of spikes at the Shadowpact. He’s quickly revealed to be strong enough to wipe out half the team in quick order: Ragdoll takes two spikes to the body, one embedded through his stomach and the other to the back of his head. Zatanna attempted to conjure a spell to help the team, but the spikes quickly take her eyes and go down her throat to fill her lungs, preventing her from using any magic to save the team. Blue Devil is hit the hardest, however, with one of the spikes also going in his mouth. But instead of going down his throat, it shoots upwards into his skull – destroying his brain and blasting it the head.
While Detective Chimp, Constantine, and Swamp Thing aren’t killed immediately, things don’t look good for them either. The issue ends with the trio falling out of the sky without Zatanna’s spell, towards the opening jaw of a monstrous Blighted-One Plastic Man. Up to this point, it had seemed like the magical heroes of the DCeased universe had been the most impervious to the attacks of the Blighted-Ones. Constantine was the only hero to survive the attempt to save the world in DCeased: A Good Day to Die, and Zatanna’s magical capabilities have allowed her to avoid much of the attacks that have decimated the Earth. But Plastic Man’s sudden speed and size made him the perfect killing machine, reminding everyone that even mighty magical beings can be destroyed with ease if the Anti-Life Virus gets the chance.
To make matter worse, a mysterious force is revealed to be living in Australia near the corrupted Plastic Man. They could even be using him as a makeshift protective barrier between their base — which is revealed to contain some innocents as well as some genuinely wicked souls — ensuring that anyone who comes calling meets with a sudden and grisly end. A corrupted Plastic Man could be one of the most potentially devastating threats to the surviving heroes if he was unleashed at the right time. While he has a well-documented weakness to being frozen, that could be difficult since many spell-casters and ice-based heroes have been slaughtered. Considering the carnage he unleashed here, DCeased makes it clear that Plastic Man really isn’t a joke.
