In 1941, Will Eisner protege (and fill-in Spirit artist) Jack Cole was given the chance to create his own comic book hero. What he came up with was Patrick “Eel” O’Brian, an orphan-turned-street hood-turned-safecracker. One night during a heist at the Crawford Chemical Works, O’Brian is shot in the shoulder by a security guard and doused with a vat of unidentified toxic goo. As if the night wasn’t bad enough already, the other members of his gang speed away, leaving him there to take the rap.

After stumbling his way into the night he eventually passes out only to awaken and find he’s being nursed back to health by a local monk. What’s more, he discovers the mysterious chemical bath has transformed his entire body into some kind of pre-space age polymer. He can stretch, bounce, and form himself into any shape he chooses, from a throw rug to a hammer to a floor lamp to a car. Not only does he have the traditional super strength on top of it, but now that all of his organs are made out of plastic, he’s also impervious to injury. The only things that can slow him down, and for obvious reasons, are extreme heat and extreme cold. Under the care of the monk, he vows to use his crazy new powers for good instead of evil.

Returning to the workaday world after his recovery, he maintains his Eel O’Brian persona as a way of moving freely in the underworld and gathering information about upcoming jobs. Then, when the time comes, he dons a pair of wite-framed aviator shades and a red, black, and yellow striped leotard to foil the crimes as Plastic Man. Along the way he’s joined by a bumbling oaf of a sidekick named Woozy Winks who offers assistance as he can, but mostly just gets into trouble.

Plastic Man premiered in the first issue of Quality’s Police Comics (along with The Human Bomb and Phantom Lady, all characters who would eventually be acquired by DC Comics), and soon became part of their regular stable decades before other elastic superheroes cropped up on the scene. What set Plastic Man apart wasn’t his unique superabilities, but his zany sense of humor. It wasn’t just corny one-liners. His adventures were less “adventures” than madcap slapstick routines as he foiled low-rent crooks by turning his body into whatever got the job done, from a giant slingshot to an anaconda with arms.