The Comics Rack
HUH?
This splash page, rendered by the brilliant artist/writer Jack Cole, is from Plastic Man #11. The story is one of our favorites, in that it is exceedingly weird, making it and excellent example of the type of story that makes you go HUH?
You see, at least according to the story, there once was a London doctor by the name of Cyrus Smythe, who experimented in many areas where man is not supposed to meddle (yadda, yadda, yadda...).
Needless to say, one of his experiments got out of control and killed him. Yet, the good doctor didn't die, or rather, his body died, but his brain continued to live. Years passed and Smythe's brain continued to live on "tho' all else rots."
The story then jumps to 1942 and an airfield near London where a group of pilots are scrambling during an air raid. An enemy bomb lands directly in their midst and...
Young Wilkins is rushed to a hospital where the the brain is sucessfully placed in his skull.
Unfortunately, it is the undead brain of Cyrus Smythe and, upon returning to the Wilkins' family home in New York, Smythe soon resumes his evil experiments. Smythe soon creates a formula that makes him into a giant and he begins to wreak havoc throughout the area, which is where Plastic Man enters the picture. After being foiled again and again by Plastic Man, Smythe takes some rather drastic action...
Needless to say, our hero takes some drastic action of his own, by fiddling around with Smythe's insides. Finally, Plastic Man crawls out of Smythe's stomach and into his windpipe where he expands his pliable body and chokes Smythe to death, thus ending the menace, right? Well, maybe...
So, there you have it...undead brains and strangulation by
super-hero.
And they say comics are for kids!
The Comics Rack
The Nostalgia League