Plastic #2 Review

Paper or Plastic?

Writer: Doug Wagner
Artist: Daniel Hillyard
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: April 24, 2017
Cover Price: $3.99

The first issue of Doug Wagner’s Plastic left me a bit confused on how much was intentional and just how much was changes or confusion from the original solicit. Although it had me confused I had so much enjoyment with the book that I was able to look past a lot of my complaints and just accept it as stuff that will clear up as I go along. Moving in to this second issue I’m looking for a little clarification but hoping that doesn’t get in the way of the crazy fun that made the first issue so enjoyable. So without further ado let’s jump in and see what we get.

We jump into this issue right where we left off, with our main character sneaking into a house where he is looking to take out a local Sheriff and his family as a way to get back his beloved blow-up doll. I love how this issue starts because it wastes no time at all to get to the crazy absurd dark comedy. We get a page or two of calm before it skips ahead a couple hours and our main character gets back into his ride that was provided for him. Then we get back to the crazy. We get the idea that this main character doesn’t only see his sweet Virginia as a real person, but he seems to not realize when someone is obviously dead. That or he thinks other people, like himself, keep non-talking people around as companions.

It leads to some pretty funny exchanges before things go sideways and we end up with a pretty gruesome scene with a hacksaw. Disposing of the body, while leaving the “partner” in the passenger seat, our main character now decides to head off for some information on where he can find Virginia. We get a bit of payoff from the previous issue where he was taking stock of everything he could see.  I actually really like this part because while it could have been a pretty small aspect or just skipped over it uses it to give us some funny scenes while also sliding in some small bits of information. Although the character was smart enough to take note of everything he saw to find his location if he needed to, he seems to not understand how to put all the information together. He is going up to random strangers and asking them about the smallest and oddest details that wouldn’t really point to a specific place and he finds relatively important details as just strange rather than important.

We get some clips of Virginia’s captors as the Deputy, or future Sherriff, fills him in on the results of our main characters handy work. It seems the house was left on fire and ruins the captors’ plans they had to use this whole situation for their gain. It’s time for our main character to head for his favorite meal as we have some more crazy and confusing conversation between multiple points of view but coming from one person. After picking up some donuts and more plastic he catches a glimpse of the deputy as he heads in and once again we see the character recalling the things he took note of when he was originally captured. We get the obligatory ‘this guy is an asshole’ scene before we’re end the chapter on a pretty subdued ending.

Overall I am still really enjoying this book. I’m glad we got some things cleared up as we learned that the main character wasn’t who we were told he was in the first issue and there is a lot more going on with him than just a fascination with plastic. This issue gave us a little more crazy than the creepy we got in the first issue, but the crazy mixed very well with a sense of humor that seems tailor made for me. My only complaint would maybe be that I’m wanting a little more clarification, but I can understand it as it makes sense with this character. If he doesn’t exactly have a grasp on reality it’s kind of hard for us to get answers from anything but other people. So it may take a bit for answers to actually appear.

Bits and Pieces:

The dark sense of humor and absolute insanity persists as we get another great issue that ticks up the crazy while under delivering on the creepy. Although we don’t get enough clarification for my liking we do get a little while making it clear why answers may be a little hard to come by.

9/10