PLASTICMAN vs ELASTIGIRL!
In one corner we have Patrick eel O’Brian, the reformed and highly flexible criminal.
And in the other, we have Helen Parr, double time mom and hero extraordinaire.
Both are heroes with powers that stretch the imagination, quite literally.
But in a showdown between the two who will win?
We’re about to find out.
Welcome back nerd squad, my name is Roya Destroyaa and this is Top 10 nerd’s series VS, where
we take your favorite characters and put them in a battle to see who comes out on top.
Before we begin, let us know who you think will be the winner with a hashtag in the comment
section: Will it be #plasticman or #elastigirl?
Let's get brawling.
ORIGINS:
So before we get fling ourselves into the ring with these two, let’s take a moment
to get to know our competitors.
Patrick Eel O’Brian was left an orphan young and forced to join a burglary gang in order
to make a living on the streets.
On one heist, he was shot by a night watchman and plummeted into a vat of very inconveniently
placed chemicals.
He managed to escape but his crew ditched him, and he passed out alone and feeling some
tingling he most definitely should not have been.
Fast forward a bit and he is awoken on a mountain retreat, apparently having been saved by a
monk after his collapse.
The monk’s kindness inspired him to be a better person—and it also helped that the
chemical turned out to develop some pretty flexible powers in him.
Time to become a superhero!
On the other hand, Helen Parr was always a superhero.
In the golden age of heroes, she was one of many defending her city, with a strong sense
of pride in what she did and a strong belief n women’s rights.
Despite not having marriage on the mind, she met Bob Parr and the two got married.
However, soon after the government began to turn on heroes, believing that they did more
harm than good.
Heroes were banned, and Helen was forced to hang up her cape for good—except not really,
because of no capes!
So the government offered them an out if they refused to use their powers ever again.
Helen took the offer and decided to focus on raising a family with Bob instead.
She seemed content with the homemaker lifestyle—but we know there’s always a bit of that super
left in her.
POWERS, WEAKNESS:
So now that we know all about these two vastly different but also incredibly similar characters,
let’s take a look at their skillsets and their weaknesses.
Plasticman has the source of his power in his name: superplasticity.
So yes, he can bend and fold and stretch into whatever shape he can conjure in his mind.
But he’s actually got even more going for him than just super bending—he can actually
change the rest of his matter too, such as the state that it’s in or even the color
as long a sit’s one of the colors he’s wearing.
So not only can he transform his body into a certain shape, but he can also alter his
density and appearance to basically become that thing.
This also makes him impervious to damage from corrosives, explosives, and punctures.
On top of this, he’s been noted to be invulnerable to telepathy, because his brain isn’t an
organic body part anymore—it’s just a mass of rubber, along with his other organs.
Though his powers stretch really far, he does have a weakness.
Sudden changes of temperature are able to manipulate his state of matter—he’ll melt
or freeze in extreme temperatures.
He was once frozen and then shattered into a million pieces in the tower of Babel story
arc—he did regenerate unharmed, but the trauma was deep-seated with that one, understandably
so.
Now Elastigirl has similar powers that operate differently.
She is able to stretch any part of her body up to 30 meters, and slim herself down to
1 mm—imagine all the cleaning she can get down between the couch and the wall.
She’s also able to sue this extreme stretching ability to shapeshift, such as when she turned
into a parachute or a boat for transportation purposes.
Aside from this main power, she is skilled in hand to hand combat and also an avid pilot,
super convenient for getting the kids to school on time.
Helen is not, however, quite as indestructible as her opponent may be.
She can be knocked out with blunt force, although it usually doesn’t keep her down for long.
Stretching too long for too long causes some discomfort as well.
She was listed as a 6.2 moderate threat on the Kronos database, which isn’t the highest
for a threat level.
But never doubt a mama bear whose cubs are in danger.
So who would win in a showdown?
First off, we have to assume that in order for these two to come toe to toe, one would
have to be a villain.
So let’s picture this fight in a world where Plasticman took his newfound powers and decided
to amp up his criminal career instead of working on the side of the law.
Let’s say he’s gone back to burglary and has his sights set on a very expensive artifact
in a local museum.
Helen Parr is tipped off by her other superhero friends that the museum has been broken into,
and of course, she can’t let this man destroy and take something so educational to the children.
There are a lot of delicate items around, so she figures it’s best to head in quietly
and alone.
She slips into the building without making a sound and there he is, plastic man, gloating
over his newly acquired treasure.
She drops down on top of him and lands a few blows, but suddenly, he’s not there.
Well, he is, but he’s now… liquid?
He slides down under Helen’s feet and makes his way toward the exit.
She runs after him and stretches across the bottom of the door to block his way, giving
him no choice but to take his human form once again.
What ensues is a stretchy and bouncy fisticuff.
Plasticman’s not really landing any blows, but while Helen may be, her fists are just
going right through as his body just kinda seems to give way wherever she hits.
Though it’s been fun for him, Eel decides it’s time to leave—with his treasure of
course.
He grabs it again and he can’t turn into a liquid or he will drop it again, but he’s
still able to stretch.
So he flings his body up to the ceiling, opens an air vent, and inside he goes—replacing
the vent grate.
Helen makes one last ditch for his leg, grabs it, and her body is pulled into the vent.
She can’t get through and she can’t open the grate without letting go, but she sure
as hell will try and hold him for as long as possible.
But her body has its limits, and after a valiant effort, he gets away.
And so because of his powers being a bit more flexible, shall we say, our winner today is
plastic man.
That’s it for versus here today, let us know in the comment section whose corner you
were in, #plastic man or #elastigirl.
My name is Roya Destroyaa, thanks for watching, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never
miss another nerdy list!