PlastiCast Ep. 005: The Terrifics #25 — The Adventures You Choose

PlastiCast awakens from hibernation — and it's hungry! In this new episode, your host Max whets his appetite for all things Plastic Man by serving up some thoughts on the DC team book, The Terrifics! Then he's joined by Owen of the Let's Talk Plastic Man Twitter account — the first guest on PlastiCast ever — to talk about how much they've enjoyed The Terrifics, and its untimely cancellation. Finally, Max focuses on The Terrifics #25, an ambitious issue written in the style of a Choose Your Own Adventure story!

Check out images for this episode here!

Find Owen on Twitter here!

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Opening theme: “The Plastic Man Theme” from The Invasion of The Plastic Men (Power Records)
Closing music: “Choose Your Own Adventure” by Goldfish (feat. Emily Bruce)
Thanks for listening!

16 responses to “PlastiCast Ep. 005: The Terrifics #25 — The Adventures You Choose

  1. Yay to PlastiCast being back! I’m glad the mic could pick up Max’s voice through that long white beard.

    I read the first few issues of The Terrifics and enjoyed them, but I have to admit I’m part of the problem, in that I didn’t keep up with it. The ink is on my hands!

    I think Plastic Man remains so iconic that he’ll never be gone for long. Maybe not a solo series, but he’ll pop up somewhere.

    See you in 2021!

    1. 2021?! Are you talking about Plastic Man or PlastiCast?!?

      I’d recommend picking it up again — it’s definitely worth the read (and even the re-read!). And yeah, Plas is sure to show up in the DCU again; it’s just too bad we’re losing a nice showcase for the character.

  2. I passed on Dark Nights: Metal when it came out, and, by extension, passed on the various spin-off series that it spawned. After listening to this episode, I realized that I made a mistake in not giving The Terrifics a chance. The Fantastic Four is my favorite Marvel superhero team, Mister Terrific was my favorite character from Geoff Johns’ JSA, and I am a sucker for a well written choose-your-own-adventure story. (I only have to turn my head to see my battered CYOA books sitting on the shelf beside me). I’m particularly pleased to hear that Plastic Man was both well represented and well portrayed in the series.

    Welcome back PlastiCast.

    1. It sounds like The Terrifics was made for you!

      Yeah, Dark Nights: Metal was … weird. It was especially disappointing if you were reading it for Plastic Man, who spent the entire series as an egg until the very end. And even then, the way he was used was a little confusing and anti-climatic. Still, it gave us this series, which ended up being the longest-lasting of all the new stuff to come out of Metal.

      Thanks for listening, Brian!

  3. Impressive podcast. Most Impressive. Ah cool team. las on this team is kind of cool. Not seeing on personality how this fits the four. Is Plas Jonny? Mr. T fits as Reed. Phantom Girl doesn’t really fit Sue. Rex is defiantly Ben Grimm. Only not Jewish. Still there powers are close. A new Plas story would be cool. I may have to buy one of these TBS. at some point. I haven’t bought regular comics since Dick was Bats. And before that when Onslought happened. Just hearing Dick was gonna be Bats brought me back was yep have to buy these TBS.

    And the JLA with Plas. When the Titans kind of became the JLA. With Dick as Bats. (Not calling him Ric.) And I saw Plas teaming with Bats to meet his son. And ware their Super Hero ides and Secret IDs became sepreat people till Eel attacked Bruce to make him Bat Man again. So he could be Plas and the JLA could save the world. This looks pretty cool, nd thanx for not spoiling the witch way book story in this issue. Since I will want to get the TBS and figure this issue out. Last Wich Way Book I got was Doctor Who when it was the 12th doc. So these are kind of fun. I rember them well like the Super Man and Bats one.

    Any way cool pod cast can’t wait to hear the next one.

    1. Thanks for listening, Liz Anne! You’re right (and as Rob alluded to), Plas tends to pop up here and there, and hopefully that’ll still be the case in the future. Hey, he showed up in Event Leviathan, so anything is possible.

  4. It’s brilliant to have you back, Max, and Owen made a great guest, lots of knowledge, passion and a fabulous laugh

    I’ve bought every issue of Terrifics, despite hating that Batman Metal rubbish, and enjoyed the book, though I didn’t like having Plas and Rex on the same team…I know they don’t have the same powers, but visually, they’re both basically shape changers. I’d have preferred it had Rex been swapped out for a fiery figure, Firehawk, say. And a hard no to the costumes, black and white is good for a Phantom Girl, but Plas has one classic look*… I agree, the biker shorts were bad.

    Talking of looks, why does no one give us classic Sapphire Stagg any more – wrong hairstyle, wrong shade of hair, and a scientist?

    The Choose Your Own Adventure issue reminded me of that RPG story about three issues/six years back in Doom Patrol… probably wonderful for fans of the form but a headscratcher for this ignoramus. I could appreciate the art and words, but the gimmick was over my head, and DC really should have worked with ComiXology to tweak Guided View so that the big selling point actually worked with non-physical copies. (Why did the Flash never do an issue based on Where’s Wally in the Rebirth era?)

    My high point of the series was the Bizarro time travel storyline, a massively entertaining romp around the DCU.

    What did you guys think of Plas’s spiritual beliefs, as seen in the mad robot story? That was a surprising angle, but it worked for me.

    * OK, it’s basically red lingerie, but it’s a classic look.

    1. Owen was a lot of fun to talk with, so I’ll definitely be inviting him back on for a future episode!

      Having Metamorpho on the team bugged me a little bit here and there, too, but for a different reason. I didn’t mind being on the team, but I didn’t always care for the way he was shown to use his powers. Because you’re right, he was mainly shown shapeshifting, instead of *transforming* into different elements. It’s a small but significant difference, I think. Otherwise, it takes the risk of looking a lot like Plastic Man’s shape changing ability — which is often what happened. Still, I enjoyed their chemistry (cough), and the way their friendship developed over the course of the series.

      I didn’t have a problem with the white-and-black uniform, but I gotta admit it — I’m looking forward to seeing Plas back in the red-black-and-yellow again, too!

      I read The Terrifics #25 in hard copy, so it never occurred to me that it would read differently in Guided View (I also have that issue as a digital copy, and so didn’t have that problem there, either … though it was still easier to flip through physical pages). I can see how that would take a lot of the fun out of it. One of the things I did appreciate about it was how challenging it actually was; I expected an easy solution right away, but it kept throwing curveballs!

      The Bizarro storyline was great, though I have to admit the Bizarro-speak started to wear on me after a while. I think it could’ve benefited from being maybe one issue shorter, just because it started to sag a bit in the middle, but y’know … your mileage may vary and all that. It didn’t help that I didn’t realize there are two Bizarros now?! When did that happen?!?

      Bringing up Plastic Man’s spiritual beliefs was an interesting aspect to bring in, something I can’t really remember ever being brought up in any real way before. It makes sense he would be an Irish Catholic, and that it could inform his reaction to certain things. I thought it was a little heavy-handed — to the point of almost being out of character in places — but overall I thought it was a neat bit of character development.

  5. I haven’t read ’em, but I liked hearing about ’em!
    When you were discussing Plas’s “shape-shifting” skills, it got me to wondering; Max, (assuming you haven’t already) what thing in your home do you want to paint red with yellow and black stripes? I think having a Plastic Man fridge would be awesome, but my wife is dead-set against painting the fridge!

    1. Oh, dang — that’s a tough one! Maybe something small, like the coffee maker or nightstand? Actually, I wouldn’t mind painting the big bookcase, but like you, I’m pretty sure my wife wouldn’t let me get away with it!

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