"Plastic #2" Comic Review

Edwyn is distraught. His girlfriend, Virginia, has been kidnapped and he's forced to do some awful, bloody things to keep her safe. Fortunately, he's quite good at those things, however messy they can be. As a quick reminder, Virginia is a life-size sex doll and Edwyn is a total lunatic. Nobody's perfect.

This issue of Plastic shows just how crazy Edwyn is. We had a pretty good idea with the first issue, especially with how he interacts with Virginia. This chapter takes it to new heights as he's required to engage with other people. He meets someone else in his line of work (that would be killing people) and it's amazing how different the two of them are. This other guy is cold and calculated. He's got a plan and he's thought of everything...everything that is...except Edwyn. The man is a human monkey wrench in this case, tossed into the works to mess them up.

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It's like there's a switch inside Edwyn. One moment he's cool and capable of having a conversation with another human being. The next he's literally taking a hacksaw to a man's jugular to chop his head off. Artist Daniel Hillyard makes this an absolutely terrifying shot. Edwyn's face is determined and angry. His victim is made of nothing but fear and surprise. This is clearly not how he thought things would go. Blood is flying everywhere. All this as the sun is rising on an otherwise peaceful morning.

Hillyard goes from this close-up of the bloodshed to a shot of the exterior, giving you an idea of the carnage unfolding within, but not directly showing. The next page shows the aftermath and it's a complete mess. It looks like something has exploded in there. Laura Martin really nailed the time period too, as the whole scene takes place outside and the sunlight works perfectly off of all this blood.

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It's amazing just how broken Edwyn is too. His mind struggles to make sense of some of this, normalizing things like a beheading or talking to a corpse. The poor guy just needs a friend and he had that in Virginia, then she was taken away from him. He is so fascinating to watch because he's unpredictable. When reading a character like Batman or Spider-Man, you have an idea of what they're going to do next. Edwyn is a complete mystery.

Despite his flaws, the man is insanely good at killing people. It's scary just how proficient he is at it. Not only that, but he'd make a pretty decent detective. He's canvassing the area looking for clues as to Virginia's whereabouts. Working with such little information, he's able to piece some things together to at least get him on the kidnappers' trail.

You've seen revenge stories, some more brutal than others. Plastic is perhaps the most demented, twisted revenge story to date. It's bloody, creepy, and filled with dark humor making it a fun read that is well worth your time.