The Good, The Bad, The Verdict Plastic Issue 1

Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard have teamed up to bring us one twisted tale of a former serial killer coming out of retirement to save his love. Victor (Edwyn) was on the loose for 10 years before disappearing without a trace. Since then he has been traveling with his love, Virginia, who is a sex doll. He has developed an emotional attachment to his sex toy, Virginia. While traveling Virginia is kidnapped by Thaddeus Belliveau who requires Victor’s skill sets to kill certain people. Thus the killing spree begins again.

The Good:

The comic does an excellent job of capturing the complexities of Victor. Beginning with his physical and emotional connection to his girlfriend, sex doll, Virginia. This is an indicator that Victor is psychotic as he is interacting with Virginia as if she is a real person, when she is an inanimate object. In reality he is only communicating with himself on every interaction that he has with her. Things become more complicated when she is harassed by three boys and Victor decides to severely injure them. This shows that Victor is prone to jump to violence as a means to solve his problems rather than other strategies. After injuring these boys he immediately returns to being calm and views it as doing what needed to be done. We begin to see how Victor is a serial killer as he has no qualms about using violence or killing as he views it as doing what needed to be done. All of this is being done for Virginia, yet since she is an inanimate object and directly interacts with Victor. It is clear that this is what Victor wants to do, which is to ultimately continue his killing spree and violent ways. This is only revealed when Victor, along with Virginia, are kidnapped by Thaddeus Belliveau who wants Victor to kill for him. Victor agrees readily without thinking at all about it. Thus suggesting that Victor needed an excuse to go out and continue his serial killings.

The Bad:

The problem with this issue is that the only character that is explored is Victor. As a result we learn about Victor and his perspective and actions, yet, we have nothing to compare it to, to determine if it is reasonable or unreasonable. Furthermore, with no character to compare him to we don’t how crazy Victor is and where he draws the line. Not having these guidelines it is a deficit of this comic as it leave a variety of elements of Victor unexplained.

The Verdict:

Plastic is an enjoyable read as it explores an old story idea of a person coming out of retirement to save their loved one. This comic adds a few interesting twists to the plot. The first being the main character is a retired serial killer and his love is a sex doll, thus turning a classic story into a bizarre comic that can’t help but to be interesting. Despite it having some problems the comic is an enjoyable read that will leave you smiling from start to finish.