RAPT IN PLASTIC PT. 8

 

A Carmine Infantino cover is no help this time, as the visual situation is overly busy and the gag, if it's Drake's, is one of his worst.

For the only time in the ten-issue run, an issue is split between two stories. In the first, Plas is visiting his girlfriend at a DeLute hotel. Doctor Dome shows up, intent on robbing the richies. But before the hero makes the scene, Dome and his thugs are clobbered by a new killer in town, the super-powerful Sphinx. Dome flees, and when Plas shows up, he gets distracted by that old stratagem, Tossing the Baby.

Dome then complains to daughter Lynx that three other crimes he planned were blocked by the Egyptian evildoer. He talks about some great plan he's devised, which may be offering Plas a truce until the Sphinx is defeated. The truce accomplishes its end, the Sphinx is corralled, and the long-term enemies return to their enmity-- though it's also the last outing for Dome and his devilish daughter. 

Ordinary as the Sphinx story is, it's not quite as humor-free as the other tale. In it, Plas faces a thief who can rip people off using a "gold magnet," so of course his name is "Goldzinger." Plas catches him, Miss DeLute sets the crook free with some idea of using the villain to knock off the "putty person," and Goldzinger rips her off. The rest of the story is just Plas assuming different shapes to overtake the fleeing heist artist. Naturally, there's no discussion of the possibility of charging Micheline's nawsty mothah with suborning murder.