Stretch Serpent - Stretch Armstrong (Kenner)

They would be friends, bonding over rock music & taking on white capitalists.

Muldersplaining Stretch Armstong.

Bend him, stretch him, like...you can fucking tie him in lit-er-al knots, okay? Always, ALWAYS returns to his original shape. You probably didn't know that.

me when rook is exposed to be stretch monster every time i rewatch the show

First post 🦖

Wingspan and Kiteman, hell yeah.

Big L & Jay-Z freestyle on Stretch & Bobbito

I find it both funny and odd that there’s only been one official elastic “Stretch Armstrong”-type toy for Plastic Man, made in 1979*

I also find it off that he was given a solid skin-colored piece (with his chest design imprinted) with some clothing, and not fully colored red.

I can understand going with a single color (even if ole’ Armstrong himself seemed to get painted trunks.) Other characters of the day had similar things happen to them. Spider-Man was red, Superman blue, Batman grey, etc.

But I’m curious as to why Plastic Man himself wasn’t fully red. Would’ve looked better than fully skin-toned I feel, and heck all red isn’t too far off from some of the looks you’ll see sometimes, either by mistake or actual redesign attempts.

I mean, it would make sense right? His costume is mostly red, I don’t know if kids would have minded if his legs weren’t skin toned. Maybe it looked awkward if he just had a belt accessory? I’m not sure, and it doesn’t matter much nowadays I suppose. These days you can find stretchy heroes with multiple colors and designs. DC in fact currently has “Goo Jit Zu” figures with plenty of heroes and villains like Batman, Cyborg, Riddler, and Green Lantern to name a few. But curiously, no Plastic Man.

As DC’s premier stretching/elastic character, you’d think they’d capitalize on that fact and at least make a few more. But I guess he’s not popular enough, alas.

Most Plastic Man toys and figures will have to remain hard plastic with swappable and “extendable” features, as in there’s a cavity in the body that holds and extra long neck. Closest except is when there’s a “bendy” feature, aka wire over rubber.

Hopefully one day we’ll get a Plastic Man elastic toy again!

Stretch Armstrong - Stretch Armstrong (Kenner)

Fixing that one small mistake in SAATFF

Having watched the show when it came out, I loved it! It had flaws but I enjoyed it. It was nice to see a modern show in the style of the 2000s action cartoons I grew up onm So imagine my shock when the season 2 finale pulled a Disney Twist on one of my favorite characters in the show.

See, back in season 1 Malcom Kane was a reformed gangbanger who got his life together and started working for Jonathan Rook (the series Big Bad) as an honest man. In s2 there was some mystery about a militant techno cult/gang called the Tech Men - everybody's so creative - and the heroes trying to figure out who the leader is. In the penultimate episodes They find out that the leader is... Malcom Kane!

Huh? What?

Given what we're told and shown about Kane this twist doesn't make sense. The Tech Men don't even have a connection to the bigger story. Why would Kane, whose motivation hinged on being good, suddenly decide to remove free will and go back to committing crime? The sudden reveal that he never changed at all undermined his arc as if implying that criminals will never truly repent, will always be evil, there's no room for morally grey backstories. You get the idea.

Basically it was stupid and unnecessary.

I legit HATED that twist! It was such a cop out. So, I decided to change it to something that actually made sense.

Instead, Kane actually a government agent working against Rook. It goes along with his past as a reformed criminal, this time it actually stuck and connects him to the overall mystery.

Like in canon, he knew Rook's true identity for quite some time. However, he needed to gather enough information to put the vile CEO away for good.

What you thought the government wouldn't notice the disappearance of one of their planes carrying their top scientists?

Anyways, Kane got a job working for Rook. It was surprisingly easy, as Rook was impressed by Kane's work ethic and take charge attitude. He was also compliant which meant little risk of being questioned. Kane did everything he could to keep Rook's favor, it was the only way he would be able to crack the case.

Over time, Kane managed to decipher his true involvement in the crash. Unfortunately Rook had a lot of connections that made it nearly impossible to properly charge him. One of those connections included the militant group The Tech Men, whose previous leader Kane helped put away years ago.

Kane visited the leader in prison and offered to reduce his parole if he gave him information about the group. Kane had to play his cards right. He joined the N Men posing as their leader, which in turn led him to more information about Rook's ultimate goal. Kane didn't want teenagers to get involved with the investigation. So he acted the part of the cold no-nonsense lackey to try to push them away.

Kane didn't expect their determination to stay. He didn't think a couple of children had the drive to fight for another day. Deep down he had to admit he was proud of those boys - and girls one he realized who Riya was.

Making Malcolm an agent ahows that he is willing to make morally dubious choices for the greater good. In a way it makes him more of a parallel to rook: both suffered losses and didn't have it all good growing up, but one decided to put good out into the world and the other wants to rule it. And it's better to show that people CAN change for the better than that black&white way of thinking.

I just realized that what sets Netflix's Stretch Armstrong above the rest of contemporary superhero cartoons is that it gave each protagonist a rich inner and personal life, both separate from their superhero identity AND serving as their motivation to become a superhero. Compare Jake, Nathan, Ricardo, and Riya to Marvel's Spider-Man's main protagonists - Peter, Miles, Anya, Gwen, and Harry.

Out of the five MSM protags, only Peter has his personal life consistently explored. Harry's personal life is explored but only in opposition to Peter's, and once Harry's arc concludes in S1, he drops off as a protagonist entirely and becomes a supporting character in S2 & S3. While Gwen gets some personal life development in S1, it is to only forward the villain-of-the-week plotline. Once that resolves, Gwen is hardly given any real character growth except in a few key episodes with Anya. We never see her father or what her life is like outside of Horizon High. Miles and Anya both have a single episode that explores their family dynamics and THEN we only see Jefferson and (a fake!) Maria as poorly-executed villains to add drama to the last half of S3. Neither Miles or Anya organically develops without either Peter or Gwen around.

With Stretch Armstrong, each of the protagonist's family and past are explored. You get the backstory, you get familial dynamics, and you get motivations. Jake wants to be a hero to both escape the confines of the rigid expectations his father places on him AND because he feels like he can finally put all the lessons his dad taught him to use. Nathan wants to be a hero to protect his family and stay close to his friends. Ricardo wants to be a hero because he finally wants to belong somewhere - he wants community, and he wants friends that he doesn't have to leave behind. Riya's primary motivation is avenging her parents and taking down Rook before his corporate schemes go too far. And notice how all their motivations are distinct to their family dynamics and personal ambitions!

Why do Gwen, Anya, and Miles want to be heroes? We don't learn about Miles' desire to protect his neighborhood until S3! What are they motivated by? Just a desire to help? They're just naturally good people and want to make the world a better place? But why? Where does that desire come from? What do their family and community think of them - how are they motivated by those factors? MSM hardly explores that - MSM is primarily in service to the fantastical elements of Peter's life. And, when we do have time to catch up on the protags' personal lives, it is almost always Peter that has these moments. The MSM writers wanted to give Peter a team but then they never explored that team, never gave the audience to care about them other than "they're Peter's friends," while Stretch Armstrong gave Jake a team and THEN chose to develop each protagonist into their own fully-realized character. The show was about Jake but his team was not there to just serve his character and story - they each had their OWN character and OWN story. Had SAATFF been picked up for an S3, I'm almost positive Erika's personal life outside of Nathan would also have been fully explored to the point of being a main character rather than a secondary one.

IDK man, it just feels like contemporary superhero shows and comics in general can't balance the fantastical with the average, day-to-day lives of their protagonists. That's why ITSV and ATSV are so revered and stand out - because of that balance. Miles is a compelling character because he deals with and endures all these fantastical elements of his life WHILE having problems with his parents and deciding what his future will entail. Gwen is a compelling character for similar reasons. Their romance is compelling for these reasons - balancing the fantastical with the mundane - Gwen protecting Miles by keeping him away from Spider Society and all of its secrets, but still feeling jealous when Miles eyes Margo; Miles coming along with Gwen to earth-50101 to help her and then slightly panicking upon learning Gwen has been staying on another earth with a dude named Hobie.

If superhero writers have forgotten this, if they can't find that balance and explore it, then we're really in fucking trouble for years and years to come.

HULK CURL INTO BALL TO PROTECT VITAL ORGANS

Patapon 1 & 2 (with a cameo from Billy Hatcher)

Some of these are based on TRUE EVENTS and/or in-jokes (*my friend named his Hero "Hiro" lol :D)