Editing Plastic Man (section)

==Powers and abilities==
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Plastic Man's powers are derived from an accident in which his body was bathed in an unknown industrial chemical mixture that entered his bloodstream through a gunshot wound. This caused a body-wide mutagenic process that transformed his physiology. Eel exists in a fluid state, neither entirely liquid nor solid. He has complete control over his entire molecular structure. He can stretch his limbs and body to superhuman lengths and sizes. There is no known limit to how far Plastic Man can stretch his body. He can shrink himself down to a few inches tall (posed as one of Batman's utility belt pockets) or become a titan (the size of skyscrapers). He can contort his body into various positions and sizes impossible for ordinary humans, such as being entirely flat to slip under a door, using his fingers to pick conventional lock, compressing himself into a ball to ricochet off of things, and inflating his body. He can also use it for disguise by changing the shape of his face and body, contributory to his work as a sleuth. Due to his fluid state, Plastic Man can open holes in his body and turn himself into objects with mobile parts. In addition, he can alter his bodily mass and physical constitution at will, creating virtually no limit to the sizes and shapes he can contort himself into. There is nothing he cannot alter his body into, which includes basic shapes or dangerous weapons, avatars of other superheroes, and functional automobiles. These stretching capabilities grant Plastic Man agility, flexibility, and coordination far beyond the natural limits of the human body. He can alter his strength by growing or adding more muscle.

Plastic Man's powers extraordinarily augment his durability. Some stories, perhaps of anecdotal quality, have showed him susceptible to surprise attack by bullets, in one case oozing a substance similar to liquid plastic.<ref>"The Origin of Woozy Winks"</ref> His unique physiology makes him impervious to conventional means of harm such as bullets, blasts, and blunt force. He is also able to withstand corrosives, punctures, and concussions without sustaining any injury (although he can be momentarily stunned). Batman once mentioned that he could presumably even withstand a nuclear detonation. This is mainly due to the fact that he has full control over his density, so he can willfully increase his durability as he wishes. His bodily mass can be dispersed, but for all intents and purposes, it is invulnerable, even from many forms of magic in the DC Universe. He is able to regenerate or assimilate lost or damaged tissue, although he needs to be reasonably intact for this process to begin. For example, Plastic Man was once reduced to individual, separate molecules and scattered across the Atlantic Ocean for centuries. He was only capable of returning to his usual form after the rest of the League were able to gather enough of his molecules and restore approximately 80% of his body mass, after which he began to regenerate the remaining 20% on his own.

Plastic Man has proven to be insusceptible to the effects of telepathy. As stated by Batman (in ''JLA'' #88, Dec. 2003), "Plastic Man's mind is no longer organic. It's untouchable by telepathy". However, this is contradicted by other depictions in the series where his mind can be read and he can be reached by telepathic communication. Plastic Man does not appear to age; if he does, it is at a rate far slower than that of normal human beings. In the aftermath of the ''Justice League'' story Arc "Obsidian Age", Plastic Man was discovered to have survived for 3,000 years scattered into separate, individual molecules on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean without decaying or being otherwise affected at all. He can autonomically detect ultrasonic frequencies because his body will start to "ripple" when an ultrasonic frequency is triggered.

As stated by the Black Lantern corpsman Vibe, Plastic Man's internal organs (such as his heart when Black Lantern Vibe tried to rip it out) could not be removed, unlike many of the Black Lanterns' victims. This perhaps implies that Plastic Man is himself more like one giant, living organ than he is a "whole" made of component parts and organs, etc.

His semi-liquid form remains stable at relatively high and low temperatures, provided that the temperature change is gradual. A sudden change induces a complete change of state, creating a truly solid or truly liquid form. Plastic Man was incapacitated in the ''JLA'' story arc "Tower of Babel" when mercenaries froze and shattered his body. Once thawed and reassembled, he was physically unharmed. In the ''JLA'' story arc "Divided We Fall", Plastic Man is shown to have some weakness to extreme heat (intense heat vision attack from a Martian) and was temporarily melted. In some versions, Plastic Man is vulnerable to chemicals such as [[acetone]], which melts and destabilizes his body. Furthermore, he is initially unable to change the color of his body, requiring great concentration to do so.

Plastic Man was once a very talented professional thief, specializing as a safecracker. Although no longer a criminal, he has thorough insight into their mindset, enabling him to be an effective sleuth. He is also considered to be a lateral thinker and much smarter than he lets on.