Plastique (comics)
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Plastique (real name Bette Sans Souci) is a DC Comics character who has evolved over the decades from supervillain to superhero, one of a handful of DC characters depicted as Canadian in origin.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
Created by Gerry Conway and Pat Broderick, Bette Sans Souci was introduced as an even-then anachronistically-depicted Quebec patriot turned terrorist to force Quebec's separation from the rest of Canada. First appearing in Fury of Firestorm # 7 (December 1982), she made several appearances during Conway's tenure as writer of that series. She then began appearing in DC Comics' first Captain Atom from 1986 onwards as first an adversary, although that relationship evolved over the course of that series' five-year run towards the romantic.
[edit] Firestorm
Her career in terror was not especially distinguished. In her first appearance, she attempted a suicide bombing against the DC Universe-specific newspaper the New York Herald-Express with a set of bombs attached to her costume, only to have the original Firestorm disarm her by vaporizing her clothes, leaving her naked and humiliated in public while Firestorm took the bombs to explode in a safer area. Later, via genetic modification commissioned by her organization, she gained the power to project explosive force from her body. The modifications did her little good, as she continued to be halted in her tracks and reimprisioned several times via either Firestorm's or Firehawk's intervention.
Her last major public operation as a terrorist was depicted in her first Captain Atom appearance, wherein she and the group she'd gathered for this particular attempted to destroy the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa and the Statue of Liberty in New York City, as well as personally attempting the assassinations of the American President and Canadian Prime Minister, at a jointly-organized press conference staged by the two nations. The bombings of the two landmarks were thwarted, and Plastique herself personally captured on live international television, by Captain Atom.
[edit] Suicide Squad
She became a member of the Suicide Squad for the duration of a single mission. She attempted to betray the mission team during their second field operation in Qurac under the command of Amanda Waller, was anticipated and caught by advance team operative Nemesis, and subsequently brainwashed to suppress all memories of her Squad participation. In the years that followed, her followers abandoned her after becoming disillusioned with using force to advance their shared cause (thus reflecting real-world Canadian politics by that point, which had long since moved past the era that Plastique's methods and policies reflected). She then became a mercenary who actually reformed, subsequently earning a pardon from the United States for her crimes there based on services rendered to the "Captain Atom Project", as well as a somewhat more subdued response along similar lines from the Canadian authorities.
[edit] Marriage
Plastique then became engaged to Captain Atom, although the engagement was effectively broken in the wake of events of Armageddon: 2001. Following his reappearance in the then-present day, the engagement was renewed and Plastique was invited into the ranks of the "Extreme Justice" faction of the Justice League, and celebrated a bachelorette party before Extreme Justice was itself cancelled in 1996.
The wedding was notable by its non-depiction in the comics themselves, having been implied in The L.A.W. mini-series as having happened between the cancellation of Extreme Justice and the start of The L.A.W.'s first issue. Plastique has had a handful of appearances since then, mostly cameos in other series.
[edit] Current status
In Justice League of America #1, Signalman informs Jefferson Pierce, the hero better known as Black Lightning, that Plastique had teamed with the Electrocutioner in a partnership known as the Bomb Squad. The duo has subsequently been among a series of costumed villains that had disappeared, seemingly into thin air.
She recently resurfaced in Checkmate as a member of the Suicide Squad again after the incident with Captain Atom in Bludhaven. Apparently, she and her husband are separated leading her to have a "devil may care" attitude. How this will effect her future remains unknown.
During the 34th week of the series 52, Plastique and the Electrocutioner appear as part of a Suicide Squad operation against Black Adam.
[edit] Other media
In the Justice League Unlimited episode "Task Force X", Bette Sans Souci a.k.a. Plastique is an explosives expert. Plastique has advanced knowledge of the intricacies and use of demolition weaponry. She was assigned to Task Force X, along with Rick Flag, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Clock King, on a dangerous mission to infiltrate the Justice League's Watchtower space station and steal a magical automaton called the Annihilator. She was caught in an explosion of one of her own devices when Deadshot detonated it from a distance so that rest of the team could escape. She was wounded but still alive when last seen, mainly because Captain Atom attempted to take the brunt of the blast. She was voiced by Juliet Landau, albeit with a Creole rather than Quebec accent.
