Superman, Elastic Lad, Elongated Man and Plastic Man are on one side. The villainous Malleable Man is on the other. Okay, maybe the scales are tipped-but in whose favor?
Skizzle Shanks recreates the industrial accident that transformed Eel O'Brian into Plastic Man. A trio of armed gunmen storm the offices of the Daily Planet. Their sole demand is for Jimmy Olsen to turn over his Elastic Serum, the substance that allows Olsen to become Elastic Lad. Olsen refuses, stating that he's already used his signal watch to summon Superman. Before the Man of Steel can intervene, though, the Elongated Man wraps the gunmen up in his fingers. The police arrive to take the gunmen into custody. Though the case seems to be closed, the Elongated Man's mystery twitching nose suggests otherwise. While Olsen and the Elongated Man discuss the situation, unnoticed by all, two elongated fingers enter Olsen's office, remove the Elastic Serum from his desk, and spike it with another substance. Olsen decides that the only sure way to protect the Elastic Serum from criminals is to consume it, restoring his Elastic Lad powers. Superman finally arrives, in response to Olsen's emergency signal. Hearing screams coming from the street, Superman and Elongated Man investigate, with Olsen, as Elastic Lad, following behind. A local jewelry shop has been burglarized, but the thief has already made good on his escape. Suddenly, Plastic Man emerges from the still sealed vault. The crime seems to suggest that the thief possessed elastic abilities. Another scream brings Superman, Plastic Man and Elongated Man back out on the street. Superman spies the Malleable Man escaping down a manhole cover. Superman plunges through the street in pursuit. The Malleable Man, however, doubles back, running afoul of Plastic Man and the Elongated Man. The Malleable Man is quick enough to take out Plastic Man with one blow, but then flees from the Elongated Man.
Plastic Man rejoins the running battle between Elongated Man and the Malleable Man, but ultimately, both heroes are defeated, and the Malleable Man escapes. Elastic Lad, finally, catches up to the action. Once Superman rejoins the stretchable heroes, they discuss their next move. Later, in his hotel room, the Elongated Man ponders the case, while his impatient wife, Sue Dibny, waits to be taken to dinner. Absorbed in his musings, the Elongated Man doesn't notice a pair of elongated hands enter his room, and spike his supply of Gingold. Later that night, two Malleable Men burglarize another vault. Superman and Plastic Man, and eventually the Elongated Man, respond to the silent alarm. In attempting to take down the Malleable Men, Superman gets tangled up in the Elongated Man. As the Malleable Men flee, they hurl a chemical substance into Plastic Man's face. Late that night, the Elongated Man, Elastic Lad, and Plastic Man all respond to an uncontrollable compulsion to rendezvous with the Malleable Man.The elastic villain reveals that he had spiked the Elongated Man and Elastic Lad's serums with a mind controlling drug, the same substance he threw in Plastic Man's face. Now, the four men have traveled to the arctic, to plunder the treasures hidden within Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Superman, however, is waiting for the Malleable Man. Having analyzed the substance the Malleable Man threw in Plastic Man's face, Superman then found that it showed up in the Elongated Man and Elastic Lad's bloodstream, too. Superman then countered the drug with an antidote. The Malleable Man moves to attack the four heroes, but trips over his own feet, knocking himself out. Since Shanks used modern synthetic chemicals to become the Malleable Man, his stretching abilities lacked the permanence of Plastic Man's.
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