What a co-indydinks -- we went legit too! Yessir -- Plas an' me gave up the life o' crime to be heroes! Tell 'im, Plas... he got doused wit' a bunch o' chemicals, and woke up a livin' Plastic Man! Me -- I'm th' brains of this team... 
The Power of Shazam! #21 is an issue of the series The Power of Shazam! (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1996.
Synopsis for "The Big Rubout!"
Captain Marvel storms into a restaurant to take down “Muscles” McGinnis, who insists that his waiter pour his wine and that he'll take care of Captain Marvel, only for the waiter to reveal… it's Plastic Man in disguise! Plastic Man says he can't let him arrest McGinnis and wraps around him, whipping him around before throwing him out the door by inflating into a spheroid shape. Outside, Woozy Winks hides in natural fear of the World's Mightiest Mortal. Plastic Man drags Muscles away before he can be attacked by a collection of goons. Captain Marvel soon snatches up their guns and then crushes them in his arms, then ties the goons together with a clothesline while Plastic Man leaves. Cops soon arrive to arrest them and identify the goons are being run by Jack “King” Cole and they likely have an illegal cable hook-up at their “art studio.” Muscles is hiding out in a dumpster (which is Plastic Man) and he reveals to him his secret identity as none other than reformed criminal “Eel” O'Brian! He's shocked when Woozy Winks peeks in and accidentally punches him in the face, who reveals that he knows that Muscles is a cop! Muscles figures his cover has been blown and Woozy insists they're both on the level too. An assassin tries to attack them with a rocket full of knock-out gas as Captain Marvel seizes him and wrenches him off his feet, then flies at the Speed of Mercury to disperse the gas. Plastic Man recognizes this killer as “The Liquidator.” They work together to try to intimidate the Liquidator, but he only cracks when Plastic Man tickles one of his feet, making him break into laughter and admit that there's a $1,000,000 bounty on Muscles' head, courtesy of his newest rival, “Lady M.” Plastic Man leaves the Liquidator tied to a fence in his underwear while Muscles says he might know a way to get to this “Lady M” via one of his less than loyal henchmen…
Meanwhile, Mr. Tawky Tawny is upset that his new advertisement is going great, since his ad for Brett's BBQ Sauce implies he loves him some meat, despite him being generally a vegetarian and not even technically a real “tiger” so much as a pooka. “Uncle” Dudley insists that most people on TV aren't really like that in real life and says people want a tiger that's “mean and fierce.” He shows off his most scary face, but Officer Smitty says that it's usually in a more non-threatening way, swallowing a whole pretzel. Meanwhile, Plastic Man, disguised as the Liquidator, arrives at the docks to exchange the “Head of Muscles McGinnis” in a brown bag with his apparently treacherous goon. He offers that they go together to go see “Lady M” (so he can take some credit to look good in front of her) and the others watch from atop a warehouse to see that she apparently has a base on the nearby lake. Captain Marvel takes off to help more directly while Plastic Man finds that he's becoming seasick on the speedboat there and is soon invited to meet “Lady M,” an attractive young lady. The goons try to wrest the bag from him, but find that the bag (and the head inside) are all made of plastic and Captain Marvel crashes in to help him fight off the goons as Lady M escapes into a trapdoor. She soon appears on a TV screen next to them, saying she's got a hundred senior citizens on her otherwise normal gambling ship and blasts a hole in the side to endanger them and says that her men have seized McGinnis on the shore. Captain Marvel gets to the deck and uses the railing to launch Plastic Man (like a rubber band) to the shore and then swims into the hole to try to work on helping the people aboard, including a certain old lady.
The goons prepare to shoot McGinnis as Muscles offers them a cool million to not shoot him, only for Plastic Man to land as a large bouncing ball to distract them all while Muscles headbutts a goon off the dock, falling in himself… Plastic Man goes to look after him, but sees nothing… Woozy tries to sneak off, but Captain Marvel says that he'll be fine if he's with them. The cops soon arrive and say the gambling boat is registered to “Athena Enterprises.” The three worry that Muscles and the goon he attacked are missing and that he may've given his life to stop corruption… Captain Marvel quietly mourns Muscles, the man who helped him find his sister, then tells the cops that gambling was just recently legalized, so they shouldn't arrest the old people. The cops find that “Lady M” was wearing a very convincing organic mask that she's torn off and escaped with the other passengers, but Captain Marvel swears he's going after her to get justice for Muscles!
Appearing in "The Big Rubout!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Plastic Man
- "Muscles" McGinnis (Apparent death)
Antagonists:
- The Liquidator (Single appearance)
- Lady M (First appearance)
- "Brutus"
- Jack "King" Cole
Other Characters:
- Woozy Winks
- Mr. Tawny Tawny
- "Uncle" Dudley
- Officer Smitty
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
- "Lady M's" Gambling Ship (Destroyed)
Trivia
- Tawky Tawny mentions that he is a vegetarian in this issue.
- Jack "King" Cole is named after the writer / artist who created Plastic Man, Jack Cole.
- Another goon is nicknamed "Brutus," for his betrayal of "Muscles" McGinnis being similar to Brutus' betrayal of Dictator Gaius Iulius Caesar.
See Also