Metal Men

From Free net encyclopedia

The Metal Men are a team of robot superheroes created by writer Robert Kanigher, pencilled by Ross Andru and inked by Mike Esposito for DC Comics in 1962. They made their first appearance in Showcase #37 as part of a four-issue series created as a last-minute filler feature. They proved unexpectedly popular and the characters were revived for more stories under their own title.

The Metal Men were presented as advanced artificially intelligent robots, created by scientist Dr. Will Magnus. "Doc" Magnus states that their intelligence and personalities are generated by devices called "responsometers", and they mirror characteristics commonly associated with various metals. We learn later that this is a partial truth.

The team consisted of their field leader Gold, strong man Iron, slow-witted loyal Lead, self-doubting and insecure Tin, hot-headed Mercury, and Platinum, or Tina, who thought she was a real woman rather than a robot and was, in a Pygmalion twist, in love with creator Doc Magnus. Tin later kit-built himself a girlfriend whom he called "Nameless" who shared some adventures.

The Metal Men's main foes included Chemo (a mobile plastic giant filled with various lethal chemicals), the robotic alien Missile Men, the Gas Gang, and other mechanical menaces such as a robotic T-Rex, robo-centaur, the Dazzler, and nefarious amusement park rides. On several occasions Doc made new robots of different metals such as Uranium, Silver, Cobalt, Chromium, and others, including counterpart "boyfriend and girlfriend" robots. The new robots always went to the scrap heap. The Metal Men also had many adventures on other planets, usually meeting robot menaces.

The Metal Men had a broken run of sixty issues in their own comic book title. Their Silver Age series of issues #1 to #41 began in 1963 and ended in 1970. Their adventures were fast-paced, light-hearted, ripe with melodrama and sentimentality, and loaded with "make it up as you go along" leaps in logic that made a charming whole. Many issues included the feature "Metal Facts & Fancies" with real metal facts and whimsical drawings. Issue #33 offered a change of direction – Doc Magnus went insane, the Metal Men found themselves hunted by the authorities, and they each assumed a human identity – before the series was halted.

The Metal Men reappeared in 1973 in three reprint issues (#42, #43 and #44). They returned with new stories in #45 (April-May 1976) from the pen of Walt Simonson who would go on to work on Thor. The team's run as regular headliners ended at #56 in 1978.

The Metal Men have appeared as guests in several other comic book titles including The Brave and the Bold, where they teamed-up with Metamorpho, the Atom, and several times, Batman. Most memorable of all was #187, which explored the mysterious disappearance of Nameless, Tin's homemade girlfriend.

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The Metal Men also guest starred alongside Superman in DC Comics Presents and Action Comics when it became a team-up title under the direction of artist/writer John Byrne.

Doc Magnus helped rebuild Cliff Steele, also known as Robotman of the Doom Patrol, and made several other appearances in that title.

A four book mini-series (numbered #1-#4 rather than #57-#60) was printed in 1993. It was revealed that the Metal Men carry the intellects and personalities of Doc's brother, his fiancee, two lab workers, a janitor, and a pizza-delivery man. These unfortunates' personalities were accidentally transferred to blank robots in a lab accident. Thus the Metal Men were not artificially generated by "responsometers" as previously stated. In the fast and furious climax, Gold was permanently killed and Doc Magnus mortally wounded. Doc permanently transferred his personality into a blank robot known as Veridium, made of a green alien metal. Doc became the new robotic leader of the Metal Men.

With the advent of Identity Crisis, Gold is back and Doc Magnus is once again human. In Infinite Crisis, due to Superboy Prime pounding on the walls of reality, both the "blank robots with responsometers" origin and the "human personalities and Doc as Veridium" origin are said to be true. Further explanation awaits.

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Elseworlds and other appearances of the Metal Men

The Metal Men make an appearance as brainwashed antagonists in the Elseworlds mini-series, The Nail, and do battle with Wonder Woman after they seemingly destroy the White House.

A possible future version of the Metal Men in a combined form called Alloy appears in artist Alex Ross and Mark Waid's Kingdom Come. Alloy appeared in modern continuity in Superman: Man of Steel #1000000 (part of the below DC One Million event). The Metal Men, driven insane by the Hourman Virus, attack Superman, at one point combining into Alloy.

In Alan Moore's proposal for Twilight of the Superheroes, the Metal Men would have had a small yet vital role. Doc Magnus had died years before, leaving the Metal Men little hope of a revival should they fail. Tin and Mercury have already succumbed to a final shut-down. Platinum is a waitress in a weird sci-fi robot-sex bar. Iron works as a construction worker, as rust slowly corrodes his body and his mind. Lead surrounded a nuclear reactor to stop a dangerous leak; as a result, he has become highly radioactive and will not be able to reenter society for another six million or so years. Gold went into hiding after the collapse of the economy; the resulting economic chaos caused gold prices to skyrocket, making his very existence dangerous, as various parties would want to melt him down. Towards the end of the story, John Constantine would have found Gold and melted him down into thin armor which the non-powered superheroes would use to repel the invading Green Lanterns.

Image:JSAMetalMen.jpg The Metal Men were remembered in a skewed fashion in Legionnaires #68. Cosmic Boy gets a good laugh at a statue of the Metal Men depicting them as JSA-like superheroes (for instance, Mercury looks like the Mercury of myth, Gold appears to be a knight, Lead is a masked superhero, Iron wears a hard-hat, Platinum looks like a lifeguard, and Tin is a dog).

The Metal Men showed up in some DC One Million titles. Platinum played a special role, giving the citizens of the 853rd century an oral history of the Superman lineage.

Another appearance of note is the Metal Men entry in the Bizarro Comics story "The Tinocchio Syndrome" by Bob Fingerman and Pat McEown in which the team spends an evening in a singles' bar with mixed results.

Available Metal Men merchandise has included t-shirts, a collector's plate by Alex Ross and a PVC figure set.

Internet website 'superherohype.com' conducted an interview, on April 9, 2006, with the producer of the X-Men trilogy, Lauren Shuler Donner, in which she stated that she's trying to develop Metal Men into another comic book movie. She compared it to 'Men in Black', saying that it's a lighter film which would involve a lot of CGI.

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