I didn't think Mattel would get the heroes of the Doom Patrol out, so I sure as heck didn't think they were going to finish the whole lineup for the Metal Men! But, I finished this limited series; and I'd best blog it so I don't finish it again...From 1993,
Metal Men #2, "Fast Backward!" Written by Mike Carlin, layouts by Dan Jurgens, finishes by Brett Breeding.
The cover blurb on the first issue proclaims "from the team that killed Superman!" but they don't quite catch lightning in a bottle again here; since they maybe shouldn't have tried the "everything you know is wrong!" card. Doc Magnus has been getting more and more irritable, repeatedly refusing to let the Metal Men go on potentially dangerous missions. Why not? They're just robots, right?...right? The true origin of the Metal Men is revealed, as a lab accident years ago trapped several scientists, a janitor, and a pizza delivery guy in the bodies of the Metal Men. Gold had been Doc Magnus's brother, and Platinum had been Gold's wife, although she seemed pretty into Magnus before the accident: later in the series, trying to reconcile her attraction to both of them, she describes them as basically the same guy, which doesn't seem like it should be a ringing endorsement.
The previously-unseen human bodies of the Metal Men had been in a secret lab, but get killed in the first issue, leaving them Metal Men for good. It's kind of a downer; and the series ends with Gold dead and Doc Magnus now a Metal Man himself, Veridium. They would appear in a few crossovers; but this retcon would itself be retconned in
52, with the whole limited series written off as part of mental breakdown for Magnus. Well, it's got nice art for a mental breakdown, anyway.
It really is though. Honestly Magnus having an bad mental episode is probably as best an explanation for the necessity of retconning this as there ever will be. Honestly, what the hell was Carlin thinking going in this direction?
ReplyDeleteI think this was one of those copyright protection series, so I don't blame Carlin for just using the first thing that came to mind. Half of what happens in the Metal Men series are Doc's mental breakdowns anyway- that guy is seriously unbalanced, but so is the idea of the Metal Men. You probably already know the story, but Bob Kanigher came up with them over a weekend to fill an empty slot in Showcase. The only place he used more crazy concepts than Metal Men was in Wonder Woman.
ReplyDeleteI mean, if that's the case, you could easily excuse any retcon or reboot being due to Doc's mental breakdowns
ReplyDeleteI think they have a couple of times before (definitely in Metal Men publishing history, but also in main continuity), as well as in some sort of alternate universe story. Like I said, the guy's a certified nutso but he's also a mechanical genius.
ReplyDelete