CINXE.COM

<HEAD><TITLE>Don Markstein's Toonopedia: The Metal Men </TITLE> <script language="JavaScript"></script> <META name = "author" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "description" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "subject" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "keywords" content = "comic books animated cartoons animation comics comix syndicated comic strips"> <META name = "publisher" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "format" content = "text/html"> <META name = "language" content = "EN"> </HEAD><BODY> <body onload="if (self!= top) top.location = self.location"></body> <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="0000EE" VLINK="551A8B"> <TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=310 VALIGN="CENTER"><IMG GALLERYIMG="NO" ALIGN="LEFT" HEIGHT=449 WIDTH=300 ALT="An early Metal Men cover. Artists: Ross Andru and Mike Esposito." SRC="metalmen.jpg"> <TD VALIGN="CENTER"><H1>THE METAL MEN</H1><FONT SIZE=4> <B>Medium:</B> Comic books <BR><B>Published by:</B> DC Comics <BR><B>First Appeared:</B> 1962 <BR><B>Creator:</B> Robert Kanigher<FONT SIZE=3> <! BEGIN DONATION CODE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="993366"><CENTER> If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, <BR>Please contribute to its necessary financial support. <BR><A HREF="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1237L0BCY25QA" TARGET="_blank">Amazon.com</A> or <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=don%40toonopedia.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_cod e=USD" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> </FONT></CENTER><HR> <! END DONATION CODE> <P><A NAME="cont"> The Metal Men, which have been a part of the comic book scene for nearly four decades, started out as a scheduling glitch. When <A HREF="atom2.htm">The Atom</A> moved out into his own book, no  <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="#cont"><FONT SIZE=2><I>continued below</A></FONT> </TABLE> <CENTER><! BEGIN ADSENSE "LEADERBOARD" CODE> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <! END ADSENSE CODE></CENTER> <P><TABLE><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> content was ready for the 37th issue of <I>Showcase</I> (Mar-Apr 1962), the <A HREF="dc.htm">DC Comics</A> title where new concepts were tried out before being given series of their own — and the issue was due at the printer in two weeks. Writer-editor Robert Kanigher created a band of adventuring robots and scripted a story for them over a single weekend, and handed it to a pair of speed demon artists, <A HREF="glossary.htm#pencil">penciller</A> Ross Andru and <A HREF="glossary.htm#ink">inker</A> Mike Esposito, the team that had been drawing <A HREF="wonderwo.htm">Wonder Woman</A> and <A HREF="starspan.htm">The War that Time Forgot</A> under Kanigher's editorship for several years. They made their deadline with days to spare. <P> Since Kanigher never expected there to be a second Metal Men story, he killed them off at the end. But even as rushed as the concept was, the characters were deemed to have a chance of success, and were pencilled in for the next three issues of <I>Showcase.</I> So #38 opened with the robots' creator, Dr. Will Magnus, salvaging their parts — especially the all-important "responsometers" that gave them life — and forging a new set of Metal Men identical to the first. Death at the end of each adventure, followed by resurrection at the start of the next, was a schtick of theirs for years, one of The Metal Men's endearing trademarks. <P> There were six Metal Men, made of six different metals: Iron, Gold, Lead, Tin, Mercury and Platinum. Each had the metal's physical characteristics, and personal traits to match. For example, Iron was strong and dependable but not very flexible, Lead was solid but not very firm and not very bright, and Mercury was — well, mercurial. Platinum was bright and beautiful, like the metal, and cast in a female shape. Because of a faulty responsometer, she thought of herself as a real woman, and was in love with Doc Magnus. Most had no names other than their metals, but Platinum called herself Tina. <P> The Metal Men surprised everyone at DC by proving popular enough to get their own bimonthly comic, the first issue of which was cover dated Apr-May 1963. In addition to an exciting (but usually rather oddball) adventure starring an appealingly diverse set of personalities, each issue was like a chemistry lesson. Recurring villains included Chemo, who could field a wide variety of destructive chemicals, and The Gas Gang, a bunch with powers analogous to The Metal Men's own. <P> The comic was never a blockbuster best-seller, but it succeeded well enough to last out most of the 1960s. Eventually, however, it ran out of steam. With its 41st issue (Dec-Jan 1969-70), it was cancelled. It was revived in 1976, and ran another dozen bimonthly issues. Since then, there have been a few specials, guest appearances, mini-series, etc. keeping them around. <P> Like many minor characters, no longer able to sustain comics of their own on a regular basis, The Metal Men have been handled in widely different ways by different writer/artist teams. A recent one purports to explain why their responsometers give them such human-like personalities, and why attempts to outfit them with new responsometers always made them cold and — well, robot-like. It seems they've somehow latched onto the personality patterns of recently-dead humans. In keeping with that theme, Doc Magnus himself was killed off and replaced with a robotic simulacrum. He is now Veridium, a metal which seems to have no exact counterpart in the real world. <P> Tina, needless to say, sees this as a fine state of affairs. At last — she has a chance! <P ALIGN = "RIGHT">— DDM <P><A HREF="index.htm">BACK</A> to <I>Don Markstein's Toonopedia</I> Home Page <BR><A HREF="today.htm">Today in Toons:</A> Every day's an anniversary! <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE BANNER CODE><CENTER> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </CENTER><! END ADSENSE CODE> <TD WIDTH=10><TD WIDTH=180 VALIGN="TOP"> <! BEGIN ADLINKS CODE><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><! END ADLINKS CODE> <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE REFERRAL CODE><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><! END ADSENSE REFERRAL CODE> <P> <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" target="google_window"> <table border="0" bgcolor="#cccccc"> <tr><td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top" align="left" height="32"> <a href="http://www.google.com/"> <img src="http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_25gry.gif" border="0" alt="Google"></img></a> <br/> <input type="hidden" name="domains" value="www.toonopedia.com"></input> <input type="text" name="q" size="23" maxlength="255" value=""></input> </td></tr> <tr> <td nowrap="nowrap"> <table> <tr> <td> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value=""></input> <font size="-1" color="#000000">Web</font> </td> <td> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="www.toonopedia.com" checked="checked"></input> <font size="-1" color="#000000">www.toonopedia.com</font> </td> </tr> </table> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search"></input> <input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-1498877845272586"></input> <input type="hidden" name="forid" value="1"></input> <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1"></input> <input type="hidden" name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1"></input> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="GALT:#008000;GL:1;DIV:#336699;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:336699;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;"></input> <input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en"></input> </td></tr></table> </form>  <FONT SIZE=2><P> <A HREF="boutique/dc-arch.htm">Purchase DC Comics Archive Editions Online</A> <P><A HREF="http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?wickedcoolstuff+e2VdY2+dccomics.html+" TARGET="_blank">Purchase DC Comics Merchandise Online</A> <P></FONT></TABLE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2><I>Text ©2000-02 Donald D. Markstein. Art © DC Comics.</I> </BODY></HTML>