The Metal Men has gone through numerous retcons over the years but the core six members have remained the same.
Gold, Iron, Tin, Lead, Platinum, Mercury. No, we’re not talking about chemistry or construction work, but the Metal Men, one of DC Comics’ lesser known (at least to the more mainstream audience) cult favourite superhero teams.
That could be about to change though, as Warner Bros is in the middle of producing an animated feature film based on the team.
However, we’re still doubtful whether this will be enough to push the team into mainstream success, after all, the Metal Men is not your conventional team of superheroes.
The Metal Men made its first appearance in 1962’s Showcase #37.Unlike Marvel’s Iron Man, who is basically a guy wearing a super armoured metal suit, the Metal Men superheroes are actually made entirely of metal.
Created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Ross Andru, the Metal Men er ... men made their first appearance in 1962’s Showcase #37, an anthology that was meant to “test” new characters to gauge how well they would do before giving them their own titles.
Among the major characters to have made their debut in Showcase are Barry Allen (The Flash), Hal Jordan (Green Lantern), and Ray Palmer (The Atom). While the Metal Men didn’t have quite the same impact as those three, the heroes still garnered enough attention to remain in DC continuity even today.
“Forged in the fiery foundries of science, and rising like gleaming ghosts out of boiling steam, is the most fantastic band of heroes the world has ever known the Metal Men!” goes the team’s intro in Showcase #37.
The Metal Men is basically a group of cyborgs made of pure liquid metal, created by a scientist named Dr William Magnus. The team mainly comprises Platinum, Gold, Lead, Tin, Iron and Mercury, though later iterations of the team also included members like Copper and Nth Metal.
The characters were brought to life by Dr Magnus and were at first “animated by a nuclear-powered microscopic activator” (whatever that is). Later, in their first solo title in 1963, Dr Magnus says that they are “metal robots equipped with miniature ‘Responsometers’ to respond to every situation science could think of”.
One thing that sets the Metal Men apart from many superheroes at the time was how science was always a part of the team dynamics. With each team member possessing the strengths and weaknesses of the metal it is based on, it made for some interesting combinations and battle tactics.
For instance, Iron is the muscle of the team, but is susceptible to rust; Lead can protect the team from radioactive waves ... you get the idea.
One of the Metal Men’s defining characteristics is how the superheroes often use science to help them in their battles.
The team’s origin has been changed and retconned numerous times over its 60-year history, but the one constant has been Dr Magnus, who has been recognised as one of the DC universe’s greatest geniuses and its leading brain in robotics engineering.
Like his creations, Dr Magnus has also gone through quite a few changes over the years. At one point he became a rogue scientist hell bent on world domination (later explained as him being brainwashed by an evil dictator), and in a four-part miniseries in 1993, he was fatally wounded and managed to transfer his mind into a “blank” Metal Man named Veridium.
In the 2019 limited series, Dr Magnus decided that he had enough of sitting back helpless while his Metal Men fought enemies, and decided to transform his entire laboratory into a giant robot called Magnum Opus!
Dr Magnus has also featured in other DC stories, and even once helped repair the Doom Patrol’s Robotman.
While each Metal Man has his or her own unique personality, the reason for this has been changed over and over again through time. At first, their personalities were only tied to their original bodies, but later, it was explained that the Responsometers were what gave them their characteristics.
The 1993 Metal Men limited series later tried to change this – with the robots’ personalities deriving from actual people who had their personalities accidentally transferred into the Responso-meters – but that didn’t stick.
The latest attempt at reviving the Metal Men came in a limited series that ran from 2019 to 2021, and that again changed the origin of the team’s personalities by positing that the heroes are reflecting aspects of Dr Magnus’ behaviour, but eventually, the presence of the Nth Metal Man awakens their own inner personalities for real.
Created 60 years ago, the Metal Men is one of DC Comics’ most underrated cult favourite superhero teams. — Photos: DC ComicsEach Metal Man has its own set of powers, though they all have some common ones, including superhuman strength and the ability to stretch and shapeshift.
Gold was the leader of the group, and can stretch his form to an almost infinitely long length (fun fact, it has actually been proven in real science that a single ounce (or 28.35g) of gold can be stretched into an ultra-thin wire that can stretch a distance of 80km).
Super-strong Iron is the muscle of the team, but is susceptible to rust. Lead is dense (in all senses of the word) and is often seen shielding the team from dangerous radiation. Mercury has the most, er, mercurial personality and is able to melt into a liquid form. Tin suffers from low self-esteem (as he is deemed one of the least valuable of metals), but can shapeshift into different forms.
And last but not least, is the only female (original) member of the group Platinum, who is also one of the most powerful members of the team thanks to her high durability and immunity to radiation.
Platinum, who also answers to Tina, was the first Metal “Man” that appeared in Showcase #37, though this being the 1960s, she was constantly subjected to the degrading casual sexism that was prevalent at the time (which makes for some uncomfortable reading today).
Thankfully that changed somewhat in the later, and more modern iterations of the team, and there was even another female member at one point – Copper, who unfortunately did not stick around for long.
The 2019 reboot of the Metal Men title also introduced the Nth Metal Man, made of the psychic alien Nth Metal (the same stuff used for Hawkman’s mace) who has a different set of powers.
When it comes to fighting his foes, Gold knows just how to turn the screw.
The Metal Men had its fair share of enemies, of course, starting with the “Radioactive Manta Ray Monster” which the team fought in its first appearance (and also revived for the 2019 reboot).
One of its greatest enemies is Platinum Man, a member of the gender-swapped team Metal Women created by Dr Magnus, when his team members decided they wanted girlfriends (and boyfriend in the case of Tina). Don’t ask.
Other nemesis include Chemo, a highly radioactive chemical being who made his debut in Showcase #39 as one of the Metal Men’s new adversaries, and the Gas Gang, a new group of robots developed by Dr Magnus and based on the five gases Oxygen, Helium, Chloroform, Carbon Monoxide, and Carbon Dioxide.
There was also the Death Metal Men – future radioactive replicas of the Metal Men (Uranium, Strontium, Thorium, Radium, Lithium, Polonium, and Fermium) built by Dr Magnus’ brother, David.
And then there was Z-1, a sentient alien robot missile on the junk planet Space Junkyard 9 who felt lonely and while trying to build a wife made from scraps, inadvertently built an army of replicas of himself, which he called his Missile Men. Z-1 eventually decided to kidnap Platinum to make her his wife, and sent his Missile Men to capture her.
