As of January, 1976, your humble blogger had been reading DC Comics publications for over ten years — but never, in all that time, had I read a single comic-book story featuring the Metal Men, those robotic heroes created in 1962 by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Ross Andru. Not any of their 4 tryout issues of Showcase, nor any issue of their own series (which consisted of 41 original installments released in 1963-69, followed by 3 reprint editions published in 1972-73)… not even any of their 6 Brave and the Bold team-ups with Batman and other DC heroes. Oh, I knew who they were, all right, through the normal process of comics-fan osmosis (house ads, letters-page references, etc.); I might even have been able to rattle off their names. But I’d never read a single one of their adventures.
So, what persuaded my eighteen-year-old self to pick up the first issue of their newly revised series — especially during a period when I was leaving most of DC’s superheroic output sitting in the spinner rack? It probably wasn’t the book’s Dick Giordano-drawn cover, nice as it was.* Rather, it was almost certainly the presence of two names listed in the credits of the story’s opening splash page…
…specifically, those of writer Steve Gerber and artist Walt Simonson.
Simonson had been on my fannish radar since his 1973-74 collaboration with writer Archie Goodwin on the “Manhunter” feature in Detective Comics, but he hadn’t really become someone whose stuff I specifically looked out for until his later solo “Batman” story in Detective #450 (Aug., 1975); between that job and his “Dr. Fate” story in 1st Issue Special #9 (Dec., 1975) a few months later, he’d rapidly become one of my very favorite comics artists. I might not have expected his next project at DC to be a revival of the Metal Men, but given that the only non-DC work I’d seen by him at that point consisted of a couple of 6-page “Hyborian Age” strips for Marvel Comics’ Savage Sword of Conan magazine, it made about as much sense as anything else.
But Steve Gerber? He was one of my two favorite comics writers at this time (the other being his fellow Steve, Englehart), and someone whose work I was just as likely to snap up as Walt Simonson’s, if not more so. But he was also about the last writer whose name I expected to see in the credits of a DC comic — since, as far as I was aware, he’d never written for anyone but Marvel in the three-and-a-half years he’d been in the industry. And, seeing as how he’d just launched two brand-new series at the House of Ideas in the past four months (Howard the Duck in October, followed by Omega the Unknown in December), he seemed an unlikely candidate for defection from Marvel’s ranks to DC’s.
In fact, Steve Gerber wasn’t defecting to DC — at least not yet, and not for some time to come. As was explained in the letters page of Metal Men #45 itself, this story was only a one-off where Gerber was concerned — with the next issue, editor Gerry Conway would be taking over the writing of the series as well. What that source didn’t say, however (though I could have gleaned it from the last few issues of The Amazing World of DC Comics, had I but been enlightened enough to subscribe to DC’s in-house fanzine) was that the whole “Metal Men revival” project had been in the works for a while. Originally planned as a one-shot to appear in 1st Issue Special — or maybe in Super-Team Family — the script for what ultimately became MM #45 was solicited from Gerber by editor Conway (himself a recent emigrant from Marvel to DC). As Conway would later recall for Back Issue magazine’s special tribute to Gerber (#31 [Nov., 2008]), “I’d always been a fan of both Steve’s writing and the Metal Men, and I imagined it would be interesting and fun to get his take on them.”
Once Gerber’s script was in hand, Conway appears to have assigned it, however briefly, to artist Ramona Fradon (see Amazing World of DC Comics #6 [May-Jun., 1975], p. 38). Somehow, however, it ended up “sitting around in a drawer somewhere”, to quote Walt Simonson (see The Art of Walter Simonson, p. 112), presumably for at least a month or two, until it was ultimately offered to Simonson to draw. “After I had finished the job,” the artist recalled, “then-publisher Carmine Infantino liked it enough to commission a couple more stories and, eventually, a series.” (Perhaps Gerber was approached about picking up where he’d left off, and declined; then again, perhaps he wasn’t. This late in the game, we’ll probably never know for sure.)
In any event, that pretty much brings us all up to date on “the story behind the story”… so let’s get back to the actual story, which, you’ll remember, opened with the Metal Man known as Lead attempting to pound his way into a (presumably) locked safe while his comrades Tin, Mercury, and Platinum (aka “Tina”) looked on…
As I’ve already mentioned, while I knew who the Metal Men were prior to picking up this comic, I had very little notion of what they’d been up to in the latter issues of their run — let alone that the title had been cancelled in the middle of the final storyline. Thankfully, the editorial that ran in lieu of fan mail on this issue’s letters page filled in the main gaps for such benighted fans as myself; while I’m not sure if I picked up any of that valuable information before I finished reading the story itself (“Airmail Alloys” ran on the issue’s last page, after all), I’ll take the liberty of sharing it (plus a little extra background not included in the lettercol) with you now.
Cover to Metal Men #33 (Aug.-Sep., 1968). Art by Mike Sekowsky and George Roussos.
Cover to Metal Men #41 (Dec., 1969-Jan., 1970). Art by Mike Sekowsky and either Dick Giordano or George Roussos.
After some six years with the same creative team of writer/editor Robert Kanigher, penciller Ross Andru, and inker Mike Esposito, change had come to Metal Men in 1968 (as indeed it did to many another DC title in the wake of Carmine Infantino’s move from freelance artistry into the company’s upper management). With issue #33, Mike Sekowsky and George Roussos took over the art duties, and Kanigher (now writing for editor Jack Miller) inaugurated a new storyline that saw the Metal Men’s creator, Dr. Will Magnus, injured in a lab accident and driven into a coma, while his heroic robots became fugitives from the law. Four issues later, things took an even more dramatic turn, as Sekowsky (newly installed as both writer and editor) had the Metal Men disguise themselves as ordinary human beings and become covert agents for a mysterious billionaire named Mr. Conan; then, in issue #40, the situation grew darker, yet, as the still-comatose Doc Magnus was kidnapped by agents of the fictional nation Karnia, awakened, and brainwashed into becoming a villain. The series’ original run came to an end just one issue after that, with Magnus still under the sway of Karnia’s government as the final story concluded. Three subsequent team-ups with Batman in Brave and the Bold (specifically, in issues #103, #113, and #121) established that the Metal Men had thereafter resumed their old, familiar forms, broken off their association with Mr. Conan, and begun operating as an independent team of heroes — though poor Doc Magnus remained in Karnian hands.
That was then, however, and this is now. At some point in time since the conclusion of BatB #121 (Sep., 1975), Magnus has been returned to the United States (either “at the ‘suggestion’ of the C.I.A.”, as Gerber’s script indicates, or through the unrecorded actions of the Metal Men themselves, as is stated on the “Airmail Alloys” page) — though he remains mentally impaired, and so is still under confinement…
While we won’t learn her name — Isobel Sullivan — until the following issue, Doc Magnus’ nurse and therapist will be a regular member of Metal Men‘s supporting cast going forward.
General Caspar (a character who first appeared way back in the Metal Men’s premiere adventure in Showcase #37 [Mar.-Apr., 1962]) proposes a compromise to the government bureaucrat, Whittier, and Magnus’ supervising physician, Dr. Rosen: “…some form of work-therapy, let’s say.” Rosen is reluctant, but ultimately consents, “…if there’s no other way…!”
Iron’s musings over how things can “look so different… to different eyes” clearly ties into the story’s title: “Evil Is in the Eye of the Beholder”; naturally, it won’t be the last time we see this idea evoked before our narrative’s end.
Caspar angrily tells Whittier he doesn’t care whether he concurs or not, only to have the other man suddenly pull a gun on him. Whittier proceeds to request “a demonstration of the robot’s abilities” from Doc Magnus, and so…
In addition to pencilling and inking this story, Walt Simonson also lettered it — something which made it easier for him to pursue his interest in using typography as an element of graphic design. As the artist recalled for Back Issue in 2008, in response to an inquiry about the level of visual detail in Steve Gerber’s original script:
As a full script, there would have been panel descriptions as well as dialogue… I’m sure I took a few liberties here and there as I was laying out the story, trying to make the visuals work as effectively as possible. I would guess that the “trample raze annihilate” typographical display was mine, taken from Steve’s caption…
Not being all that familiar with the Metal Men when I first read this story, I wasn’t aware that their getting destroyed in the course of an adventure was a trope that went all the way back to their debut; for that reason, I’m not sure that I immediately apprehended exactly what was going on in this sequence — that Tin, Lead, Iron, and Mercury hadn’t simply been momentarily taken out of action, but, rather, were flat-out gone.
Tina’s love for Will Magnus — consistently blamed by him on her having a “faulty responsometer”, and not acknowledged as “real” — was another narrative element that had been part of the “Metal Men” feature since its beginning.
Dr. Rosen’s closing remarks provide another echo of the story’s title, and thematically link the whole “Plutonium Man” plotline with the earlier hotel robbery episode, which otherwise might seem extraneous to the whole. It’s a touch which, along with the various references to topical issues such as the economy, American foreign policy, etc., helps mark the story as the work of Steve Gerber. As such, it might be considered a little downbeat for a Metal Men story (at least in terms of the lighter-leaning tone the feature had gengenerally maintained prior to the swerve it took with issue #33); and so it might well have been received, had Gerber’s script been illustrated by a more conventional or restrained artist. But the dynamic, design-oriented work of Walt Simonson keeps the mood from ever becoming too dour, even while our heroes are being turned to literal scrap right before our eyes.
As already noted, editor Gerry Conway would pick up the writing duties with the following bi-monthly issue, #46. He would, however, only script one additional installment, and plot a third, before departing both his authorial and editorial roles with issue #48. That issue would see the arrival of new writer Martin Pasko, who’d collaborated so effectively with Walt Simonson on their one and only “Dr. Fate” story. almost a whole year earlier. Would the two creators’ evident chemistry work just as well on Metal Men? I invite you to explore that question with me, come this July.
*As he’d done not too many months earlier for the ninth issue of DC’s 1st Issue Special, story artist Walt Simonson had worked up a cover of his own that was ultimately rejected by the DC brass. It eventually saw print in The Art of Walter Simonson, published by DC Comics in 1989. (UPDATE, 1/17/2026, 11:15 a.m.: The piece has the distinction of having been inked by Bernie Wrightson; my thanks to reader Man of Bronze for clueing me in about this through his comment below, which includes additional information.)
Like you, Alan, I picked this one up at the time mainly due to the creative team involved, but there was also an element of nostalgia involved, as an issue of Metal Men was one of the first US comics I ever read, when I was 5 years old (issue 20, which had the wonderfully campy title of ‘Birhday Cake for a Cannibal Robot’).
I remember being deeply impressed by how Gerber updated the series without contradicting any of the basics established by Kanigher. A finely judged performance, indeed.
And, of course, this was surely one of Simonson’s finest ever efforts.
I recall reading a few Metal Men comics in the early ’70s and while I sort of enjoyed them, I did find certain aspects too repetitive. In retrospect, the basic premise seems intended to appeal primarily to boys of about 8 to 11 years old to whom the idea of characters based on various metals and with personalities based on the properties of those metals was just sooooo cool! But, then, a few years later it starts to seem rather silly. The metal robots seem incapable of experiencing any sort of emotional growth. And yet …
I was entirely unaware of this particular issue and likely if I’d been just a few years older and became aware of a Gerber/Simonson collaboration on a Metal Men relaunch, well, I’d have been keen on checking it out too! And Steve G and Walter S manage the neat trick of bringing their unique sensibilities to the project while also retaining much of the innocent charm and tropes of the classic early era. Yep, everyone in the team is seemingly destroyed – oh, but we’re assured that they’ll get better. I’m curious as to what sort of insanity Gerber may have brought to the series if he had stayed on, at least for a year or so, and particularly with Simonson on art. I suspect it would have grown into something much weirder than the original series ever could be. And maybe, they would have the characters seem ever more human. But that’s yet another road not taken, a potential journey we can only speculate about. A fun one-off romp anyhow!
Always fond of the Metal Men, I recently got hold of a mid-60’s issue….and it didnt stand up as great scripting, and it’s aged not so well. This one is way better, what they always should have been really, but not one I’ve seen before. Good stuff!
The rejected cover for Metal Men no. 45 was pencilled by Walt Simonson and inked by Berni Wrightson, and was scanned from the original art and reprinted in the Wrightson Artifact Edition some years back.
https://grantscomics.com/cdn/shop/products/201251449_514194629638500_5117047098234610884_n_1080x.jpg?v=1623985645
For those who cannot open the following link, I’ll cut and paste what Walt had to say about the cover.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1a7MjgoCyG/
Walter Simonson posted this on his own page with the following comment:
“Metal Men 45 rejected cover. 10 x 15. 1976.
This drawing was penciled by me and inked by Bernie Wrightson as a cover for my first issue of the Metal Men, over a Steve Gerber script. And it was rejected by DC. 😉 Dick Giordano drew the published cover.
Two things were at work, I believe. The first is that doing your own covers back then, at least at DC (don’t know about Marvel at the time) was something of a privilege that you worked up to as a young artist. I had done only a cover or two at this point in my career.
The other consideration is that two of the characters’ heads are not facing forward. Or at least not clearly visible in a cover context. That was really a no-no for covers back then. Not sure about now. This was a title that was relaunching, and I wasn’t coming from the same place companies and editors were. 🙂 But I can totally see wanting all faces visible on such a cover.
So I understand both considerations.
That said, (Dick – I love you, pal), I still like this cover better than the one that ran. Besides, this one was inked by friggin’ Berni Wrightson!! :-D”
Berni Wrightson was coming to the end of his series of frontispieces (and short stories) for Warren’s Creepy and Eerie magazines which ran from 1974 to 1976. One of his last was guest pencilled by Walt Simonson. It saw print in Creepy no. 76, cover dated January 1976.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/giantsizegeek/6744487155
In 1975 Wrightson had been commissioned by Christopher Enterprises to create a series of full color posters for the fantasy market. He had also painted a series of images for an Edgar Allan Poe portfolio and would do another on dinosaurs a few years later. These were all discussed and reprinted in 1979 in Berni Wrightson: a Look Back by Christopher Zavisa, former co-owner of Christopher Enterprises.
I suspect Walt helped Berni out with the Creepy frontispiece deadline, and Berni repaid the favor with the (rejected) Metal Men cover inks.
This is from Walt Simonson’s Wikipedia page: at one point Simonson lived in the same Queens apartment building as artists Allen Milgrom, Howard Chaykin and Bernie Wrightson. Simonson recalls, “We’d get together at 3 a.m. They’d come up and we’d have popcorn and sit around and talk about whatever a 26, 27 and 20-year-old guys talk about. Our art, TV, you name it. I pretty much knew at the time, ‘These are the good ole days.'”
Thanks for the additional information re: Wrightson’s contribution to the unused cover, MoB; I’ve added it to the original post.
My pleasure! Thanks for uploading these scans of Walt Simonson’s story. I’ve met him and Weezie (his wife Louise) a few times over the years. Always a pleasure to chat with him. Not arrogant at all, despite being a (rightfully) celebrated comics artist-writer for over 50 years.
I must have been a bigger Metal Men fan than I thought — checking the cover gallery at Mike’s Amazing World I found I bought it very consistently as a kid after my first one (#12) and that wasn’t easy on my two-comics-a-week limitation. But I thought it was fun and as a kid science nerd, learning things like osmium being the densest metal and mercury being the only metal liquid at room temperature were fascinating.
It could get repetitive — in #21, the robots read a letter from then well-known commenter Irene Vartanoff chastising them for getting too formulaic (Vartanoff said the text of the letter was Kanigher’s invention). But the personalities, if simple, were much more distinctive than most characters I ran into in comics back then.
Due to my father shifting from a USAF job in England to Florida, I missed the whole period where things changed so wildly (I don’t think they’ve been reprinted and they’re not on the app so I may never experience them). I was delighted to see them return and yes, Gerber would have been an interesting writer to keep going on it. Simonson’s art was marvelous (Fradon would have been fun too).
Metal Men were reprinted, up to #35, in two volumes in the b&w Showcase Presents series.
And that does include 3 of the New Look issues — I’d remembered it stopping right before them. Thanks
And a quick look indicates it’s priced way out of my reach for now, sigh. A shame DC didn’t keep more Showcases in print — it’s a good cost conscious way to get the stories.
As a child, I never purchased Metal Men, thinking the character names were too trite and the tone seemed to be too silly or campy for my tastes (and not wacky enough on a Not Brand Ecch or Mad magazine level). If I had seen Walt Simonson’s interior art for this issue I might have bought it. Creator Bob Kanigher claims the first eight appearances of the characters were the best. I’ll have to give them a look. Artist Ross Andru is credited as co-creator.
Speaking of wacky . . . did any of you buy Wacky Packages? These stickers satirizing commercial products were at their peak of popularity in 1973-75, though they began in 1967, and were designed by Art Spiegelman. Mad magazine had a very similar concept on the back cover of the magazine years earlier, except they weren’t stickers with a puzzle pieces in a package which included a crumbly piece of gum with so much sugar on it that you could blow it off (!) which I often did. Loads of fun for a pre-teen. The early series were painted by pulp cover artist Norm Saunders.
More info here: wackypacks.com
These, along with the comics I bought (and the occasional slurpee) were part of the fun of growing up in the ’70s.
I was a fan of Wacky Packages, enough so that I even bought the hardcover retrospective of the sticker series when it came out a few years ago. I have my students create product parodies each year and always show them some of the stickers as inspiration.
My experience with the Metal Men when this issue came out was not quite as barren as yours, Alan. I’m sure I’d read the various Brave and Bold team-ups, for example, but I’m also pretty sure that, before this one, I’d never bought an issue of their actual comic before. However, I’ve always been like a moth to a flame when it came to the artwork of Walt Simonson, so I’d have bought this book even if it had been written by the worst hack in the DC bullpen. The fact that it was written by Steve Gerber, who to my estimation is a fantastic writer, was simply icing on the cake.
My only problems with Gerber’s story were at the end. I thought, after all the efforts that had been made to return Doc Magnus to sanity previously, both seen on the page and unseen, to have his mind flip back so completely just because Tina told him she loved him, seemed a tad “precious” to me. The same for Mr. Whittier, the Karnian agent behind the whole Plutonium Man idea in the first place. First of all, Gerber gives us no idea that time passed between the idea of a new government-approved Metal Man and Plutonium Man’s creation. For all we know in terms of story continuity, Magnus built the thing in an afternoon with spare parts. Secondly, what did Whittier think was going to happen with this “new” Metal Man? Surely, the intent was for the Plutonium Man to cause havoc and destruction in order to make the US look bad, so what else would he have expected? The truth is the Powers That Be wanted Magnus in his right mind and back with the team by issue #46 and they wanted the Plutonium Man story wrapped up by the end of issue #45, no matter what, and that’s what they got. Not Gerber’s strongest outing, perhaps, but I’d hate to think what a lesser writer would have done with the same limitations. Truthfully, I bought comics for the art in those days, not the story, anyway, so in that regard, I was very very happy with Metal Men #45. Thanks, Alan!
We’re all friends here, right? If so, let me confess a shameful sin. I really didn’t become aware of Walt Simonson’s art until Thor #337. This issue reminds me the extent of my failings as it certainly bears the trademarks that underscore his immense talent.
Along those lines, like most everyone else who has commented, I knew who the Metal Men, but never read their comics. My greatest introduction to them occurred when John Byrne featured them in Action Comics.
Which is a shame as they are a truly worthwhile concept that somehow has never gained serious traction. I see them as characters best suited to stories that retain an element of light-hearted adventure. Let their interpersonal drama swirl about them and Dr. Magus with those tweed jackets but never allow them or their opponents to lose an underlying sense of fun.
In truth, I always thought that, if handled properly, the Metal Men could have an absolutely delightful cartoon in the mid-70’s – and potentially today.
My thanks to Alan for sharing a book that flew way under my radar in the day!
Metal Men always worked better for me as occasional guest stars, though I agree this issue was amazing. I was lukewarm on it as long as it continued. I don’t remember if I’d initiated my ‘least anticipated to most’ reading order yet but Metal men would have been the first read from my pile if it had been. The only exception allowed would be the jump of the most anticipated book to jump to the front if it were X-men or an Englehart book.
I wonder whether Steve Gerber was tipping off readers to the perfidiousness of Whittier with his last name..
Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, we’re more apt to associate another town in California with him:
Whittier.
(See Frank Mankiewicz’s *Perfectly Clear: Nixon from Whittier to Watergate.*)
How odd to see the phrase “the China syndrome” in a 1976 comic-book three years before it would become the title of a movie with Michael Douglas, Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon.
One of the Metal Men’s *Brave and the Bold* appearances — #66 — was with Metamorpho, whose series assumed a radical new direction around the time the Metal Men went in a different direction with #33. The sad thing is that Metamorpho’s went nowhere; the Metal Men’s at least had a chance to play out.
(Completist note: the other non-Batman appearance of the Metal Men in *Brave and the Bold* was in #55, when they worked with the Atom to defeat Dr. Will Magnus’s rejected robot Uranium.)
And “Nameless” at least got closure in *The Brave and the Bold* #187.
Incidentally…
My first *Metal Men* story was a reprint of *Showcase* #37 in *Flash* #214. In the final panel, Colonel (he was a colonel then) Casper (it wasn’t Caspar then, but Jack Norriss once spelled his name with a single s) assured 1972 readers that the Metal Men returned and had years of adventures.
In 1962, he asked readers to write to the publishers if they wanted more of the Metal Men.
Time marches on, Colonel, General, Casper, Caspar, but your first name will always be Henry!
The China Syndrome was a phrase popularized by nuclear physicist Ralph Lapp in a 1971 New York Times article. He said if a nuclear power plant had a meltdown in the U.S. that the molten material could create a tunnel in two years that would reach China. I doubt that is regarded as scientifically accurate nowadays, especially after Three Mile Island and Chernobyl’s meltdowns.
Here is the article:
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/12/12/archives/thoughts-on-nuclear-plumbing.html
Think my experience was somewhere between Alan’s and Don’s, I somehow knew who the Metal Men were but don’t remember any previous stories with them. I was never much of a DC reader before this time, but I bought Brave & Bold because (a) Batman and (b) Jim Aparo (which I think are still two very good reasons), so I guess my awareness of these characters must have been from somewhere like that.
I had thoroughly enjoyed Simonson’s earlier Manhunter work (along with Goodwin’s writing) as quite gritty and realistic, but with this I felt that his style was getting a bit too exaggerated/cartoony for the sophisticated tastes of a 15-year old like me. A somewhat older me felt the same about his (rightly) celebrated run on Thor from #337 onwards. Took me a while to appreciate the craft and imagination that went into his work.
My lack of knowledge regarding the MM’s original series meant that I didn’t recognize the tropes and formula presented here, so their too simplistic destructions and resurrections and the story’s resolution with Tina and Magnus’s ‘love’ for each other just felt contrived. Without the byline on the splash page I would never have credited this to Steve Gerber.
I’m not usually a huge Gerber fan, but this is one series I would have liked to see him stay with. The Metal Men’s very straightforward, ‘programmed’ and forthright responses would have contrasted well with Gerber’s disillusionment with society in general’s ambiguous attitudes and very many shades of grey.
This one did not do it for me when I read it a few years ago, and today, although it holds up a bit better than before, still does not do it for me….right from the too darkly oloured cover, a real turn-off.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the Metal Men, especially how they appeared in their first few appearances by Kanigher and Andru. However the formula became very repetitious, very quickly, and whether or not the story was intended as a homage to Mssrs Kanigher and Andru, it felt too similar to previous storylines to satisfy me now.
As with Don, the contrivance of the change of heart by Whittier also let the story down for me. It may have been due to a lack of space in what was intended as a 1-off story that this was not better explored. However with this in mind, the two pages given over to the hotel incident and the economic situation of the mid 70s was pure indulgence, not advancing the storyline at all.
Other thoughts: Similar to HTD#1, Gerber is really getting his dislike of accountants and finance off his chest….just not handled as well here, either in terms of dialogue or terminology.
Art-wise Simonson delivers, and is the real attraction to this comic, but just not enough to counter my reservations above. However still I look forward to reading the next few installments of Metal Men, which I have not read before, and of course your analysis of them Alan.
I only bought issue 28 of the original metal men run back in 1967 but I also brought the flash super-spectacular (issue 214) which retold their origin, the three reprint issues and all of their appearances with Batman in Brave and Bold so I felt pretty familiar with them. I don’t remember any house ads heralding the reinstatement of the title ( but my memory may be tricking me there) so I think I was surprised but delighted to find this one on the spinner rack. I enjoyed it and bought all of the run until the book was cancelled again. I still have them all. I also bought both of the Showcase volumes and on reading them was so struck by how repetitive the stories were, something I didn’t notice on reading the individual issues. I think that’s why they have never been able to sustain a monthly book, as others have stated, there is no easy way for them to grow and develop.
I agree that’s tough in the post-Silver Age comics industry, when character and character arcs are more of a thing. And tough when we read them collected like that — in a decade where bingeing wasn’t the usual approach to reading comics, it wouldn’t have been as noticeable. In the Silver Age they outlasted Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Dr. Strange.
The Sekowsky issues are supposed to be interesting, and one day I may look those up, if they ever get reprinted.
I acquired and read the Sekowsky issues a few years ago. The art, of course, is great, but the concept of having the team disguised as humans was a definite misstep. Metal Men fans like to see the characters doing spectacular and/or silly transformations and that kind of stunt was played down when Sekowsky took over the book. The visual appeal of the characters’ powers was neglected. The Staton issues are well worth checking out, however, as that run leaned heavily into the silliness and Staton provided delightfully appropriate visuals.
The rejected cover to this issue gives off a subtle Fantastic Four #1 vibe, at least to my tired eyes. Maybe that’s another reason the Powers That Be rejected it, as homages to the competition weren’t really a thing in the ’70s.
Nicely spotted!!!
My apologies if someone else has pointed this out but for some reasons Goodreads credits this story to John Ostrander.