Justice League 28 & 29

METTLE

News that the Metal Men were being revamped for DC’s “New 52” (surely not so new by now, in its third year?) gripped my cold, shrivelled heart and set it pounding with trepidation. Why?

Well, the Metal Men were literally the first American comic I (violently) encountered, and the inadvertent agents of the parental abuse which began my love-affair with comics!

In the Summer of 1963, I was six, being dragged around the shops by my mother, and a royal pain in the arse. In the newsagents, Mum – a lady of strong arm and short temper – grabbed the nearest thing to hand and hit me round the head with it. That “nearest thing” turned out to be a copy of Metal Men 1, and, having damaged it on my skull, she had to buy it, so I (and she – Mum was always the first to grab Lois Lane and Metal Men out of my stack of comics whenever I brought them home) embarked on a new hobby.

So you can see why the Metal Men have a special place in my affections, as they introduced me to a lifelong passion.

I followed the team through many incarnations, several of them atrocious (steampunk? What were you drinking, Duncan Roleau?), so you imagine can how my spirit quailed  when I heard that the Metal Men were going to be re-imagined for the Abyss of Squalor that is the “Poo 52”.

Full disclosure, though? So far, at least, I don’t hate it. Yeah, I was surprised too.

The backstory; Earth is controlled by the Crime Syndicate, a Dark JLA from another dimension; the heroes are either dead or in hiding, and there’s been beheadings, eviscerations, torture, dismemberment, wholesale slaughter – the usual for the current DCU.

Cyborg, one of the last heroes standing, turns to genius roboticist Dr. Will Magnus for aid – and the sentient robots, the Metal Men, are deployed. Take it away, Exposition Boy:

In the current DCU, where nobility is reviled and heroism spat upon, where the heroes are only marginally less destructive than the villains, I had feared that the Metal Men would be recast as Terminator-style killing machines. Instead, Johns has made them note-perfect in old-school characterisation – flirty Platinum, impetuous Mercury, self-deprecating Tin, etc. – and in their willingness to sacrifice themselves for a humanity that may never understand them.

Credit should also be given to the illustrators of these two issues, who capture the charm and personality, the humanity (I know…) which is at the core of the Metal Men’s appeal – Ivan Reis does a lovely, breezy job in # 28, but Doug Mahnke, his successor in # 29, hits it out of the ballpark with little variations in facial expression which delight the viewer.

The team is reintroduced in flashback in #28, as Magnus tells the story of their creation and their sacrifice against the monstrous semi-sentient Chemo, skilfully reinterpreting Showcase 39, the team’s original third appearance, for a modern audience. Reluctant, but swayed by Cyborg’s argument, Magnus re-creates the Metal Men, who, in #29, easily defeat several of the Crime Syndicate’s subordinate villains, the Secret Society, and help Cyborg to overcome Grid himself.

The saga is continued in at least one further issue – knowing the bombastic, inflated writing style of contemporary comics, probably more than one – and yes, there is still plenty of time for things to go terribly Tits-Up if Johns decides to pander to the yahoos, but for now, at least the Metal Men remain shining examples to the rest of DC, cast in a truly heroic mould.