Metal men
Metal Men (also Metallmenschen , Metall-Menschen ( BSV ) or Metallos ( Ehapa )) is the title of a comic series published by the US publisher DC-Comics and the name of the protagonists in the comics.
The comics are a mixture of science fiction and superhero comics . In addition, there are often humorous elements.
Release history
The Metal Men were designed in 1962 by the author Robert Kanigher and the draftsmen Ross Andru and Mike Esposito , the design of which was retained except for slight variations. From issue # 41, the series was initially taken over by Walt Simonson and later Joe Staton as the draftsman and Steve Gerber as the author.
The first stories about the Metal Men appeared from April 1962 in issues # 37 to # 40 of the anthology series Showcase . Although the Metal Men were originally only included in Showcase as "filler material" because stories about other characters were not finished in time, the stories proved to be unexpectedly popular, so that a separate series about the Metal Men was started as early as May 1963. This series was published every two months until 1978, with a break of several years from 1970 to 1973. Between 1963 and 1969, 41 booklets were published which, in addition to stories about the adventures of the Metal Men, also contained the special pages "Metal Facts & Fancies", in which the readers were provided with interesting information about metal. After the three-year break, the series was continued in February 1973 with issue number # 42. In issues # 42 to # 44, old stories were initially republished. New stories followed from issue # 45. In February 1978 the first Metal Men series was finally discontinued.
Later Metal Men releases include a 1993 miniseries written and drawn by Dan Jurgens and inked by Brett Breeding , as well as an eight-part miniseries published and drawn by Duncan Rouleau from October 2007 .
Publication in Germany
In Germany from 1968 to 1969 stories from the first Metal Men series were published by BSV Verlag in a German translation in the series "Super Comics" alternating with Metamorpho . In total, the series came to 30 issues, of which 16 issues were on Metallmenschen and 14 issues on Metamorpho. The order of the original publications was not adhered to, so that the German publications often referred to stories that were published later or not at all.
The plot of the Metal Men comics
Metal Men is about the experiences of Dr. Will Magnus and a group of six “living” robots he created .
The robots are eponymously named after the materials they are made of: platinum , gold , iron , mercury , lead and tin and have characteristics that resemble the properties of their manufacturing metals.
The main characters
The Metal Men series usually have seven main characters: Dr. William "Will" Magnus and his six robots.
The Metal Men consist of gold , who acts as a leader during operations of the group, Eisen (English. Iron) a friendly muscle man, the clumsy lead (English Lead), the shy and insecure Pewter (English Tin), the hot-headed and grumpy mercury (engl. mercury) and the graceful platinum (engl. platinum, also Platina or Tina). The relationship between Professor Magnus and Platinum is strikingly similar to the relationship between Pygmalion and Galathea in Greek mythology; H. Platinum is the creator's artificially created ideal of femininity.
In the 1990s, the Metal Men’s backstory was temporarily overhauled. In the plot of the miniseries from 1993 written by Dan Jurgens it was shown that the Metal Men are not robots in the strict sense of the word - i.e. machines without a previous life before their production - but that they used to be humans who were only transformed into robots by a laboratory accident have been. The previous human identities of the six Metal Men were given as follows: Platinum was formerly Dr. Magnus was fiancé Nina, behind gold was Magnus' brother, mercury and iron were formerly two laboratory technicians, tin a caretaker in Magnus laboratory and lead a pizza delivery boy who happened to get into the laboratory accident. Also, in the story in which this "reveal" took place, Magnus was transformed into a robot made of an alien green metal called Veridium.
However, this change in characters met with little approval from the readers and was finally withdrawn in 2004 in the course of the miniseries Infinite Crisis . As an internal fictional explanation for the events from 1993 to 2004, it was stated that all the Metal Men’s experiences during this time were illusions that a comatose Dr. Magnus experienced.
filming
In June 2012 it was announced that the director Barry Sonnenfeld was planning a film adaptation of the Metal Men.