Metal Men #1 Review

Weird Science

Written By: Dan Didio

Art By: Shane Davis, Michelle Delecki, Jason Wright, Travis Lanham

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 16, 2019

We haven't seen the Metal Men for a long time, not including the Legends of Tomorrow six issue mini from a couple of years ago, but who knows if that was ever in continuity or not, but they're finally back with their own maxi-series, where I'm sure Mercury will tell us that he's the only metal that's liquid at room temperature.  It's silly, but it takes something as small as that for me to get a smile on my face when thinking about one of the strangest teams that DC Comics has to offer.  Let's jump into this issue and see what Nth Metal has to do with these heroes and if Will Magnus is starting to go off his rocker like he did Pre-Flashpoint.  Let's jump into this issue and check it out.

Now while I'm happy to get a new Metal Men book, what I'm not happy about is that we're still dealing with the Dark Multiverse and we get that aspect of the book when we see that there's a strange sentient Nth Metal deep in Challengers' Mountain, which is now back in Colorado and it's this aspect of the story that's going to get our good doctor Magnus involved.  That's only a small part of this issue though.

For the majority of the story, we're given a confession from Will Magnus about a secret he's been keeping from not only the Metal Men, but from the greater scientific community about his abilities in robotics and the gift that his responsometers give his creations.  This aspect of the story feels really dark and strange to add to the mythos of these characters and after reading this issue....... I'm not really feeling it.  Yeah, this could become something interesting and one should never stop developing a character in new and interesting ways, but this new take on Will Magnus and the Metal Men feels unnecessarily dark and by the end of the issue I'm thinking that this Will Magnus is just as crazy as his Pre-Flashpoint version when he wasn't on his meds, but even that felt more on the fun side of things than what we learn here.  Again, this could all turn around and become really interesting, but as of right now I'm not completely sold.

All in all, the art in this book is fantastic and no matter how much darkness is thrown on the characters in this story, the art is something that would keep me coming back to this book no matter what because everyone looked amazing.  I know I keep saying how dark the writing of these characters are, but I'm not apposed to a dark story, it just felt weird for reintroducing these fun characters without actually showcasing who and what the Metal Men are.... or how silly they can be, but instead of focusing on the mental distress of Will Magnus, not to mention the rage that we saw from Gold and confusion from the rest of his team.  I'm still interested in what we'll get going forward, I just felt like we should have gotten a better look at our title characters in this first issue.  Metal Men haven't really been the best sell for newer readers in the past.  Love that art though.

Bits and Pieces:

With amazing art all the way through, we're shown a dark confession of Will Magnus before he embarks on his next journey into living metal and while I would have liked more time showcasing our title characters, this issue does peek my interest, I just wish that it didn't have anything to do with the fallout from Dark Nights: Metal or the Dark Multiverse.  

7/10