Metal Men #40
No Credits (w) & (a)
The second of the New Metal Men titles I picked up features a cover of a mystery villain but to regular readers the implication is clear. Tina is being murdered by none other than her creator Doc Magnus. Why? And where has he been?
I picked this up because of the cover and have to say it was worth the price of entry. The Metal men's new benefactor the mysterious Mr Conan has a new mission for them. One only they can complete for reason which become obvious later on.
It seems that the Doc has been kidnapped by some dictator from an Eastern European country who seeks to dominate the world (well this was written during the Cold War). A man named Karnak leader of the tiny country Karnia and a brilliant scientist in his own right. Conan wants the Metal men to kill Doc Magnus not rescue him.
The Metal Men baulk at the idea of killing their creator despite his having an irreversible brain operation but nevertheless go on the mission. Things go wrong from the start as they jump their plane is shot down and there are troops waiting for them. However these being robots allow our heroes to use their powers.
Wiping out their initial opposition the team hijack the robots transport and use it to infiltrate the dictators den. This was the reason the Metal men were chosen as being robots they were not detected in this lair of machinery as human agents would have been.
Although the metal men succeed in destroying the villain's robot army when Platinum find the Doc she is unable to kill him in turn finding herself shot and dying. Doc Magnus escapes vowing to continue his campaign to rule the masses.
Sadly for me the story is continued in the next issue which I do not have but perhaps one day.......
One of the truly great things about comics especially in the period from around 1966 to 1978ish were the covers they were really well done, exciting and made you want to know what was going on in the story and to buy the book. Those covers (and the Chillers ones form Marvel below))are all fantastic examples of a long lost art. Most covers now are (albeit well drawn) just posters or a hero in a pose or fight scene with very little to let you know what the story is about.
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