Metal Men #2
Recap
Journeying into Challenger Mountain, Doc Magnus and his Metal Men are primed to tackle the enigmatic Nth metal pit that has formed within. At first it seems to be just a fluke, that maybe the Nth metal calling for Will Magnus is some bizarre form of randomness. Will Magnus dives in head first, confident as he gives his team tactical instruction but once the Nth metal is reawakened it is all for naught.
The Nth Metal Man swiftly trounces the team, even slaughtering the Metal Men's field leader Gold. Mercury is also downed as is Lead and Iron but all signs point to Gold being gone for good, his responsometer being decimated. Surprisingly, no one seems to pick up on Magnus's lack of concern but no one knowing the dark secrets he's withholding drops seeds of future drama once his inconsistencies are confronted.
If that isn't enough somewhere the deadly leviathan Chemo is reborn, ready to rampage yet again and the pool of Nth metal is revealed to be a portal to the Dark Multiverse allowing a colossal radioactive beast to escape into the world.
Review
Issue #2 while much more action oriented and straightforward, builds heavily upon the misdeeds hidden by Magnus. Gold dying and his indifference to it cannot lead to anything but another fierce confrontation by his grieving Metal Men. More than that, DiDio and Davis revealing that Magnus briefly creating a telepathic bond with the Nth metal man isn’t as brief as he expected. The bottom line of it in just a few pages the Metal Men have had their daily itinerary loaded with bad, bad, bad and more bad.
It’s not every day you see the Metal Men in adventures lacking of predominant tomfoolery and the cheeky Silver Age lightheartedness we’ve come to love. It is even more rare that a Metal Men book is literally flipping the dark/humor ratio on its head and yet it doesn’t give off the edgy grimdark vibe that often firebombs the quality of fun comics. Instead we’re getting something we’re far overdue for, actual character development for the Metal Men that doesn’t dismiss the history of the characters but rather adds to it. This is the first time they’ve been truly notable since the Forever Evil story when the Metal Men came to the aid of Cyborg and the JLA in a most dire time. So to see them being utilized as both hilarious and valuable, full characters is amazing.
What this portal will mean for the DCU in general is also fun to ponder considering the way things are going with Hawkman, Batman/Superman, The Batman Who Laughs and so on. One cannot take a look at Magnus getting himself in over his head with the mystery of this Nth metal clone and a portal to basically Multidimensional hell and think this is gonna go smooth like butter for Magnus or the Metal Men. All the proper pieces are now in place for a memorable Metal Men run and it’s only 2 issues in, let that sink in my friends.
Final Thoughts
I was excited going into this and even more so by the end of issue #1, now I'm just pumped to see how the next issue stacks up to so much great build up done in such a short period of time. DiDio/Davis are knocking this out of the park already and they've just gotten started.
Metal Men #2: Nth Metal Mystery
- Writing - 9/109/10
- Storyline - 9/109/10
- Art - 9/109/10
- Color - 9/109/10
- Cover Art - 8.5/108.5/10
