Metal Men #6 – Dan Didio, Writer; Shane Davis, Artist; Jason Wright, Colorist
Ray – 7.5/10
Ray: This title has had a lot of upheavals along the way, both for the characters and its creative team. Since the first issue, it seems to have been caught between two narratives – one an action-packed story based around fallout from the Dark Multiverse invasion, the other a character-driven story about what happens when Will Magnus’ creations become more self-aware. The mysterious Nth Metal Man has turned all of the Metal Men by removing the control functions from their responsometers, and they’ve begun turning on Magnus. Only Platinum, or Tina, is resisting the change because of her confused and often unhealthy love for Magnus. But Magnus is becoming increasingly unstable, and some key words from their mysterious new member leads her to go on a trip to discover the truth behind her creation. It’s not a happy story.
The problematic elements of the Metal Men, and of Platinum’s interaction with her creator in particular, have always been just under the surface. A genius, eccentric scientist creates an artificial lifeform who loves him and wants to keep her protected under his thumb. As she wanders away from him for the first time, we see that the Metal Men clearly aren’t exactly welcome in the regular world. Tina’s journey eventually leads her to a woman who knew Magnus intimately, back before he was a world-famous genius, and had seen all the uglier sides of him. The art by Shane Davis is lower-key than normally, since this is almost entirely a character-driven issue, but he’s underrated as an artist on character-driven scenes. I’m not sure the series up to this point has had the weight a story like this needs, with all the sudden monster attacks, but this issue hints at something interesting under the surface.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
