Superheroes periodically get reinvented. Sometimes superheroes who have been “extras” in other superheroes’ stories get their own series. Thus, we have Duncan Rouleau’s remake of the Metal Men.
There are two storylines involved in this collection, one of which makes quite free with the orderly flow of time. Rouleau calls one a “Metal Men: Year One” story, centered on the creation of the Metal Men by Dr. Will Magnus. This one hinges on the “responsometer,” the key component in animating Magnus’ robots, a device that has connections to ancient alchemical lore handed down from Atlantis and Mu. It’s this connection that gives us the other story line, which jumps around to the past history of the responsometer and its precursors and an entity known as Gogoloth, who is tracking the secret through time — and also, coming from the other direction, Will’s older brother, Dave, who has some control of time himself. (As an active blogger, the repeated image of Dave sitting in his time machine in his pajamas woke in me echoes of an oft-repeated stereotype. There are resonances here.)
This is definitely a work in the 1960s comics vein, both in style and in story. We have the nerdy scientist who succeeds between his wildest dreams, the mysterious “angel” who funds Magnus’ experiments but has his own agenda, the mentor (T. O. Morrow, of course) who pursues lines of investigation that his more virtuous student rejected — and comes up with the Death Metal Men — and the love interest, herself somewhat of a nerd. And of course, there are the Metal Men, each one based on an element — Gold, Platinum, Lead, Copper, Mercury, Iron, and Tin — and each one reflecting in his or her personality one of the basic characteristics of his or her element. Lead is somewhat dense, while Mercury is highly mutable, Iron is strong, and Tin is rather scattered (all those isotopes, you see). And so it becomes science fiction with a basis in science. (There are even “science facts” that pop up now and again.)
The tension in the story, and the basis of the overarching conflict, that between Will and his brother, is simply the difference in what each sees as the potential of the Metal Men. Will, of course, sees them as humanity’s saviors, while Dave sees them as humanity’s destruction. (And, yes, there is a robot rebellion.) Shades of the Gernsback formula versus the post-War take on technology: nothing is an unalloyed good.
It’s a lot of fun, but it’s not without its flaws. The time jumping is an interesting device, but not always so easy to control, although each chapter starts off with an alert as to when it’s happening. I think the biggest contributor to the sometimes chaotic narrative is the graphic treatment: this is another case in which the graphics don’t really carry the narrative line at all, and in fact sometimes overpower it. Although I like the style, and Rouleau has done some interesting things with layout to move the flow along, there are too many instances of the density of the images, along with the density of the text, literally overwhelming the narrative. It’s not a book that rewards close attention so much as one that absolutely requires it.
That said, it is a lot of fun and if you, like me, are an inveterate rereader, it’s probably right up your alley. And there are rumors of continuations. It will be interesting to see where they go from here.
(DC Comics, 2008)
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