WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Metal Men #7 by Dan DiDio, Shane Davis, Michelle Delecki, Jason Wright, and Travis Lanham, on sale now.
In the latest issue of Metal Men, DC re-introduces some vintage villains from deep in the Metal Men's past, Z-1 and his Missile Men. While they've been updated for the 21st Century, there are some striking -- and troubling -- similarities between the story and their first appearance.
While the Missile Men were originally sentient projectiles with little articulation, the modern Missile Men are more advanced, and they're far more deadly than their predecessors.
The Missile Men debuted in 1963’s Metal Men #1, by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru. In that story, Platinum, the only female member of the Metal Men, has been sent to live in a museum after brazenly flirting with Doctor Magnus, her creator. At the museum, she’s kept on display in a glass case where passerby can see that she’s crying. That causes quite a scene, and Doctor Magnus is forced to reclaim his lovestruck female robot.
Far off in space, robotic mastermind Z-1 directs his Missile Men to attack a rocket ship. He’s defeated and banished to a junkyard planet, where Z-1 builds an even bigger army of Missile Men, each with what appears to be zero points of articulation. Their strategy is to just launch themselves into people and machinery head-first. It’s effective, but Z-1 wants a queen who doesn't look like one of his unmoving Missile Men.
That’s when he finds Platinum, who he decides to make his queen. As the Missile Men attack Earth, the Metal Men don’t fare too well during the battle's early stages, as everyone but Platinum falls in battle. After Magnus sends her away for her own safety, he defeats the Missile Men himself by fashioning a giant magnet. He uses it to force all of the Missile Men into a giant metal ball that then ends up deep underwater.
After decades languishing in obscurity, Z-1 and the Missile Men return to give Magnus and his new Metal Mammals an early test. In this story, Z-1 is still smitten with Platinum but has pledged to just admire her from afar. Since she's missing, Z-1 orders his Missile Men to attack so he can find her. Since this group is advanced enough to move their arms, they make short work of the military forces that confront them.
This time, Doctor Magnus uses his new Metal Mammals -- a group of animal Metal Men -- to defeat the Missile Men. Rather than being named after elemental metals, these new robots are named for gases. Within their ranks, they make a distinction between being just a regular old elemental gas or being one of the superior noble gasses. Their in-fighting makes the battle far harder than it should be, but the team also ends up being able to round up the Missile Men into a ball.
Even with Platinum still missing, the rest of the Metal Men rebelling and Magnus in full-on mad scientist mode, the Missile Men still couldn't quite measure up to Magnus' metal creations.