WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Metal Men #4, by Dan DiDio, Shane Davis, Jason Wright and Travis Lanham, on sale now.
Because of the robo-centric nature of their stories, there's a variety of mechanical life (including, at one point, a hulking skyscraper bot) that has appeared in Metal Men series over the years. But even in the pages of a series that centers around robots the group of automatons that make an appearance in the most recent issue of Dan DiDio and Shane Davis' run on the book are certainly out of place -- or more accurately, publisher, as Issue 4 ends with what seems to be an attack by Marvel's Doctor Doom.
All in all, this is a very meta issue. The scene is set by Metal Men Tin and Lead being invited as V.I.P. guests to a robot convention. There are a lot of tongue-in-cheek references to comics and nerd culture The whole thing is incredibly self-referential but things take a turn for the decidedly less funny when, as Lead and Tin sign autographs, it's revealed the guests are being systematically abducted and transformed into cyborgs. Metal Men then gets even more self-referential, as the cyborgs look exactly like Doombots.
This more permanent form of cosplay is being carried out by someone referred to by the robots as Mother, which is revealed when a punch from Lead knocks the faceplate off of one of the bots. This leads to Lead and Tin discovering the convention organizer, who stepped away to handle a malfunction, is under the mask. While gone, he was given the Cyberman treatment, and immediately starts calling out to Mother once knocked down.
It's hard to say what exactly the significance of the robot's resemblance to Doom is, but in a comic chock full of references like this one it seems nearly impossible that the visual similarities could be a coincidence. In some ways, the event feels like a who's who of comic book robots, with many notables appearing as cosplay. Since that's the case, it seems wrong to leave out an iconic comic book robot like Doombot. However, the meta comic book might just be setting up something a lot more sinister with its Doombots.
Metal Men #5 releases Feb. 19 from DC Comics.