InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Silly customer!"

arbre_rieur (arbre_rieur) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-11-12 14:16:00

Entry tags:

creator: keith giffen, creator: kevin maguire, group: metal men, publisher: dc comics

More Metal Men
Select paged from the first three installments of Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire's Metal Men feature...

* The Metal Men search for an ancient ruby and in the process awaken a giant stone idol:

That's Mercury sounding off, if you're wondering.

* Gold, Platinum, and Copper, on a mission in space:

* Doc Magnus takes the Metal Men to get their driver's licenses, but they forget Copper behind:

Miss Romero's home's been taken over by psychotic actor Leonard Ruttman, star of TV's "Douglas: Robot Hunter." He's having trouble distinguishing between reality and his show.

(Post a new comment)

	statham1986 2009-11-12 11:09 pm UTC (link)
	Okay, so I know Copper's a new addition to the team, but are the dozens of jokes about forgetting she exists really necessary? It just feels like they're mocking Duncan Rouleau, really. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	manofbats 2009-11-12 11:11 pm UTC (link)
	Yes, because it's funny. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	comicoz 2009-11-13 10:37 pm UTC (link)
	It was funny a few times, but it was every page, if not more, and even her maker forgets? And the next issue was the exact same. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	manofbats 2009-11-13 10:38 pm UTC (link)
	Still funny. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jlroberson 2009-11-12 11:12 pm UTC (link)
	Eh. I will say I like her better already than I ever did Tina. Kind of Jan to her Marcia. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sd_mouser 2009-11-13 12:43 am UTC (link)
	It's definitely an annoying rehash of "Beautiful/Nameless" and the Metal Women. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cmdr_zoom 2009-11-13 02:13 am UTC (link)
	"Annoying rehash" is pretty much inevitable, given how many times their continuity's been rebooted and how uneven their writers have been. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	manofbats 2009-11-12 11:09 pm UTC (link)
	I love these guys. (Reply to this)

icon_uk
2009-11-12 11:35 pm UTC (link)

Love the Metal Men, but not much love for this incarnation, as others have noted, they don't look particularly metallic and the personalities are rather grating, especially Gold (if at least ONE of the team isn't fundamentally normal for comparison purposes it's just too OTT for me to care) And I also agree that the "Forgetting who Copper is" thing is getting ridiculously tired already.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	thokstar 2009-11-13 12:03 am UTC (link)
	The personalities come off as variations of the Superbuddies (Gold as Booster, Tina as Fire, Copper as Mary Marvel.) That said, I don't mind it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	autolychus2 2009-11-13 01:11 am UTC (link)
	Shhhh! Don't say that. If DC hears, they'll be scrap by Christmas. (And as a bonus, Doc will be plotting the downfall of mankind by New Year's Eve.) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jamspread 2009-11-13 01:50 am UTC (link)
	.............! OMG, you're right! (that would explain why I love this so much) (Reply to this) (Parent)

kamino_neko
2009-11-13 12:04 am UTC (link)

the personalities are rather grating, especially Gold (if at least ONE of the team isn't fundamentally normal for comparison purposes it's just too OTT for me to care)

This is a good point, too. I think if they could actually settle on a personality for Copper, she might fit that role, which could help this issue (but doesn't change the fact that Gold's not acting like Gold).

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	fredneil.livejournal.com 2009-11-13 12:01 am UTC (link)
	If a woman is stalking you, telling her to stop and then sitting in her lap while she puts her arms around you is really going to send mixed signals. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	cainofdreaming 2009-11-13 12:06 am UTC (link)
	The only signals Doc understands are in the electromagnetic spectrum, I reckon. He's always been kind of oblivious in that way. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	ex_stig213 2009-11-13 12:05 am UTC (link)
	WALL OF TEXT. (Reply to this)

	retro_nouveau 2009-11-13 01:19 am UTC (link)
	When Gold and Tina bicker, they're so precious. (Reply to this)

	yaseen101 2009-11-13 01:49 am UTC (link)
	I love this series but I hate gold. (Reply to this)

	snowglare 2009-11-13 03:14 am UTC (link)
	I wish this were a full comic. I'd pay $3 a month for 22 pages of this, but I have no interest in Doom Patrol. (Reply to this)

	pyrotwilight 2009-11-13 04:49 am UTC (link)
	Why was I not notified of our newest fembot? (Reply to this)

	proteus_lives 2009-11-13 04:52 am UTC (link)
	I do believe I'm falling in love with the Metal Men. (Reply to this)

psychop_rex
2009-11-13 06:10 am UTC (link)

OK - no. I do not approve. This sort of thing worked with 'JLI', but this ain't JLI, this is the Metal Men, and the Metal Men dont. Work. This. Way.
Let's start with Gold. Gold is now an obnoxious, self-centered twit, a parody of all the 'handsome, valiant and brave' take-charge hero types. This does not work. Gold is supposed to be the team's voice of reason, the one character who never gets involved in the team's endless squabbles, and, incidentally, one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. He's the second-in-command, the guy who takes charge when Doc's not around. He holds the team together. THIS guy, on the other hand, is a narcissistic poltroon who NOBODY takes seriously, and who's one step away from Captain Hammer in terms of overall charm and personality.
Next, there's Copper. I'll be the first to admit that I don't actually know much about her, since I haven't read the issues where she was introduced, but what little I HAVE read about her, she was originally something like the team accountant, am I right? Does this character seem anything remotely LIKE that? Heck no - she's now the 'eager young recruit' type. This is fine when it's done right, but here, she's basically another Tin, without the endearing parts. She's 100% spunk and zero brains or usefulness. (Also, the way the Metal Men treat her is WILDLY out of character. She's essentially their SISTER, for crying out loud!)
As for the others - well, Tina is actually acting fairly reasonably, given what she has to put up with here, although she seems way more grumpy than she ought to be. (I won't comment on whether her relationship with Doc still works, since I haven't seen any examples of it yet.) Iron and Lead are OK, although Iron is a tad snarkier than necessary. Instead of being a hotheaded, egocentric jerk, Mercury is now a crazed fanboy jerk, which I don't like at all - it's a very one-note characterization, and serves as little more than a running gag. As for Tin - well, as I said in my last post on this subject, Tin is way too much of a nebbish even for him. At his worst, he was never this much of a wimp, and since his urge to prove his own worth has largely been transferred to Copper, he now has little reason to ebe on the team at all, which is dismaying to me, as he was always one of my favorites.
Basically, this isn't the Metal Men. This is the JLI in Metal Man drag. Now, I liked the JLI, but the way they were written worked precisely because they were being themselves - there was just the right mixture of personalities. THIS, on the other hand, is all the more annoying aspects of the JLI without any of the straight man-types to keep them in check.
Why was this done? What on Earth was the point? The Metal Men, written right, are the perfect example of a finely-tuned mixture of personalities and relationships that's worked perfectly well for nigh-on fifty years now. It already HAS everything you need in a team - the Doc/Tina relationship for a bittersweet yet wacky center, Gold as the heroic straight-man, Iron as the 'strong man' type, Lead as the easygoing, dependable type, Mercury as the team hothead and burr-under-the-saddle, and Tin as the shy, insecure type with a desperate urge to prove himself. Everything necessary is already built in - you have conflict with Doc and Tina and Mercury; you have pathos with Tin, and you have full-on heroism with Gold - and, for that matter, with the rest of the team, who are always ready to sacrifice their robotic lives at the drop of a hat to help their creator and aid humanity. Not to mention, of course, the fact that said creator ranges from perfectly calm to somewhat irritable to a complete screaming nutball at the drop of a hat. Changing this finely oiled machine of a team into a second-rate JLI knockoff is monstrously unnecessary.
Don't get me wrong - I'm happy that the Metal Men have a place in the DCU at all, for all the reasons I listed above. I can wait things out until someone starts writing them properly again. But don't expect me to be happy in the meantime. I am not. I am a sad panda. I think I'll end this post before I can no longer resist the terrible urge to run through moonlit fields screaming 'WHY?!' at the heavens. (Normally, I'd go right ahead, but it's COLD tonight.)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	cmdr_zoom 2009-11-13 03:50 pm UTC (link)
	Well ranted. :) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychop_rex 2009-11-13 10:44 pm UTC (link)
	Thankyew. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	icon_uk 2009-11-13 07:39 pm UTC (link)
	That was a good rambling rant and I agree with it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychop_rex 2009-11-13 10:48 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks! That's not all of it, either - I had to delete about an eighth of it before the post would meet the word limit. I am a wordy fellow when my buttons get pushed. (Reply to this) (Parent)

comicoz
2009-11-13 10:40 pm UTC (link)

"As for the others - well, Tina is actually acting fairly reasonably, given what she has to put up with here, although she seems way more grumpy than she ought to be. (I won't comment on whether her relationship with Doc still works, since I haven't seen any examples of it yet.) "

Did you read the full issue? The bed scene of her for some reason really creeped me out.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

psychop_rex
2009-11-13 11:08 pm UTC (link)

No, haven't read it - I have little cash to spend on comics these days. Still, your being creeped out only confirms my suspicions - they've turned Tina into a creepy robot stalker. Damn you, DC! The whole POINT of the Tina/Doc relationship is that it is love, genuine love, at least on her part, and occasionally hinted to be reciprocal, through the virtue of methinks-he-doth-protest-too-much.
A possible theory, which I just came up with, is that he's so flustered about the situation because he initially created her in the image of his perfect woman, with the hopes of HIM loving HER, as a sort of romantic version of a sex doll, someone for him to dance and romance in his lonely hours and eventually woo her into reciprocating. In short, he likes 'em hard to get, and designed her that way - he wasn't in the least expecting her to fall madly in love with him virtually from the first moment. HE'S used to being the dominant one in the relationship - he doesn't know how to deal with a devoted, lovestruck woman following him around with hearts in her eyes, let alone a robot one. He DOES love her, because he created her to be loved - he just gets all jittery about the situation because she IS faulty - HE'S supposed to be wooing HER, dammit! - and he has his pride as an inventor.
Anyway. My fanboy ramblings aside, Tina IS NOT A STALKER! Her love is pure! She loves Doc more than any robot has ever loved a man! STOP FILTHYING UP THE WATERS, DC!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	yotsuba123 2009-11-13 12:22 pm UTC (link)
	They're in Glenview, Illinois. Right down the road from me. This just got mind-explodingly awesome. Will hae to start picking this up :) (Reply to this) (Thread)

	comicoz 2009-11-13 10:40 pm UTC (link)
	I should be able to see their house from my house...I am so disappointed! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	cmdr_zoom 2009-11-13 04:19 pm UTC (link)
	Keith, Kevin, look. I realize that you can't just bring back the JLI, especially since Didio's managed to ruin and/or kill most of them, but this... this is not the way, guys. (Reply to this)

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