Back Issue Box: Action Comics #599

In Action Comics #1090, Superboy battled Raze in Will Magnus' lab. This is an Elsewhen story so there weren't any Metal Men there, just your standard robots and some samples of elements in the lab's cabinet. One of those elements was Kryptonite. The set-up led to blog friend Mart Gray asking if Magnus ever made a Kryptonite Metal Men.  As far as I know, that hasn't happened. But we got close in Action Comics #599. With all that background, how could I not review it?

We are about 15 months into John Byrne's reimagining of Superman in the DCU, a time when Action Comics became a sort of DC Comics Presents, a team-up book. That format ends next month with the anniversary #600 dropping. With  Byrne being new to the universe, I was glad that we got this team-up book letting us see his take on the Demon, Mister Miracle, the Titans, and others. Here Byrne has our hero teaming up with the Metal Men ... a little. You'll see what I mean.

There is something else even more interesting about this. Usually Byrne did writing and art. But on this issue, legend Ross Andru did the pencils. Byrne does inking of 'figures', I suppose to give the book that Byrne polish. And Keith Williams does the inking of the backgrounds. So it looks like Byrne ... sort of. You'll see what I mean.

And, as Mart asked, we get a Kryptonite Metal Man to attack Superman. On to the book.

'Element 126' starts with most of the Metal Men sneaking into a lab.

Once in, they are shocked to see a giant Kryptonite robot being worked on by Dr. Tinker. Really, a robot scientist named Dr. Tinker? A bit on the nose.

The Metal Men thought they'd find their friend Tin. 

Right off the bat you can see that it looks like 'mostly' Byrne's art. There is a Byrne air to the proceedings. But once you know, you can't miss the Andru in the works.

The K-Robot looks like the Kree Sentry-459 robots from Marvel's classic Captain Marvel book. 

Tinker doesn't know the Metal Men. 

But he did meet a Mr. Ayou (like Au, the periodic table symbol for gold) and Ms. Peety (Pt for Platinum). I love cute things like this in comics. It was this sort of knowledge drop that impacted me as a kid and helped me convince my parents to buy me comics.

Loving Platinum's human disguise, a sort of 70's chic.

Ayou and Peety discuss their concerns. They think Tinker is near Dr. Magnus in the field of robotics. And they are hoping Tinker can use his skills to repair both Tin's responsometer and replace it in the melted slag of a body they give him.

They pay him with a gold bar in hopes of keeping this research away from Tinker's boss and to do this as a freelancer.

Is this the first time we've seen a responsometer? Who knew they were so tiny.

Back in real time, Tinker wonders why the Metal Men didn't reach out to Magnus himself for help. (They say they had reasons ... perhaps explained in Action Comics #590?)

When the responsometer work proved too tough, Tinker recruited his boss to help ... Lex Luthor!

And Luthor learned a lot about the Men. He hits a button which reduces them to slag. He picks up their responsometers and readies to hatch a plan.

This is veering into a more scientific Lex than the mogul from Byrne's early work. We will learn a little behind why it was so easy for him to melt them like this in a bit.

When you have a Kryptonite battle robot, you use it.

To lure Superman into the trap, Luthor simply has a worker in LexCorp scream. 

Eeee-eee-eeeee! (Eerily similar to 'zee-zee-zee'!) Do we ever hear from Miss ' Finest Lungs' Markham again? One thing I like that Byrne did was make Lex completely sleazy about women. Creeeeepy.

Weakened by the mega-dose of K-radiation from the robot, Superman is subjected to Lex's villain monologue.

Tinker gave him Tin's responsometer which he reprogrammed into the fighting machine it is, his 'Kryptonoid Man'. 

Then we learn that the Metal Men are made of a special polymer alloy which mimics the properties of the metal the responsometer is programmed for. So Tin acts like tin. And the Kryptonoid Man acts like Kryptonite.

Was it always this way? Or is this a post-Crisis update? 

And when did Luthor get so brilliant about robotics under Byrne?

The good news is the Kryptonoid Man is only mostly like Kryptonite. It stings but doesn't kill. Which means Superman can work through it.

And Lex isn't as great a programmer as he thinks. The robot isn't using any shape-changing.

So Superman can punch it up, grab the original Metal Men responsometers from Lex (before Luthor slinks away), and pound the K-Man.

I have to say, reading this book, I think 'Andru inked by Byrne' equals 'Gil Kane'. I kept having to check the credits. It feels like Kane.

With the K-Man dazed and semi-melted from a plasma burst, Superman tosses the other responsometers into the slag. Out pop the other Metal Men, albeit as Kryptonoid. 

At last, the cover scene!

Why are they Kryptonoid? Where did Luthor find more of the magic polymer? How can this all be fixed?

Well one thing is for sure, Tinker can't help. His pacemaker gives out, most likely at the hands of Luthor.

There is something delicious about this early Byrne Lex, casually destroying lives but in a more grounded way. 

Luckily the lab hasn't flushed the Metal Men's original polymer from the pipes.

Nothing left but the wrap-up.

Back with Magnus, the Metal Men are patched up, even Tin. And when the Metal Men impetuously try to run off to fight Lex they are stopped by both Superman and Magnus.

I don't know if I necessarily like the story. Making the Metal Men a programmable alloy makes me question everything about them. I am still confused about Lex - is he a magnate or a genius? And the art was a distraction as I kept trying to break it down in my mind as 'Byrne but not Byrne'. 

But I thank Mart for reminding me about the issue and getting me to look at it again.

Overall grade: B-