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.
