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Everyone's talking about Doc Magnus' prozac prescription in the latest issue of 52. This is all ancient history--Magnus has had mental problems since the 60s and 70s. This was the subject of one of the single greatest Metal Men stories ever told. The Metal Men's first run ended with issue #41 in 1969, leaving the team in a bit of a quandry. Doc Magnus had been kidnapped by the evil dictator of Karnia (read Russia) and brainwashed to destroy his greatest creations. DC decided to revive the Metal Men in 1976 with issue 45 (42-44 having been reprints) and called upon Steve Gerber and Walt Simonson to bring the team back from comic book limbo.
Instead of ignoring the past, Gerber decided to play along with it. While the Metal Men are back in robotic form foiling evildoers, Magnus is back on U.S. soil in a mental institution.
Despite the best efforts of Magnus' doctors, he can't seem to shake off his violent emotions. Doc shouts three words over and over again: Trample! Raze! Annihilate!
The U.S. military has waited too long for Magnus to recover. They convince his doctors that having Magnus build a robot in the lab might be good therapy. Big mistake--Doc builds The Plutonium Man who reflects his current state of mind. While General Caspar is horrified, a government accountant named Whittier disagrees.
Magnus learns that he's been manipulated by Whittier--a sleeper cell agent of Karnia. Whittier allows the Plutonium Man to be unleashed--presumably so his own country can use it.
Naturally the Metal Men are called into action when the Plutonium Man starts tearing up the city. The Plutonium Man instantly recognizes the Metal Men from Magnus' programming. The Metal Men die one by one in an attempt to halt the Plutonium Man's path of destruction.
This is where the story deviates from the usual Silver Age concept of good and evil. Whittier is horrified that he's about to destroy an entire city. He sacrifices himself by getting close enough to shoot a load of bullets at the PM's chest before he dies from a radiation blast.
Whittier dies, but his bullets have cracked the PM's outer shell. Only Tina-Platinum is left to avert a nuclear meltdown. She contains the explosion by covering PM's body with platinum., but not before bidding farewell to Doc Magnus.
This terrible event snaps Magnus back into reality when he realizes that he has killed the Metal Men--and his robotic lover. The preceding panels really show the genius of Walt Simonson--his skill at panel design really enhanced the emotions in this story.
The tragic story ends on a glimmer of hope. Doc Magnus will rebuild the Metal Men as well as his own life.
I think this is one of the finest DC Bronze Age stories that I've ever read. Gerber's script was pure genius--a nice little self contained story that reintroduced the Metal Men and resolved a six-year old dangling plot thread. Simonson was the perfect artist to draw the Metal Men and inked his work on this story. I think this and the remaining issues of the revivial deserve reprinting--Simonson did some good work there, too. Nuff said.
Keep up the great work on your blog. Best wishes WaltDe