Metal Men #1 is an issue of the series Metal Men (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 1963.
Synopsis for "Rain of the Missile Men!"
At a photo shoot for a magazine, the Metal Men start petty squabbling: Tin wonders if he should be there at all, Mercury demands that everyone acknowledge his uniqueness, and Platinum pines aloud for Doc Magnus. Magnus threatens to have her shipped off to the City Science Museum if she doesn't stop and reminds him of when he recently tried that: she lashed out against the movers and the rest of the team lost morale.
Magnus took them on an excursion in the Rocket Disc to brighten their mood but they encountered some meteorites that slam into a giant gas storage tank and cause a fire. Tin leapt into the blaze to contain it but immediately melts. Lead followed suit and finally Gold and Iron suffocated the blaze. Magnus got the remains of the robots and took them back to the lab to restore them. Magnus brooded in the lab and got a call from the City Science Museum: they were flooded with visitors to see Platinum crying in her display case and the director doesn't want her as a distraction. He retrieved Tina reluctantly.
The trio investigated the site of the metorites and discovered that the projectiles were actually fashioned by some intelligent being. Unbeknownst to them, Z-1 had hurled his "Missile Men" into Space Junkyard 9 and built a mammoth army of identical robots but they did not meet his true desire: a queen to be his ruler and lover. He scoured the cosmos for a suitable mate and found Platinum on Earth. The meteorites were actually the scrap that remained of Missile Men who burned up in the atmosphere. But these were only a small contingent sent to see if Earth had suitable defenses: Z-1 has now planned a far greater wave of Missile Men to bring Earth to its knees and abduct Platinum.
The convalescing Metal Men recovered and Picture World rang Magnus' video phone to request the photo shoot, bringing Platinum's story full circle. As the gang settles in for the photo, Missile Men rain down across the globe. Magnus leaps to the Rocket Disc and uses its guns to repel them but the missiles make short order of all the Metal Men and one strikes Magnus in the head, making him woozy. He commands that Platinum retreat and she obeys in tears, choosing to jump into a nearby bay in despair.
Magnus notices that one of the falling robots changes course to follow her and surmises that this must be their leader. He uses the magnetizing ray in the Rocket Disc to turn Z-1 into a huge magnet that draws the other Missile Men toward him. The mass crashes to the bottom of the bay and Platinum emerges to reunite with Magnus. They take the scraps from their colleagues back to the lab to restore them.
Appearing in "Rain of the Missile Men!"
Featured Characters:
- Metal Men (Flashback and main story)
- Doc Magnus (Flashback and main story)
Supporting Characters: Antagonists:
- Missile Men (First appearance) (Flashback and main story)
- Missile Man (Z-1) (First appearance) (Flashback and main story)
Other Characters:
- Space Guard 380 (Flashback only)
Locations:
- New Earth
- Egypt (Cameo)
- Giza (Cameo)
- Pyramid of Giza (Cameo)
- Giza (Cameo)
- France (Cameo)
- Paris (Cameo)
- Eiffel Tower (Cameo)
- Paris (Cameo)
- India (Cameo)
- Uttar Pradesh (Cameo)
- Agra (Cameo)
- Taj Mahal (Cameo)
- Agra (Cameo)
- Uttar Pradesh (Cameo)
- United Kingdom (Cameo)
- England (Cameo)
- United States of America
- Magnus Labs
- City Science Museum
- Egypt (Cameo)
- Space Junkyard 9
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- Metal Men (Volume 1) spins out of their trial run in Showcase #37–40.
- This issue was reprinted in Metal Men #44, The Metal Men Archives Vol. 1 and Showcase Presents: Metal Men Vol. 1.
Trivia
- Metal Facts and Fancies:
- One hundred million atoms laid end to end are one inch long.
- Glass will shatter under stress and rubber will bend but hard metals like iron require far more force to bend or break them.
- Most metals are mined from the ground.
- In 55 BC, Romans invaded Britain to find that they had only discovered seven metal: gold, mercury, lead, tin, copper and silver.
- In "Metal Scraps", Robert Kanigher confirms that Mercury is colored red to avoid confusion with Platinum.