July 1, 2010 

Our Story Opens With…

Mysogony! Well, technically it opens with Tin in space, where he’s holding dangerous “space microbes” or some such garbage. Still , it wouldn’t be The Metal Men without an “establishing shot” of the sexist dynamic:

I really love how every issue has to establish, generally right on page one, the fact that Doc’s a dick and Platinum is a psycho-bot. I love even more that they do it with all the subtlety of a marching band.

Still buried in house stuff and mounting bills, but have managed to get some reading done. Needed an outlet.

I can’t believe 500 or so people keep checking the site each day!


  • http://kddr.blogspot.com/ Your Obedient Serpent

    The really fascinating thing about the Doc/Tina dynamic is notion that Platinum's responsometer isn't so much “malfunctioning” as it is programmed by a guy with a really unhealthy image of women.

    I love the later stories, in the late '60s and '70s, where Doc just goes completely around the bend, and veers between trying to destroy the Metal Men as their own personal archvillain, and rebuilding them whenever he has a “What have I DONE?” moment. They originally justified it as the result of kidnapping and brainwashing, but you look at these early stories, and it's right there: Doc is seriously bent, man.

    And I love the depiction in 52, where he's taking Prozac for bipolar disorder.

    None of this takes away the delight in the sheer sexist crazy of these early tales, though; they just get EVEN BETTER inthat light.

  • http://sezaarsez.wordpress.com/ sezaar

    Oh yes, let's forget about Tin, you just called me a woman!
    Metal men is about the best thing there is apart from Hal Jordan's ass.

  • DrNovakaine

    It's about the same as repeatedly establishing that Hal Jordan is the Green Lantern, or that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were Batman and Robin. Apparently comic book patrons in those days all had anterograde amnesia.

  • http://bwmedia.wordpress.com/ ShadowWing Tronix

    Well, you have to figure that in those days not everybody ran to the comic store every Wednesday and might miss an issue or two, or you bring in new readers. It was probably for their benefit. Metal Men didn't have the recognition of Superman, after all.

  • Blackbolt666

    I'm a little disappointed. No jokes about Platinum checking Doc's “responsometer”. Or am I being too juvenile?

  • Dominoed Daredoll

    That's true. They still do that today in modern serial fiction. In many of the young adult novels I read (I'd like to write YA for a living), they essentially reestablish all the characters and rivalries quickly in the first chapters before getting to true new stuff.

    Case in point: Harry Potter. When I decided to read the series due to everyone around me raving about it, I mistakenly picked up the second book instead of the first and it took me several chapters to realize that it was the wrong Harry Potter book. I'd just thought JKR was going to do the whole, “they've been rivals for awhile now, but this is how they became friends” thing. I hadn't realized it was going to be a rivalry that lasted the entire series.

  • madwoman

    Not at all, BB666, not at all. Here's one for you: Crap. I can't think of anything. Figures. How about this: All that babbling the Doc does reminds me of the scene from Blues Brothers where Jake is trying to convince his ex (Carrie Fisher), whom he left at the alter, not to kill him. She says he betrayed her, and his response is: “Not, I didn't. I ran out of gas. I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD.”

    @ Typolad: Why wouldn't you believe 500 people check your site every day? It's the best on the internet!

  • Hoosier X

    Must agree. It is the best on the Internet.

    Loving the Metal Men.

    But I have a request for when you're done,Typolad: Early Scarlet Witch. I've recently read the first few issues when she was in the Avengers and I'm trying to figure out what her powers are. (And I lover her black hair. Much more witchy than the auburn.)

  • Hoosier X

    Must agree. It is the best on the Internet.rnrnLoving the Metal Men.rnrnBut I have a request for when you’re done,Typolad: Early Scarlet Witch. I’ve recently read the first few issues when she was in the Avengers and I’m trying to figure out what her powers are. (And I lover her black hair. Much more witchy than the auburn.)