Metal Men: The Complete Saga

[Kirk G]

Does anyone know why the Metal Men stalled and was cancelled?

I recall an issue from my youth when someone was setting up the Metal Men, having each one destroyed by their own character flaws.
Lead tried to stretch to reach a statue on the top shelf, Mercury shrank himself to death by turning down the temp, etc.

What issue was this?

How many issues were in the original run, and why did they turn Doc bad, or at least, against the Metal Men, if he had created them?

I enjoyed Byrne's turn at guest-staring them in the Man of Steel series that he plotted and drew, but why weren't the Metal Men better received?

[Aaron King]

I don't know about the issues you're talking about, but in the '90s, Tom Peyer did a pretty bad take on the Metal Men where it turned out they were all real people who were somehow transported into metal bodies through the responsometers. Doc soon joined them in a robot body, too. (Veridium?) Luckily, 52 fixed this and we now have an awesome Metal Men mini going on.

[JKCarrier]

Does anyone know why the Metal Men stalled and was cancelled?

I guess that sort of whimsical adventure yarn fell out of favor. Marvel-style quasi-realistic angsty heroes were becoming the norm.

How many issues were in the original run, and why did they turn Doc bad, or at least, against the Metal Men, if he had created them?

The original series ran 41 issues. I assume that sales were sinking towards the end, and they were trying a new direction (more serious tone, Doc turns evil, human disguises, etc.) to see if it would help. Evidently it didn't.

I enjoyed Byrne's turn at guest-staring them in the Man of Steel series that he plotted and drew, but why weren't the Metal Men better received?

Too weird, too silly. Other off-beat heroes like Metamorpho, the Doom Patrol, and the Blackhawks had similar trouble keeping an audience as styles and tastes changed. I love the Metal Men to death, but I'm afraid they're doomed to always be "cult favorites" rather than top sellers.

[Kirk G]

I recall an issue from my youth when someone was setting up the Metal Men, having each one destroyed by their own character flaws.
Lead tried to stretch to reach a statue on the top shelf, Mercury shrank himself to death by turning down the temp, etc.

What issue was this?

[dan bailey]

Kirk, you're thinking of The Brave & the Bold 55, costarring the Atom. I read most of it last night (conked out before I got to the end -- a commentary less on the comic than on sheer sleep deprivation on my part) in the new Showcase Presents the Metal Men. Really nice Ramona Fradon pencils.

[ponset]

My All-Time Favorite Metal Men story is form Brave & Bold #187.
"Whatever Happen to whats her name".

[Cei-U!]

If memory serves, sales on the original Metal Men title fell steadily throughout the run, except for a brief upwards blip when Sekowsky revamped them. Although I can't say why definitively, I attribute its failure to two factors: a simplicity of plot and characterization (most of their villains weren't even capable of speaking!) out of step with what was happening in other DC titles (and particularly in contrast to Marvel's books) and the sheer redundancy of the Kanigher/Andru issues. The Metal Men are among my favorite characters but, lovable though they are, the best MM stories appeared outside their own title.

Cei-U!
I summon my nickel's worth of opinion!

[Kirk G]

Do you see a parallel between the success of the Metal Men and the original X-men run?

[Cei-U!]

Do you see a parallel between the success of the Metal Men and the original X-men run?

Only at the most superficial levels. Metal Men was much more stable in terms of creative teams than X-Men, for one thing. Nor was MM ever a monthly title. Also, the Thomas/Adams issues of the latter were steadily increasing that title's sales (though not fast enough to fend off cancellation) where Sekowsky's revamp showed only a momentary spike.

Cei-U!
I summon the idle speculation!

[Kirk G]

I had also heard that the sales figures on the Thomas/Adams Xmen (#55-65) were very strong...strong enough to have never have been cancelled... except for a repeating clerical error that sabotaged the creative team.

Don't recall where I heard this (maybe here on CBR?) but at the time, sales figures were based upon how many books actually SOLD. That is, how many shipped, verse how many were returned by the distributor.

To prove that you're returning the issue, you sliced off the top fifth of the cover and put that into an envelope and mailed it back. Those title strips were counted, and that was subtracted from the amount shipped.

Make sense, as long as who ever is doing the counting knows the difference between Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-men and Daredevil, right?! Sure, if they can read... unfortunately, lots of this work fell to high school drop outs, kids working in the back room of their uncle's company... and clods who just didn't give a damn...

Therefore, if the bottom most alphabetical listing on a form is X-men... and someone tells you just to count the damn titles up and enter it onto a form... you might just count them all up and total them on the bottom line... OR, assume that X-men is the total of the "cut" books ....X-them off... or similar idea. That inaccuracy almost guarentees that the sales figures of X-men at that time, would be wildly WRONG!

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