"The Flaming Doom!": This story is reprinted from Showcase #37.
The Best of DC #34 is an issue of the series The Best of DC (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 1983. It was published on December 9, 1982.
Synopsis for "The Flaming Doom!"
This story is reprinted from Showcase #37.
Millions of years ago, the dinosaurs were killed by radioactive bombardment, except for one curious creature that resembled a huge manta ray and flew in the air. It got lodged in a glacier for eons until shifting ice freed it. It flies to the United States, where it melts a lighthouse with its gaze and destroys a military plane. When it attacks the Chrysler Building, Col. Henry Casper decides to call Dr. Will Magnus for a solution.
He takes a helicopter to Magnus Labs and finds the scientist dancing with his newest robotic creation: Platinum, also known as Tina. To combat the threatening creature, he quickly builds Gold, Iron, Lead, Mercury, and Tin: the Metal Men.
As he deploys the new robots to battle, Platinum objects and demands to be included as well. Magnus speculates that her activator is faulty and provides her too much of a personality but decides to worry about that after the group has dispatched the creature. When the team arrives, it is wrecking a bridge and Tin immediately volunteers to stop it. Magnus disagrees and has Lead mold Iron into a ball to throw at it with Tin acting as a protective shield. It bats the balled heroes back and knocks the rest of the team out of the sky—their Rocket Disc slams onto a rooftop and the monster's heat vision melts Tin into scrap.
Lead shields the others and Gold stretches into a lasso for Lead to grab the monster. It proves too strong and pulls the two robots into the ocean, where Iron immediately begins rusting due to the salt and Gold lies incapacitated on the floor. The military's missiles are a minor nuisance to the beast and the remaining Metal Men fly up to try to defeat it one last time.
Mercury attempts to smother it but it evidently doesn't need oxygen to survive. Platinum weaves her body in to a thin spindle that coats over Mercury and Lead dives onto it to suffocate it further, trapping the radiation that had been emitting from its body and killing it. The remaining heroes dive into the sea encasing the mammoth animal.
Appearing in "The Flaming Doom!"
Featured Characters:
- Metal Men (First appearance)
- Will Magnus (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Colonel Henry Casper (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Manta, the Flaming Doom (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Amos J. Talbot (First appearance)
Locations:
- Magnus Labs (First appearance)
- New York
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Chrysler Building
- Manhattan
- New York City
Items:
- Responsometer (First appearance)
Vehicles:
- Rocket Disc (First appearance)
Synopsis for "The Nightmare Menace!"
This story is reprinted from Showcase #38.
After being destroyed by Manta,[1] the world has become obsessed with the Metal Men. The news spreads to the Kremlin, where ex-Nazi scientist Von Vroom who is tasked with coming up with a superior weapon.
In Washington, D.C., Col. Henry Casper is ordered to find Dr. Will Magnus and convince him to build new heroes before the public finds out that they were robots and that they were destroyed in their first outing. The scientist is depressed from having lost his companions but ultimately agrees and sets out rebuilding the team purely for a public relations event, then to be shuttered away in Magnus Labs. These new creations lack the personalities of his first generation but they will suffice for the awards ceremony.
Von Vroom is at the Washington Monument and debuts his huge Nightmare Menace: a mammoth robot with a death ray on top. Magnus instructs Platinum to ensnare the villain but she ends up twisting around her teammates instead. Iron tosses Gold into a fighter jet attempting to secure the area and he accidentally melts Lead. After humiliating the heroes, the Menace depowers the fighter jets in mid-air and then rapidly swirls to burrow into the Earth and disappear.
The crowd jeers the Metal Men for being failures and Magnus smelts them in his lab. He looks back at his notes and notices that an intense aurora borealis occurred as he built the last robots. Casper and Magnus retrieve the old bodies of the Metal Men, still lying where they were destroyed by Manta and he restarts them to find they have the personalities and competence from before.
Tin immediately wants to prove himself a hero, Lead boasts how strong he is, Mercury reminds everyone that he is unique, Lead offers to shield everyone from harm, Gold takes charge, and Platinum embraces Magnus. He informs them that they now have to stop the villain and prove themselves to the world.
They attend a world's fair, hoping to draw out the Nightmare Menace again and find a booing public. While awaiting an attack, they assist a lost girl in finding her parents and give a few patrons stuck on a ride a golden ladder to the ground. As some members of the public slowly change their opinion, the Menace emerges from below the ground and starts to melt more jets from a demonstration. Platinum turns into a net and Lead scoops up the planes before they crash.
The split into teams but prove ineffectual at stopping the Menace: Tin hurls Gold into the larger robot's head and knocks it to the ground, only to find that a smaller Menace rests inside! Mercury performs a similar trick, smashing the robot only to have a third body emerge. Iron melts Lead into a ball and hurls it at this version of the Menace, only to have an even smaller version pop out. The team regroups and are melted by the Menace—Gold manages to shove Magnus to safety and the last of her strength, Platinum lunges at the robot and rips him in half, only to have a human-sized Menace leap out to attack Magnus.
Magnus leads the villain onto a spinning wheel ride and the robot becomes disoriented. As the ride comes to completion, the frame cracks open and a dizzy Von Vroom is inside, reeling from the fight. Magnus apprehends him and reforms the Metal Men's bodies to fight again.
Appearing in "The Nightmare Menace!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Colonel Henry Casper
Antagonists:
- Manta, the Flaming Doom (Flashback only) (Cameo)
- The Nightmare Menace (First appearance)
- Von Vroom (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Blue Flight One (First appearance)
- Blue Leader (First appearance)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Deathless Doom!"
This story is reprinted from Showcase #39.
Colonel Henry Casper has contacted the Metal Men to find chemist Ramsey Norton who recently disappeared from his lab. As soon as they set their Rocket Disc on the roof of his lab building, a mammoth hand reaches through the ceiling and grabs Will Magnus and Platinum. Magnus orders the remaining robots to get Casper to safety at a nearby construction site and the duo are dragged inside.
Platinum refuses to user her abilities to escape and abandon Magnus and they soon discover that the hand is Norton's—he has grown to several times his original size. As he lay dying, he explains how he accidentally created the entity Chemo while trying to find a cure for all disease. Chemo was originally an inert plastic vessel that stored all of his failed experiments: chemicals were poured into the mold until it was full and the container spewed chemicals onto Ramsey and started growing. It only escaped moments prior to the team's arrival and Ramsey dies as soon as he finishes his tale.
The team reunites on the adjacent scaffolding, only to have Chemo appear and attack them. Platinum forms a bridge for them to run away but she doesn't have time to save herself. or Lead. They fly away in their Rocket Disc and loop around after Chemo melts a hole into the ground. Iron transforms into a crane and Magnus retrieves the inert bodies of their colleagues.
Back at Magnus Labs, he attempts to restore them and the other heroes go back to stop Chemo: Mercury insists on working alone and Gold, Iron, and Tin team up. Chemo is wreaking havoc in the city—melting train tracks, police cars, and all manner of infrastructure in a seemingly mindless spree. It quickly melts Mercury into globs and melts Tin when he tries to form a large can to contain it. Gold and Iron attack and Chemo's coating causes them to tarnish and rust respectively.
Magnus has only been able to revive Platinum but the duo return to the battle field to find Chemo cutting the top off a skyscraper. They push him off with their Rocket Disc only to have that rapidly melt as well. They lead the chemical monstrosity into a hole that has been burned into the ground, where it is captured among two competing natural gas jets, trapping it motionless. Tina brings them back to the surface where they gather up the bits of their friends and Magnus takes them back to the lab for reconstruction.
Appearing in "The Deathless Doom!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Colonel Henry Casper
Antagonists:
- Chemo (First appearance) (Flashback and main story)
Other Characters:
- Joe (First appearance)
- Professor Ramsey Norton (First appearance; dies) (Flashback and main story)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Day the Metal Men Melted!"
This story is reprinted from Showcase #40.
High over the city, Dr. Will Magnus is being carried by a helicopter: his body is grown to several times its normal size and he is irradiated. The Metal Men bid him farewell before he is rocketed into outer space to keep from killing everyone around him. Platinum refuses to let him leave without her and she clings to him, even though it has now irradiated her and doomed her to exile.
The two recount how their recent defeat of Chemo[2] left all of the other Metal Men temporarily out of commission, so the duo took a beach vacation together. Afterward, Magnus returned to the subterranean site where the chemical monster had been trapped in natural gas jets and a lightning strike reanimates the chemical that made up the beast. The re-formed Chemo spews chemicals onto Magnus and he flees in a Rocket Disc back to Magnus Labs only to discover that he is radioactive and growing.
Lead encases his creator to keep him from harming anyone and Magnus calls Henry Casper to tell him that he is a menace and must be segregated from humanity to save it. He also finds that he is converting from a human body into some kind of metal. The two enter the rocket in order to be jettisoned into orbit and spend the rest of their lives performing scientific tests for the good of humanity.
In the lab, Gold and Mercury briefly quarrel about who should lead the team and they decide to put it to a vote. Tin comes out the surprise winner. He is initially reluctant but after encouragement from his fellow robots, he issues his first orders: to stop Chemo. Meanwhile, the United States Army is attempting just that to no avail.
They arrive and Mercury is immediately turned to steam. Iron throws sheets of Gold against the beast and they melt to coat it. Tin instructs Lead to make a strong outer casing and they fly it to the launchpad and dump the villain onto Magnus' rocket. Magnus realizes that turning the vehicle around and pointing it back toward Earth will cause immense heat to burn up Chemo entirely. The integrity of the capsule gives way and bits of cosmic matter shower Magnus and Tina, neutralizing their radioactivity. Magnus returns to Earth cured and sets about restoring the Metal Men damaged in the course of battle and trying to convince Tina not to fall in love with him.
Appearing in "The Day the Metal Men Melted!"
Featured Characters:
- Metal Men
- Will Magnus (Flashback and main story)
Supporting Characters:
- Colonel Henry Casper
Antagonists:
- Chemo (Flashback and main story)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- "The Flaming Doom!" and "The Nightmare Menace!" are reprinted here as one long story. The same is true of "The Deathless Doom!" and "The Day the Metal Men Melted!".