Justice League #28 Review

A heart of metal…..

In this installment of Justice League, we get a Metal Men #0 as the origin of the Metal Men is explored while Cyborg tries to get a disconsolate Will Magnus to revive his tragic project.

But while it’s a good thing for me, Johns reveals one of the problems with reboots like the New 52 – they retread much of what had been covered before, and nothing is more so than an origin story. I’m relatively fresh on the Metal Men concept, having been exposed to them in animation firstly and only now in comics. Seasoned readers may feel otherwise.

Johns though is in his element here. He channels Magnus’s initial optimism and subsequent despondence very well while his handling of the Metal Men’s divergent personalities is adept. Cyborg plays a minimum role here as the silent listener and is only involved in the last few pages.

Reis is brilliant as always and I love his detailed work. There is a lot going on and he keeps a steady hand through the chaos, complementing Johns.

SPOILERS FOLLOW………………….

Will Magnus is a broken man and as Cyborg tries to get him to revive the Metal Men project, we flashback to a time not long ago (6 months to be exact) when Will was very different.

It is revealed he was pulled out of juvenile prison (how old is he?) by the Government and has been at work for a month trying to build robots for unmanned deep sea and space explorations. Though the Secretary of State is having problems with his non-communicative nature and Will brushes him off, saying that the only thing that would open his doors would be dynamite.

Showing all signs of the reclusive antisocial scientist, Will Magnus recounts everything that made him believe that ‘humans are the problem’. From small things like late delivery of pizza to the startling revelation that his parents used his brilliance to hack into bank accounts and then made him serve prison time for the crime.

But the arrival of the metal men creates a unique problem. His invention, the Responsometer, is able to generate six different ‘metallic’ robots, each with a different personality. Gold is vain, Tin is timid, Iron is jovial, Platinum is compassionate, Mercury is rebellious while Lead is a little slow but strong.

Magnus is astonished that even though he tried to create robots that would just comply with orders, he actually made, in a sense, metallic people. As he tries to grapple with this realization, the Secretary blows apart the metallic door (temper, temper) and results in the Metal Men escaping.

Learning that the Metal Men project was actually for war purposes, Will refuses to search for them and leaves. As the search continues, an unknown person steals one of the responsometers and dumps it in a vat of toxic waste, saying it is a test.

Will finds out that the Metal Men are at his home, and we get the first appearance of the Chemo in the New 52. The Metal Men assemble and rescue the nearby people, before sacrificing themselves to stop the being.

There does seem to be inconsistent timeline with Platinum's Justice League cameo. When did that happen if the Metal Men project ended the same day the team first came online? It doesn't seem like Magnus reactived just Platinum for a trial. Or did he? And did the resulting malfunctions leave him more damaged. Given that Cyborg doesn't talk about that incident (the only connection seems to be Magnus being Prof Morrow's student), not much can be gleaned from this issue.

Still, coming back to present day, Cyborg reveals why Magnus is refusing to revive the Metal Men, despite his ability to do so. The purity (‘goodness’) of the Metal Men’s motivations stand in stark contrast to humanity’s inherent hypocrisy and Will has been scarred by that. He doesn’t want to lose that and is clinging onto the various responsometers for that reason only.

But Cyborg tells him that instead of being selfish, he should honor the Metal Men by letting them decide what they want. And Magnus complies as he activates one of them.

Rule no 1: Let’s go save everyone we can.

SPOILERS END……………….

Magnus gets some great character moments, and for a new entrant into Metal Men mythos, this is an excellent origin story read. But for longtime readers, this may feel stale.

The plot for Forever Evil does move somewhat, but very little happens in this issue. It is basically a glorified zero issue for the Metal Men but as they would play an important part in the Crime Syndicate’s downfall, more background on them is welcome.

So, I give it 9.0 out of 10

+Some great character beats for Will Magnus
+A very well done origin story
+Great art
+Some well placed humor

-May feel like a retread for longtime readers of Metal Men 
-A continuity error seems to be present regarding Platinum