William Magnus (New Earth)

Doctor Will Magnus was the leading authority in the field of Elementics, the branch of science that combines chemistry and robotics. He invented the Responsometer, a device capable of giving life to inanimate metal, and used it to create the team of constructs known as the Metal Men.

Creators

Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru

First appearance

Showcase #37
(April, 1962)

History

Metal Men v1.0

William Magnus was a student of noted futurist T. O. Morrow, studying Elementics, the field of science that combined chemistry and robotic science, in the hope of creating artificial life. Magnus's ideas on the subject were dismissed by most of his colleagues, apart from Morrow, his mentor.

Magnus's breakthrough was the creation of the Responsometer, a microcomputer capable of animating constructs, bringing them to life, transforming them into sentient, free-thinking humanoids. He built six creations, each made from a different metal, and implanted a Responsometer in each one.

These creations were the first Metal Men - Gold, Platinum, Lead, Iron, Tin and Mercury. Each of them manifested personality traits associated with their respective metal - Gold was noble and heroic, Mercury was irreverent and volatile, Tin felt disposable, and so on.

Together, Magnus and the Metal Men embarked on a variety of adventures, their speciality fighting monsters spawned from weird science. Though the Metal Men were repeatedly destroyed, Magnus was always able to rebuild them.

This period came to an end when Magnus was captured by Karnak, dictator of the country of Karnia, and brainwashed, his talents bent to Karnak's service. Eventually, Karnak was overthrown, and Magnus was forcibly returned to the USA, where he was placed in a government-operated mental institution, while a method of breaking his conditioning was sought.

A spy for the government of Karnia, in the guise of an American bureaucrat, arranged for Magnus to work on a project for the U.S. government, in the hope of creating something that could be used to blackmail the USA into providing repatriation for Karnia.

The result of Magnus's project, however, was the Plutonium Man, a rampaging death machine, embodying Magnus's rage and depression. The Metal Men managed to stop the Plutonium Man at the cost of their own lives, and the sight of their self-sacrifice snapped Magnus back to sanity. Restored to his rightful mind, Magnus was able to bring the Metal Men back to life.

However, the creation of the Plutonium Man eventually triggered an even greater psychological breakdown in Magnus. At one stage during this, he came to believe that he had become a robot and the Metal Men had once been human.

Magnus finally managed to recover from the breakdown with psychiatric help, taking medication to control his bipolar disorder. At some point during his recovery, however, Magnus discovered he was no longer able to get the Responsometers working, leaving the Metal Men effectively defunct.

52

After Magnus had left T. O. Morrow's tutelage, Morrow had become a supervillain. Following a recent exploit, Morrow was imprisoned in Haven, where Magnus would pay monthly visits to his old mentor.

Meanwhile, government agents approached Magnus, looking to buy the Metal Men and use them as prototypes for a new generation of weapons. Magnus refused.

T. O. Morrow had noticed that a number of mad scientists had disappeared under mysterious circumstances, suspecting they were being 'collected' for some reason. Before Morrow himself vanished under similar circumstances, he left a piece of machine code for Magnus, code which Magnus found could get the Responsometers working again.

What the government couldn't buy, they decided to take by force. They sent their own copies of the Metal Men after Magnus, copies without Magnus's Responsometer technology. Magnus managed to escape them, but was promptly captured by a giant robot.

The robot brought Magnus to Oolong Island, where he found the other missing scientists. They had been kidnapped by Intergang, who wanted the mad scientists to create superweapons for them.

And they wanted Magnus to build them a new Plutonium Man.

Magnus attempted to stall for time, but Chang Tzu, the island's overseer, discovered that the medication Magnus was using to suppress his bipolar disorder was also suppressing his creative streak, and took it away, looking to unleash his madness.

However, while Magnus had lost his meds, he had not lost his conscience. In public, he worked on Intergang's new Plutonium Man, while collecting small amounts of other metals in private.

When the Justice Society of America arrived on Oolong Island to free the imprisoned Black Adam, Magnus made his move, revealing that he'd used Responsometers on the metals he'd been able to scrounge to create a group of miniature Metal Men. While the Metal Men held off Chang Tzu, Magnus lowered the island's defenses, allowing the JSA to enter. When T. O. Morrow confronted him, Magnus gave his old mentor a way out, letting him escape.

Facing off against Chang Tzu once again, Magnus destroyed the megalomaniacal mutant, before surrendering himself to the JSA.

Following his return to the U.S., Magnus went back to work on the Metal Men, now armed with the knowledge of how to get the Responsometers working again. Magnus recreated his original team, giving them an upgrade, and added a new member, the female Copper.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

None known.

Abilities

Magnus is the world's foremost authority on Elementics, and is considered to be the primary expert on artificial intelligence in androids. He holds multiple Ph.Ds.

Strength level

Magnus has the strength of an adult male who engages in light exercise.

Weaknesses

Bipolar disorder: Magnus suffers from bipolar disorder, which can be treated with medication. If off his medication, it can impair his judgement, and, in his own words, does "crazy things when I'm off my meds."

Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.
Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.

Notes

Magnus suffers from bipolar disorder. In recent years he started taking medication for his condition, but they were taken away on Oolong Island. At present, it is unclear whether Magnus is taking the medication again.

Magnus has suffered two mental breakdowns to date. His first resulted in the creation of the Plutonium Man. His second triggered a delusion where Magnus believed he had become a robot, and the Metal Men had once been human.

Trivia

While Magnus doesn't smoke, he often has a pipe close to hand, to give him something to chew on.

Links and References

Will Magnus at Wikipedia.org
The Origin of the Metal Men at DC Comics' "Heroes and Villains" page.

Footnotes

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