I've Been Reading A Lot Of Disappointing Books Lately

Justice League 28
DC Comics
Geoff Johns, writer
Ivan Reis, Joe Prado and Scott Hanna, artists

I enjoy reading comics, so I want to talk about the ones I enjoy, not the ones that didn't live up to the potential I hoped they could have. But there have been several in the past few days that just didn't meet my expectations going in.

In the case of this issue of Justice League, continuing the "Forever Evil" crossover, the story itself was good: Cyborg got a complete makeover in the previous issue after all of his cybernetic parts split off, decided to call itself The Grid, and joined the other-dimensional Crime Syndicate that has taken over the world and imprisoned most of the League. This new, much more streamlined Cyborg 2.0 seeks out Dr. Will Magnus, creator of the Metal Men, to help him counter-attack the Syndicate, so this issue serves to introduce the New 52 versions of the Metal Men, who all act pretty much as they did before the New 52 reboot.

The problem is, the only real change I can see that the New 52 has brought to the Metal Men is that they all got a bad case of the uglies, especially Iron, Lead and Mercury.

These three, in particular, look as if they are wearing armor they should be able to remove. All six of the Metal Men — also including Gold, Tin and Platinum — look a lot more robotic than they used to. Now, I know that they technically are robots. But their respective responsometers not only give them their distinctive personalities, but each of the Metal Men also has complete control over his or her shape, allowing them to be able to shift and form tools and such from their bodies. Based on that fact alone, they should have very streamlined, fluid bodies, but especially when seen next to Cyborg's own new chassis, they look very clunky.

I've looked through the issue several times and can't find any kind of design credit. So maybe Ivan Reis, Joe Prado and/or Scott Hanna designed the new looks for the Metal Men. These guys have wowed me with their art in the past, so I would hate to think that they are responsible for this mess. Rather, almost the entire New 52 redesign came from Jim Lee, another artist whose past work I have enjoyed, but who seems to have gone overboard with the unnecessary costume details and seams and such in the New 52. These look to me like they are more of Jim Lee's bad design work for the reboot.

Here's hoping the Metal Men's appearances soften over time.