After weeks of duds, we finally find another gem on our journey through Amalgam Comics. More than just its gimmick, “The Magnetic Men Featuring Magneto” is a genuinely good story.
This is largely the same cast as “Magneto and the Magnetic Men”, which means its Metal Men meet the Brotherhood of Mutants, although I’m still in the dark about who many of the original characters are. There are some new characters though, such as Mastermind the illusionist. I won’t try to guess his origin.
The main villain is Doctor Magnus, mentioned in 1996’s “Magneto” and seen in “JLX”. He takes a back seat to his creations, the Sinister Society, which is a group of Magnus’ robot creations.
This comic is a Marvel publication, written by Tom Peyer with art by Barry Kitson and Dan Panosian. Matt Webb colored it and Digital Chameleon did the separations.
The plot
The story opens with Magneto rebuilding his Magnetic Men after their recent destruction by the Impossible Mod. He gives them new bodies while telling his buddy Mastermind that they have gained sentience. After they’re revived, they argue among themselves until Magneto interjects to tell them he’s disbanding them. Now that he knows they’re really alive, he is no longer comfortable sending them into battle – he built them so he wouldn’t have to risk lives, you see. Mastermind creates an illusion on their new bodies which makes them appear human. They’re given matching identities which suit their personalities, but which they don’t really like. They don’t want to leave, so he casts them out. They go to London, and Magneto goes to fight his evil brother Magnus alone.
In London, the Magnetic Men spend almost one page trying to adapt to life as humans before they’re attacked by a group of evil machines calling themselves the Sinister Society. After a brief fight, the Society captures the Men. Magneto, who has traveled halfway around the world and is within a quarter mile of confronting Magnus, receives a distress call that causes him to turn around to rescue the Men.
The Society is reveled to be a group of ugly machines built by Magnus that have rebelled. They captured the Magnetic Men so they can steal the secret of passing as human. Before they can do any serious damage to the heroes, Magneto bursts in and revives his team. The two groups fight again, but this time the Society is defeated. They talk a little bit, and Magneto realizes they all want to destroy Magnus. The two groups unite to defeat him, only to realize Magnus relocated after Magneto got so close to him earlier. They resolve to continue hunting him and protecting life of all kinds.
What “Wizard” thought then
Peyer promised readers new character designs and said his intention was to make people groan at bad puns. That kind of pitch doesn’t work for me personally, but either 1997 kids loved it or were too distracted by the name Magneto to care.
Post-release, “Wizard” had no comment.
What I think now
A couple paragraphs up, I said that Peyer’s promise of puns didn’t appeal to me. This comic is proof that sometimes people don’t know what they want until they have it because, gosh darn it, I really enjoyed the dialogue and plot!
First things first, though – that cover. The art is fine and a good representation of the interior style. What really catches my eye every time I look at it is the coloring. The top half / background has a blue tint to it that gives it the illusion of being a chromium cover. None of the Amalgam Comics had any kind of cover enhancement, but Digital Chameleon’s work here makes “Magnetic Men featuring Magneto” stand out from the pack.
While it may not look all that special compared to today’s comics, from a historical perspective it’s one of the first good examples of computer coloring. Before this, digital coloring was too often trying to mimic the traditional coloring style or going too far into experimental areas, using effects because they were available instead of using them because they were appropriate. This is evidence that 1997 was an important year in the maturity process of digital artwork.
Continued belowInside, Peyer packs lots of plot into his 22 pages. Nearly every page is a full scene unto itself, giving the issue a good deal of meat to its bones. I skipped quite a few elements in my summary above, and I still couldn’t do it in less than 300 words. I’m not sure how often you, my reader, have occasion to summarize a comic plot and note the word count, but I can assure you that many of them can easily be reduced to one paragraph unless you use a blow-by-blow account complete with quotes.
In “Magnetic Men featuring Magneto”, every page has a purpose and the a character’s emotion or situation has changed between the first panel to the last one. Across the 22 pages, several characters experience a change of heart that affects their motivations and goals. References to prior (nonexistent) issues contain enough context that readers always know enough to understand the developments. Honestly, this comic could be used as part of a class on writing comic books. The skill behind the story structure is really impressive.
Kitson’s pencils are clear and his style is typical of the late 1990s. The character designs aren’t too much different from the team’s 1996 appearance, but they remain distinct enough that the Magnetic Men are identifiable in both silhouette and their human disguises. There’s a good deal of variety in the panel layouts, with size and orientation used well. The backgrounds are a little sparse sometimes – frequently consisting of speedlines or nothing at all. Maybe that’s how Kitson wanted it, or maybe he was hoping Panosian would contribute more during the inks. Either way, it still works. The backgrounds are present often enough that a reader never gets confused about the setting.
I wasn’t really expecting much from “Magnetic Men featuring Magneto”. I have no interest in the Metal Men or the X-Men, the group’s first appearance was very average, and the last few Amalgams have been disappointing. Still, I’d like to think I would have enjoyed this issue just as much as I would have if my expectations had been higher. If this was really an ongoing series, I’d definitely add it to my pull list.
