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1960-01-10 00:00:58
Previous:
Strange Tales #99
Up:
Main

Box 1 / Monster Age

Next:
Marvel Monsters: Where Monsters Dwell #1
Tales To Astonish #10

Tales of Suspense #16
Astonishing #35
Uncanny Tales #9

Issue(s): Tales of Suspense #16
Cover Date: Apr 61
Title: "The thing called Metallo!"
Credits:
Larry Lieber - Script
Stan Lee - Plot
Jack Kirby - Penciler
Dick Ayers - Inker

Issue(s): Astonishing #35
Cover Date: Oct 54
Title: " The Man Who Followed!"
Credits:
[Unknown] - Writer
Mannie Banks - Penciler
Mannie Banks - Inker

Issue(s): Uncanny Tales #9
Cover Date: Jun 53
Title: "The Executioner"
Credits:
[Unknown] - Writer
Myron Fass - Penciler
Myron Fass - Inker

Review/plot:
When i was picking up some Where Monsters Dwell reprints for a back-issue add, i saw this issue featuring a reprint of "Metallo" and said, "Metallo, that sounds like someone", so i grabbed this issue in addition to the ones that i was actually going for. Turns out, as far as i know, this character never appears again. Metallo is a DC villain (mainly for Superman), which may be why i thought it sounded familiar. But, might as well cover it. As with all the Silver Age Monster stories, there's no saying it didn't happen.

An escaped convict named Mike Fallon volunteers for an experiment using a giant radiation suit (under the alias George Brown).

The suit allows him to survive a nuclear explosion, but it does knock him into the ocean, where he fights an octopus.

Fallon gets the idea that he can use his suit for crime. He's not exactly a long-term thinking guy, as evidenced by the fact that he blurts out his real name.

After robbing a bank and going on a general rampage...

...he gets the idea to build an army by freeing the prisoners in Alcatraz. Unfortunately for him, when he gets there, he feels a pain in his chest.

The prison doctor tells him that he has a malignant disease that can only be cured by radiation. And of course that won't work through the suit, and if he takes the suit off, he'll be arrested. The weird thing is that he has a prison full of people begging to be his loyal soldiers, so you'd think he could just release them and they could protect him and force the doctors to operate on him. You might have to worry about one of the prisoners getting the idea to put on the suit, but that seems better than wandering off to die.

The writing credits for the above story come from the GCD, and are not confirmed. And the writing credits for the other two stories are unknown. They also feature artists that, unlike Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, won't be seen during the "Marvel Age".

The first artist is Mannie Banks, and the story is about a hunter in the year 2223. He's bored of his prey. (personally i don't know how you get bored of these things).

So he does what any of us would do, and he sends a pair of gorillas into the future.

But they come back super-smart and immune to his weapon.

The second back-up, by Myron Fass, goes out of its way to lie to us. It tells us it's about an executioner, and shows us the dungeon where the prisoner is being kept (and something about Commies).

But the prisoner turns out to be a turkey (and so is the story).

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Where Monsters Dwell #26

Characters Appearing: Metallo

Previous:
Strange Tales #99
Up:
Main

Box 1 / Monster Age

Next:
Marvel Monsters: Where Monsters Dwell #1
Tales To Astonish #10

Comments

Also, couldn't Metallo just get the treatments under an alias?

Posted by: Michael | August 11, 2015 7:49 AM

The Metallo story seems like it was written by Stan Lee simply because he calls the suit a "hulk." Stan seemed to love that word hulk. (Something something Inigo Montoya something what you think it means).

Posted by: Jeff | February 11, 2016 11:09 PM

Reading about Metallo I wondered if the story was the inspiration for Iron Man. There's an even closer resemblance to the Banner's robot story from TALES TO ASTONISH #60-#61. In both tales a no-good gets into the suit by deception and decides to remain in it. (The spy from the Hulk tale gets trapped in it, but doesn't mind.) I think this is an indication the idea for the Hulk story came from Lee rather than Ditko.

Posted by: Luke Blanchard | February 12, 2016 12:56 PM




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