Doctor Will Magnus is a
fictional character in the
DC Comics universe. He
first appeared in
Showcase #37 alongside his creations,
the
Metal Men; he was created by
Robert Kanigher and
Ross Andru.
Character history
One of the most impressive geniuses of the DCU with doctorates in
theoretical mathematics,
mechanical engineering, and
particle physics, Magnus often offers
scientific advice to other characters. His greatest achievement is
the one for which he first received renown: the creation of the
Metal Men. The method through which Doc
Magnus created the Metal Man has varied over years with various
writers. At first they were just
blank
slate robots with responsometers, devices which generated their
intelligence and personalities which just happened to be evocative
of the metals from which they were formed.
In an attempt to boost sales of the comic book, the characters
underwent vast changes. The Metal Men all assumed human alter egos,
while Doc Magnus became a fugitive scientist dedicated to global
conquest. His personality change was credited to having been
kidnapped, reawakened, and brainwashed by a mad dictator. Sales
plunged instead and the comic wasn't printed for a few years.
Eventually
Metal Men was picked up again with Doc's sanity
restored and his return to assist his Metal Men.
At one point he saved
Doom Patrol's
Robotman, whose
original body had been destroyed by
Madame
Rouge. Doc Magnus recovered Robotman's brain and built him a
new cybernetic body.
In 1993, a four part Metal Men mini-series
retconned much of their backstory. It was revealed
that the responsometers were not responsible for the Metal Men's
sentience and that the Metal Men actually were imprinted with the
intellects and personalities of real people: Magnus's own brother,
his fiancee, two lab workers, a janitor, and a pizza-delivery man.
These unfortunates' personalities were accidentally transferred to
blank robots in a lab accident. At the climax of the miniseries,
Gold was permanently killed and Doc Magnus mortally wounded. Doc
permanently transferred his personality into a blank robot known as
Veridium, made of a green alien metal,
becoming the new robotic leader of the Metal Men.
52
With the advent of
Identity
Crisis, Gold is back and Doc Magnus is once again human
and played an active role in the series
52.
As revealed during
Infinite
Crisis, when
Superboy-Prime
pounded on the walls of reality, he caused the very fabric of
reality to shift, changing and merging histories. The "blank robots
with responsometers" origin is said to be the definitive origin
while the "human personalities" origin and the 1993 mini-series has
been described as the byproduct of a mental breakdown suffered by
Magnus. When
Booster Gold visited,
asking for help with
Skeets, Magnus commented
that the Metal Men "don't quite work anymore."
The responsometers are now described as containing an "artificial
soul" invented by Doc Magnus, as inspired by
T. O. Morrow, who is revealed to have taught him at
college and to have been the only one not to laugh at Magnus'
theories. After the unexplained dismantling of the Metal Men, Doc
Magnus is unable to recreate these souls and restore their
personalities. He now takes
Prozac for the
bipolar disorder which caused his
nervous breakdown and the depression which led to the creation of
the Plutonium Man, a tremendous, nearly indestructible superweapon
based upon the Metal Men, but with Magnus' then-own deranged,
twisted worldview as its operating system. It is implied that
although the medication is keeping Magnus from doing anything
irrational, it is also deadening his imagination and creativity and
that this is the reason he can not recreate the Metal Men.
Magnus is approached by government agents hoping to use the Metal
Men as soulless smart weapons, an offer Magnus rejects. Through all
of this, Magnus visits Morrow in his cell in
Haven. Morrow warns Magnus that there have been numerous
abductions of "mad" scientists, including
Doctor Sivana, whose lair Magnus
investigates.
Eventually Morrow himself disappears, leaving a note for his former
student with a string in machine code. Using the code, Magnus is
able to revive Mercury, but his robotic friend and creation is
apparently destroyed again while trying to save him from the
conspiracy trying to kidnap every
mad
scientist in the DCU.
During Week 22, mindless replicas of the Metal Men force Magnus to
escape from his burned house before he is captured by what is
revealed to be a separate group "
Chang Tzu's
Science Squad". This would be the second time Magnus has confronted
Chang Tzu. A previous incarnation of the villain once managed to
brainwash the Metal Men, but their loyalty to Magnus restored their
rightful minds.
This group
is based on Oolong Island (said to be part of the territory of
China
) and has been responsible for the disappearing
scientists (including Professor Morrow). The group is being
financed by
Intergang with the collusion,
it is implied, of the Chinese government. The assembled scientists
have been given unlimited budgets to invent various super weapons
including, in particular, various types of
robots.
During Week 23, a giant robot, piloted by animals from Intergang,
delivers Doc Magnus to Oolong Island.
Magnus is assigned to design and construct a new Plutonium Man
robot, but deliberately makes little progress, saying to Morrow
that the original Plutonium Man was an expression of his pain and
rage brought on by his mental illness and that the reason he takes
his medication is to prevent himself from doing something like that
again. Morrow reveals this to the Island's leaders and Magnus'
medication is confiscated.
Magnus then proceeds to work on Plutonium Man, saying this time
he'll "do it right." Though he is unstable due to his lack of
medication, Magnus is not fully co-operating with Chang Tzu. Magnus
goes about scavenging materials from various items (gold from a
gold watch, lead from lead shielding, mercury from thermometers,
and tin from cans of
Baked Beans which
he adopts as his sole diet - presumably in order to ensure the
other scientists will not want to spend too much time with him, as
well. This allows him to reconstruct his
Metal
Men, albeit only a few inches high. These new Metal Men are
shown to help Magnus remain sane despite being off his pills, such
as when they persuade him to deactivate the now completed Plutonium
Man after he turns it on during a period of depression.
Ooolong Island is attacked by the
JSA seeking to
rescue
Black Adam, and
Chang Tzu orders the Plutonium Man activated. Chang
notes that he has been spying on Magnus and knows that several
metals have entered the lab and not come back out. The Metal Men
attack
Chang Tzu, allowing Magnus to escape
and switch off the Island's defenses. While he does this
Morrow confronts Magnus and destroys Mercury,
yet again. Magnus explains to Morrow how it pointless to stop him
deactivating the shields as the
JSA will get in
eventually, and instead offers him the chance to teleport out,
saying that Morrow was "the best teacher I ever knew" and that he
tries "to over look the psychopathic super villain thing". Morrow
accepts the offer.
Magnus is then confronted by
Chang Tzu whom
he apparently kills with the aid of Lead and what he describes as a
particle wave ray gun. Magnus also indicates this shooting was a
result of his irrationality, brought on by the lack of his
medications. Magnus then surrenders to the
JSA.
With all charges against him dropped, due to being coerced into
collaboration, Will Magnus returns to his home and laboratory.
There, when Booster Gold visits him again, exactly one year after
their last meeting, with a salvaged responsometer containing
Skeets' "memself", asking him to somehow restore the robot
destroyed by
Mister Mind, Magnus agrees.
He reveals to have in his possession a copy of Skeets memories, and
so he's able to rebuild him as security droid 2.0, slightly more
advanced, but oblivious of the events of the past years.
Now sane again, he returns to working on his Metal Men.
Superman/Batman
In the
Superman/Batman series Doc
Magnus is shown working again with his Metal Men. He has even built
a new one, the spunky and wisecracking
gynoid
Copper. Despite contrary advices from his fiancée he asks
Bruce Wayne for a tryout of his Metal Men as
security guard. The trial is successful, but the Metal Men fail on
the field, due to mistrust by the human personal and
Brainiac influence, leaving to Doc Magnus the
responsibility to save the day.
JLA
Magnus has recently assisted the Justice League of America with the
rebuilding of
Red Tornado. After Red
Tornado's first intended body is stolen by
Amazo, he's called again on the roster to provide Red
Tornado with yet another new body, more powerful and advanced than
the previous one. Despite his good intentions, the attempts comes
to another downfall, and almost spells his death, when Amazo
returns to claim the newer and stronger body for himself.
Metal Men (2009)
The
Metal Men are later restored as a second feature in
the revamped
Doom Patrol v5, written by
Keith Giffen. Now living in simple suburbia in Kanigher Street, the
Metal Men seem to be affected by his currently, partly deranged,
state of mind, as Gold is now humorously self-obsessed and
magniloquent, Platina is lovesick, Lead is dimwitted and prone to
errors, Tin is always scared and affected by chronic self-esteem
issues, and Mercury, once brilliant and humorous, has now developed
the same bipolar disturbance affecting Will Magnus himself, and
refuses to take medications. Copper, the new
sixth member,
is disturbingly ignored by her teammates, who often refuse to
acknowledge her presence despite being side to side with her.
Powers and abilities
- While human, Doc Magnus has had no special abilities aside from
his great intellect. His vast intelligence was responsible for the
creation of the Metal Men, along with various other robots.
- While he was Veridium, Magnus was the
most powerful of the Metal Men. He could store and channel heat and
energy. [337694]
In other media
Dr. Magnus appeared on
Warner
Premiere's animated feature
Justice League: The New
Frontier. He is voiced by
Townsend Coleman.
External links
References
- "52" Week 22
- "52" Week 23
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