Yet another mix of sorcery and giant monsters. Even those the cover monster looks pretty cool, there had to be a too familiar feeling for readers at this point.
The Metal Men were one of the most original concepts of the Silver Age. These fighting robots had personality to spare and their stories mixed light-heartedness with adventure and action and even some breaking of the fourth wall. Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito were apparently the only ones who really knew how to handle them, though, as all attempts since that original team broke up have been failures ranging from nightmarish to misguided.
Elias's work was starting to look a little muddy around this time. No idea why.
Interestingly (to me anyway) Superman and Batman had just battled a tornado creature just three months earlier, in Justice League of America #17. DC couldn't have had sales data on that issue yet when this one went into production, so it must just be a part of the creative zeitgeist of the time that tornado creatures were all the rage. It would not be long, however, until purple weeping gorillas would come along and drive tornado men from the stage!
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