Brotherhood of (Evil?) Mutants + Magnetic Men = Magneto and the Magnetic Men

Magneto and the Magnetic Men #1
“Opposites Attract”
Writer: Gerard Jones
Penciler: Jeff Matsuda
Inker: Art Thibert, with Jaime Mendoza and Larry Stucker
Letterer: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Colorist: Kevin Tinsley
Editor: Mark Powers
Editor-in-chief: Bob Harras
Cover: Matsuda and Thibert
Published by: Marvel
Released: Feb. 29, 1996

This was originally going to be the last of the entries in my arbitrary order of the original Amalgam issues, but it's another Jones issue, so let's just go ahead and get it out of the way.

As with JLX, which Jones co-wrote with Mark Waid, this one is retrospectively problematic because Jones was convicted of possession of child pornography in 2018. That's presumably why those issues will be left out of the upcoming Amalgam omnibus and why some people, understandably, would rather not revisit them. Like the last time, my rationale for including it is the comic exists and discussing it won't benefit Jones financially. You're welcome to skip it or peruse this to get an idea of what happened without reading the actual issue.

Waid gets a thank-you for a “brainstorming” assist on this, which is a so-simple-it's-clever pairing brought to vibrant comic life by Matsuda. A battle between the X-Men's greatest enemy* and Will Magnus' kooky** androids would seem rather one-sided, but making them his creations, based on members of his Brotherhood he lost to anti-mutant forces, has potential.

Magneto is not a one-to-one mix with Will Magnus, who we saw hounding the JLX members with his Sentinels. The master of magnetism is his brother Eric, a mutant who used his sibling's Sentinel technology to create artificial beings to fight the mutant-hunting robots.

We meet the team as they rescue Kokoro (Psylocke + Katana) from a robot that turns out not to be a Sentinel, but something worse: Sinistron (Mr. Sinister + … is this the guy from the Extremists I guessed for War Machine's DC half? … Nope. Internet says Psimon.)

I'm a relative newcomer to the Metal Men, but the X-ingredients are equally hard for me to place.

Here are my best guesses, clockwise from the center of the gorgeous splash above, with the answers per Google following parenthetically:

• Iron – Well, Iron, sure, but who's the Marvel bruiser? Given his partial presence in X-Patrol, I feel like Colossus is off the table, even though I know amalgamath doesn't always consist of exclusive equations. Maybe... Thunderbird? (The Amalgam Fandom wiki says Iron and Unus the Untouchable. That's an even deeper cut than Thunderbird.)

• Nickel – I want to say Iceman, again, but it looks like it's Quicksilver, again. If there's a Metal Man correlation, maybe it's Mercury, also known as quicksilver? (Quicksilver and Mercury, check.)

• Cobalt – My thoughts immediately went to Havok, with his radiation blasts and the circular symbol on his head. A line of dialogue in which Iron says Cobalt has “the best electronic mind of us all” makes me think Gold? (Amalgam Fandom says Gold and Mastermind? Wait, are we going strictly on old-school Brotherhood?)

• Bismuth – Could be Beast or Toad, but you didn't come here for hedging,*** so I'll say Beast. And the distinctive stutter tells me this guy has some Tin mixed in. (Tin and Toad. Should've hedged.)

• Antimony – OK, this one's easy thanks to the hair and headpiece: Scarlet Witch + Platinum, although I'm hoping their bond is more due to the Marvel characters' father-daughter status than Platinum's more romantic fondness for Magnus. (Yep, Scarlet Witch and Platinum. So, 2 out of 5 - 40% is not impressive, but .400 is a good batting average.)
  

Magneto and his crew track Sinistron, a malevolent artificial intelligence created by the aforementioned Will Magnus, to the island of Genosha. While his creator is chasing mutants with a whole pack of Sentinels, as this issue takes place simultaneously with JLX, Sinistron has been abducting mutants by the thousands and experimenting on them. He even reveals five to Magneto that – maybe? – were the basis of the Magnetic Men, saying he brain-wiped them to destroy him.

Sinistron uses some comic book science to freeze Magneto in place, which in turn freezes the Magnetic Men, who are linked to and presumably animated by his own consciousness. But Cobalt breaks free of his master and the one controlling his master, and his “artificial” compatriots follow suit. Magneto puts the kibosh on Sinistron, who tries to kill all the captive mutants – none of whom we ever actually see, outside the five Sinistron used to taunt Magneto. That's probably for the best for terms of this post, saving me even more bad guesses as to their component parts.

A portion of Sinistron's consciousness escapes, but the Magnetic Men save the unseen mutants, vow to continue fighting their foe and protecting mutants. Meanwhile, Magneto grudgingly acknowledges that he has feelings for these robots that are turning out to be more than meets the eye.

Matsuda's art is dynamic, although the emphasis is on the characters, not their surroundings or other details. The idea of Magneto creating these artificial soldiers to prevent losing another surrogate family, only to grow to care about them anyway, is a good one, and naming most of them after different metals than the DC components adds an extra layer. The finale is rather rushed, but I am glad to see there's another go-round with these characters in the second set of Amalgam issues, fortunately with a different writer.

Best Amalgam: I think Magneto wins by default, since he's the only one, besides Kokoro, I recognized for sure. But that doesn't make the combo any less great.

Most Confusing Amalgam: Please refer to my flailing guesses about the Magnetic Men and Sinistron.

* - A status he still more or less held when this was released.

** - At least they were kooky in the 70s “Brave and the Bold” issues I read featuring them.

*** - Or did you? Let me know in the comments!