Where Monsters Dwell #26 [1974] – The Thing Called Metallo

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This issue features a 13-page Kirby/Ayers reprint TALES OF SUSPENSE #16 (1961). Mike Fallon escapes from jail and decides the best place to hide-out would be to volunteer to test a radiation suit. Apparently there’s no background check for that, so he’s in, and gets to try out the giant robot frame, which can’t be damaged or even opened except from the inside. The tests end up involving one of the greatest scenes of all time: Giant Robot vs. Giant Octopus!

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The suit passes all it’s other tests, and then Fallon decides that he should use it for his own gain, and procedes to rob a bank. After that he decides to free the prisoners in Alcatraz and enlist them as part of a criminal army. Makes sense to me. Fortunately for the world, as he gets to the prison he begins to feel ill, and the prison doctor informs him that he has a disease that can only be treated with radiation therapy, which would require he leave the suit. Struck by the sheer irony of the situation, he wanders off, leaving all thoughts of a criminal army behind.

Pretty good twist for this kind of story, and a lot of great art throughout. I especially like one panel where Metallo does the typical Kirby “thoughtful hand-across-the-chin” gesture, which looks pretty funny with those big robot fingers.

The cover is also from ToS #16.

Published 1974

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