Metal Men #13
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMetal Men #13 holds a firm and specific place in DC Silver Age history as the debut of Nameless — a second female robot built out of tin by the self-doubting team member Tin himself — making it the first issue to expand the core Metal Men roster beyond Doc Magnus's original six creations. The introduction of a robot character who literally had no name invited readers into an unprecedented interactive moment for the era, with the creative team appealing to the fan letter column for name suggestions before ultimately enshrining 'Nameless' as her identity two issues later. That narrative choice — letting a character's identity remain unresolved and reader-participatory — was a distinctly playful, Silver Age move that reflected the series' larger willingness to treat its robot cast as emotionally complex beings capable of loneliness, longing, and improvised creation. Nameless went on to appear in nearly twenty subsequent issues and remained a touchstone figure in Metal Men lore through later decades, confirming that this issue planted a seed that outlasted its own era.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The Metal Men series was the brainchild of writer-editor Robert Kanigher and artist Ross Andru, who had conceived the entire concept over a single weekend as last-minute filler for DC's Showcase try-out book. By issue #13, the title had settled into a reliable bi-monthly rhythm on DC's schedule, with Andru penciling and Mike Esposito inking — the same core art team that had been with the book from its Showcase origins. The issue's story, 'Raid of the Skyscraper Robot,' was structured in four chapters across its 36 pages, a format consistent with the series' unusual practice of serializing storylines across an issue rather than delivering a single contained tale — a structural approach that Wikipedia notes was uncommon for mainstream DC comics of the period.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: April–May 1965 (on-sale April 1965); part of DC's Silver Age Metal Men Vol. 1 ongoing series.
- First appearance of Nameless: a second tin-based robot built by the team member Tin using one of Doc Magnus's responsometers, motivated by Tin's profound loneliness — she is the first new Metal Men roster member not created by Dr. Will Magnus himself.
- Nameless does not receive her name in this issue; she is unnamed throughout, and readers were invited to suggest a name via the letters column, with the character officially dubbed 'Nameless' two issues later in Metal Men #15.
- Nameless went on to appear in the series through issue #32, becoming a near-constant presence for roughly twenty subsequent issues and functioning as Tin's romantic partner.
- The story is titled 'Raid of the Skyscraper Robot,' structured in four sequential chapters, pitting the Metal Men against giant mechanical antagonists called the Skyscraper Robots, who appear only in this issue.
- Full creative credits: script by Robert Kanigher; pencils by Ross Andru; inks by Mike Esposito — the same writer-artist-inker trio that produced the entire early run.
- This issue has been reprinted twice in collected editions: in The Metal Men Archives Vol. 2 (DC's hardcover color archive series) and in Showcase Presents: Metal Men Vol. 1 (DC's black-and-white paperback reprint line).
- The Metal Men series was unusual for its era in featuring continued serialized storylines across issues, and the Nameless subplot introduced here played out across multiple issues rather than resolving in a single story.
Full credits
Reprints
↩ Reprints Strange Adventures #108 (1959)
Reprinted in Marvila, la Mujer Maravilla #137 (1967), Aventures Fiction #9 (1968), Showcase Presents: Metal Men #1 (2007), The Metal Men Archives #2 (2013)
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