Metal Men #39

Metal Men #39 brings DC's robotic team into a grittier, more dramatic era with this September 1969 issue subtitled "Beauty of the Beast!" The cover by penciler Mike Sekowsky and inker Dick Giordano puts a silver-haired woman center stage, arms outstretched in desperation as she pleads "No! Please — don't hurt him!" while a menacing crowd closes in around her, fists and a hammer raised threateningly. It's a tense, street-level scene that signals the "startlingly new" direction the series was taking at the time.