Showcase #39
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeShowcase #39 is the debut issue of Chemo, one of DC's most enduring and conceptually distinctive Silver Age villains — a mindless, toxic chemical entity whose near-indestructibility made him a recurring threat not just to the Metal Men but eventually to the entire DC universe, weaponized during events like Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis. As the third Metal Men tryout in Showcase, it also marks the point where reader response was formally solicited: the final pages broke the fourth wall to ask fans whether they wanted the team to continue, a rare editorial transparency that telegraphed how seriously DC was gauging audience appetite before committing to an ongoing series. The issue also introduced the term 'Responsometer' — the canonical name for the personality-granting device at the heart of the Metal Men's identities — giving the mythology a vocabulary that writers have drawn on for decades. The fact that the issue was later used as a period-accurate prop in the AMC drama Mad Men, where a child character carries it as a treasure, is a small but telling measure of the cultural imprint these early Metal Men issues made.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The Metal Men originated as a genuine 11th-hour rescue: writer-editor Robert Kanigher was called upon to fill a suddenly empty Showcase slot after the Atom graduated to his own title, and he scripted the first Metal Men story over a single weekend, with pencils by Ross Andru and inks by Mike Esposito. By the third outing in issue #39, the creative trio had found their footing well enough to introduce Chemo — a villain whose origin (a plastic vessel absorbing a scientist's failed pharmaceutical experiments until it animates) mirrored the team's own accidental genesis. Kanigher wore both the writer and editor hats on this issue, as he had throughout the Showcase run, giving the Metal Men an unusually unified creative voice across all three tryout installments.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Chemo, created by writer Robert Kanigher and artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito; the character debuted in the story titled 'The Deathless Doom.'
- Third appearance of the Metal Men (Gold, Iron, Lead, Mercury, Tin, and Platinum/Tina) and their creator Dr. Will Magnus, following their debut in Showcase #37 (March–April 1962).
- First use of the term 'Responsometer' — the in-universe name for the device that grants each Metal Man its distinct personality — standardizing terminology that had varied across earlier issues.
- The issue includes the first Metal Men letters column, titled 'Metal Scraps,' printing reader mail responding to Showcase #37.
- The story ends with a direct reader appeal — described on the final page as 'the last trial issue of Metal Men' — asking fans to write in if they wanted more; despite this, Showcase #40 was also a Metal Men issue, and the team earned their own ongoing title in 1963.
- The complete creative team is: writer/editor Robert Kanigher, penciler Ross Andru, inker Mike Esposito; published by National Periodical Publications (DC) with an on-sale date of May 29, 1962, and a July 1962 cover date.
- The story has been reprinted at least six times, including in Metal Men #42 (1973), The Best of DC #34 (1983), The Metal Men Archives Vol. 1 (2006), and Showcase Presents: Metal Men Vol. 1 (2007).
- A physical copy of this issue appears as a screen-accurate prop in the Mad Men Season 2 episode 'The Inheritance' (2008), used to help establish the episode's summer 1962 setting.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in All Favourites Comic #33 (1962), Metal Men #42 (1973), Faucon Noir #3 (1977), The Best of DC #34 (1983), The Metal Men Archives #1 (2006), Showcase Presents: Metal Men #1 (2007)
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