Centaursite.com - Metal Men

The Metal Men, was a comic published in the 60s and 70s (?) that told of a group of robots built by Dr. Magnus (?). He built each out of a specific metal and, with the hopes of the science of the future at that time holding sway, made each of them 'morphic', or able to change shape. Never mind the physics involved, (Not that the physics involved in human to centaur transformations are of primary consideration.) these robots, with their shape shifting powers, had displays of angst, which have become almost a requirement of today's comic book heroes. Their inventor dealt with not only the personalities of the robots, but led them on adventures. They saved the world against crazed super-beings, mad scientists, and evil villians, using their unique superpowers and occaisional flashes of wit and cleverness.

In this issue, the Metal Men, which is kind of a poor name as two of them seem to be female, well, as 'female' as the 'male' robots are male, find themselves confronted with a giant centaur. Unlike the dipiction on the cover, the centaur is not made of metal. In fact, he is a regular flesh and blood centaur only giant sized.

It seems in the ancient past, this centaur fell in love with (Can you guess?) a human woman. Why it is that centaurs fall in love with human women and not female centaurs beats me, but that seems to be standard fare in centaur stories. The centaur saves a 'nymph' from a serpent and as he carries her to safety riding upon his equine back, he falls in love. Turns out, the serpent was the god Jove (?) who was planning on seducing the nymph. So, rather than attacking or punishing the centaur, Jove turns the girl to stone. He then makes the centaur giant sized, and sends him off to (where else?) Alpha Centauri with the curse that he cannot return until the stone nymph, the statue comes back to life.

One of the Metal Men, a 'female' robot, just happens to look like the nymph the centaur loves, and there-in lies the story. This robot is the 'statue' coming to life. This allows the centaur to return to earth from Alpha Centauri. He sees the robot, and thinks it's the nymph, and discovering she isn't real, thinks it's the statue and Jove is again toying with him. This makes him go on a rampage, and... well, the usual 'horse-like' actions and goofy fighting take place.

Double up on your suspension of disbelief before reading this.