DC Nation Metal Men Pitch (w/links to aired episodes)

Once upon a time Sarah and I found ourselves working on back-to-back show developments for WB animation, first, on a Kamandi project aimed at the Adult Swim, and then on a series based on characters and concepts by Bruce Timm. For both projects we provided detailed pitch bibles, which consisted of character rundowns, a breakdown of the world and important settings, a series of episode outlines, visual and thematic approaches, and a throughline of where the series would head if it actually went into production. The Kamandi series is, in my opinion, one of the best things we've ever done, and it broke our hearts that it didn't gain any traction with a network (it would have meant steady employment, writing and overseeing the show). And I think we did a bang-up job on Bruce's project, but it was a tougher climb, as we were designing a lot of it from the ground up, and it involved music and a very specific aesthetic. As much as we would've enjoyed either, the Kirby-based project was the one I was the most excited by. That bible ran over 40 pages, if I recall correctly, and you know you're working with the right person when you get a note saying "More Kirby!" (he wanted more of Kirby's letters page map expanded on, which was way-okay with us). Man, it would have been a good show, I really believe that. "Too funny for an action show", and "too much action for a comedy" was what was basically the verdict from potential buyers, who never heard of The Venture Brothers, I guess.

So, neither series went anywhere, but the work did lead to us writing a series of five short Metal Men cartoons for DC Nation in 2013. The producer who hired us for the bible jobs knew about my canceled DC Metal Men comic series and was interested in seeing if it could be developed into something. That didn't happen, but he liked the material and offered us the DC Nation gig. After I told him that the comic was supposedly canned because Dan DiDio thought it was "too goofy", it was decided to go even goofier with the shorts.  

Below is our pitch and the episode material that was eventually boiled down into the five minute-plus episodes (and links to the five DC Nation episodes on Youtube). Originally we were working on a five-episode storyline (featuring Chemo), but it was decided to do five separate little segments. It was a lot of fun to work on, and I enjoyed designing the characters for the cartoons, which were simplified a tad more than I would have liked for the actual animation, but I think it looked all right. I don't think too many DC fans paid much attention to these shorts but what the hey, I'm pretty used to that when I've done work for the Big 2 mainstream publishers, so, no big deal. I like them, and it was nice to finally get to work with the characters, even if it was very different from what I was doing in the comic.  

Metal Men DC Nation 

Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer   

MEET THE METAL MEN 

The Metal Men are six amazing robots designed to destroy evil and uphold good. Each is made from a different metal, exhibiting the attributes and properties of the elements. There's the stalwart and slightly uptight GOLD, the feisty and fearless PLATINUM, the unruly and sarcastic MERCURY, the slow-witted but rock-solid LEAD, the compulsive and aggressive IRON and the nervous and self-deprecating TIN. Their powers include super-strength, shape-changing, stretching and transforming their arms and hands into weapons. They can also “alloy”, combining themselves in various forms and shapes to create special combination robots, as well as over-sized weapons, tools, etc. Each team member has special attacks and capabilities based on their metal make-up.   

The Metal Men were created by a reclusive, slightly unbalanced genius named DOC MAGNUS. He lives in a huge automatic factory/home left to him by his parents. He is way behind the times, unhip, a stiff, with outmoded social skills and a wardrobe consisting of duplicates of the same old-fashioned checked suit. He gets along better with machines than people and has a temper.
 

Doc Magnus considers the Metal Men failures because they weren't supposed to have emotions and personalities. Unfortunately for him, during their manufacture something went wrong with their “responso-meters”. Instead of obedient drones with various powers based on their metal bases, he finds himself with a newfound family of naïve robots who lose their tempers, get embarrassed, and make mistakes. What he fails to fully understand is that these very emotions are what make the Metal Men successful – their friendship, compassion and ability to use intuition and judgement makes them more adaptable than stronger robots. They care about people and protect them at all costs with their super-powers. They are willing to sacrifice themselves for humanity and one another. Each time they're destroyed Doc Magnus resurrects them, hoping and failing to “fix” them. They know one day he might not be able to bring them back completely, but they're still willing to risk themselves.      
 

There's a “Revenge of the Nerds” aspect to the Metal Men -- they're basically newborn babes with tremendous powers and no real idea of how people live or how society functions (not to mention what is and isn't permissible). They're not stupid – well, Lead's processing unit is pretty slow –  but they've just been manufactured and whatever glitch exists in the process caused them to know less, but feel more, than the average robot. They mean well and are on the side of good, but they're children with tremendous power to mess things up, break things, and drive their “father”, Doc Magnus, even nuttier than he already is. As a parental figure, he has a lot to learn, and he's of little help when the robots are trying to learn about humanity at large.   
 

The Metal Men are a formidable team – and a potential disaster. Six metallic bulls in a china shop called Earth. Villains – beware! Humanity – run for cover! The Metal Men are here and they don't exactly know what they're doing!  

VISUALS
Each Metal Men team member is differentiated by their color, personality type, body type and metallic type which causes them to stretch and transform their bodies in different ways, mannerisms and speeds. A few examples: Platinum would form a slide ramp in a different way than Lead (she's also form it much faster than Lead would); Mercury's transformations always ripple slightly, they're less stable and have a liquid-like feel; Tin's malleability is jerkier and twitchier than Gold's; Gold can strech himself much thinner than the others can; Iron transforms with big, violent imposing gestures.
 

Lots of retro-modern mid-century design aspects to the characters and world, especially when we're on Doc Magnus' home turf – his house, lab grounds and interiors.   
 
BIRTHING PAINS AND LEARNING CURVES 

1) HAPPY BIRTHDAY    
DOC MAGNUS excitedly brings to life the METAL MEN – GOLD, PLATINUM, LEAD, IRON, MERCURY and TIN. Like children they're amazed by everything around them. They start examining the house and lab facility, touching everything much to Magnus' distress. They start pushing buttons and talking to screens and the automatic lab/house begins to respond crazily. They trigger the security program which pits the auto-lab against the Metal Men in a fight set to the music of “Powerhouse” as a nod to the old WB Looney-Tune cartoons. The MM gleefully destroy the security machines and robots, wrecking most of the facility that gave them life in the process. Victory dances and high-fives while the lab  burns around them and sirens wail.  Doc Magnus breaks down crying amidst the ruins. They think he's crying tears of joy, proud that his robots “won” their first battle against evil. 

2) TEACHER'S PESTS   
Doc Magnus tries to teach the Metal Men the Three Laws of Robotics in a classroom setting with disastrous results (1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3.  A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws). Mercury sasses Magnus, treating him like a substitute teacher. Several of the robots have trouble behaving, fidgeting, laughing, passing computer codes in class. Mercury asks if they can hit other robots, and proceeds to give Tin a noogie. This breaks out into the robots testing what they can and cannot do (“Okay what about this, can I do this?”), which turns into a Three Stooges-meets-Tex Avery-style classroom slapfight, with everyone transforming, morphing, dodging and attacking one another in increasingly crazier and more visual ways. Magnus tries to calm them down and they only stop after they're a tangled, broken mess. Magnus establishes a fourth law: A robot must not act like a complete moron. 

3) METAL MEN VS. CHEMO  

The Metal Men in action against an actual foe. This reworks the material planned for the original set of shorts, collapsing it into an action-filled done-in-one, in which the Metal Men save their city from Chemo and his mad scientist creator. It's a test of their teamwork and judgment, and shows off their abilities in the field as well as their alloy-combo-attack. Their over-enthusiasm and desire to please Magnus cause a lot of collateral damage, but they get the job done, even though they all get destroyed in the process of saving people and taking out the bad guys.     
 

The combo attack can be in the form of melding into one giant robot. Or, they can do a “Russian doll” move to protect themselves from Chemo's attacks. Each robot wraps themselves around the next-smallest robot until they're a Lead-encased “Russian doll” that can withstand more chemical attacks as a combined unit while they protect citizens and try to figure out how to defeat Chemo. Each layer is destroyed, melted, etc, until only Tin is left to figure out a way to defeat the menace (the same way he does it in the original version, finding and releasing Chemo's drain latch, the contents melting Tin).   
 
FURTHER ADVENTURES/POSSIBILITIES
- The socially awkward, naïve Metal Men see the effect Platinum has on people (i.e. men) and they all transform into female forms to get attention.
- After being reborn the main computer glitches and the Metal Men suffer from roving personality transmogrifications: surfer Metal Men, hippie Metal Men, bro Metal Men, steampunk Metal Men, anime Metal Men, etc.   
- The Metal Men cosplay as other DC superheros at a convention. They try to handle a menace as the characters they're cosplaying and save the fans. It doesn't go well.   
- Magnus Industries creates an industrial film to showcase the features of the Metal Men (meant for the military or robotics community). Naturally, everything goes wrong. Done as a short documentary highlighting the characters.
- A series of narrated “industrial films”, one for each robot (although they can all appear in each other's reels), showing their personalities, emotional tics, glitches and abilities – and that Magnus considers them failures he will “fix”.
- Doc Magnus attempts to fix the glitches in the Metal Men's respons-o-meters but makes things even worse, leading to them all switching personalities.   
- The Metal Men try to repay Magnus for the damage they've caused – trying to raise money in various ways. Among them: selling Gold to a pawnshop while Tin collects cans (which he keeps calling his “parents”).   
 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdCRZroEOvw 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAc21XrG0R4 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnNK9N8y1QM 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5onHq5jjfhI 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvk5SvlQVGc