DOC MAGNUS
Real Name: William Quigley Magnus
Class: Human
Occupation: Scientist, inventor
Group Affiliation: Metal Men, formerly Science Squad
Known Relatives: David Magnus (brother)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Glenview, Illinois, formerly Magnus Labs, Oolong Island
First Appearance: Showcase #37 (April, 1962)
Powers: Doc Magnus was a genius, and one of the world's most brilliant inventors and experts in robotics.History: Doc Magnus was one of the world's most brilliant inventors, and his works made millions in patents and royalties. He used his money to fund his robotics research, and created Platinum, a liquid metal robot whose personality template and artificial intelligence were powered by a responsometer. He succeeded too well, and decided he didn't like Tina's personality, and intended to donate her to the Science Museum. Before he could go through with this, a prehistoric monster attacked town, and he created an entire team of Metal men to deal with the problem. Doc Magnus kept the Metal men around, and used them for the good of humanity.
(Doom Patrol V #21 (fb)) - The Doom Patrol were killed by Captain Zahl in a massive explosion, and in the aftermath Doc Magnus decided to explore the Happy Harbor crater. He knew the Chief built Robotman using the specs of the 1940s Robotman Robert Crane, and couldn’t bear to see a part of robotics history being lost, so he sought any of Robotman’s remains. He discovered that Robotman’s head survived the explosion, even though the living brain inside had been damaged. He built a new body for Robotman, woke up his brain, and explained what happened. Robotman flipped out, recalling the death of his friends, so magnus shut him down and put a mood dampener on the memory of his friends deaths.
(JLA: Our Worlds at War #1) - Magnus and Luthor's cabinet informed the President that several Imperiex Probes landed on Earth to hollow out the planet. Luthor organized a number of superheroes to combat the Probes.
(Action Comics #781, Superman II #173) - Emil Hamilton reported to President Luthor and Doc Magnus when he discovered that Imperiex was going to create a new Big Bang and recreate the universe. Hamilton learned that there used to be a multiverse that was destroyed and reintegrated as a single universe during the Crisis. Because Earth was the nexus oif the collapsed realities, its destruction could complete Imperiex' plan. President Luthor, the Atom and Doc Magnus devised a plan to crack Imperiex Prime's armor and channel the energies back to the galaxies he stole them from using a Boom Tube provided by Darkseid. Superman, Strange Visitor and the Blackhawks were responsible for delivering a payload of 30 hydrogen bombs to drop on Imperiex Prime. Strange Visitor absorbed Superman's energy and left him behind while she bombed Imperiex, sacrificing herself to crack his shell. Brainiac-13 stole the released energy using Warworld and used the LexCorp Towers, actually a temporal displacement cannon, to bombard Apokolips with the energy. Darkseid used this attack as a reason to declare war on Earth.
(JLA #68) - Atlantis, ancient and in ruins, appeared on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Doc Magnus and other scientists investigated, but the causes turned out to be mystic.
(Justice League of America II #1) - Doc Magnus reassembled Red Tornado's android body as a favor to the JLofA, but Tornado's body was abducted by Dr. Impossible at the behest of Solomon Grundy.
(Justice League of America II #7) - Solomon Grundy turned Red Tornado into the new Amazo, and after the JLA defeated him they had Magnus remove the Amazo software so Red Tornado could return to his old body.
(Doom Patrol V #1) - Doc Magnus and the Metal Men set up shop in a new neighborhood, and they faced hostile neighbors who worried that the Metal Men were a health hazard. Doc met with a neighborhood council to allay their fears, he'd made his Metal men environmentally friendly, but no one listened to him. The Metal Men became more emotionally unstable, with Gold becoming a delusional narcissist, Mercury crankier than ever because he stopped taking his medication, and the rest of the team refusing to accept the presence of their new teammate Copper. A museum hired the Metal Men to recover the ruby of redemption from Brazil, but it was guarded by the animated idol Zummazumma. They managed to destroy Zummazumma, but Lead managed to lose the ruby. It took them 12 hours, but they finally found it and returned home. The team watched Douglas, Robot Hunter on TV while Tina prepared dinner for Doc Magnus. He didn't want to hurt her feelings, so he ate it, even though robots with no taste buds tended to make lousy cooks. Doc found Tina waiting in his bedroom, and had to carry her over his shoulder to get her out.
(Doom Patrol V #2) - Doc Magnus hired out the Metal Men to fix a television satellite. Magnus tried to impress his neighbors by having Lead and Iron transform into a lawnmower to do their lawns, but their help just creeped the neighborhood out. Gold, Tina and Copper ent into space in a rocket to get the job done, but they forgot to bring alng the repair manual. Doc as going to talk them through it, but Tina and Gold started bickering when Gold kept self-aggrandizing, and their scuffle led to the destruction of the television satellite and a nearby communications satellite, blacking out TV reception in 42 states.
(Doom Patrol V #3) - Doc downloaded driving protocols into the Metal men, and brought them to the DMV to get driver's liscences so they'd fit in with their neighborhood. Tin's nerves failed him, and he crashed Doc's car during his test, causing the already hesitant DMV to tell the Metal Men to go home. The team had left Copper back home, forgetting about her once again, and she tried to win points by continuing Doc's good neighborhood program, fixing Miss Romero's fiber-optics. She encountered Leonard Ruttman, the actor who played Douglas, Robot Hunter. He'd lost his mind after his show was cancelled and was convinced he was Douglas, and wanted to wipe out all robots. He shot his prop gun at Copper, merely confusing her. He retreated just as the Metal Men returned home.
(Doom Patrol V #4-6) - Tina sent Mercury, Tin and Magnus to the department store to get her birthday gifts. The three took a cab, and Mercury continued to berate Tin for crashing their car. Magnus made it clear that he thought the idea of celebrating a birthday for a robot was ridiculous. He confided in Tin that Tina’s interest in him was only her mimicking what she thought of as human love from the media she’d seen. The Clique, robotic mannequins who wanted to rule the world, were causing a disturbance at the department store, and the Metal Men went into action. Magnus worried about property damage and potential lawsuits. Betty, the Clique’s leader, ripped off Tin’s head. The Clique forced Magnus to pick out clothes for them, and he managed to call the rest of the Metal Men, but it took them a bit to arrive because Tina was so excited to get a call from Magnus that she neglected to ask where he was. Tina was furious seeing Magnus consorting with other female robots, and attacked them. The Metal Men combined to form a wood-chipper that ground the Clique to dust, and then wondered about the implications of destroying other artificial life forms. Magnus talked to the military to convince them that Prof. Rumpus, creator of the Clique, was just a fan of his, and not a terrorist.
(Doom Patrol V #7) - Doc Magnus admitted he was impressed with Rumpus’ work, and even though he could never view another scientist as his equal he thought it would be beneficial if Rumpus assisted his research. The Metal Men and Doc went back home, but their house exploded as they prepared to enter it. Douglas, Robot Hunter had broken in and laid explosives, but he accidentally blew himself up along with the house.
Comments: Created by Robert Kanigher & Ross Andru.
Doc Magnus received profiles in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #15 and Who’s Who in the DC Universe #12 under the Metal Men entry.
Bizarro-Superman wrote and illustrated the “Tinocchio Syndrome” comic book featuring Doc Magnus in Bizarro Comics #1.
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