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"Secrets & Lies": Lori Lemaris, reporter of World's Finest, arrange an interview with U.S. President and war hero Samuel Schwartz to write about his illustrious military career and service with the Special Forces unit known as the [[Me

Quote1 You never were any good at the hard decisions. Quote2
Marcus Moore

Tangent Comics: Metal Men #1 is a one-shot with a cover date of December, 1997.

Synopsis for "Secrets & Lies"

Lori Lemaris, reporter of World's Finest, arrange an interview with U.S. President and war hero Samuel Schwartz to write about his illustrious military career and service with the Special Forces unit known as the Metal Men.

Following the American victory in the Vietnam War, Czechoslovakia became the next American conflict with Russia in 1968, the last war front of World War III. The Russians had overrun Czechoslovakia in a matter of weeks before they had unleashed the deadly Red Tornado chemical warhead on the American base in Pilsen. The superhero Captain Comet tried to divert the warhead but the base was destroyed by a saboteur bomb and the warhead detonated which killed the superhero. This greatly demoralized America's war effort until they received news of the Czech resistance having captured an undetonated Red Tornado warhead that would be transfer to the Americans. It was then that the renown six-man commando unit, the Metal Men, were sent to retrieve it in Soviet-occupied Prague.

The Metal Men consists of their commander Marcus Moore, his lieutenant Schwartz himself, computer hacker and technician Carl Walters (aka Gravedigger), Rey Quinones (aka Lobo), Francis Powell (aka Black Lightning), and John Holliday (aka Hawkman). The Metal Men earned their nickname for being reputedly invulnerable of coming out of missions without any loss or injuries. This said as Soviet troops, along with a tank, abruptly crash into their rendezvous point while waiting for their informant. The Metal Men neutralize their attackers until they finally met by their informant, a female Czech resistance fighter known as Raven who saves Schwartz's life. Moore immediately doesn't trust Raven and suspects that she set the Metal Men up. But Schwartz comes into Raven's defense and argues that she saved his life and is the only contact in leading them to the Red Tornado. Moore relents but he is still wary of Raven.

The Metal Men are led by Raven to the sewers where the resistance and Czech refugees are taking shelter from the war-ravaged surface. Schwartz describes that hundreds or thousands of people were terribly cramped underground and many of them are either sick, dying or already dead. The Metal Men learns from the resistance that the discovery of the Red Tornado warhead was due to a little girl who had inadvertently found it and was greatly injured and blinded from being expose to some of the warhead's chemicals.

Raven leads the Metal Men to an underground tomb where the warhead is being kept inside a sarcophagus. Gravedigger examines the warhead and discovers it is completely operational. Upon hearing this, Moore tells his team that there is now a change of plans as he wants the warhead to be reprogram and aim directly at Moscow, in which he believed that destroying Moscow would quickly end the war in America's favor. This shock the rest of the Metal Men in which Schwartz is vehemently against Moore's plans of using the weapon to cause more deaths, and reiterating their original goal of acquiring the warhead that would broker peace between America and Russia. Moore and Schwartz heatedly argues as does the other members of their team who are also divided on this issue. The argument soon turns violent in which Moore draws his pistol on Schwartz. But the tense moment is interrupt by Soviet soldiers, whom they seriously wounded Black Lightning.

The Metal Men engage in a intense fire fight until only Moore and Schwartz are left standing while the others are badly wounded. Moore resume his intentions on arming the warhead and he and Schwartz continue their standoff. At the face of this, Schwartz cannot bear the heart to kill his friend. Moore otherwise doesn't but only to be shot by Raven and dies in Schwartz's arms.

Schwartz concludes that Moore's body was necessarily left behind while the surviving Metal Men and with help from Raven's resistance had delivered the warhead to American-controlled territory, which successfully forced peace talks with the Soviets and ending the war. The exact account of Moore's death was covered up in which the official report stated that he was killed by a Soviet soldier.

After the war, Schwartz entered into politics and married Raven, who in turn became the First Lady; John Holliday remain with Schwartz and is his Chief of Staff; Rey Quinones left military service and ended up partially paralyze due to an auto accident, and is currently a political protester against Schwartz's administration. As for the others: Schwartz remains unaware that Francis Powell and Carl Walters are members of the shadow government Nightwing, headed by a very much alive and scarred Marcus Moore.

Appearing in "Secrets & Lies"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Red Army

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:



Notes

  • The victimized girl who was harmed by the Red Tornado is implied to be the Tangent Manhunter. She also mentions having a dog named Pooch, Manhunter's robot dog companion.



See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References


Tangent Comics
Characters Atom | Batman | Doom Patrol | Green Lantern | Joker | Metal Men | Nightwing | Sea Devils | Secret Six | Superman
Comics The Atom #1 | Metal Men #1 | Flash #1 | Green Lantern #1 | Sea Devils #1 | Joker #1 | Nightwing #1 | Batman #1 | Secret Six #1 | Doom Patrol #1 | Superman #1 | Wonder Woman #1 | Joker's Wild #1 | JLA #1 | Tales of the Green Lantern #1 | Powergirl #1 | Nightwing: Night Force #1 | Trials of the Flash #1 | Superman's Reign
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