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| As a result of the New 52 in 2011, the entire line of DC characters was relaunched, incorporating properties belonging to the company's imprints: Wildstorm, Milestone, and Vertigo. As such, elements of this character's history have been altered in some way from the previous incarnation. For a complete list of all versions of this character, see our disambiguation page. |
You see the problem wasn't that the Metal Men wanted to destroy us or enslave us like Mercury would babble on about. The problem, Mr. Stone, is that they wanted to be us. They wanted to hang out and watch television and find love. They wouldn't follow orders. They wouldn't listen to me. 
- — Doc Magnus src
History
Will Magnus had an eventful life. His parents, upon discovering his genius, forced him to hack secure bank accounts for their benefit and then left him to take the blame. He was sent to a juvenile detention facility, but from there went on to study robotics at Carnegie Mellon, where he was assigned to Dr Tom Morrow. Upon graduation, he was immediately recruited by a US Army think tank to work on artificial intelligence.
Locking himself in his lab and communicating mostly by text messages, he worked on his design. His responsonometer software was apparently successful, but the robots produced - dubbed "Metal Men" - were too independent, too human, to be used... especially as Magnus had begun the project building search-and-rescue units, and the Army wanted to use them to kill people.
The robots successfully saved a city in Maryland from a chemical monster built using Magnus' technology at the cost of their own lives. Magnus stayed on in his lab, in a diminished version of his old job, until the Crime Syndicate took over the world's technology. He then broke his pattern to help Cyborg and the revived Metal Men defeat Grid.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
- Mechanical Engineering: Doc Magnus created the Metal Men from scratch using funding and research through the US Military.
- Gadgetry: Doc Magnus created what other scientists called a fool's dream, the Responsometer.
- Science: Doc Magnus' intelligence lies in his scientific knowledge which often times puts him at ends with other humans, for which he finds they have many faults.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Notes
- Doc Magnus was created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru, first appearing in Showcase #37. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Doc Magnus first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in Justice League (Volume 2) #18 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis.
Related
- 45 Appearances of William Magnus (Prime Earth)
- 22 Images featuring William Magnus (Prime Earth)
- 6 Quotations by or about William Magnus (Prime Earth)
- Character Gallery: William Magnus (Prime Earth)
Footnotes
  This character is or was a member of the Metal Men. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Metal Men members" category. |