Metal Men #44, Rain of the Missile Men.

Imagine standing in a butcher's shop in the early 1970s, reading a comic about robots while old people stand around complaining they can't understand this fancy New Money the government's introduced and that it's all just an excuse to put prices up.

Personally, I don't have to - because I lived it.

That comic was Metal Men #44 and, as a child, I always had a soft spot for it. It seemed odd. It seemed different. It seemed somewhat mystifying.

But now I'm not in a butcher's shop anymore and everyone, even old people, can understand that fancy New Money, so, how will I feel about this comic now?

It's the early 1960s (because this is a reprint book) and Doctor Magnus has created a bunch of robotic friends from various metals. He now uses them to fight the forces of evil and help mankind.

Unfortunately, mankind really does need his help because an evil space robot has the hots for the Metal Men's only female operative - Tina - and is determined to rain an army of his doppelgangers down upon Earth until he gets her.

Happily, like most of us, our resourceful doctor just happens to have a big cannon on him that makes things super-magnetic.

Once the evil space robot's been zapped with it, his mechanical army sticks to him and he ends up entombed at the heart of a giant ball of robots, trapped forever at the bottom of the nearest river, wherefrom he shall never escape .

The first thing that strikes me reading this tale now is its artwork. Drawn by Ross Andru, it has a cleanness and assurance that it's impossible not to be impressed by and it seems noticeably more accomplished than I'm used to from reading all those early Marvel comics of the same era.

The second thing that strikes me is what a complete and total jerk Doctor Magnus is. While his robots are totally devoted to him, and have a level of selflessness that's genuinely moving, he seems to have no concern for their welfare at all.

He even, at one point, sends Tina off to spend the rest of her existence in a glass case in the local museum, no matter how hard she begs him not to, only taking her back when the museum gets fed up of her crying all day long and returns her to him, complaining that she can't be a real robot because she's not acting like one.

Does this make Magnus change his attitude towards her?

No it doesn't.

The third thing that strikes me - and struck me as a child - is that this is probably the grimmest comic book story I've ever read. The Metal Men get killed twice in the course of this story.

Admittedly, Magnus does manage to recreate them, with their original memories intact, but the sight of the story's heroes melting to death as they attempt to put out a fire is the sort of thing that can leave a man, let alone a child, traumatised.

So, do I still like it?

Sort of. I like the Metal Men themselves. They each have clearly differentiated personalities, in line with their properties as metals, and how can you not like anyone as self-sacrificing as they are? I also like the villain who isn't exactly what you'd call a developed character but I like his short-temper, and his frustration at only being able to produce replicas of himself whenever he tries to create a wife.

But the elephant in the room that is Magnus is hard to get round. Call me sad but I had exactly the same feeling when I tried to watch The Powerpuff Girls. I couldn't bring myself to keep watching it because the sight of a grown man sending small children into battle with homicidal villains, without heed for their safety, bothered me so much I had to switch off. And that was just a cartoon. This, on the other hand, is real; it's a comic.

So, I'd be very happy to read more issues, provided Magnus has been replaced by a legal guardian who the Metal Men actually deserve.

Are the Metal Men still on the go in the modern DC universe? I hope so, and I hope they're having a happier time than they are here.