Dr. Will Magnus. Seriously?

This week's Arrow dropped a BIG name from the comics into the CW-Verse.  A name that might lead to another of those "No WAY!" moments that I love so much.

Dr. Will Magnus was mentioned as a possible angel investor for Felicity Smoak's artificial intelligence project, Archer.  In the comics, Magnus is the creator of one of my very favourite weird corners of the DC Universe, The Metal Men.  Seeing that The Metal Men are six artificially intelligent androids with shape changing powers, tying Felicity's AI to Magnus makes perfect in-universe sense.

If we really do get The Metal Men (even a glimpse) out of this, I will be STUNNED.  Like King Fucking Shark stunned.  Six (six!) humanoid robots that can shape-shift would be a pretty expensive cgi proposition for a network tv show to pull off, which is why I figure we'll likely see a static shot of the group in a lab setting, at least this season.  Perhaps they'll show up more fully realized in next year's shortened final season.

Truth be told, the semi-comedic nature of the team makes them a better fit for The Flash or Legends but you never know.  CW shows have done a pretty great job of integrating the odd bits of DC lore into more straight forward settings so far.  Actually, The Metal Men would be a SPECTACULAR way to tie the CW shows to the more oddity infused universe we've seen in Doom Patrol.  Not that I think there's much chance of that, but it would work pretty well.

For the record, The Metal Men are (usually):

Gold.  The leader, portrayed as either stiff or vainglorious.
Iron.  The muscle.  Stubborn and rebellious.
Lead.  The protector.  Not bright but loyal.
Mercury.  The hothead.  Volatile and prone to violence.
Tin.  The misfit.  Usually shown as cowardly and unsure of himself, often the lynchpin of the big save.
Platinum.  The soul.  Flirty, optimistic and the glue that binds the team.

Now, traditionally, The Metal Men are all guys except for Platinum. 

Personally, I would love to see one of two gender changes.  Either swap out one or two of them as ladies (Gold and Tin would be my choices) OR make them ALL men (The Metal MEN, after all) but make Platinum gender or sexually fluid.  They are shape changers, after all. 

And before anyone hates all over me, let's try to remember that The Metal Men have only a tiny presence in the modern superhero landscape and like many, many characters in both the DC and Marvel libraries, were created during a time that did not scream "DIVERSITY" or even really say it out loud.  There's always a big "BUT, BUT, TRADITION!" cry whenever there's a gender or race bend of an established character, and my personal solution to that is let's leave the big guns alone but once we're out of tier A, let's look to level some playing fields.  B, C and D list heroes are fair game for gender and race bending in my opinion.  Once you've done that, I bet money that some of the new versions find their way into the top tier. 

And really, do we need to make comic book robot genders a battleground?  Just go with it.