Metal Men #40

Metal Men #40 (On Sale: August 19, 1969) has a cover by Mike Sekowsky and George Roussos.

As the Metal Men franchise is sputtering to a close next issue we have "Madman and Traitor," written and drawn by Mike Sekowsky and inked by George Roussos. Back from the remains of Magna Studio, the Metal Men are summoned to a meeting with Mr. Conan. He informs them that Doc has recovered from his coma, but has been kidnapped by Karnak, the dictator of a small island nation you have never heard of. He also informs them that Karnak operated on Doc's brain, turning him evil, and that he is now willingly building an army of robots to help Karnak conquer the world. Conan is sending them to the island to kill Doc.

After Conan convinces them that Doc is really evil, the Metal Men parachute onto the island where they are immediately attacked by Doc's new robot soldiers. They are able to defeat the soldiers and take their uniforms to impersonate them.

Impersonating the new robots, the Metal Men gain entry to Karnak's lair and Doc's laboratory. They are able to destroy the central computer that ran all the robots, putting them out of commission. Tina gets separated from the rest of the team and runs into Doc, who does not recognize her. She has the opportunity to kill Doc, but just can't do it. When Doc realizes it is Tina he shoots her and leaves. As Doc makes his get away, the team calls Conan asking for technicians for Tina, who is in bad shape.   Continued next issue.

One interesting thing in this issue is the letters page, now dubbed "Metal Scraps Scrappers' Page" and features one half of the page to comments against the new Metal Men look and the other to comments for the new look. On the "against" side, someone asked, "Who was the idiot who thought up this ridiculous change?" They answered, "Carmine Infantino, that's who!!"  

Edited by Mike Sekowsky.