Wonder Woman teams up with Platinum of the Metal Men to take down a rampant Kaiju, from her favorite anime, made of the Metal Men themselves.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the DC Cybernetic Summer story, “Fandom,” by Andrew Constant, Nicola Scott, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Carlos M. Mangual, on sale now.
As a warrior, diplomat, and superhero, Wonder Woman is the subject of all sorts of fandoms both in the real world and within the DC Universe. But a recent story in DC Cybernetic Summer, shows that Wonder Woman has her own interests as a fan that may be surprising to readers: Princess Diana loves anime.
In the story, Fandom, Wonder Woman bonds with the Metal Men over a shared interest of the in-universe anime called Monster Riot. Based on what happens in the story, it’s a show that’s definitely worth watching.
The story opens with Platinum, the only female member of the Metal Man, confronting her fellow hyper-advanced androids as they terrorize a local beach in the combined form of a kaiju-like monstrosity. With the group on vacation, she’d left the boys in their beach house so that she could go shopping on her own for a while. She returns to find innocent people in jeopardy. Platinum struggles to go toe-to-toe with her teammates on her own, but, she’s quickly joined by Wonder Woman whose experience with powerful foes tips the odds in her favor.
Wonder Woman notes that the Metal Men have taken a form resembling a kaiju from an anime that she watches called Monster Riot. When Platinum asks in surprise whether or not Wonder Woman actually likes anime. Diana responds by saying that she does enjoy some, adding that she has broad tastes. Wonder Woman and Platinum work in unison to take down the Metal Kaiju, with Platinum binding it’s legs to unbalance it as Wonder Woman uses the Lasso of Truth to force the androids to see the truth. Stunned by the power of the Lasso, the creature quickly realizes it is not one mind, but five, with the manipulated Metal Men—Mercury, Gold, Tin, Iron, and Lead—coming to their senses and separating themselves. Leaving them with hardly any memory of what had just happened.
Wonder Woman and Platinum trace the origin of the device, following the trail back to the lair of Hiro Okamura, better known as Toymaster. The teenage technological marvel willingly surrenders unconditionally and immediately. He promises to explain how he transformed the other Metal Men using Monster Riot on the condition that the heroes tell him if that giant alloy amalgamation looked as cool as the monsters on the show. Toymaster reveals that he only transformed the Metal Men into a metal monster so that he could watch through his spy-satellites that had malfunctioned at the time.
While Monster Riot is clearly a pretty popular show, Toymaster claims to be the show’s biggest fan—and that’s a claim that he arguably backed up with his actions in this issue. After all, none of the heroes enjoy it enough to try and recreate it in their day-to-day lives by putting innocent people at risk. Even so, based on this short story, Monster Riot certainly seems to have earned its fandom. With the Metal Men monster resembling something out of Power Rangers or Pacific Rim, it has a mass-market crowd-pleaser that appeals to teenagers, androids, and even Amazonian Justice Leaguers. After all, it’d be hard not to be a fan of a show that Wonder Woman endorses.
