Gas Gang

The Gas Gang were a group of short-lived fictional robots in DC Comics. They first appeared in Metal Men #6.

This article is about short-lived fictional robots in DC comics. For the bacterial infection that produces gas in tissues in gangrene, see Gas gangrene. For the British street-gang, see Gas Gang (Brixton gang).
Gas Gang
Publication information
PublisherDC comics
First appearanceMetal Men #6 (February 1964)
In-story information
Member(s)Oxygen
Helium
Chloroform
Carbon Monoxide
Carbon Dioxide

Fictional team history

The story begins where the previous story "Menace of the Mammoth Robots!" left off. After dislodging a meteor from his ship's hull and rescuing the lone female robot Platinum, Dr. William "Will" Magnus had his spacesuit perforated by cosmic rays. The effect was that during their return trip to Earth, "Doc" Magnus became a robot himself, displaying none of the actual human and humane feelings toward his Metal Men or anything, even to the point of denying the Metal Men the opportunity to rescue another rocketship in distress. After they disobeyed orders and rescued the ship, Doc Magnus threatened to melt down his creations. For his own protection, after landing the Metal Men locked him in his lab and began experimenting on ways to make him human again. However, while they were busy with one failed experiment after another, the lab door burst open and Doc Magnus introduced his new robots, the Gas Gang. Unlike the Metal Men (each of whom was based on a different metal), these were based on (and named for) the gases Oxygen, Helium, Chloroform, Carbon Monoxide, and Carbon Dioxide. Whereas the Metal Men were approximately the same size as Doctor Magnus, the Gas Gang were anywhere from one-third to twice his size. On Chloroform's initial attack, it caused the Metal Men to break out in fits of hysteria ala Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas) which Doc Magnus said was chloroform's initial effect. Before Lead could wall them off, Mercury literally "broke up laughing", opening Oxygen to attack and causing the Metal Men to begin to rust. During the chase Carbon Monoxide (called "CM" by Carbon Dioxide) attempted to poison them with fumes, while Carbon Dioxide (called "CD" by Carbon Monoxide) attempted to freeze them. The chase ended in one of the labs where Gold was attempting heat conduction on the others as a possible cure for their creator. As Helium expanded and cornered the Metal Men, Platinum got Gold to repeat the experiment, stretching and transforming himself into a large cage and trapping the Gas Gang. When he connected himself to the high-voltage conductors he melted the Gas Gang and converted them all to steam. That was when they discovered Doctor Magnus had been trapped in there with them, and as it turned out is what cured him and made him human again.[1]

The Gas Gang was rebuilt in #10 when the Metal Men had returned from a space mission amalgamated, enlarged to colossal size and mentally unbalanced. Carrying out Doc Magnus' instructions to defeat the Metal Men Collective and then bring them (it) to Doc, they then turn against Doc and try to kill him. Once again they are defeated and eradicated.[2]

They act offstage as some of the rebuilt enemies of the Metal Men, brought back by Platinum Man (created and app. destroyed in #32) in a revenge scheme against Doc Magnus who seemingly had abandoned him and the Metal Women (in Brave & the Bold #187). They run off and do not reappear in that story.

Members
  • Oxygen - A Gas Gang member in the form of a walking oxygen tank.
  • Helium - A Gas Gang member in the form of a rubberized container that could expand.
  • Carbon Monoxide - A Gas Gang member in the form of a walking lit Bunsen Burner. His face and head were made of fire.
  • Chloroform - A Gas Gang member in the form of a walking cylindrical tank perforated with holes from which it emitted its gas.
  • Carbon Dioxide - A Gas Gang member that resembles an anthropomorphic dry ice crystal.

In other media

Television
  • The Gas Gang appear in Batman: The Brave and the Bold with Oxygen voiced by Brian Bloom, Carbon Dioxide voiced by Hynden Walch, Hydrogen voiced by Lex Lang, Helium voiced by Bill Fagerbakke, and Chloroform and Nitrogen having no dialogue. This version of the team is altered somewhat from the original: Hydrogen (an explosive gas) is added, Carbon Dioxide has the body of Carbon Monoxide (leaving Carbon Monoxide out of the team altogether), and Carbon Dioxide's body from the comics is used by a new character called Nitrogen. This version of the Gas Gang are Dr. Magnus' fellow scientists who were turned into gaseous forms following a lab accident while trying to develop a gas that can cause volcanic eruptions and cause mass destruction. In the episode "Clash of the Metal Men", the group kidnap Dr. Magnus in order to force him to build robotic bodies to store their fading gaseous bodies by claiming he was responsible for their condition. Once he was finished, they strapped him to a chemical container and lowered it into their volcano lair in order to set it off, only for Batman and the Metal Men to show up. Though the heroes fight valiantly, the Gas Gang proves to be too much for the Metal Men, so the latter combined with Batman to form armor. The gaseous villains responded by combining as well and continued to beat the heroes back until Batman threw a torch at them; destroying their robotic bodies and combining their gaseous forms into a deadly gas cloud. While Batman went after the Gas Gang, the Metal Men saved Dr. Magnus. Batman set his Batplane to self-destruct, destroying the Gas Gang.
gollark: Would it be possible to do something like what OC does? Per-computer settable architectures. Apart from the maintenence headache I guess.
gollark: You can implement setfenv on top of debug and stuff.
gollark: > using windows
gollark: I can use the compose key on Linux, so I hold [left windows key] and type "t" and "m".
gollark: Oh, right, \:tm\:.

References
  1. Metal Men #6
  2. Metal Men #10
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