In 1993, a four-part Metal Men miniseries retconned much of their backstory. It was revealed that the responsometers were not responsible for the Metal Men's sentience and that the Metal Men were imprinted with the intellects and personalities of real people during a lab accident: Magnus' brother Mike, fiancée Sharon, two lab workers Redmond Wilde and Randy Pressman, janitor Thomas Tinkham, and pizza-delivery man Jack. At the climax of the miniseries, Gold is killed and Doc Magnus mortally wounded. He transfers his personality into a blank, green robot known as Veridium, becoming the new leader of the Metal Men.