Metamorpho
Metamorpho (Cameos) on Justice League Unlimited
Metamorpho’s cameos on Justice League Unlimited. The episodes are:
1. Clash, 2. Panic in the Sky His run down the stairs is from “Destroyer.”
Metamorpho #1 (1993) Art by Graham Nolan.
Metamorpho (real name Rex Mason, also called The Element Man) is a fictional character, a superhero in the DC Comics Universe. He is a founding member of the Outsiders, and has also joined multiple incarnations of the Justice League.
Publication history
Metamorpho’s creator, Bob Haney, had seen success with DC Comics in 1963 with the titles Metal Men and Doom Patrol, featuring bands of superheroes exhibiting fantastic powers. Under the editorial management of George Kashdan, Haney was asked to capitalize on these titles’ popularity with a similar character. Metamorpho, the Element Man, debuted in The Brave and the Bold #57 (January 1965). As first conceived, Metamorpho was a parody of the fantastic characters that populated comic books in the 1960’s. Artist Ramona Fradonwas coaxed out of maternity-retirement to illustrate Metamorpho’s first appearances. The popularity of Metamorpho’s appearances in The Brave and the Bold led to a 17 issue ongoing series between 1965 and 1968. Metamorpho also appeared during this time in two issues of Justice League of America (#42 & #44), but became the second superhero to decline an invitation to join that organization (Adam Strange being the first). Metamorpho also appears on the cover of Aquaman #30 as one of the pallbearers (along with Batman, Hawkman, and Superman) at the “Sea King’s Funeral.” Metamorpho appeared in a series of back-up stories in Action Comics #413-418 and World’s Finest Comics #218-220 and #229.
In 1975 Metamorpho appeared in 1st Issue Special #3, a brief series consisting of one-shots of new and established DC comics characters. That issue was written by Bob Haney and illustrated by Ramona Fradon, Metamorpho’s original creators.
After becoming a charter member of the Outsiders in 1983, and member of the European branch of the Justice League International, he received his own 4 issue mini-series in 1993.
In 2005, DC Comics reprinted Metamorpho’s early The Brave and the Bold appearances and the entirety of the 1965 series as one of the company’s volumes of Showcase Presents.
In 2007, Dan Jurgens launched the 6 issue series Metamorpho Year One.
As part of a Wednesday Comics, Neil Gaiman wrote a twelve-page Metamorpho story that Mike Allred illustrated.
Fictional character biography
Rex Mason was an adventurer who was hired by business tycoon Simon Stagg to retrieve a rare Egyptian artifact, the Orb of Ra. Mason also started dating Stagg’s daughter, Sapphire Stagg. This was just one of the incidents that antagonized Simon Stagg.
In an Egyptian pyramid, Rex Mason was knocked out by Simon’s brutish bodyguard, Java, and eventually exposed to a radioactive meteorite from which the Orb of Ra was fashioned. A tremendous flare-up of its radiation transformed Rex Mason into Metamorpho, the Element Man. He gained the ability to shapeshift and change himself into any element found in the human body, or any combinations thereof. It was also established in his origin story (see: The Brave & The Bold #57) that he was virtually invulnerable in his inert (untransformed) state, when Stagg, afraid that Rex was going to kill him, shot him point-blank without effect. The Orb of Ra, however, had the same effect on Rex that kryptonite has on Superman. Thus Stagg continued to control Metamorpho. Later, it was revealed that Mason was but one of many metamorphae, created by the sun god Ra -by this meteor- to serve as warriors in his battle against the god Apep, “the serpent who never dies.”
Metamorpho, unlike other super-humanoids described in DC Comics, could not assume a fully human, normal appearance, being no longer composed of flesh, blood and bone. As such, he regarded his metamorphic powers as a disease and sought a cure for his condition. (This was then, and has remained, a common theme in science fiction and comic books.) He considered himself a non-human freak because of his abilities and wanted to be restored to normal. For that reason, he rejected an offer of membership that the Justice League of America extended to him. He did have Green Lantern attempt to change him back to normal. Due to a “yellow” component of the meteor radiation that had given him his powers, the ring was unable to make him normal again.
Metamorpho briefly had a crimefighting partner: a woman named Urania “Rainie” Blackwell who deliberately exposed herself to the Orb and gained its powers, calling herself Element Girl. She worked with him on a number of cases.
Issues #16-17 were intended to show a new direction for the series, with Sapphire marrying a man named Wally Bannister and Metamorpho going off with a mysterious Mr. Shadow to deal with an immortal queen who looked just like Sapphire. Bent on world conquest, the queen married Metamorpho, stepped outside her mystic city and instantly aged 2000 years.
Wally Bannister, however, was murdered off-stage by Algon, a Metamorpho who had lived for centuries in a depowered state. Mr. Shadow turned out to be attempting to enslave Metamorpho. He did not show up to defend Metamorpho when he is framed, tried, convicted by a jury of rabble, condemned and executed. Element Girl revived Metamorpho. Algon, the real murderer, was killed by molten lava minerals in an attempt to regain his burned-out powers. The murder of Mr. Bannister was engineered by the villainous Prosecutor, who was apparently killed by an insectoid villain in a cocoon. At this point, issue #17 ended and the story was never continued.
Metamorpho reappears years later in The Brave and the Bold #101 (April-May 1972), in which it is revealed that he spent the period after the end of his own series immersed in a painful chemical bath concocted by Stagg that was intended to cure his condition. Stagg retrieves him from this “cure” too early because he needs Mason to save his endangered daughter Sapphire. Metamorpho went on to star in a new a back-up series beginning in Action #413 (June 1972). There was no reference to the last two issues of his regular series in this revival, or to any of characters or incidents in those issues.
Urania Blackwell, unreferenced since the end of the regular series, was later revealed to have ended her partnership with Metamopho when her unrequited attraction to him became too much for her, afterwards living as a recluse. Blackwell’s power was removed, resulting in her death, at her own request by the sun god Ra, with assistance from Death, in Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman. She mentions Algon, in passing, as having achieved release from the torment of his existence through death, to convince Ra to remove her powers.
Outsiders
Metamorpho spends some time working with the Outsiders. While in the despotically ruled country of Mozombia, Metamorpho is subdued and taken apart. The tyrant’s forces keep him inert with a constant application of radiation. He is freed by Katana’s indestructible sword, which had been latched onto a live electrical wire.
While leaving Mozombia, the Outsiders’ plane is shot down by the Bad Samaritan. Metamorpho and the others spend some time stranded on a deserted island, simply too far away from land to rescue themselves.
Metamorpho perishes, for the first of multiple times, during the Millennium event. The scientific adviser to the Outsiders, Dr. Jace, had decided that life with the more logical Manhunters was preferable and she betrayed the team. They fought back, but Metamorpho had been brainwashed into assisting Jace. He was killed in the resulting battle. He returns during the Invasion miniseries, when a gene-bomb set off by invading aliens affected his biomass.
Television
- According to Norm Prescott, six episodes of a series starring Metamorpho were completed and ready to air in 1960s, but the entire series was shelved when CBS chose to rush The Batman/Superman Hour on its schedule.
Metamorpho in Justice League Unlimited.
- Metamorpho appeared in the Justice League animated series two-part episode “Metamorphosis”, voiced by Tom Sizemore. Rex Mason was a friend of John Stewart’s from when they were Marines. He was exposed to mutagenic gas by his boss Stagg who then convinced Mason that Stewart was the one responsible, supposedly as a way to steal his fiancée Sapphire (voiced by Danica McKellar). Metamorpho’s attempts at revenge create a giant monster imbued with part of Stagg’s mind, which threatens to harm Sapphire. Metamorpho sacrifices himself to stop the creature by turning into the chemical formula to neutralize it. Apparently killed, a single tear from Sapphire falls into his liquefied remains, allowing him to regenerate into his humanoid form. He is one of several heroes suggested to be Superman‘s replacement in the League after he is sent into the future by the Toyman (in the episode “Hereafter”). Here his code-name was the name of Stagg’s project to create an enhanced worker for mining community.
Metamorpho appears briefly in several non-speaking roles in Justice League Unlimited (specifically the episodes “Clash”, “Panic in the Sky”, and “Destroyer”), as well as in a still shot with the rest of the roster in “Initiation”. In “Clash”, Metamorpho assists in fighting Parasite, but has his powers stolen by the villain. In “Panic in the Sky” and “Destroyer”, he helps battle against the Ultimen clones and Darkseid‘s Parademons, respectively.
- Metamorpho appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode “Enter the Outsiders!”, voiced by Scott Menville. This version is a teenager who was a member of the Outsiders, along with Katana and Black Lightning. Here, he is shown to be a happy-go-lucky goofball and easily gets distracted by food (being that his abilities apparently require lots of energy to use). They worked for Slug until Batman and Wildcat convinced them to become crimefighters. Metamorpho helps in saving Wildcat’s life when his heart stops in the middle of a fight. Katana has Metamorpho turn into oxygen in order to revive Wildcat. Metamorpho is later seen with Katana and Black Lightning in a training simulation in “Duel of the Double Crossers!”. His insecurities about his appearance and his repressed anger are shown in a nightmare created by Psycho-Pirate in “Inside the Outsiders!”. He reappeared along with the rest of the Outsiders (Black Lightning, Katana, Geo-Force, and Halo), a bit older, in the teaser to “Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster!”, helping Batman stop Kobra and his cultists.
- Metamorpho has been confirmed to appear in Beware the Batman.
