Unsung Superheroes: Metamorpho

 

Unsung Superheroes title card

Okay! Time to shine a light on another one of the lesser-knowns of DC Comics! Been looking forward to this one. This is both one of my favorites and one of the characters we saw in 2025's Superman movie.

But first, let's set the stage for the era. It's 1965. DC had found success with its science-forward approach. But a new competitor, Marvel Comics, had appeared with a different approach that emphasized character drama and flawed, tragic heroes with feet of clay. So, what happens when both approaches meet head-on?

You get a character like Metamorpho, The Element Man!

Metamorpho

He wasn't the first of this new breed of hero at DC. He was preceded by the Metal Men in 1962 and the Doom Patrol in 1963 (more on them at another time). He was the first solo hero in that mold, though.

Created by writer Bob Haney and artist Ramona Fradon, Metamorpho started life as devil-may-care, handsome soldier of fortune Rex Mason. Mason works for corrupt millionaire tycoon and scientist Simon Stagg. Stagg also happens to be the father of Rex's lady love Sapphire Stagg. One day, Simon Stagg sends Rex on a mission he doesn't intend for him to return from. Along with Stagg's manservant Java, Rex is sent to the Lost Pyramid of Ahk-Ton in Egypt to retrieve the mysterious Orb of Ra. While on the mission, two things of consequence happen. One, Java attacks Rex and leaves him for dead. The other is that after he recovers from Java's attack he stumbles on a mysetrious glowing meteorite. Faced with a seeming death from the radioactive meteorite, he swallows a pill Stagg gave him to use whenever he might face death and promptly passes out. Something happens when Rex is exposed to both the chemicals in the pill and is exposed to the radiation from the meteorite. When Rex Mason awakens, he's been changed to something else. No longer quite human and with a startling new appearance, Rex Mason has become an Element Man. He is now a creature made up of pure versions all the different elements in the human body. He is able to transmute his body into any form of those elements, whether it be solid, liquid or gas. He can be as ephemeral as flourine gas, as strong as cobalt or even as reactive as sodium!  A walking, talking chemistry set able to transform into different mixtures and compounds of those various elements. Shaken by his transformation, Mason turns once again to Simon Stagg in hopes he can return him to normal (though, he does kind of thrteaten to tear down Stagg's mansion if he doesn't). But Stagg has his own plans for Rex Mason and also holds the Orb of Ra. Made from the same meteorite that transformed Rex Mason, the Orb of Ra is the only thing that can weaken an Element Man. Encouraged by Sapphire Stagg to use his powers for good until a cure can be found, the superhero career of Metamorpho begins.

For a catchier, more simplified account of the origin, you could also just listen to this song from Tifton Records' 1966 Songs and Stories About the Justice League of America:

Condensing it down to one paragraph doesn't quite gather all the nuance. For the time and the publisher it was coming from, it really was something new. And the characters and relationships were more complex than you'd see in a 1966 issue of Superman and Batman. So, let's do a rundown of the cast.

Rex Mason/Metamorpho- Rex Mason is our hero, but he's far from perfect. He's good enough to know not to give Simon Stagg all the discoveries and artifacts he's sent to find because he knows Stagg is power-hungry. However, Rex is also kind of arrogant, and looks down on “freaks” (like Java). It's only after he's transformed that Rex is humbled. But even then, he becomes depressed and fixated on getting back what he lost, even to the point of relying on Simon Stagg who he knew was untrustworthy.

Sapphire Stagg- One of the most surprising things about Sapphire Stagg is that unlike a lot of the more delicate and easily scared female love interests in 1960s comic books, Saphire accepts the transformed Rex almost right away. She faints upon seeing him at first, largely because she had a feeling that something would go wrong on the expedition and now was seeing it made manifest, but recovers quickly. She's even the one who pushes him toward using his abilities to be a hero. Sapphire's flaws though, lie in how sheltered and naive she is. She loves Rex, but she's also devoted to her father who she just can't see as the villain he is.

Simon Stagg- Simon Stagg is probably one of the first supervillains to not only function as a recurring supporting cast member but also to hide behind a legitimate facade (about 20 years before the Superman comics did the same thing with Lex Luthor). Unlike a lot of villains from that era of superhero comics, Stagg isn't bent on destroying the superhero, but controlling him. Which means he always has to keep Metamorpho close by, constantly dangling the promise of a cure in front of him and with the Orb of Ra nearby just in case Metamorpho should turn on him. He's not just controlling of Rex either. One of the reasons he ordered Java to abandon Rex in Egypt is because he didn't want him to marry Sapphire.

Java- Java is Simon Stagg's manservant. He's also a caveman that was resurrected in the modern day and given greater intelligence by Simon Stagg (yes, really. We're dealing with 1960s comics here, remember?). Java is romantically fixated on Sapphire Stagg, convinced that if he were only handsome like Rex Mason, she would surely fall for him (something we know is definitely not true, because she accepted Rex even after he was changed). Java spends much of his time vacilating between begging Simon Stagg to somehow make him handsome, feeling sorry for himself, and plotting some way to kill Metamorpho so he can have Sapphire all to himself. Java is cunning but not really smart. Java may be a bit of a blunt object, but not someone Metamorpho should be complacent around.

Metemorpho debuted in Brave and the Bold #57 and then he got his own series series, aptly titled Metamorpho, which lasted 17 issues. Not a super long run, but respectable considering how few new features even made it to series. He was considered for an animated TV show shortly after his debut (he lost out when CBS got the rights to do a Batman cartoon). And in the comics, he gained the questionable honor of being the first superhero offered membership in the Justice League of America to turn it down (Justice League of America #42, story entitled “Metamorpho Says No!”).

An issue from Metamorpho's original series.

In the early days of Metamorpho's appearances, the more tragic nature of the character was often countered by how tongue-in-cheek many of the stories are. The solo series was marked by a good-natured lampooning of pulp fiction tropes. For instance, despite supposdly having a legitimate reputation, Simon Stagg rather openly lives like a James Bond villain. His underlings, aside from Java, dress all in black with executioner hoods. His facilities are littered with strange technology. He even has a pet jaguar named Sheba. Metamorpho's villains also lean towards parody. They include characters with names like Achille Le Heele and Cha Cha Chavez.

As is often the case in corporate superhero comics, even after his series was canceled, Metamorpho still stuck around.

He'd reappear in series of back-up stories in Action Comics and World's Finest Comics, and then in the third issue of 1^st Issue Special. In the early '80s, Batman forms a team called the Outsiders, which he forms to intervene in things the Justice League can't because of their high status. Metamorpho becomes a founding member of the team. Later, after the dissolution of the Outsiders, an amnesiac Metamorpho (it's a long story), joins Justice League Europe, the European branch of the Justice League International. 

Metamorpho in Justice League Europe

It's while with this team that Rex reunites with Sapphire and finds out that he has a son named Joey Mason. Joey, it turns out has powers of his own and can transmute matter by touching it.

Baby Joey Mason

For the record, the above picture is what Joey looked like in the comics. The Superman movie made him look like Grogu but with smaller ears (I guess because they thought it would be merchandisable).

Later on, Metamorpho seems to join a new version of the Outsiders headed up by Nightwing (the original Robin, all grown up). But it turns out to be some kind of intelligent off-shoot of Metamorpho named Shift. Kind of a chemical clone. And then years later he would join a team called the Terrifics (a pastiche of Marvel's Fantastic Four) alongside Mr. Terrific, Plastic Man and Phantom Girl.

The Terrifics, including Metamorpho.

So, Metamorpho stuck around and he's become a good supporting cast player. He may not have been able to leg it out as a leading man, but he's become a fairly reliable member of the c-list.

There's just one problem with his tenure in the DC Universe.

He can't seem to stop dying.

It's become something of a crutch for DC writers that because of how powerful Metamorpho is, that they can kill him off to show how dangerous things are and then just bring him back later. He died at the end of the original Outsiders run and then came back. He died at the end of the Justice League International and came back. I believe he was dead at the beginning of Nightwing's Outsiders, which is why Shift could take his place. It's something that I wish DC would stop doing.

Anyway, now thanks to James Gunn and Warner Bros., the world has seen Metamorpho in live action (he's already appeared in a whole bunch of cartoons). 

Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho in Superman (2025)

He also got a new series around the same time written by Al Ewing and Steve Lieber. It lasted all of six issues and, to no one's surprise, Metamorpho seemed to die at the end. I don't think DC even showed how he came back this time, because now he's appearing in Justice League Unlimited.

A issue from Metamorpho's latest series.

He is one of my favorite lesser lights of the DC Universe. He has been ever since I read his original run of comics and was exposed to Metamorpho's unique combination of pathos and parody. I hope I might have at least clued you folks into why.