Metamorpho
Metamorpho (also: Metamorpho, the Element Man ) is the title of a series of comic books published by the US publisher DC-Comics since 1965.
The Metamorpho-Comics, which are based in the genre of science fiction / fantasy and are characterized in particular by their mixing of the themes and aesthetics of traditional American superhero comics with elements of pulp narration, have the experiences of an adventurer named Rex Mason as their content . Since an ominous accident, he has had the gift of being able to deform or transform his body or parts of it into any known chemical element.
Publications under the Metamorpho title
The first Metamorpho stories were published in 1965 in the anthology series The Brave and the Bold , in which DC presented different content from issue to issue in order to test ideas for new series for the response from (potential) readers. Responsible for creating these stories, the first of which appeared in The Brave and the Bold # 57 of January 1965, were the author Bob Haney and the illustrator Ramona Fradon.
From 1965 to 1968, DC finally brought out an independent series on the Metamorpho character for the first time, which appeared every two months and reached a total of seventeen editions. Artistically this series was again supervised by Haney and Fradon. After Fradon left the series with issue # 4, first Joe Orlando and finally Joe Trapani took over the drawings. Charles Paris acted as an inker for the whole series.
In 1975, a single Metamorpho story followed in the June issue of the try-out series First Issue Special , in 1993 a four-part miniseries briefly titled Metamorpho , and in 2007 a six-part miniseries called Metamorpho: Year One . In addition, Metamorpho came into focus in the 1980s as a main character in the series The Outsiders, created by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo .
The artists who worked on Metamorpho include the creators of the figure, the illustrator Graham Nolan and the author and illustrator Dan Jurgens (Metamorpho: Year One).
Publication in Germany
In Germany from 1968 to 1969 stories from the first Metamorpho series were published by BSV Verlag in a German translation in the "Super Comics" series, alternating with Metal Men . In total, the series came to 30 issues, of which 16 issues were on Metallmenschen and 14 issues on Metamorpho.
action
The title hero of the Metamorpho-Comics is the adventurer and researcher Rex Mason. While exploring an Egyptian pyramid, Mason is exposed to the radiation of a radioactive meteorite ("The Orb of Ra"). The result is a change in his metabolism, which gives him the gift of transforming or deforming his body - or even parts of his body - at will into any element that occurs in nature.
As "Element Man" Mason, who later renames himself Metamorpho, begins to act as a superhero. His main adversary is the businessman Simon Stagg, the father of Mason's lover Sapphire, who is indirectly responsible for Mason's transformation into Metamorpho. Again and again, Stagg tries - as he did by sending Mason to the Egyptian pyramid - to get him into situations in which he would have to perish in order to separate him and Sapphire.
In later stories, from Metamorpho # 10, Metamorpho gets a partner with the female heroine Element Girl , alias Urania "Rainie" Blackwell, who is by his side on his adventures from now on.
Between 1983 and 1988 Metamorpho was one of six main characters at the center of the series Batman and the Outsiders , in which he experienced all sorts of adventures as a team with other superheroes.
In the 1988 miniseries Millennium , Metamorpho finally becomes - after a betrayal by Dr. Jacde, the Outsiders' scientific advisor - killed in battle with the alien "Manhunters". Barely a year later, he miraculously rises from the dead in the miniseries Invasion and continues his career as a superhero.
He joins the JLA superhero team , has a son - who due to an anomaly, no one but Mason and a friend can touch without being killed - and begins a relationship with his teammate Crimson Fox.
In the 1996 issue of JLA # 1, Metamorpho is killed again when he saves his JLA teammate Obsidian, Icemaiden and Nuklon by dropping theirs after the JLA Headquarters (a satellite orbiting satellite) fell to Earth Cushions impact with the help of its forces.
In Outsiders # 7 from February 2004, a second metamorpho is born: This emerges when a piece of Mason's body is split off and an identical copy of Metamorphos grows from a small piece and within a short time. Metamorpho first tries to absorb his doppelganger, but then gives him the right to a life of his own. After the doppelganger cannot cope with his own life and commits several murders, he gives up and finally lets himself be willingly absorbed.
Adaptations
In 2001, the cartoon network Cartoon Network presented a television adaptation of the Metamorpho material in the double episode “Metamorphosis” of the Justice League Unlimited series . There Metamorpho (US dubbing voice: Tom Sizemore ) first has some arguments with his friend John Stewart alias Green Lantern , whom he blames for his unfortunate fate, and tries to take bloody revenge on Sapphire before he comes to his senses and belatedly Chooses a heroic career that he takes in the comics without delay.
A parody of the Metamorpho comics drawn by Metamorphos co-creator Ramona Fradon can be found in Simpsons Comics Super-Spectacular # 5, in which the parodistic superhero “Radioactive Man” meets his enemy “Mufelatto, the Aliment Man”.
Reprints
In 2005, all of the Metamorpho stories from The Brave and the Bold and the Metamorpho series of the 1960s were reprinted collectively in the paperback series Showcase Presents .