In Memoriam: Metamorpho: The Element Man (2024-2025)

 

Friends, Romans, fellow Fabulous Freaks, I come before you to mourn Metamorpho: The Element Man, which sadly came to and end this week at six issues. I’ll freely admit I am a cynical man, bitter and jaded, pickled in the depths of internet discourse of comics, that poisonous stew of vitriol and negativity, as I am sure many of you are as well. So last September when I was looking at the racks at my local comic book store, I was surprised when I found out Al Ewing and Steve Lieber were taking up the task of penning a new Metamorpho series. Created in 1965 by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon, the freak of a thousand changes was originally intended as a parody of the far-out powers that populated comic books in the sixties.

He was not a character I expected to enjoy but from that very first issue with its constant hep cat slang and throwback artistic sensibility there was a sincerity that grasped me and a wholehearted love of the source material and comics as a medium that poured through every panel and every piece of narration. Detailing Metamorpho’s investigations of C.Y.C.L.O.P.S. as well as his relationships with his erstwhile love interest Sapphire Stagg, her conniving industrialist father Simon Stagg, his caveman bodyguard Java, in addition to a multitude of miraculous molecule people, the plot is deliciously silver age without falling into the common pitfalls of the era. The second issue focuses on a ne’er do well called the Mad Mod, a singularly Al Ewing creation who uses algorithms to scrape old trends and rehash them in an attempt to create a star to rival and destroy the pop diva Sapphire Stagg. The story line manages to walk the line of throwing back to superhero comic books of the sixties with contrived and silly super villain plots while also having something to say about this day and age, and all while not feeling forced. And it remains absolutely delightful at the same time as the Yesterday Woman, the Mad Mods accidental evil robot creation, declares “there’s power in reactionary nostalgia! But there’s even more power in an enormous gun!” It’s a comic that knows how to make a point without taking itself too seriously. Hell, the third issue is an extended James Bond-esque homage to spy fiction starring Java the Neanderthal. However, I won’t go to deep on the rest of the plot as it is a delight that you should investigate for yourself and I don’t want to spoil every gag. The art team of penciler Steve Lieber, colorist Lee Loughridge and letterer Ferran Delgado work together to create a brightly colored and textured world that stands out among the smooth and homogenized art styles that fill the publishing line ups of the big two. Issue #6 contains one of my favorite gags that’s carried off almost entirely carried off by the art team as there is a near pitch perfect recreation of the look and feel of a 1940’s superhero comic book, down to panel layout and lettering, which ends on a plea to buy war bonds.

But I am rambling so I will bring this brief essay to a close. I want to leave you with this, Metamorpho: The Element Man is a comic book that loves comic books, simultaneously self-aware and deeply sincere, both homage and parody, it’s just fun and I will forever love it for all of that. Its difficult to find things to be positive about these days, whether it be in comics or the world writ large, so its sad when something like Metamorpho ends with so much unrealized potential, but if nothing else I’d ask you to give that weirdo comic a chance, try something new and you might be surprised about what you find.