By Bob Haney, Gardner Fox, Ramona Fradon, Joe Orlando, Sal Trapani, Jack Sparling, Charles Paris, Mike Sekowsky, Mike Esposito, Bernard Sachs & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0762-5 (TPB)
By the time Metamorpho, The Element Man was introduced to a superhero-obsessed world the first vestiges of a certifiable boom were just becoming apparent. As such, the light-hearted, nigh-absurdist take struck a Right-Time, Right-Place chord, blending far out adventure with tongue-in-cheek comedy.
Celebrating 60 years of weird happenings, the bold, brash “Man of a Thousand Elements” debuted in The Brave and the Bold #57, cover-dated January 1965 and on sale from October 29th 1964 – just in time for Halloween. After a second try-out tale in the next issue, he and his crackers cast catapulted right into a solo title for an eclectic and oddly engaging 17-issue run. Sadly, this canny monochrome compendium – collecting those eccentric debut adventures from B&B #57 & 58, Metamorpho, The Element Man #1-17 and team-up tales from The Brave and the Bold #66 and 68 and Justice League of America #42 – is at present STILL the only archival collection available. Until someone rectifies that situation, at least here you can revel in some truly enchanting monochrome illustration and madcap myth-making. Unlike most Showcase editions, the team-up stories here are not chronologically re-presented in original publication order but are closeted together at the back, so if stringent continuity is important to you, the always informative old-school credit-pages will enable you to navigate the wonderment in the correct sequence.
Sans dreary preamble, the action commences immediately with ‘The Origin of Metamorpho’, written by Bob Haney (who created the concept and character and wrote everything here except the Justice League story). The captivating art is by Ramona Fradon & Charles Paris and introduces glamorous he-man Soldier of Fortune Rex Mason: currently working as a globetrotting artefact-procurer and agent for ruthlessly acquisitive scientific genius and business tycoon Simon Stagg. Mason is obnoxious and insolent but his biggest fault as far as the boss is concerned is that the mercenary dares to love – and be loved – by the plutocrat’s only daughter Sapphire…
Determined to rid himself of the impudent “fortune-hunter”, Stagg sends his potential son-in-law to Egypt tasked with retrieving a fantastic artefact dubbed the Orb of Ra from the lost pyramid of Ahk-Ton. The tomb raider is accompanied only by Java, a previously fossilised Neanderthal corpse Rex had extracted from a swamp and which (whom?) Stagg had subsequently restored to life. Mason plans to take his final fabulous fee and whisk Sapphire away from her controlling father forever, but fate and his companion have other plans…
Utterly faithful to the scientific wizard who was his saviour, Java sabotages the mission and leaves Mason to die in the tomb, victim of an ancient, glowing meteor. The man-brute rushes back to his master, carrying the Orb and fully expecting Stagg to honour his promise and give him Sapphire in marriage. Meanwhile, trapped and painfully aware his time has come, Mason swallows a suicide pill as the scorching rays of the star-stone burn through him…
Instead of death relieving his torment, Rex mutates into a ghastly chemical freak capable of shapeshifting and transforming into any of the elements or compounds that comprise his human body: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, iron, cobalt and so many others…
Hungry for vengeance, Mason returns and confronts his betrayers only to be overcome by the alien energies of the Orb of Ra. An uneasy détente is declared as Mason accepts Stagg’s desperate offer to cure him – if possible…
The senior Stagg is further horrified when Rex reveals his condition to Sapphire and finds she still loves him. Totally unaware of his employer’s depths of duplicity, Mason starts working for the tycoon as metahuman problem-solver Metamorpho, the Element Man.
Brave and the Bold #58 (February-March 1965) reveals more of Stagg’s closeted skeletons when old partner Maxwell Tremayne kidnaps the Element Man and later abducts Sapphire to ‘The Junkyard of Doom!’ Apparently, the deranged armaments manufacturer was once intimately acquainted with the girl’s mother and never quite got over it…
The test comics were an unqualified success and Metamorpho promptly started in his own title, cover-dated July-August 1965, just as the wildly tongue-in-cheek “High Camp” craze was catching on in all areas of popular culture: mixing ironic vaudevillian kitsch with ancient movie premises as theatrical mad scientists and scurrilous spies began appearing everywhere.
‘Attack of the Atomic Avenger’ sees nuclear nut-job Kurt Vornak seeking to crush Stagg Industries, only to be turned into a deadly, planet-busting radioactive super-atom, after which ‘Terror from the Telstar’ pits our charismatic characters against Nicholas Balkan, a ruthless criminal boss set on sabotaging America’s Space Program. Manic multi-millionaire T.T. Trumbull uses his own daughter Zelda to get to Simon Stagg through his heart, accidentally proving to all who know him that the old goat actually has one. This was part of TT’s attempt to seize control of America in ‘Who Stole the U.S.A.?’, with the ambitious would-be despot backing up the scheme with an incredible robot specifically designed to murder Metamorpho.
Happily, Rex Mason’s guts and ingenuity prove more effective than the Element Man’s astonishing powers…
America saved, the dysfunctional family head South of the Border, becoming embroiled in ‘The Awesome Escapades of the Abominable Playboy’ as Stagg schemes to marry Sapphire off to Latino Lothario Cha Cha Chavez. The spoiled wilful girl is simply trying to make Mason jealous and had no idea of her dad’s true plans; Stagg senior has no conception of Chavez’s real intentions or connections to the local tin-pot dictator…
With this issue the gloriously stylish innovator Ramona Fradon left the series, to be replaced by two artists who strove to emulate her unique, gently madcap manner of drawing with varying degrees of success. Luckily, veteran inker Charles Paris stayed on to smooth out the rough edges. First was E.C. veteran Joe Orlando whose 2-issue tenure began with outrageous doppelganger drama ‘Will the Real Metamorpho Please Stand Up?’ wherein eccentric architect Edifice K. Bulwark tries to convince Mason to lend his abilities to his chemical skyscraper project. When Metamorpho declines, Bulwark and Stagg attempt to create their own Element Man with predictably disastrous consequences. ‘Never Bet Against an Element Man!’ (#6 May-June 1966) took the team to the French Riviera as gambling grandee Achille Le Heele snookers Stagg and wins “ownership” of Metamorpho. The Gallic toad’s ultimate goal was stealing the world’s seven greatest wonders (including the Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower) and, somehow, only the Element Man can make that happen…
Sal Trapani began drawing with #7’s ‘Terror from Fahrenheit 5,000!’ as the acronymic superspy fad hit hard. Here Metamorpho is enlisted by the C.I.A. to stop suicidal maniac Otto Von Stuttgart destroying the entire planet by dropping a nuke into the Earth’s core, before costumed villain Doc Dread is countered by an undercover Metamorpho becoming ‘Element Man, Public Enemy!’ in a diabolical caper of doom and double-cross. Metamorpho #9 shifted into classic fantasy when suave and sinister despot El Mantanzas maroons the cast in ‘The Valley That Time Forgot!’: battling cavemen and antediluvian alien automatons, after which a new catalysing element is added in ‘The Sinister Snares of Stingaree!’ This yarn introduces Urania Blackwell – a secret agent somehow transformed into an Element Girl and sharing all Metamorpho’s incredible abilities. Not only is she dedicated to eradicating evil such as criminal cabal Cyclops, but Urania is also the perfect paramour for Rex Mason, who even cancels his wedding to Sapphire to go gang-busting with her…
With a new frisson of sexual chemistry sizzling barely beneath the surface, ‘They Came from Beyond?’ finds a conflicted Element Man confronting an apparent alien invasion whilst ‘The Trap of the Test-Tube Terrors!’ sees another attempt to cure Rex of his unwanted powers. This allows mad scientist Franz Zorb access to Stagg Industry labs long enough to build an army of chemical horrors. The plot thickens with Zorb’s theft of a Nucleonic Moleculizer, prompting a continuation in #14 wherein Urania is abducted only to triumphantly experience ‘The Return from Limbo’…
Events and stories grew increasingly outlandish and outrageous as TV’s superhero craze intensified and ‘Enter the Thunderer!’ (#14, September/October 1967) depicted Rex pulled between Sapphire and Urania whilst marauding extraterrestrial Neutrog terrorises Earth in preparation for the arrival of his mighty mutant master. The next instalment augured an ‘Hour of Armageddon!’ as the uniquely menacing Thunderer takes control of Earth until boy genius Billy Barton aids the Elemental defenders in defeating the alien horrors.
Trapani inked himself for Metamorpho #16: an homage to H. Rider Haggard’s She novels (and 1965 movie blockbuster) wherein ‘Jezeba, Queen of Fury!’ changes the Element Man’s life forever. When Sapphire marries playboy Wally Bannister, the heartbroken Element Man undertakes a mission to find the lost city of Ma-Phoor and encounters an undying beauty who wants to conquer the world… and just happens to be Sapphire’s exact double. Moreover, the immortal empress of a lost civilisation once loved an Element Man of her own: a Roman soldier named Algon who became a chemical warrior two thousand years previously.
Believing herself reunited with her lost love, Jezeba finally launches her long-delayed attack on the outside world with disastrous, tragic consequences…
The oddly appetising series came to a shuddering unsatisfactory halt with the next issue as the superhero bubble burst and costumed comic characters suffered their second recession in 15 years. Metamorpho was one of the first casualties, cancelled just as (or perhaps because) the series was emerging from its quirky comedic shell with the March/April 1968 issue.
Illustrated by Jack Sparling, ‘Last Mile for an Element Man!’ sees Mason tried – and executed! – for the murder of Bannister, resurrected by Urania Blackwell and set on the trail of true killer Algon. Consequently, Mason and Element Girl uncover a vast conspiracy and rededicate themselves to defending humanity at all costs. The tale ends on a never-resolved cliffhanger: when Metamorpho was revived a few years later no mention was ever made of these last game-changing issues…
Our elemental entertainment doesn’t end here though, as this tome somewhat expiates the frustrating denouement with three terrific team-up tales, beginning with The Brave and the Bold #66 (June/July 1966) and ‘Wreck the Renegade Robots’ wherein a mad scientist usurps control of the Metal Men just as their creator Will Magnus is preoccupied with a cure turning Metamorpho back into an ordinary mortal…
Two issues later (B& B #68 October/November 1966), the still chemically active crimebuster battles popular TV Bat-Baddies The Penguin, Joker and Riddler as well as a fearsomely mutated Caped Crusader in thoroughly bizarre tale ‘Alias the Bat-Hulk!’ with both yarns courtesy of Haney, Mike Sekowsky & Mike Esposito. Sekowsky also drew the final exploit in this volume as Justice League of America #42 (February 1966) sees the hero joyfully join the World’s Greatest Superheroes to defeat cosmic menace The Unimaginable. The grateful champions instantly offer him membership but are astounded when – and why – ‘Metamorpho Says… No!’: a classic romp written by Gardner Fox and inked by Bernard Sachs.
The wonderment concludes with a sterling pin-up of Element Man and core cast by Fradon & Paris. Individually enticing, always exciting but oddly frustrating in total, this book will delight readers who aren’t too wedded to cloying continuity but simply seek a few moments of casual, fantastic escapism.
© 1965-1967, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.
