Review by Frank Plowright

Moreso at DC than Marvel, there’s been a habit over the decades to never let obscurity lie. Very, very occasionally robbing the company graves pays off, with Peacemaker being an example, but more often, however sprightly the resurrection, it’s followed by a further decade in the graveyard until another writer at their apex fondly remembers a character from their youth currently lying dormant. Welcome to Al Ewing’s version of Metamorpho, the Element Man.

The victim of planned murder, Rex Mason was transformed into Metamorpho, able to convert himself into any element. Think Absorbing Man able to activate by instinct rather than touch. Industrialist Simon Stagg is always up to no good, aided by his caveman lickspittle Java, who’s immensely jealous of Metamorpho because for some inexplicable reason the beautiful Sapphire Stagg loves him. It places a limitation on the lengths Stagg will go to rid himself of Metamorpho, who’s always putting a stop to his schemes.

Ewing is as much the chameleon as Metamorpho, on one project contemplating existential philosophical matters, yet here channelling his inner Chuckle Brother in following creator Bob Haney’s light comedy touch. It’s joyously brought to life by Steve Lieber’s art, which exaggerates, but not to the point of ruining the jokes, and it’s so welcoming to have an artist who still bothers with backgrounds. This adds to Lieber’s fine catalogue of solid comedy graphic novels (see recommendations), and he tops the visual treats with a fine Fletcher Hanks homage in the final chapter.

Ewing references the 1960s throughout, most prominently via villain Mad Mod’s outrageous London patter, and the 1966 Batman-style narration, but this is set in the modern era, Sapphire now a singing influencer. Ewing packs in the ideas – Stagg Snr as a Simon Cowell style impressario for one – and packs the jokes into a fast-moving constantly-changing pastiche where every villain is more ridiculous than the last. It as if Ewing’s kept a record of daft ideas such as fighting sun gods, and funnelled them all in here, yet he’s also clearing up forgotten continuity elements in a way that adds to the jokes. For all the comedy, though, a solid superhero plot glues the experience together.

A final panel promises that if enough of us ask Metamorpho will return, but the odds of that are slim, so enjoy this brief visit and look for him again around 2034.