James Gunn’s Superman reboot movie has a whole team of Justice League co-stars who will appear alongside David Corenswet’s Man of Steel. Some, like Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern Guy Gardner and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl are fairly recognizable. But others, Anthony Carrigan’s Metamorpho in particular, are likely altogether mysterious to a majority of casual DC fans.
Metamorpho’s inclusion as one of the members of the new Superman movie’s Justice League isn’t unprecedented – he’s a DC hero who dates back to the ’60s and who has indeed been a part of multiple iterations of the League in the decades since.
Alongside his upcoming live action appearance in Superman, Metamorpho is soon getting his own high-profile DC solo comic book from longtime Marvel mainstay writer Al Ewing, who’s branching out into the DC Universe alongside fan-favorite artist Steve Lieber. This combines for a one-two punch that’s about to give Metamorpho one of his first big, A-list moments in the DC Universe across media.
That boosted profile is naturally leading to questions about Metamorpho’s comic history, his powers, and his place in the DC Universe – all of which we’ve got answers for right here.
Metamorpho first appeared in 1965’s The Brave and the Bold #57 by writer Bob Haney and artist Ramona Fradon, with editor George Kashdan helping originate the concept for the character, who was originally envisioned as a partially satirical take on the ever more eccentric sci-fi stories of Silver Age superhero comics.
Within the DC Universe, Metamorpho starts out as human adventurer/archaeologist Rex Mason, who is hired by villainous corporate overlord Simon Stagg to retrieve an ancient Egyptian artifact known as the Orb of Ra which is said to possess tremendous power.
When Mason finds the Orb, he is suddenly ambushed by Stagg’s bodyguards, who expose him to the Orb’s power and leave him for dead, as Stagg has grown to resent Mason because he is in love with Stagg’s daughter Sapphire.
But rather than dying, Mason becomes Metamorpho, the Element Man, who possesses the incredible ability to turn himself into any element naturally found in the human body – but who is also cursed with a bizarre, non-human appearance that at first takes great effort to control.
Sapphire sticks with Mason, becoming his adventuring partner as he works against Simon Stagg and other villains with his amazing element powers in stories that are often tinged with comedy and a kind of absurdity that defines the classic Metamorpho vibe of cheery sci-fi.
In the ’80s, after a couple decades as an occasional leading man and guest star in secondary DC titles, Metamorpho finally hitched up with a super-team – but not the Justice League. Instead, Metamorpho’s first superhero team was the Outsiders, a sort of secret super-team led by Batman to take on missions under his guidance.
Later in that same decade, Metamorpho would finally become part of the Justice League as part of Justice League Europe and Justice League International, eventually going on to be part of the main Justice League team in the early ’90s.
Since then, Metamorpho has once again been a cult-favorite DC B-lister, who is finally getting a long awaited shot at the A-list thanks to his new comic title.
We haven’t seen much of Metamorpho in James Gunn‘s Superman film just yet. Even leaked set photos only show actor Anthony Carrigan onset in a motion capture suit, as the hero will unsurprisingly be primarily computer-rendered thanks to his unique and ever-shifting physiology.
Still, based on what we’ve seen of the film’s design for Superman himself and the rest of the Justice League, it’s very likely we’ll be seeing a version of Metamorpho that is fairly faithful to comics, with a body made up of four different sections to loosely represent the four alchemical elements of earth, air, fire, and water, according to the intent of original designer Ramona Fradon.
The rest of the League – including Green Lantern Guy Garnder, Hawkgirl, and Mister Terrific (and potentially Supergirl and Engineer of Authority fame) – is a mix of eras and incarnations of the comic book League, though Metamorpho will likely feel right at home next to Guy Gardner as they were both part of the comic Justice League in the ’80s and early ’90s.
In terms of casting, it’s hard to envision a better choice for Metamorpho than Anthony Carrigan, perhaps best known for his portrayal of lovable would-be gangster NoHo Hank on HBO’s Barry. He’s got the right look for an actor to build into a mo-cap version of Metamorpho, and he’s shown a particular aptitude for the kind of absurdist but relatable wit that the character’s personality has often encompassed.
We’ll hopefully get a glimpse of the movie Metamorpho some time before Superman premieres in July 2025. Before that, the new Metamorpho #1 comic book goes on sale December 25.
There’s a new Justice League Unlimited debuting in comic books, and they’re about to be the center of the DC Universe.