DC Finest: Metamorpho: The Element Man

by Bob Haney, Ramona Fradon (Illustrator), Sal Trapani (Illustrator)

Meet Rex Mason, AKA Metamorpho: The Element Man! Transformed by an unlikely accident, Metamorpho now has the incredible ability to transmute his body into any natural compound at will, be it solid, liquid, or gas! Read his thrilling origin story and experience his first ever solo series, collected as part of DC Finest for the first time!
DC Finest continues, a major publishing initiative presenting comprehensive collections of the most in-demand and celebrated periods in DC Comics history, spanning genres, characters, and eras!Follow Metamorpho's earliest days, from the origin story of Rex Mason to his solo adventures in his first ever ongoing series, the perfect place to get in on the ground floor of this Silver Age hero!
This volume collects Justice League of America #42; The Brave and the Bold #57-58, #66, #68, #88, #101; Metamorpho #1-17.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics

592 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2025

About the author

Robert G. Haney was an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics. He co-created the Teen Titans as well as characters such as Metamorpho, Eclipso, Cain, and the Super-Sons.

Reviews

[Doug Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went in to this book with no idea what to expect, but i liked this a lot by the end. I enjoyed the storytelling here, even if most of the stories don't hold much weight, they are still fun. I was pretty thrown off by the end of the book, as I was actually fairly interested in the direction the last few issues took the story, but then suddenly there's a time skip and those issues never happened? I looked into it and it seems the series was cancelled which is a bummer, although I do think it was the right decision to keep him with Sapphire. overall I had a lot of fun with this and these were some of my favorite dc comics from the silver age.

[David Cobraestilo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bien por el valor histórico

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This latest volume in my DC Finest collection was a total impulse buy at San Diego Comic-Con; it seemed to call my name from a large booth of discounted graphic novels. I was never a fan of Metamorpho back in the day—the mid-1960s—when it first appeared on the newsstand. I found it to be “dumb,” in the somewhat limited vocabulary of an 8- to 10-year-old. But this 592-page volume which reprints the character’s The Brave and the Bold appearances (including his origin in issues 57 and 58, plus three team-ups in 66, 68, and 101, the complete run of his own title—issues 1-17—and Justice League of America 42), has made me more of a fan. Co-creator Bob Haney is one of DC’s wonkiest writers of this era, most famous for his B&B Batman team-ups, which ran the gamut from Sgt. Rock to Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, and his wonkiness shows with this character. Some of the stories are a lot of fun, though … I particularly liked issues 4 and 6. One thing I was surprised to learn: Ramona Fradon only drew the character’s first six issues (the two B&Bs and the first four Metamorphos); the rest of the run is pretty much done by Sal Trapani, but inker Charles Paris helps make it still look like Fradon. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, but it’s probably my least favorite DC Finest volume to-date … but still a good read.

[Secret Agent Fan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the early '60s DC comics had a reputation for being kind of stodgy. It's heroes were all sort of cut from the same mold. Handsome, stalwart, clean-cut types. And then Metamorpho came along. His early stories play as a campy parody of the typical DC superhero.

Transformed by the Orb of Ra into the Element Man, handsome adventurer Rex Mason's body becomes a bizarre amalgamation of chemicals. He's able to alter his body into a myriad of shapes, using the chemicals found in the human body. Despite his now freakish appearance, his girlfriend Sapphire Stagg still loves him, much to the consternation of Java--a million-year old cave man recently discovered by Mason on one his expeditions for Sapphire's father, millionaire Simon Stagg.

It's all pretty wacky for good ol' buttoned-down DC comics. The artwork, primarily by Ramona Fradon and Sal Trapani, has a cartoony look--quite unlike the more realistic style of the primary DC artists at the time. The villains are Batman TV-show campy (before the TV show had even aired), including Nicholas Balkan, Zelda T. and the Thunder-Bird Robot, Achille Le Heele, Otto von Stuttgart, Doc Dread and many others who, oddly enough, never became regular villains in the DC Universe.

Some of the more interesting stories in this volume are the team-ups, with Metamorpho teaming with the Metal Men, the Justice League of America and Batman (who in that story becomes "Bat-Hulk," in an extremely odd nod to Marvel Comics).

And, as if things couldn't get any weirder, issue #10 introduced Urania Blackwell, the Element Girl. Also exposed to the Orb of Ra, she has the same powers as Metamorpho and has basically the same appearance except that she has long, green hair and wears a bikini.

You either enjoy this sort of thing or you don't. Best to look elsewhere if you prefer superhero stories that take a more serious approach to the material. There is one such story in this volume--a Batman team-up from "Brave and the Bold" # 101. Illustrated by Jim Aparo, the cartoony aspect is gone. This story, the final story in this volume, begins Metamorpho's most dramatic transformation--into a more conventional DC superhero.

The more serious version of Metamorpho has continued to appear in DC comics over the years. But there's something about those early, campy stories that got lost in the transition.

[Erik Wirfs-Brock · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fondly remembered superhero strip I found kind of a chore to get through. It starts off with some great Ramona Frandon art, and, uniquely for superhero comics, a distinctive, visually and personality wise, supporting cast present from the first tissue. It really reminded me of the setup of a saturday morning cartoon more than anything, with the hero being an adventurer, his rich girlfriend, a caveman butler, and a shady billionaire boss/schemer. Sadly, it quickly gets repetitive, with Metamorpho battling a generic series of mad scientists and dully designed robots, and the supporting cast never really doing anything except reiterating their character traits every issue. The late introduction of Element Girl as a rival love interest doesn't really change the pattern, although the stories do get more serialized. Hilariously the series is cancelled on a big cliffhanger that is not even mentioned the next time the character appeared, which is also reprinted here. Bob Haney is obviously imitating/parodying Stan Lee a bit here, but it doesn't really hit either as a parody or in creating the kind of hype Stan Lee could. Of historical interest, but skippable.

[Matt Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories were fun and the art was great and then the series was unceremoniously cancelled with no resolution but other than that love the character and the stupid shit he gets into. Covers 1964-1972.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun throwback read.