I just finished the six-issue run of Metamorpho, the Element Man by Al Ewing and Steve Lieber (who provides the cover below) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Ewing does a remarkable job evoking Bob Haney’s goofball style on the Silver Age series, plus bringing back everything from Urania Blackwell the Element Girl to the Thunderer to the crime cartel C.Y.C.L.O.P.S. (I kept expecting some joke about “Why do you assume our agents are mutants?” It’s that sort of book). It’s no end of fun. But.
But this is the fourth version of Rex Mason I’ve seen in a decade. There’s the New 52 version (Aaron Lopresti cover above), the Terrifics version —
— with its Evan Shaner cover (one of the Ewing issues lampshades that he’s blithely ignoring events from The Terrifics). Then there’s the Metamorpho in Mark Waid’s World’s Finest who may be the same as the one who joined the Terrifics or maybe not.
I’ve enjoyed reading all of these. At the same time, none of them give me an urge to see more Metamorpho stories published. Yes, I’d pick up a continue Ewing/Lieber run (though I’m not sure how long they can keep the tone going); if it’s something else by someone else, who the hell knows what I’d be getting? That’s always a risk with any sort of series that passes through multiple hands, of course. What looks like a fresh new take to the writer or show-runner may have some or all fans going “No, you don’t get the characters at all!”
(I had to get an original-series Ramona Fradon cover in here somewhere). For me, this is more frustrating. Don’t get me wrong, I dig out-of-continuity stories and there should always be a place for them. Imaginary stories. What If …? Elseworlds. But I have no idea what’s in Rex Mason’s continuity any more. Is Java a frenemy or a deadly enemy? Stagg’s toady or someone with a spine? Are Sapphire or Rex together or broken up? What parts of his history are still history?
I know DC’s new take is that in the multiverse, every story happened; that doesn’t help. If all these stories happened on different Earths, it still doesn’t give me a sense of what any given Metamorpho, now or in the future, is like or what he’s done.
The challenge for comic books, mystery series, TV series, etc. is to give readers/viewers more of the same without making it predictable and boring. Every time we open a Perry Mason mystery we know his client’s going to be accused of murder and Perry will play fast and loose with the rules to protect the client until he can clear them. He’ll always have Della Street as his secretary and Paul Drake as his legman. Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer is always tough and ready to smash or shoot whatever menace — organized crime, international communism — gets in his way. If I picked up a Mason novel and found he was, and had always been a corporate attorney with no trial experience (and heck, banging Della and Paul as a polycule), I’d wonder what the hell happened.
For the record, I’m not arguing nothing should change in comics; it’s more that I want to see the change happen and have at least some effect on later stories. I’ve seen comics writers make creative, interesting changes, then “put the toys back in the toybox,” resetting everything to where it was. Immortal Hulk was a terrific series (though I didn’t think it stuck the landing) but at the finish the closing of the Green Door appears to restore everything to what it was before (if I’m misinterpreting, don’t hesitate to correct me). In some ways that feels as inconsequential as a Superman red kryptonite story stretched out to several dozen issues.
Like I said, I’m all in favor of out-of-continuity tales. I’d like some continuity too.
Loved that Metamorpho series– one of my favorite reads of 2025.
I like the Grant Morrison approach of “It all happened, try not to worry about it too much.” I guess it allows the writer, or reader, to pick and choose as desired. Even if it’s contradictory. Though sometimes I’m a hypocrite and get miffed that something isn’t “my” (preferred) version of a character. But over the course of the 21st century, a lot of the organically developed progression of characters disappeared.
Take the new Batman & Robin: Year One. Very good read, gorgeous Samnee art. Am I supposed to take this as the ‘new’ version of events? But then, what was the last timeline? Year Three, Dark Victory, Robin Year One?
Redoing origins is the worst as it drives home the discontinuity. And the days when Year One was a cool concept are long gone. I kind of miss when comics didn’t reference origins every few issues.
You were the one who didn’t mind it in Human Target, though … 🙂
I don’t mind if things don’t perfectly line up with all the minutiae, but I do want some continuity. The wonderful and unique thing about comics is that these are the same characters that have always existed, and different writers add on different things. Good writers can make it work, but these days, it seems writers are lazy about it. Ewing obviously knows Metamorpho’s history, but he wanted to tell “his” story, so he ignored things that don’t fit. Urania Blackwell, for instance, is very famously dead, but nobody cares. It wouldn’t bug me so much if DC and Marvel didn’t make a big deal about continuity, but then they don’t care about making sure things fit a bit. Don’t say you care, then!
Part of the problem is, of course, the readership. As we get older, we want nostalgia, so, as Bill points out, we get yet another rendition of the early days of Dick Grayson and Batman. And we get more accretion to the old days, and “continuity” gets screwed up even more.
True. I could never get into the giffen/deMatteis goofball League so that made it easier.