Al Ewing and Steve Lieber’s Metamorpho: The Element Man has been the strangest of the new books launched with DC’s “All In” initiative. Essentially ignoring the current timeline of events within the DC universe, Ewing and Lieber have instead been using the series to tell fun, tongue-in-cheek comic stories that throw back to Rex Mason’s golden age of adventure. The series has been an absolute blast, and Metamorpho: The Element Man #6 brings the series in for a landing in way that only these creators can, complete with an angry evil sun, a trip to a mystical realm, and a ton of winks to the audience.
With the mad sun Solaris wreaking havoc over the globe, it’s up to Metamorpho and his crew to try and save life as we know it. Simon Stagg has a plan, but it involves a brand new element that has been embedded in Metamorpho all the way back from when he was the human known as Rex Mason. Will it be enough for Metamorpho to save the world? Why is is just learning about this subterfuge by his girlfriend’s father now? And if this plan doesn’t work, what will?
If you’ve been following this series from the beginning, you know that Al Ewing is having a blast. Playing up the old school narration that feels right at home with Silver Age DC and Marvel (complete with the “groovy” dialogue), making for an extremely fun read that bounces from beat to beat without any drag. But this final issue does cover a LOT of ground. While this has been the norm for the series since the first issue, Ewing’s script here takes us from Metamorpho flying his spacecraft to Solaris, then into the “Ra-Realm”, then fills us in on a lost battle between Metamorpho and Solaris from the past, THEN into our grand finale. While it’s great to get so much bang for your buck, at times it does feel like Ewing took the plots for two issues (or a double sized one) and crammed them into one. Ewing’s skills as a writer make it all work together in the end, but you might find yourself a little taken aback at all of this happening in a single issue by the time you are done with it.
DC
Steve Lieber is one of the most underrated artists in comics today, bringing an old school, laidback style that is also side-bustingly funny. Honed from his work on Superior Foes of Spider-Man, his talents for physical comedy are some of the best in the business and are pitch perfect for a book like Metamorpho. Lieber’s knack for hilarious facial expressions are in full effect here, but he’s also able to show off his skills for huge grand moments as well, with the completely unexpected “final blow” Metamorpho delivers being one of the standout comic moments of the year. It’s a great return for Lieber since his work with Matt Fraction on Jimmy Olsen, and I hope it leads to more DC work for him in the future (he’d kill it on a Booster Gold and Blue Beetle team up book).
Metamorpho: The Element Man was a great “blast from the past” type series that had a lot of fun playing up the long history that the character has had with the Silver Age. While it’s a bummer that the series is ending so soon, perhaps other “Metamaniacs” like me will heed the call from Ewing and Lieber and start the letter writing campaign to get him back on the stands. At the very least, we’ve got this fun series to hold us over until we see him on the big screen in Superman this July.
You must be logged in to post a comment.