The spirit of Bob Haney lives! Dig this SNEAK PEEK at Issue #2…
DC’s been playing around with some of its underutilized, Silver and Bronze Agey characters and concepts lately: There’s The Atom Project, a six-issue mini starring Ray Palmer, with Ryan Choi and Captain Atom in tow; Challengers of the Unknown, another mini; and the recent World’s Finest one-shot Green Lantern/Green Arrow, for example.
But the one that will blow your mind is the riotous Metamorpho, by writer Al Ewing, artist Steve Lieber and colorist Lee Loughridge, which pulls off the mean trick of setting the comic in the 1960s as if they took place today. I don’t mean that the series, which is an ongoing, “pays tribute” or “homages” or “echoes” the Silver Age. It is the Silver Age, specifically Metamorpho co-creator Bob Haney’s Silver Age, right down to the dated lingo — “groovy” is actually uttered just like it is all the time here at 13th Dimension — and absurdist plotting.
The opening splash pages directly mimic those by artists like Metamorpho’s co-creator Ramona Fradon and Sal Trapani. There are fizzy narration boxes and… wait for it… bona fide, genuine, no-kidding THOUGHT BALLOONS! (By the way, dig 13 CLASSIC METAMORPHO COVERS.)
Metamorpho is a satire in the same way the original ’60s series was a satire: an adventure book with a bonkers, humorous soul. It soaks itself in the, ahem, elements that made so many of us fall in love with comics to begin with, while showing younger readers what they may have missed by being born too late. (Or by not having obsessive parents who share their old comics with them.)
Splash pages for Metamorpho #1 — 2024 and 1965 versions
We get the revival of the villainous Cyclops organization, Urania Blackwell (the Element Girl — renamed Element Gal), with the Orb of Ra central to the proceedings. And of course, Sapphire Stagg, Simon Stagg and Java are all in their classic roles, though Sapphire is now a pop star). There’s also a new villain — Mister 3 — who has a decidedly retro bent. Even Prince Ra-Man shows up!
Issue #1
At the same time, the series isn’t strictly plot-driven like most 1960s DC comics. The storytelling sensibility, layering and characterization are 21st century but the two eras are mixed together, both in-story and out, with such cleverness that what we get is the best of both worlds.
Hell, even the Mad Mod shows up in Issue #2 — which is out Jan. 22.
Dig this SNEAK PEEK, and don’t forget that DC Finest — Metamorpho: The Element Man is coming in June:
Main cover by Lieber and Loughridge
Guillem March variant
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MORE
— Dig These 13 GROOVY METAMORPHO COVERS. Click here.
— DC Dips Into the SILVER and BRONZE AGES for Three New Projects. Click here.
