Some announcements just make you want to smile, like this one: Al Ewing and Steve Lieber will team up for a new series featuring Metamorpho, as part of DC’s All In initiative. Or maybe that should be “Al In,” considering it’s one of Ewing’s first major projects with the publisher.
Metamorpho: The Element Man will feature “done-in-ones” stories that build up to something bigger, according to Ewing, who is paired with Lieber of Jimmy Olsen fame. They’re joined by Lee Loughridge on colors.
“This is 100% fun comics, delivered with total confidence, visceral joy and absolutely no winking to the camera,” Ewing said. “It’s a love letter to Bob Haney, Ramona Fradon and the spirit of superheroes at their wildest and weirdest—we’re aiming to catch the essential fab-freakiness of Metamorpho like lightning in a bottle and get groovy with it in our own special way.”
Metamorpho was created by writer Bob Haney and artist Ramona Fradon in the 1960s and headlined his own title at the time. But he’s mostly been a team player ever since, appearing in Batman and the Outsiders and The Terrifics, among other titles. This solo title should give the Element Man a chance to shine:
To know him is to love him. He’s the one and only Rex Mason, alias Metamorpho… but can even he win out against Cy.C.L.O.P.S., the hairy eyeball of crime that gazes from the top of the pop charts to the lowest depths of evil—and even into the far-off, far-out Ra-Realm? To find out, the Element Man must survive a hand-picked assassin who can match him change for change… and that’s just the first issue!
“It’s such a joy to work on this book with these collaborators,” Lieber said. “Al Ewing’s scripts are an absolute delight, and Lee Loughridge’s color is impeccable. And as a long-time fan of Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon, I can’t believe I get to follow in their footsteps.”
Take a look at some of Lieber and Loughridge’s interior artwork from the first issue:
“This is our take on classic DC comics,” Ewing said. “Done-in-ones that’ll satisfy discerning Metamaniacs month by month as they build up to something so far out that it might just be a one-way ticket to nowheresville for a certain freak of a thousand changes! Who is the menacing Mister 3? What’s the sinister secret of Sugar Sweet? Who’s the target of Vandal Savage’s million-year revenge? All these way-out mysteries and more will be answered in the New Age of Metamorpho—it’s our Xmas gift to you!”
The first issue will feature variant covers by Erica Henderson and Ian Bertram:
You can unwrap the first issue when it arrives the week of Christmas.