Metamorpho The Element Man #3 continues the title’s retro pastiche journey through the Swinging Sixties with period accurate dialogue (With some modern touches/jokes) from writer Al Ewing and day-glo visuals from Steve Lieber and Lee Loughridge. The latest stop on my favorite current Big Two comic’s magical mystery tour is classic spy fiction beginning with lots of pun on James Bond movie names and continuing with lots of gadgets and one-liners. However, Metamorpho #3 isn’t one-note and contains plenty of the adventure fiction type escapes that the character is known for as he, Urania Blackwell, and most importantly, Java, investigate an Olmec-type pyramid that has a very non-Olmec head on it, that of caveman-turned immortal-turned Gotham police commissioner, Vandal Savage.
Even as he introduces very modern concepts like social media influencers and popular music standom, Ewing’s script remains very Silver Age with tongue firmly planted in cheek. A lot of comedy comes from the banter between the unlikely team of Metamorpho, Urania, and Java trying to navigate the literal maze of the pyramid featuring well-placed one-liners about modern pop culture coming from a millennia-old caveman. Plus there’s Vandal Savage channeling Blofeld (Sans cat.) with cheesy one-liners as he interacts with his ally The Mad Mod (Whose panel time is shorter than last issue, but has some of the most hilarious dialogue known to comicdom.) and finally, our intrepid heroes. Like his work on modern superhero comedy/satire classics Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen and One-Star Squadron, Lieber’s skill with facial expressions helps drive Al Ewing’s verbal jokes home. This is definitely a comic where you read a second time and discover all the background jokes (Vandal Savage looking fondly at a sabretooth tiger skull.) although Steve Lieber’s art isn’t dense and lets the story breathe.
Java had all the best lines in Metamorpho #1 and #2 so it’s fitting he gets his own little dramatic arc in issue three, and his actions drive the issue’s narrative with Metamorpho himself doing an elemental take on the third wheel role. The main conflict of the story centers around his rivalry with Vandal Savage. It’s interesting to see the interplay between a man whose key motivation is honor, and another who will do anything to get power. And there’s also lots of setup for future incidents in Metamorpho edging on over-exposition, but it also reminds me a lot of old school Chris Claremont-style comic book plotting where subplots would be introduced in early issues and become the main plot down the road. But mostly it reinforces the corporate sketchiness of Silas Stagg, and how maybe that’s not a guy you want to owe a life debt too.
One of my personal type of panel layout or storytelling device in superhero/science fiction/adventure comics is the hideout cutaway. In Metamorpho #3, Ewing and Lieber have even more fun with it by combining an old fashioned maze with a cutaway. Basically, the reader has to “solve” the layout to get to the inner chambers of Vandal Savage’s temple with Metamorpho and Urania and rescue Java from Vandal Savage. There are all kinds of booby traps, explosions, and frustrated Metamorpho and Urania faces, and it turns what would be a basic transition scene into the most memorable moment of the comic. It shows the uniqueness of comics medium while also continuing the weird will they/won’t they tension between Metamorpho and Urania as well as raising the stakes for the showdown versus Vandal Savage.
Al Ewing, Steve Lieber, and Lee Loughridge don’t rest on their laurels in Metamorpho The Element Man #3 and tell a visually creative spy story that also fleshes out Rex Mason’s supporting cast and connects this sideshow of a title to the larger DC Universe without feeling like a late period MCU flick. There’s a lot of Jim Steranko’s Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD in this issue’s DNA, but Metamorpho #3 is funnier and more madcap just like its titular protagonist.
Story: Al Ewing Art: Steve Lieber
Colors: Lee Loughridge Letters: Ferran Delgado
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.2 Overall: 9.1 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle
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