Ungoliantschilde

Genuinely curious cause I'm not so familiar, what IS the point of Metamorphosis?

I assume this is an autocorrect for Metamorpho 😂

Metamorpho is a treasure hunter who gets turned into an element freak (his words) by a combination of one of the treasures he was hunting and the machinations of his potential father-in-law/employer, who is also sometimes his worst enemy (mood). He uses hepcat slang and a brassy attitude to cover his insecurity about what has been done to his body, which he fears will make Sapphire, his boss’s daughter, stop loving him. As a result, he has a bit of the Ben Grimm/Cliff Steele thing going on, but instead of a “gruff exterior/heart of gold” dichotomy, it’s more of a “cocky exterior/self-loathing interior” thing. An essential element to the success of a Metamorpho story is the Rex/Sapphire/Stagg/Java dynamics, the classic protagonist/love interest/kind of villain but not always but definitely always boss and father figure/boss’s unfrozen caveman butler dynamic that Shakespeare used so often. Basically every adaptation leaves out the supporting cast or messes with it in a way that breaks it.

Anyway, Metamorpho rules and he’s not a hungry lunkhead teen like in BatB and he’s not whatever the fuck they did on Beware the Batman (I had to Google to remember the name of that show), and he’s not the skinny teen (again! Wtf) he looks to be in the YJ ads.

Metamorpho:

Not really Metamorpho:

Also not really Metamorpho:

Also this:

Imo, of course. If you are really horny for that Beware the Batman take, go nuts. I just think the original Haney/Fradon/et al comics are some of the best of the Silver Age and I don’t think anyone’s really captured the spirit of those characters in animation, and few in comics do too, for that matter.

Gotta confess, I am such a sucker for the classic DC stuff that sort of slyly incorporated science class into comic book stuff. Like the Metal Men and (of course!) Metamorpho. I also miss the little definitions of words that were included in older issues. I think that the idea of incorporating educational information into comics is, when done right, a really cool thing. Not sure where I am going with this, but I love your artwork.

Thanks! And I’m with you, I love that stuff. Metal Men is 100% my jam.

What are the 4 quadrants of Metamorpho supposed to be?

Hah, I was just talking to @evandocshaner about this on Twitter. I guess you might have seen that and that’s why you asked.

I was mentioning that I had a chance to talk to Ramona Fradon last year at Heroes Con, but I chickened out because I wasn’t sure what I could say to someone whose work means so much to me. I realized later I could have just asked the question you asked here, though I suspect she might get it all the time, and I wonder if she remembers or even if they were ever supposed to be specific substances in the first place.

The hoity-toity part of me wants to interpret the design by saying it exemplifies the elemental theme by the four quadrants representing the four classical elements (earth, air, etc). But if that’s the case, a) what about his head and b) which one of those is purple.

My guess is that Fradon picked four colors and textures that would be easily distinct from each other to imply the variety he could create. Why four? Because a) the human body breaks up pretty easily into four quadrants + a head, and b) four is enough to suggest a variety without being impossibly tiresome to draw.

Doc says Mark Waid interprets the reddish-orange portion as copper, and he personally likes the idea of the lighter colored leg being dry ice.

In short: I’m not sure anyone really knows, but maybe I’ll get a hand to ask Ms Fradon.