Metamorpho the Element Man #5 – Al Ewing, Writer; Steve Lieber, Artist; Lee Loughridge, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: There’s no book in DC’s lineup right now that embraces the weird and wacky legacy of the company like Al Ewing’s Metamorpho. Every issue introduces a new threat straight from the DC vault, and finds an even crazier way to defeat it. This issue’s main villain is the Thunderer, a mad cosmic tyrant who has been reincarnated as an android and wants to take on Metamorpho for the fate of the world – and its sun. Thunderer has taken Simon and Sapphire Stagg hostage in their base, and when Metamorpho shows up, the villain wastes no time nearly killing him with a laser beam. Rex and his ally Element Girl make a daring escape from the tower, in search of the secret weapon they have for major crises – and that’s a whole bunch of other Element men and women, taken from various one-off stories from the character’s history. Seriously, Ewing has been digging into the DC files.
The added members of the team are Element Woman, who was an ordinary college student who was transformed into an element being and briefly worked with the Justice League – for one adventure, before being relegated to Michigan where she keeps watch over the adorable Element Dog. Although she’s ticked off at Rex for abandoning her, she and her pooch quickly join up. But Algon the Element King, a mad Roman soldier who serves as a cosmic guardian, is going to be a harder sell. It’s really interesting to see just how many different ways these powers could be used by different people – but there isn’t that much time to explore the fun character dynamics, as the Thunderer shows up and sets off another battle with even higher stakes. This issue was pure chaotic fun, but I definitely wasn’t expecting the ending – which brings in one of DC’s most iconic and large-scale villains.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
