In this column, our resident ‘comics guy’ Fred Azeredo expounds on a single comic book issue every month. Not necessarily the biggest, not necessarily the best, just one he thinks is worth discussing! See if you agree!
Finally, I get to do an issue that’s not a #1! Well, I suppose I only have myself to blame. A big, splashy debut is inevitably more eye-catching and noteworthy, and thus usually a better candidate for Issue of the Month. I’m making an exception for Metamorpho: the Element Man #2 because it shows that the first issue was no fluke. Al Ewing’s self-consciously corny tribute to one of DC’s best B-listers started strong with a perfect tone and a great understanding of its hero. Issue 2’s story, “The Woman from Yesterday,” keeps up that streak with a refreshingly self-contained tale that also subtly advances the cast’s characterization. That’s how it should be, folks!
There’s no doubt that Ewing knows how to use the medium to full effect—the justly praised Immortal Hulk should be all the proof anyone needs. But that was a ponderous, heavy epic. Metamorpho shows he can do just as well with a character that all but requires a light touch. Since his creation in the Silver Age, Metamorpho has practically been a running gag—what else can you do with a bald, multicoloured guy who turns himself into chemical compounds?
The best treatments of him, like Jeff Lemire’s underappreciated The Terrifics and Neil Gaiman’s (oh dear) feature on Wednesday Comics, balance that silliness with a rousing pulpy spirit of adventure. Ewing gets that so well here, making Metamorpho unexpectedly badass as he uses highly volatile glucose or ultra-hot plasma to outwit his foes—and provide a little lesson in chemistry on the way.
What I certainly wasn’t expecting to get here was up-to-the-minute social commentary, especially as the comic’s language and visual style very obviously evokes the ‘60s (we even get some lovely Stan Lee-esque punny narration). So when evil industrialist Simon Stagg rolls out an android pop star—the titular “Woman from Yesterday”—that absorbs social media to channel the most popular trends, only for her to inevitably go berserk, I was admittedly caught off-guard. But you know what? When a book features a love triangle between an elemental mutant, a nepo baby chanteuse, and a defrosted caveman bodyguard, you can forgive it for being unsubtle in its messaging. It’s all just such good fun, anyway, that it feels nitpicky to make such quibbles.