Thursday, July 1, 2010

Bring On the Back-Ups: Metamorpho and "The Haunted Millionaire"


What it is, Groove-ophiles! Let's get down with a wild and woolly Metamorpho yarn written by that master of zany-cool, Bob Haney. Haney, with artist Ramona Fradon, created Metamorpho back during the Silver Age, ya know, and while their Element Man didn't take the comics world by storm, Rex Mason's exploded chemistry-set of an alter ego did gain a pretty rabid cult following. Metamorpho would pop up as a guest-star in Brave and the Bold from time to time throughout the Groovy Age, making a few stops in the backs of mags like World's Finest and Action Comics to headline his own unique adventures. Today's feature was Metamorpho's kick-off as regular back-up feature in World's Finest (ish 218, April 1973) after the Element Man had guest-starred with Superman and Batman the previous issue. Get ready for "The Haunted Millionaire" with art by John Calnan!


Metamorpho's stint in WF would only last until ish 220 (August 1973), then it would be a few reprints in the 100 page issues of WF until another team-up with Supes and Bats in WF #226 a year later. One last all-new solo hurrah in WF #229 (January 1975) was followed by a full-length one-shot by his creators, Haney and Fradon, in 1st Issue Special #3 (March 1975). After that...poor ol' Rex hung out in guest-star limbo until joining Batman and the Outsiders in 1983.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Groovster!
    AWESOME Kirby piece! Man he was & still is "THE KING!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for noticing, Mike! Glad you dig it!

    ReplyDelete

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


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