Metamorpho #10

History

By issue #10, the Metamorpho solo series — launched in July–August 1965 after Bob Haney's character proved popular in The Brave and the Bold — was in the capable hands of penciler Sal Trapani and inker Charles Paris, working under editor George Kashdan, the editorial force who had originally conceived the idea for an element-based hero and guided the book from its inception. Haney, who wrote every issue of the 17-issue run, used the mid-series slot to broaden the cast and inject a new romantic tension by introducing a female mirror to Metamorpho — a spy whose transformation is intentional rather than accidental, contrasting sharply with Rex Mason's unwilling curse. The story 'The Sinister Snares of Stingaree!' ran as a multi-part adventure set partly in the Netherlands, reflecting the globe-trotting espionage aesthetic that was fashionable in mid-1960s popular culture.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Urania 'Rainie' Blackwell (Element Girl), a CIA operative who deliberately exposes herself to the energies of the Ahk-Ton pyramid to gain powers identical to Metamorpho's.
• Created by writer Bob Haney and penciler Sal Trapani; Charles Paris inked; George Kashdan edited. Cover date: February 1967 (published December 1966).
• Story title: 'The Sinister Snares of Stingaree!' — a multi-part adventure pitting Metamorpho and Element Girl against CYCLOPS, an international crime syndicate led by the villain Stingaree.
• Element Girl appears to die at the issue's conclusion; the final panel explicitly asked readers to write in and request her resurrection — an unusually direct instance of Silver Age audience participation shaping ongoing story continuity.
• Urania's survival was granted in subsequent issues (with Simon Stagg's scientific expertise credited for her resurrection), and she remained a recurring supporting character through the series' end at issue #17.
• The issue introduces the romantic triangle that defines the series' final stretch: Element Girl's unrequited feelings for Rex Mason create tension with his fiancée Sapphire Stagg.
• Reprinted in Showcase Presents: Metamorpho Vol. 1 (DC, December 2005) and in the DC Finest: Metamorpho: The Element Man collection; also published in international editions including German, Norwegian, and French markets in 1968–1973.
• Element Girl's long-dormant story was revisited in Neil Gaiman's Sandman #20 ('Façade,' 1990), retroactively making her debut issue a foundational text for Vertigo-era introspective storytelling about bodily alienation and identity.

Cast · 7 characters

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