James Gunn Nails The DC Character I By no means Would’ve Anticipated To Work In Superman

Warning! This publish comprises SPOILERS for James Gunn’s SupermanJames Gunn’s Superman is stuffed with thrilling characters and metahumans within the new DCU past the Man of Metal himself. This contains the Justice Gang, a trio of heroes who might very effectively be the precursor to the DCU’s Justice League. Nonetheless, there’s one DC Comics hero I believed we would by no means see in live-action.

In Superman, Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor makes an attempt to kill David Corenswet’s Superman with the general public’s approval as he tries to show the world in opposition to Superman. As such, Kel-El turns into Luthor’s prisoner throughout the film in a pocket universe. It is right here that Superman meets Metamorpho: The Component Man, in any other case often known as one of many final DC characters I believed we would ever see in live-action.

An “Component” That Really Works

Performed by Anthony Carrigan, Metamorpho is a traditional DC Comics character who made his first look in 1965’s The Courageous and the Daring. Having been uncovered to a cursed Egyptian artifact often known as the Orb of Ra, Rex Mason was remodeled into Metamorpho: The Component Man. Within the comics, Metamorpho can transmute his physique into numerous elemental compounds at will, and may also stretch and elongate his physique.

The identical seems to be to be true in James Gunn’s Superman. With the lifetime of his toddler son Joey threatened, Metamorpho is compelled by Luthor to create a relentless provide of kryptonite in Superman’s cell, conserving the Man of Metal weak and weak. Nonetheless, Superman convinces Rex to assist him escape, promising to get him and his son to security.

We then see Metamorpho creating a synthetic solar to strengthen Kal-El, turning himself into acid to take down Luthor’s forces, and turning his physique into a number of tendrils to avoid wasting Superman and Joey from a black gap. He is later proven serving to Man Gardner’s Inexperienced Lantern and Hawkgirl cease the Boravian invasion of Jarhanpur, the place he appears to have been recruited to the Justice Gang within the battle’s aftermath.

Whereas Metamorpho’s origins aren’t specified, the existence of Stagg Industries is confirmed in Superman. Within the comics, CEO Simon Stagg commissioned Rex’s expedition to search out the Orb of Ra, who additionally uncovered Mason to the artifact after Stagg realized that Rex was relationship his daughter, Sapphire. Sapphire Stagg herself can also be in Superman, Joey’s mom, who’s proven watching tv with Rex proper earlier than the film’s third act.

There’s loads of potential for Metamorpho to have an ongoing presence within the new DCU, which is as shocking as it’s thrilling. Given his actually wild energy to show his physique into any factor, nobody ought to be at fault for pondering that transferring Metamorpho to live-action would have been too difficult to even try. Nonetheless, James Gunn impressively makes it work in Superman fairly effectively.

A mix of sensible and digital results, Carrigan’s Metamoroho seems to be completely good, no matter his present elemental state. He is simply some of the fascinating new characters to return out of Superman. With a bit of luck, we’ll be seeing him once more quickly with future DCU tasks.

James Gunn’s Superman is now taking part in in theaters from DC Studios.

Superman

9/10

Launch Date

July 11, 2025

Runtime

130 Minutes

Producers

Lars P. Winther, Peter Safran