When billionaire Simon Stagg sent adventurer Rex Mason to Egypt to retrieve the Orb of Ra from a pyramid, he never expected him to return. Stagg's henchman, Java, cleaned Rex's clock. Left for dead, Rex fell into a hidden chamber and was exposed to a radioactive meteorite. The radiation changed Mason into a bizarre looking shapechanging element man, Metamorpho. Manipulated by Stagg to do tasks for the corrupt billionaire, Metamorpho maintained his integrity and battled bizarre forces of evil. Many a battle was also fought between the element man and Java for the affections of Sapphire Stagg with Rex always coming out ahead. Regardless of Rex's looks and self-conscious feelings, Stagg's daughter Sapphire would have no other man than Rex Mason, whom she eventually married. Metamorpho later joined the first Outsiders group and died on one of their missions. However during Invasion Rex was revived when the Dominion dropped the Gene-bomb on earth. Suffering from amnesia Metamorpho joined Justice League Europe, an later learned that Sapphire had re-married after his supposed death. Metamorpho went on to join the American branch of the Justice League and died once again when a group of White Martians attacked Earth but has once again been brought back to life.