The Master's gone mad! I knew it would happen some day... His mighty brain had to snap with all that thinking! 
- — Java
Metamorpho #5 is an issue of the series Metamorpho (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1966.
Synopsis for "Will the Real Metamorpho Please Stand Up?"
The Big Builder, Edifice K. Bulwark, had formed a partnership with Simon Stagg to build the first Chemical Skyscraper; which Edifice described as the Metamorpho of skyscrapers and Simon called The Stagg Building.
The catch was that only Metamorpho could build it; and Rex and Sapphire have gone on vacation. But Simon Stagg had the Orb of Ra and, through great intervention, transformed Edifice into a second Metamorpho.
When Rex and Sapphire returned from the Caribbean two weeks later, the Chemo-Scraper was finished and Metamorpho II took Rex's place; even chatting up Rex's bird, Sapphire. Everyone attended the grand openning, but when Bulwark operated the Catalytic Control, the building rose, spun, and oozed caustic flaming goop on the buildings around it -- as Bulwark had planned!
The original Metamorpho came out of hiding to battle Metamorpho II in a chemical stalemate, until Metamorpho rose high into the air and became a carbon-steel meteorite, and his fiery fall destroyed the Chemo-Scraper through implosion. In the midst of the destruction, Stagg found that Bulwark had returned to his original naked human form. Feigning amnesia, Edifice vowed to continue his work with Stagg.
Appearing in "Will the Real Metamorpho Please Stand Up?"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Metamorpho II (Edifice K. Bulwark) (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- The Mayor
- Subway Passengers
- Santa Claus Impersonator
- Subway Bomber
Locations:
- The Caribbean
- A Beach
- The Chemo-Scaper (Destroyed)
- Simon Stagg's Mansion
- Stagg's Lab
- Subway
Items:
- Bio-Gas Jets
- Chloride Christmas Tree with Bromine Balls
- Orb of Ra
- Statue of Simon Stagg (Destroyed)
- Ticking Time Bomb
Vehicles:
- Sapphire's Cadillac
- Stagg Enterprises Helicopter
- Subway Train
Notes
- This issue is reprinted in Showcase Presents: Metamorpho Vol. 1.
- Metamorpho appeared last in Justice League of America #42. He chronologically appears next in Justice League of America #44.
- The newspaper article condemning Edifice read "Big Builder Chemo-Scraper Potential Threat! Sure to Backfire!
- This story happens at Christmastime, but it's not thematically a Christmas story.
Trivia
- First issue of the series to feature the Go-Go checkerboard banner across the cover. DC Promotional banner reads: "Before you buy; check and double check!"
- Metamorpho makes Sapphire a toxic Christmas tree out of a green chloride, so it has to be Nickel(II) Chloride; and Bromine. Both are a level 3 health hazard and the "fuming" Bromine's name derives from the Greek term for "stench".