In Death is not the End, we spotlight the outlandish explanations for comic book characters (mostly super-villains) surviving seeming certain death. Today, we see how Metamorpho died and came back to life an astonishing four times over the years!

Metamorpho (AKA Rex Mason) was initially famous for how much of a loner he was. He was one of the few DC superhero characters who turned down the Justice League when they asked him to join their ranks. Eventually, though, that very idea of him as an "outsider" led to him joining up with a team of otherwise loner heroes (like another character who turned the Justice League down when they tried to recruit him, Black Lightning) to form the Outsiders along with Batman (after Batman left the Justice League in a huff when they would not approve of a rescue mission by Batman to save his friend, Lucius Fox from a country where the United Nations asked the Justice League to avoid getting involved in).

The series was by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo.

Metamorpho happened to be in the country, Markovia, because the country's top physician, Helga Jace, believed that she could cure Metamorpho of his, well, Metamorpho-ness.

Another problem that Metamorpho had is that the love of his life, Sapphire Stagg, had a pain in the butt father, Simon Stagg, who had an Orb of Ra (which was made out of the same material as the meteor that gave Metamorpho his powers) that could hurt Metamorpho, so Stagg would keep Rex from getting close to Sapphire. Jace, though, figured out a way for Metamorpho to withstand the power of the orb, so he went to go get Sapphire. He was not expecting Stagg to have mined for extra orbs!

Now, obviously, this is one of those deaths where it was pretty clear that he was going to come back from the dead, but still, it counts.

The next issue, they take Rex's body to the meteor to re-expose him...

It heals him, but it takes him back in time for a whole adventure in ancient Egypt that ended the following issue, with Rex back to normal but now officially trapped in this form...

After a while, the Outsiders broke from Batman because Batman, well, you know, he's a bit of a jerk. In Outsiders #25 (the name of the series after it rebooted after breaking from Batman), Doctor Jace tells Rex that she actually thinks she CAN cure him of his condition...

Instead, it only gets him part of the way there...

Here is the problem, though. DC was going through a crossover called Millennium, where each title was to pick a supporting character that would turn out to be working for the villainous Manhunters and betray the heroes. Some comics, like Batman, just decided to say, "Nah," and have their betrayers turn out to be not true betrayers (a robot of Jim Gordon rather than an actual Jim Gordon), but Barr played fair and had Jace turn out to be evil and working with the Manhunters in Outsiders #27 (Erik Larsen finished the series off on art).

Her experiment "curing" Rex was really so that she could control him...

However, Looker used her illusion powers to trick Metamorpho into attacking Jace. When she counter-attacked, they both died...

Rex's death would be a very short-lived one...

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The very next crossover for DC Comics was Invasion! the following year. After the heroes of Earth fought back the alien invasion, the aliens dropped off a sort of "screw you guys, we're going home" farewell gift of a Meta-Bomb, a bomb designed to kill anyone with superpowers. However, what's this in Invasion! #3 (by Keith Giffen, Bill Mantlo, Bart Sears and Joe Rubinstein) in Markovia?

Yep, sure enough, the bomb had the strange effect to bring Metamorpho back to life (as seen here later in the book, inks now by Dick Giordano)!

Rex stayed alive for almost another decade before JLA #1 (by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter and John Dell), where the old Justice League was vacating their satellite home to make room for the newly-formed "Big Seven" Justice League (in one of the weirder bits of superhero politics) when the villainous Hyperclan wrecked the satellite, leading to Metamorpho giving his life to protect his teammates...

The rest of the League skips Metamorpho's funeral like jerks...

Metamorpho was briefly brought back from the grave in a storyline involving beings that granted "wishes" in JLA #52 (by Mark Waid, Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary)...

Then he came back for good in Doom Patrol #4 (by John Arcudi and Tan Eng Huat). Arcudi plays fast and loose with his return, making it a bit of a joke, as everyone is wondering how he came back to life but they never actually explain it...

And in fact, when Cliff Steele is finally about to confront him about it, Metamorpho confronts him about how CLIFF was supposedly dead, at which point Cliff vanishes (it was a clever plot point that I won't get into here)...

Finally, right before the New 52 began, Metamorpho joins an Outsiders team that is working for Batman Incorporated and Talia Al Ghul seemingly kills them all in Batman: Levithan Strikes #1 (by Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn)...

However, a year later, we learn that they faked their deaths in Batman Incorporated #1 (post-New 52), with Rex using a variation of his maneuver from JLA #1...

Even though Rex isn't in that page, we saw him in the New 52 in Justice League International #1, so even though he isn't on that page, the implication is that he survived...

It didn't really matter either way, though, as he was then given a New 52 reboot in Legends of Tomorrow #1 by Aaron Lopresti (man, DC's continuity was really blown up during the New 52 - this was RIGHT before DC Rebirth)...

Anyhow, a mighty four resurrections! That's impressive for any superhero!

If anyone else has a suggestion for a future Death is not the End, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!