Morph in X-Men '97 (possible spoilers)

[Pumpkin King]

As someone who is a Morph fan (he was one of my favorite characters when I watched the series as a kid, and I enjoyed him in AoA/Exiles as well), it is wild to me that so many people apparently care so much about a character who I always thought had a fairly small fanbase.

I don't really agree with the arguments of "just make a new character, don't change an existing one," because how much do we REALLY know about TAS Morph? When and how did he join the team? How long was he there before his "death"? (Long enough to get to know everyone and form a strong friendship with Wolverine, at least, but beyond that, we don't know.) Why are he and Wolverine such good buddies, anyway, what's their history? What's his sexuality? We know he generally presented as male and used male pronouns on the show, but was he totally comfortable with that? We don't know. Morph was in the show for all of nine episodes (11 if we count nonspeaking cameos), and apparently the character is set in stone and can't change in any way? He can't reconsider his gender or come out the way many trans people do?

I'm sure they are partially basing Morph's characterization now on Exiles Morph, hence the new look (which is funny, since I'm pretty sure it was influence from TAS Morph that turned Changeling into AoA Morph in the first place). And it's true that Exiles Morph identified as male and always seemed completely comfortable with that. But he and TAS Morph aren't the exact same character. Exiles Morph was a New Mutant, and X-Man and an Avenger, and never had the kind of trauma that TAS Morph through (maybe the Proteus possession would sort of count?). They are basically AU variants of the same person, I see no reason why one of them can't be nonbinary. Adaptations change things all the time. If it's so important for TAS Morph to be exactly like his comics counterpart, shouldn't we all be angry that he's not a long-dead, redeemed 60's villain with terrible fashion sense?

I can honestly imagine various reasons for the nonbinary thing. Exiles Morph was born as a vaguely baby-shaped blob, and took on human form to fit in. Maybe it was the same for TAS Morph? Maybe Exiles Morph was completely happy in male form, but TAS Morph was never totally comfortable having to choose just one gender, and only stuck with male because it was the "default" human form that he used growing up. Maybe after everything he went through, and all the time on Muir Island recovering, Morph started to reconsider things about himself, and one of those things was "Actually, I don't think I'm really a man, and I'm not going to hide that anymore." That's just complete speculation on my part, I have no idea how the show will handle it.

On another note, I would totally love Exiles Morph and TAS Morph to meet at some point, so Exiles Morph could teach him some advanced shape-shifting tricks. "Bro, did you know we can get ripped in half and shape-shift back together?"

I'm not trying to speak for all Morph fans, obviously there are some people here that like the character and don't like the change, and that's cool. Personally, I don't see it as some kind of massive re-imagining of the character. If nonbinary Morph is still the team comedian who is close with Wolverine and who is maybe a little more serious after all the crap he went through, I'm good with it.

[lefthanded]

I don't think it's a bad argument but we have to understand there are tons of outside factors that play into it.

It's like folks yelling for Sam Wilson to be Falcon and NOT Cap America. Lets look at it from comics.

Sam Wilson as Falcon has about 13-15 solo issues (ongoing, one shot and minis)
Sam Wilson as Cap America has close to 42 solo issues and will sniff another comic when CA Brave World comes out.

Lets take legacies of color for the shake of debate.

If you remove Milestone from DC. Legacies of color have all the long solo runs. Jason Rucsh has not been seen in 5 years. He has 55 solo/team with Ronnie issues. Cyborg is still not there yet. The MOST seen black hero at DC.

When we come here-it's Cage, T'Challa & Shang leading the way. However behind them is Miles, Sam, Sam Alexander, Kamala, Brawn and War Machine. Storm is the most seen black female at Marvel-how many issues does she have? Same with Shuri? Both are trailing Moon Girl who is over 50 and that was before her cartoon.

It's hard to unpack the true debates with all the noise that social media creates to generate clicks.

A separate idea to what you've listed is how easily can a franchise just 'add' a diverse/minority character.

Team franchises theoretically have it 'easier', as anyone can be a mutant or anyone can be a Green Lantern. Xbooks are still bad at creating and supporting original characters, as they still lean heavily on their OG X-men characters without putting in meaningful work to developing their other characters. Synch has arguably gotten the most lift of the Krakoan era, but he is not served by the writing nor the overpowered nature of his powers now (which makes it hard for writers to come up with logical conflicts for him to face).

And even though Xbooks theoretically had it 'easier' to logically incorporate new characters, they still went the route of 'changing a pre-existing character instead of creating an original character' with how poorly Bendis wrote Iceman's story.

Solo franchises have it harder to just create a new sustaining character. Superman had to die in order for Steel to get some limelight. Batman has to 'die' in order for Future State Batman to come about; or he can just adopt another sidekick. Ultimate Peter Parker had to die for Ultimate Miles to get some runway, and of course he has now taken off.


Like you said - Storm is amazing, as she was an originally created character, was given an interesting background and power set, is dynamic enough to have infinite amount of stories told about her, and was given the runway to be a character in all types of books (solo, team, supporting, lead, relationships outside of the X-franchise, etc). Xbook writers (and other Marvel franchises) have been unable to create new characters who could follow Storm's same path to success. Shuri 'could' get there, but as a character, she has too much overlap with other characters to really stand out (she's an amalgation of Iron Man/Iron Heart and Black Panther).

[Jack The Tripper]

Wow, this argument is still going strong on here weeks after I last looked

does Morph being NB actually inform anything about what you like about the character? Like, apart from their pronouns being changed, does it actually affect how you feel about the character themselves? Or was the only reason you liked Morph is because he was presented as a man? If so, it’s kinda weird

[marhawkman]

It's hard to unpack the true debates with all the noise that social media creates to generate clicks.

A separate idea to what you've listed is how easily can a franchise just 'add' a diverse/minority character.

Team franchises theoretically have it 'easier', as anyone can be a mutant or anyone can be a Green Lantern. Xbooks are still bad at creating and supporting original characters, as they still lean heavily on their OG X-men characters without putting in meaningful work to developing their other characters. Synch has arguably gotten the most lift of the Krakoan era, but he is not served by the writing nor the overpowered nature of his powers now (which makes it hard for writers to come up with logical conflicts for him to face).

And even though Xbooks theoretically had it 'easier' to logically incorporate new characters, they still went the route of 'changing a pre-existing character instead of creating an original character' with how poorly Bendis wrote Iceman's story.

Solo franchises have it harder to just create a new sustaining character. Superman had to die in order for Steel to get some limelight. Batman has to 'die' in order for Future State Batman to come about; or he can just adopt another sidekick. Ultimate Peter Parker had to die for Ultimate Miles to get some runway, and of course he has now taken off.


Like you said - Storm is amazing, as she was an originally created character, was given an interesting background and power set, is dynamic enough to have infinite amount of stories told about her, and was given the runway to be a character in all types of books (solo, team, supporting, lead, relationships outside of the X-franchise, etc). Xbook writers (and other Marvel franchises) have been unable to create new characters who could follow Storm's same path to success. Shuri 'could' get there, but as a character, she has too much overlap with other characters to really stand out (she's an amalgation of Iron Man/Iron Heart and Black Panther).

Actually, it's WORSE. they already HAD characters in those demographics... that they quit writing in stories, and then changed other characters to fill those demographics. That's what irks me most about some of these changes. They made a token representation character, killed or otherwise erased the character, then changed another character to be a token representation character.

[Grunty]

On a related note.

Aren't there quite a few people nowdays who look back at X-men Evolution and wish the whole Spyke situation could have been handled differently?

[shooshoomanjoe]

Fun notable fact : 616 Morph looks like the old cartoon version, and is gay.

I don't recall that we ever saw 616 Morph without his ugly helmet. I remember finding out that TAS Morph wasn't an original character but am alternate reality of Changeling and when I saw a drawing of Changeling, I was surprised that these two characters are the same because they looked so different.

[dragon1440]

Actually, it's WORSE. they already HAD characters in those demographics... that they quit writing in stories, and then changed other characters to fill those demographics. That's what irks me most about some of these changes. They made a token representation character, killed or otherwise erased the character, then changed another character to be a token representation character.

That is because new characters get the shaft from the audience because of LGBTQIA+ issues. It doesnt matter weather they are old or bew characters, theres a huge part of the fandom that is queer-phobic and wants NO characters LGBTQAI+. It reminds me of back in the day when they tried to introduce BIPOC characters. What doesnt surprise me from many previous conversations, but does make me sad is that many of the queerphobic people are on these boards.

[Gray Lensman]

On a related note.

Aren't there quite a few people nowdays who look back at X-men Evolution and wish the whole Spyke situation could have been handled differently?

2 things - no skateboard, and not writing him out of the show.

[From The Shadows]

I don't recall that we ever saw 616 Morph without his ugly helmet. I remember finding out that TAS Morph wasn't an original character but am alternate reality of Changeling and when I saw a drawing of Changeling, I was surprised that these two characters are the same because they looked so different.

I remember watching the first episode and I scratched my head at why they would take such an obscure character like the original changeling who didn't last long as an X-Men, and not just that but give him a different name. It was just so random being a Jim Lee X-Men inspired cartoon. He was annoying as hell too. Now he looks like AoA/Exiles Morph. I had already read the comics before I gave the cartoon a try. They should have left Morph dead and brought in Northstar to represent the Queer community.

[dragon1440]

I remember watching the first episode and I scratched my head at why they would take such an obscure character like the original changeling who didn't last long as an X-Men, and not just that but give him a different name. It was just so random being a Jim Lee X-Men inspired cartoon. He was annoying as hell too. Now he looks like AoA/Exiles Morph. I had already read the comics before I gave the cartoon a try. They should have left Morph dead and brought in Northstar to represent the Queer community.

Morph is not just representing queer culture but specifically nonbinary culture. Nonbinary is always part of the queer umbrella, but not everything under the umbrella is nonbinary. Also as a queer person..... SO FREAKING TIRED of using Northstar and Iceman as token queers. There are more queer characters then just those two, but those two get all the attention.

[Psy-lock]

Morph is not just representing queer culture but specifically nonbinary culture. Nonbinary is always part of the queer umbrella, but not everything under the umbrella is nonbinary. Also as a queer person..... SO FREAKING TIRED of using Northstar and Iceman as token queers. There are more queer characters then just those two, but those two get all the attention.

I wouldn't say Northstar gets much attention at all.

[Nicoclaws]

I don't recall that we ever saw 616 Morph without his ugly helmet. I remember finding out that TAS Morph wasn't an original character but am alternate reality of Changeling and when I saw a drawing of Changeling, I was surprised that these two characters are the same because they looked so different.

I'm not talking about Changeling. Morph and him are basically two different characters at this point XD
I'm talking about Bendis's character, Benjamin Deeds I think ? A young metamorph who joined Cyclops's team and then was in Generation X. He's 616 Morph/

[yogaflame]

If they really wanted to push nonbinary representation, they could have gone with Mystique, added Destiny who never appeared in the original TAS if I recall correctly, and even adapted their recent convoluted birth story for Nightcrawler's origin. That way you get the representation, but with more popular characters, and for whom this sort of story isn't a complete curveball coming out of nowhere.(Yes, Mystique as Nightcrawler's father is very new to the actual canon, but it was theorized even back in the original Claremont era, so it's baked in enough.)

[Psy-lock]

If they really wanted to push nonbinary representation, they could have gone with Mystique, added Destiny who never appeared in the original TAS if I recall correctly, and even adapted their recent convoluted birth story for Nightcrawler's origin. That way you get the representation, but with more popular characters, and for whom this sort of story isn't a complete curveball coming out of nowhere.(Yes, Mystique as Nightcrawler's father is very new to the actual canon, but it was theorized even back in the original Claremont era, so it's baked in enough.)

Mystique is like the worst person ever. Not the best representation. And she'd be far more controversial than Morph, since the general audience isn't even aware she's not straight.

[yogaflame]

The general audience might not know, but the canon supports it 100%, so they(the studio/show) would at least have a leg to stand on, unlike with Morph. And I think general audiences are already more interested in Mystique, and being a female-presenting femme fatale would make the gender identity more, let's say palatable. A spoon full of sugar and all that.

As for Mystique's moral ambiguity not being a great representative, I mean, Morph died in the first arc and came back as a villain, then went into retirement suffering from PTSD, so it's not like he was a top tier moral or heroic paragon to begin with.