Origins[]

Morph is a mutant with the ability to alter their appearance, able to flawlessly transform into inanimate objects, humans, animals, and other living beings. At some point, they became a member of the X-Men and formed a close friendship with the surly Wolverine.^[11]

During the team's raid on the Mutant Control Agency headquarters, the team was blindsided by a squadron of Sentinels. Morph threw themself between a Sentinel and Wolverine, and was seemingly killed.^[7] After being overwhelmed by the Sentinels, team leader Cyclops made the call to retreat, leaving a believed dead Morph behind.^[17]

Slave of Sinister[]

Mister Sinister found Morph and nursed them back to health. Brainwashed by Sinister, Morph sought vengeance against their friends for leaving them behind. They fought against the X-Men before overcoming their dark side and eventually helping their former teammates escape. Not ready to rejoin them, they fled.^[11] Morph retreated deep into the jungle, attempting to fight off Sinister's conditioning. They were tracked down by Wolverine, who wished to bring them back to the X-Men. The two fought, and Morph gained the upper hand before fleeing again, telling Wolverine they needed to work out their issues on their own.^[5]

They found work in a circus sideshow but were found by Sinister again, who re-established his control over them. He forced Morph to contact the X-Men in a bid to kidnap Cyclops and Jean Grey. Morph tried to warn their old friends, but to no avail, as Sinister succeeded in kidnapping Jean. After returning to Sinister's base in the Savage Land, Morph finally freed themself from Sinister's control, only to be chained alongside Professor Xavier, Magneto, and Jean. During the final confrontation against Sinister, Xavier helped further undo Sinister's conditioning, and Morph returned with the X-Men, to have the device implanted in their mind by Sinister removed.^[16][18]

Return to the X-Men[]

Morph was sent to Muir Island for treatment, where their former teammates visited them.^[19] Morph was eventually given a clean bill of health, and despite Moira's doubts, they decided to immediately re-join the X-Men. Morph's first mission involved the Sentinels once more. Encountering them triggered a bout of PTSD, leaving them crippled with fear. Desperate to prove themselves, Morph overcame their fear and even managed to destroy Master Mold, rescuing Professor X, and foiling the Sentinel's plans. Afraid that their PTSD might endanger their teammates, they chose to leave the X-Men yet again, realizing that they were not ready to return to being a hero yet.^[1]

Morph returned to help the X-Men once again after Professor X was publicly attacked and almost killed by Henry Gyrich. To ensure Charles's safety, Morph assumed the Professor's form and appeared on TV to try and calm the riots that had broken out over the attack.^[12]

Morph is a mutant with the following powers:

• Shapeshifting: Morph can shift their form into an exact duplicate of any human, humanoid, or semi-humanoid being of any sex, changing not only their appearance but their clothing as well.^[15] They have also demonstrated the ability to transform into animals, even animals much larger than a person, presumably gaining the extra mass extradimensional.^[5] They can transform body parts^[9] and are a natural mimic of voices and sounds.^[15] They can also mimic artificial elements of a person like Omega Red's cybernetic tentacles^[1] and Wolverine's claws.^[9] However, they can't always mimic the physical properties of these elements, as they can't mimic the hardness of Wolverine's claws.^[5]
  • Power Mimicry: Morph is able to duplicate some of the physical powers and abilities of the beings he shape-shifts into:
    • Superhuman Strength: Depending on who or what they transform into, Morph can gain superhuman strength. By transforming into a large animal like a panther or a rhino, they gain that particular animal's level of strength.^[5] They can also mimic the strength of superhumans like Sasquatch, Omega Red, and Sabretooth by taking on their respective forms.^[1]
    • Superhuman Durability: When transforming into Colossus, Morph was able to gain Piotrs metallic skin durability when attacked by X-Cutioner.^[4]
    • Flight: Morph has mimicked the form of Angel, allowing them to fly.^[1][3]
    • Superhuman Speed: When fighting Bolivar Trask, Morph transformed into Quicksilver and used his superhuman speed to race to Bolivar and deliver multiple punches.^[13]
    • Elasticity: Morph shifted into the Blob to use his elasticity for Wolverine to bounce off of him, allowing him to reach incredible heights to slice off the head of Master Mold.^[3]

• Mental Trauma: The incident with the Sentinels as well as Mister Sinister's manipulations left Morph with severe mental trauma, including a great fear of Sentinels, though they have somewhat overcome this fear.^[1]
• Scent: Scent is the only thing Morph can't change, though it takes an acute sense of smell like Wolverine's to detect this.^[11]

• X-Men Blackbird

• Morph was voiced by Ron Rubin in X-Men: The Animated Series and subsequently by J. P. Karliak in X-Men '97. Karliak - who identifies as non-binary and uses he/him pronouns - said he portrayed the character as non-binary.
• According to Beau DeMayo, the creator, executive producer, and head writer of X-Men '97, Morph alters their molecular density to mimic physical appearance and abilities,^[21] but they are not as powerful as the original. (If Morph turns into Quicksilver and races the real one, the real Quicksilver will win.)^[22]
  • X-Men '97 Season 1 2 would have shown Morph's form melt (like Clayface) with time and exhaustion, but it was cut for time.^[23]
• Morph was stated by DeMayo to have romantic feelings for fellow X-Men teammate, Logan.^[24]

• Morph was introduced in X-Men: The Animated Series to fill in the role originally meant for Thunderbird. Series developer Eric Lewald felt uneasy about killing off the show's only Native American character right away, so he decided to replace him. While researching X-Men history, Lewald came across the character Changeling, who died sacrificing himself. Due to DC Comics having a character named Changeling (originally called and later reverted back to Beast Boy), Lewald adapted Changeling as Morph.^[25]
• Morph’s voice actor in ‘97 identifies as non-binary and gender-queer; qualities that were kept in the demeanor and treatment of the character in the show, though not explicitly mentioned. Show creators have stated Morph’s gender has not been specified in an attempt to stay true to the source material.