In his home reality, shape-shifter Morph leads the New Mutants, graduating to X-Men status, and is a valued Avenger. But when plucked out of time, he’s placed on the multiversal team known as the Exiles. He keeps the mood light while he and his team save countless realities.
Born a Mutant
Born an eight-pound white lump of goo flowing like mercury, Kevin Sydney immediately possesses full-blown mutant powers. Already in control of his powers as a toddler, Kevin discovers his parents are happier if he maintains normal human form in public, which he doesn’t mind as he’s always eager to please. Wearing the form of an “all-American boy,” friends, school and sports comes easy for Kevin.
When he’s 13, his mother dies of lung cancer, causing his father to view life differently. Kevin tries to cheer his father up, but his father withdraws further, eventually sending Kevin to Xavier’s Institute for Higher Learning. Code-named “Morph,” he’s placed in the New Mutants, quickly becoming the team’s leader, while completing a master’s degree in computer science and engineering. Morph soon graduates to X-Men status, later joining the Avengers alongside Beast as representatives of mutantkind when a program to help the public understand mutants was created. Even though he becomes a popular member of the Avengers, he still feels that the X-Men are his family and he rejoins their ranks.
During a mission against a threat known only as Stonehenge, Morph is snatched from his reality by the Timebroker, secretly a hologram created by the “Timebreakers,” an unidentified species of insectoid alien explorers. Landing in the Panoptichron (Crystal Palace)’s desert room, several others join him, such as Clarice Ferguson, AKA Blink (Earth-295), Magnus Lehnsherr, AKA Magnus (Earth-27), Calvin Rankin, AKA Mimic (Earth-12), Talia Wagner, AKA Nocturne (Earth-2182) and John Proudstar, AKA Thunderbird (Earth-1100). The Timebroker tells them they were unhinged from time and must repair broken realities before they could return to their own realities. If they fail, Morph would allegedly be returned home and injured battling the Morlocks, disrupting his physical composition and leaving him in a liquid state, though in truth he would actually be placed in a stasis wall within the Panoptichron if killed or injured, instead of returning home.
Calling themselves the Exiles, the team has its first mission on Earth-1815 where humanity’s zero tolerance program has seen all superhumans jailed, executed or aborted for the past fifty years. Instructed to find their greatest teacher, the team freed Charles Xavier, but discovers that in this reality he was a madman hell-bent on exterminating the Homo sapiens race, and that the instruction referred to Magneto. The Exiles rectify their mistake by freeing all imprisoned superhumans; Magnus sacrifices himself to save Magneto, a key element in saving the reality, while Mimic completes their mission by killing Xavier.
Omnimorph
Morph is an omnimorph composed of unstable molecules, allowing him to rearrange his body’s molecules at will within a fraction of a second into a highly malleable state. In such a state, he can stretch, deform, expand or compress his entire body or parts thereof into any contiguous shape, object or person he can imagine. He can extend his limbs, torso or neck to great distances and can extend his body in two directions, creating a canopy, parachute or sheath. He retains full consciousness in whatever form taken, and if a part of his body is severed he can reassemble the parts, but needs time to recover afterward. His “costume” is actually part of his body and he does not give off a scent. He can change color and duplicate the appearance of others, including modifying his vocal chords and using his natural mimicry skills to imitate their voices. By growing additional muscles, he can temporarily enhance his strength to lift approximately 20 tons.
Morph can psionically fly at speeds of 40 mph and give himself virtually any superhuman physical power. He can simulate some of the abilities and functions of the object or living being he imitates, depending on the object or being; however, if he imitates such objects as Captain America’s Vibranium-steel alloy shield or Thor’s enchanted uru hammer, he can only take on the appearance of the object, and not its special properties. Morph can temporarily discard unnecessary molecules of his body when imitating objects or beings of considerably less mass and can also draw additional molecules to increase his size by taking on additional mass from a presumably extradimensional source.
Morph can absorb the impact of any type of man-made ballistic projectile by deforming his body along the path of the projectile’s trajectory at the point of initial impact or by allowing the projectile to pass through him unharmed. He is impervious to virtually any form of penetration wound and does not bleed. Morph can survive for weeks without food or water, although he enjoys eating, and possesses a healing factor enabling him to regenerate his cellular structure at an extraordinary rate. It also makes him virtually immune to poisons, most drugs and nearly all terrestrial diseases. He does not possess fatigue-building poisons within his muscles, granting him phenomenal durability and endurance.
Morph trains extensively in unarmed combat and is highly skilled in computers.
Super Villain Foes
Morph comes up against all kinds of Super Villains across the Multiverse, such as Hyperion (Earth-4023), Maker’s Chosen (Earth-812145), the maniacal Mojo, and Weapon X’s Ms. Marvel (Earth-4732). When he encounters the body-snatching Kevin MacTaggert, AKA Proteus, he becomes possessed and ultimately convinces Kevin that they need each other to remain whole.
Exile Allies
Morph tries to provide his teammates with comic relief but often overdoes it, getting on their nerves. As new members join the group, kind-hearted Morph often helps in their transition from being “unhinged from time.” Morph quickly becomes attracted to Magnus’ replacement, Mariko Yashida, AKA Sunfire (Earth-2109), and when the Timebroker gives them a week’s vacation, Morph tells Sunfire his true feelings about her; learning she was a lesbian, the two develop a strong friendship instead.
He works alongside Longshot to defeat Mojo and Sasquatch against a feral Wolverine in Earth-8545. In working with the Exiles, they become his family.
A History of Morphin’
Morph tried to provide his teammates with comic relief but often overdid it, getting on their nerves. As new members joined the group, kind-hearted Morph often helped in their transition from being “unhinged from time.” Morph quickly became attracted to Magnus’ replacement, Sunfire, and when the Timebroker gave them a week’s vacation, Morph told Sunfire his true feelings about her; learning she was a lesbian, the two developed a strong friendship instead.
As the Exiles teleported to another mission, the Mojoverse’s maniacal dictator Mojo interrupted their teleportation, wanting to add Morph to his entertainers. When Morph refused, Mojo tortured Nocturne until he agreed. Escaping, the pair reunited with the Exiles, and with Longshot’s help, defeated Mojo. An enraged Morph was on the verge of killing Mojo when the Timebroker stopped him, stating that Mojo was a necessary evil.
Escaping a battle with vampiric Avengers on Earth-3931, the team was separated by a disruption spell as they teleported, sending them to different realities. Sasquatch and Morph ended up on Earth-8545 where they battled a feral Wolverine. When the Exiles were reunited, Mimic was overcome by an implanted Brood egg he had received while the group was separated, and killed Sunfire. Immediately afterward, the Exiles were teleported to Earth-4400 and instructed by the Timebroker to battle the Hyperion (Earth-4023)-led Weapon X until only six remained from their combined numbers.
Devastated by Sunfire’s death, Morph blamed Mimic, but his teammate Magik (Earth-4210) helped him realize that the team needed him just as much as he needed them. Morph fought Weapon X’s Ms. Marvel (Earth-4732) until a building fell on them, seemingly killing Ms Marvel. Morph was freed from the debris by a man and the young Austin Rist, who would later become Nighthawk and a member of the Exiles of Earth-91172. The Exiles were triumphant and the Timebroker informed Morph he could go home, but Morph realized the Exiles had become his family and elected to remain.
During a mission to Earth-14845, a reality where the Impossible Man had gone berserk and taken control of most of the USA after the Controller placed a mind-control disk on him, Morph’s use of comedy short-circuited the disk, restoring the Impossible Man to normal. When a revived Hyperion usurped control of the Timebroker, the Exiles used the reality-bending M’kraan Crystal (the Nexus of All Realities) to travel to the Crystal Palace where they defeated Hyperion, and discovered their past teammates in stasis. They buried Sunfire on Earth-8545, where she was most at peace in life.
Traveling to Earth-616, the Exiles found it altered into Reality-58163 (“House of M”) by Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch’s reality warp. The Exiles encountered the body-snatching, reality-altering Proteus, who possessed Mimic, absorbing his memories and learning of other realities he could visit to seek a perfect host body. The Exiles pursued Proteus across various realities including Earth-6375 (a divergent “2099 AD” reality) and Earth-712 (home of the Squadron Supreme), hoping to stop him and save Mimic, but Proteus burned out Mimic’s body, moving to another host and other realities. The Exiles caught up with Proteus on Earth-9200, a dystopian future ruled by the Maestro, an evil incarnation of the Hulk, where Proteus possessed Morph; rather than being consumed, Morph’s mind shut down. Discovering Morph’s malleable physiology prevented him from burning out, Proteus realized he finally had a permanent host form and returned to the restored Universe-616, but was tricked into materializing on the Franklin Richards-created Counter-Earth, a duplicate world that orbited on the opposite side of Earth’s sun. The Exiles stopped Proteus by placing one of Earth-712’s behavior modification devices on him, reprogramming his mind to only access Morph’s memories and to believe he was actually Morph. This inadvertently created an astral environment where Morph’s mind could survive.
During a mission to Earth-187319, where Dr. Doom had eliminated violence, famine and war at the cost of free will, the entire planet and all its population were destroyed. The catastrophic shock caused Morph to be teleported to Earth-1009 where he helped Rogue escape from the Royal Avengers. Later, the Exiles teamed with Earth-616’s British group Excalibur to stop Sir James Jaspers, AKA Mad Jim Jaspers, and the Fury from decimating Otherworld. Afterwards, Blink, Thunderbird and Nocturne decided to take a sabbatical and relocate to former teammate Heather Hudson’s dimension, leaving Sabretooth, Morph and new members Elizabeth Braddock, AKA Psylocke, Raphael-Raven Darkhölme, AKA Mystiq (Earth-797), Sage and Catherine Pryde, AKA Cat (Earth-79596) to protect the Omniverse.
Every so often, Proteus’ consciousness emerged slightly, making Sabretooth and others reluctant to trust Morph completely. While on Earth-83112 assisting a reality-hopping Valeria Richards (Earth-1720), whom the Exiles had previously helped save her home reality from her mother, Sue Richards, AKA Madame Hydra, the Exiles battled the celestial being known as the Mad Maker, who toyed with beings by turning them into their Super Villain equivalents. As the Maker tried to alter the Exiles, he inadvertently released Proteus’ consciousness from Morph’s mind. Proteus-Morph defeated the Maker, absorbing his raw energy into himself, but Morph’s consciousness reasserted itself in astral form. Deciding they both needed each other to be whole, the two minds integrated, with Morph the dominant consciousness.
Morph soon led a new team of Exiles though got separated from his teammates. While waiting in a reality where they were meant to rendezvous, Morph happened upon Blink and a new iteration of Exiles brought together by Nicholas Fury, AKA the Unseen, of Earth-616 and together they faced the Time-Eater. Morph eventually reunited with Nocturne but they succumbed to mind-control by Maniac Xavier. Luckily Blink’s new team arrived and freed them, and they defeated Xavier, but not before Xavier killed Morph.
