Morph

Somebody's lost some weight! Morph is a shape-shifting mutant who tends to crack jokes, even in the darkest of circumstances for the X-Men. We've talked before about how the creators of the 1990s X-Men animated series accidentally undermined their own efforts with Morph: the character was picked specifically to be a sacrificial lamb, killed off to show the story had stakes; but the writing made him so popular, the audience was legitimately upset when he died, so then they had to figure out how to write him back in. So kind of the opposite of what happened with Marrow in the books. Anyway, with that in mind, it's no surprise Morph is back for X-Men '97. Morph's appearance in the cartoon also raised the character's profile in the comics, so it's fitting that the comics have in turn influenced '97 Morph: instead of a normal human face this time, they've got the the blank white head of "Age of Apocalypse" Morph. Now, that had appeared in the cartoon before, but now it was the permanent look. It's sculpted with a cute smirk, but we have to ask if it's really easier to shape-shift detailed ears like this than to do a nose. Even Odo keeps the ears smooth, so why is Morph spending the time and energy to make super realistic ones? If you have the previous Animated Morph, this is not just the same thing again. Even leaving aside that the '97 figures are new, more cartoony sculpts, thsi version of Morph is smaller than the last one, shorter and more slender, which better suits the character. Wow, not making a character too large for no reason? What a groundbreaking concept! If you want to make an excuse for why the older figure is bigger and broader, remember that Morph has come out as non-binary: it's possible they were simply performing masculinity back then, like how so many transwomen will have big, bushy beards pre-transition, because they're trying to deny who they are by going as far as they can toward what they're "supposed" to be. So Morph, "trying" to be a man, would shapeshift himself to be brawnier and more muscular, but now they're comfortable being more neutral. The costume is the same, a yellow and blue X-uniform paired with a brown leather jacket. There are X-logos (black circle-X on a red background) on the breast and belt, but no painted "cartoon" shading to mess things up. With the one exception of a grey shadow painted on the side of the nose, which ends up looking like it was just a smear from when the dark circles were being painted around the eyes. They wear yellow gloves now instead of having bare hands, so that's something new. The straps around the thighs are sculpted on, rather than being separate pieces. The coat is soft PVC, so the chest joint can still hinge forward and back. There are no pectoral hinges, but we do get swivel biceps and double-hinged elbows in exchange. Big win! We even get shin swivels and a hinged neck/balljoint head combo, and you know how much Hasbro hates those these days. How long ago was this figure sculpted? Morph includes your choice of open hands or fists, plus the most logical accessories ever: alternate heads! When ToyBiz made a Morph in Series 5 of their X-Men series, it also included alternate heads as accessories: plain Morph, Evil Morph, Cyclops, and Wolverine. We don't get that many heads with this figure, but thanks to the way toys are made today vs. how they were made in 1994, you can fit a lot more existing pieces onto this neck. In fact, you can even fit the heads (and hands) from the previous ML Morph onto this body (and vice versa), though the size is unfortunately slightly wonky, so it won't look perfect. So what heads do we get today? We already told you about the plain white (technically "gray") standard head, but next is one that shows Morph's "human" look. It's got the same dark hair falling over the forehead, but the facial features are less chiseled - again, probably showing how Morph is more accepting of their gender identity now. Otherwise you'd have Twitter losers transvestigating how Kevin Sydney could be non-binary when "he" has a bigger, stronger chin than Scott Summers. The third head, with its reflective glasses and red crewcut, clearly represents longtime X-Men antagonist Henry Peter Gyrich. Since any alternate head you give them will likely be some color other than the white of their neck, the heads will never match entirely. So it goes. It was exciting to get the first Animated Morph, simply because it existed; and that made it easy to overlook its substantial flaws. This X-Men '97 version is far superior. Better size, better paint, better articulation, better accessories, and just generally better suits the character. -- 11/03/25 What's your favorite "redeemed by outside media" character? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.