MORPH: Page 2 of 3

Publication Date: 7th Sep 2020
Image Work: Gremlin.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - Page 2

On a world being ravaged by the techno-organic Vi-Locks, and with their mission to retrieve the cure, the team’s only option was to expose themselves to the Vi-lock infection to infiltrate the enemy’s base. Despite being immune to the infection, Morph was adamantly against the idea because of the risk to his friends. When the mission failed, the only other option the team believed they had was to destroy the entire planet. Morph, however, had an alternate plan and showed Rachel Summers how to summon the Asgardian gods, who had never returned to the modern world on this Earth. With the Asgardians' blood, a cure was quickly developed.[M7]  [Exiles (1st series) #20-22]

When the Exiles travelled to the 616 reality, Morph found himself alongside the X-Men against a pack of savage, mutant werewolves. After the malleable mutant ended up ripped to pieces by the werewolves, he was surprised to learn he could not only survive such an attack but also pull his separate pieces back together. [Exiles (1st series) #29-30]

The life of an Exile was a dangerous one and nothing hammered that home more than when Mimic became infected with a Queen Brood egg. The hero began to transform into one of the alien creatures and went on a rampage through New York City. Sunfire was one of the victims of Mimic’s rampage, being crushed under building rubble and was near suffocation. Morph was devastated by the death of his best friend on the team and held Mimic responsible, believing since he knew about the egg within him he should have killed himself. [Exiles (1st series) #37]

Morph’s anger with Mimic carried over the next world and he even refused to work with him. After a heated exchange with Calvin, Kevin stormed off, leading to a surprising bonding moment with the team’s wildcard, Magik. Magik revealed the reason behind her impulsive behavior and tried to kiss Kevin, but the Exile turned her down, explaining that he loved Mariko too much. This seemed to earn him some newfound trust from Illyana. When it was revealed their mission was to fight to the death their rival team of reality hoppers, Weapon X, Kevin was horrified to see Magik murdered by Hyperion. His anger over losing another teammate caused Morph to attack Hyperion in a rage. To make matters worse, due to his anger at Mimic, the pair struggled to work as a team.

In the end, the Exiles survived their mission despite Hyperion’s immense power, defeating Weapon X. In a surprising twist, the Timebroker came to Morph, informing him that his reality was repaired and he could go home. Morph, however, opted to stay with the Exiles, stating the team were his family and he could never leave them. He also reconciled with Mimic, realizing that he was not at fault for killing Sunfire. [Exiles (1st series) #42-45]

On another world, Morph’s extreme sense of humor finally came in handy. Sent to save the Earth from the Impossible Man’s reality warping rampage, the Exiles fared poorly until Morph realized jokes could help the break the alien free of the mind control he was under. Unleashing a flurry of (terrible) jokes, the malleable mutant managed to crack the Impossible Man up and freed him from the control he was under. [Exiles (1st series) #49]

The life of the Exiles continued to be a dangerous, one filled with loss. First, he was forced to say goodbye to Nocturne, who had been his friend from the beginning, and then Heather Hudson, who was taken over by the Great Beast Tanaraq and removed from the team. Through it all, though, Morph maintained his levity. On one occasion, he made the rest of the team very uncomfortable by revealing he was actually naked at all times, forming clothing out of his malleable flesh. [Exiles (1st series) #48, 55-58]

After numerous missions across the multiverse, the Exiles finally found the source of their situation. With the help of the new recruit Holocaust, the group managed to make their way to a strange, transdimensional Crystal Palace, where they learned the Timebroker was in fact the construct of a group of sentient, alien insects that had accidently damaged reality during their exploration of the palace. The aliens, the Timebreakers, had gathered the Exiles and manipulated them into fixing the mess they had created. Whilst exploring this crystal palace, also known as the Panoptichron, Morph was dismayed to discover Sunfire’s body preserved in a wall of crystal with all the other deceased Exiles and Weapon X members.

Unfortunately, the Timebreakers had lost control of the Crystal Palace to former Weapon X leader Hyperion, who had regenerated from his fatal wounds in the crystal wall. The madman dedicated himself to trying to make the Exiles’ lives hell and fought the group when they arrived in the Panoptichron. During the fight, Morph tried to trick Hyperion by posing as Namora, but the villain saw right through his ruse and fried him with heat vision. The intense blast nearly killed Morph and rendering him catatonic, taking him out of the rest of the fight against Hyperion. [Exiles (1st series) #62-65]

After eventually defeating the rogue Eternal, the rest of the Exiles sought medical help from the multiverse and managed to restore Morph from his catatonia. After recovering, Kevin scolded his teammates for considering abandoning the mission and going home. Further, before they did anything else, he insisted their first action absolutely had to be to give Sunfire a proper burial. Rather than take her body to her home world, Morph insisted she be buried on one of the worlds they had saved, where Mariko had fallen in love with Spider-Woman. He and Spider-Woman shared a moment over how much they both loved Mariko. [Exiles (1st series) #66]