Publication history
Simon Stagg first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #57 and was created by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon.
Mark Waid, writer of the Metamorpho limited series, commented that "writing Simon Stagg was always a tightrope walk. On the one hand, you don't want him to be so comically evil that he's a cartoon. On the other hand, you have to remember that he's an absolute creep. The key to Stagg is not losing sight of the fact that he does most everything he does for the sake of his daughter, regardless of how insane those actions may look to us".[1]
Fictional character biography
Simon Stagg is the unscrupulous owner and CEO of Stagg Enterprises and the father of Sapphire Stagg. He sent adventurer Rex Mason to Egypt to retrieve a meteor referred as the Orb of Ra, during which he was exposed to its energy and transformed into Metamorpho.[2]
Sometime later, Stagg tricked the Metal Men into attacking the Justice League and had Java detain Rocket Red and Animal Man. It turned out that Rex and Sapphire had an infant son named Joey, who possesses harmful and uncontrollable transmutation abilities. After Joey injures Java, Metamorpho hands him to Stagg, who becomes convinced that Joey will kill him. However, Stagg is unharmed since something in his genetic structure protects him and Sapphire. Stagg's stance softened, and everyone was allowed to go. On the way home, Metamorpho's friends were puzzled as to how he knew Stagg would be unaffected by the child. Metamorpho indicates that he had hoped the baby would kill Stagg.[3]
In Birds of Prey, Sapphire and Joey are fused into a singular energy being following a lab accident. It is revealed that not only were Sapphire and Joey merged, but so was Stagg, who was directing revenge against his colleagues. The three are separated, with Stagg claiming to have been overcome by energy and unable to control his actions.[4]
In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth" which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". In The Terrifics series, Stagg opens a portal to the Dark Multiverse which Metamorpho, Mister Terrific, and Plastic Man travel through, and is present when they return.[5]
