5 DC Comics Shapeshifters Who Make Clayface Look Pale in Comparison

Clayface will hit theaters as the next DC Universe (DCU) movie just in time for Halloween. The film is based on the character introduced in Batman comics, but this version of Clayface is inspired by the version of Clayface from Batman: The Animated Series. This is Matt Hagen, an actor who is disfigured and is offered an experimental substance that turns his body into clay. Just like the different versions of Clayface in the comics, this means he can alter his body into just about any shape and size and even look like other people thanks to his shapeshifting abilities.

While Clayface is a powerful shapeshifter in DC Comics, he isn’t the best and is nowhere near the most powerful. One of the most powerful superheroes in DC history has shapeshifting powers, and one of the characters often mistaken as a comedy hero is also more powerful than most people give him credit for.

5) Miss Martian

Miss Martian made her DC Comics debut in Teen Titans #37 (2006) by Geoff Johns and Tony S. Daniel. Miss Martian is a White Martian, which is the violent warrior race behind the Hyperclan invasion, so she disguised herself as a Green Martian to hide her heritage. Her powers include shapeshifting, rapid regeneration, invisibility, intangibility, flight, telekinesis, density shifting, mind reading, creating illusions, and manipulating people’s memories. They are very similar to those of Martian Manhunter.

While she was J’onn J’onzz’s niece in the cartoon Young Justice, that wasn’t her origin in the comics. She does have Martian Manhunter’s main weakness, and that is a fear of fire, something the Guardians of the Universe planted in Martians’ minds to keep them docile. She can increase her body mass, turn her limbs into spiked weapons, and scale her size up and down. She can also survive punches from Superman-level beings and regenerate from severe damage. Thanks to her psychic powers, she is more powerful than Clayface in almost every way.

4) Plastic Man

Plastic Man has been around for a very long time, and for most of his time in comics, he has been seen as a joke comedy hero. He debuted in Quality Comics’ Police Comics #1 (1941) by Jack Cole, and DC acquired him when Quality shut down in 1956. His origin was as a villain, a safecracker named Patrick “Eel” O’Brian, who was shot and doused with a chemical during a heist at Crawford Chemical Works. When his gang abandoned him, he was nursed back to health by a monk at a mountain monastery.

The chemical gave him the power to stretch, shrink, control his size and density, shapeshift into just about anything imaginable, and regenerate from injuries, making him nearly invulnerable. He is not a comedy character, although he uses a lot of quips similar to Deadpool’s in Marvel Comics. He has shown in different storylines how powerful he is. Grant Morrison made him a member of the 1990s JLA revival; Frank Miller pushed him to a terrifying extreme in The Dark Knight Strikes Again; and in Plastic Man No More!, a DC Black Label book, he lost complete control of his body.

3) Beast Boy

Beast Boy made his debut in Doom Patrol #99 (1965) by Arnold Drake and Bob Brown, although he became most popular when he was part of the New Teen Titans team in the 1980s. As a child in Africa, Garfield Logan catches Sakutia, a disease fatal to every species except the green monkey. His scientist father turns him into a green monkey for 24 hours to cure him, which permanently turns his skin, hair, and eyes green and gives him his shapeshifting powers.

Unlike shapeshifters like Plastic Man, who can turn into any shape imaginable, Beast Boy has only the power to shapeshift into animals, although he can turn into any animal that has ever existed on Earth and gain that animal’s unique abilities. He can turn into an eagle and fly, turn into a bear and have that incredible strength, or even turn into a dinosaur and become an almost unstoppable giant prehistoric creature. He has even turned into a phoenix and, at one time, split into multiple bodies at once, showing the extent of his shapeshifting powers.

2) Martian Manhunter

Martian Manhunter is one of the most powerful characters in DC Comics history. He has been described as being equal to Superman in strength and durability, which puts him in the upper echelon of all DC characters, hero or villain. It could be argued that he is even more powerful than Superman because he also has powerful psychic abilities, something Superman lacks. He is also a shapeshifter, and with the strength of Superman, he remains one of DC’s most powerful characters no matter what form he takes.

Martian Manhunter debuted in Detective Comics #225 (1955) by Joseph Samachson and Joe Certa. He was pulled to Earth by a man named Dr. Saul Erdel, and when the doctor died of shock after seeing him shapeshift, J’onn J’onzz ended up stuck on Earth. He then shapeshifts into a human and becomes a detective named John Jones. He has died before, but he always returns, and his immense strength and superhuman Martian powers make him a shapeshifter who outclasses Clayface in every way.

1) Metamorpho

Metamorpho is a shapeshifter whose powers come from what he can shapeshift into. Rex Mason debuted in The Brave and the Bold #57 (1965) by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon. The original idea was that he was a character who was made of the four elements, and he even got a solo series that ran for 17 issues after his introduction. Rex was hired by Simon Stagg to steal the Orb of Ra, and when he was betrayed, he was exposed to a radioactive meteorite, which turned him into a character known at the time as the Element Man.

His powers allow him to shapeshift his body into any element or compound, including liquids and gases, and he can stretch, change size and mass, and duplicate his body. He was originally limited to elements found in the human body but later overcame that limit. Metamorpho is also a character who has become more popular thanks to James Gunn’s DCU when he appeared in Superman, and he had the power to turn into the element of Kryptonite, which Lex Luthor forced him to do. That alone makes him way more powerful than Clayface ever dreamed of being.

Who is your favorite shapeshifter in DC Comics? Are you excited bout the Clayface movie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.