Alas poor Morph, I knew him....well?

If you think of all the classic X-Men characters you are unlikely to remember poor Morph. In fact many probably don't recall him at all. When the X-Men was brought to TV as a cartoon in the early 90s it gave many familiar characters appearances even if only once. The X-Men cartoon was one of those you could think of as being adult and proper grown up stuff when you were a child, and on several occasions it did deal with serious issues. But in the team of X-Men established in the first story "Night of the Sentinels" alongside Wolverine and Rogue and Professor X is the character Morph. The poor bugger didn't make it ouf of his first story.


Morph is seeming a best friend of Wolverine but other than that has little characterisation or background. We never get to know him as he is unceremoniously killed offscreen half way through the story. If any of the main characters had been killed it would have been a blow, but Morph is a nobody. Being killed offscreen and then having the circumstances related in a flashback a bit later on takes away any remaining impact. The little time you get to know him onscreen doesn't help you bond at all in a manner to reflect the mourning that all the other characters are going through.

Life is cheap in cartoon land. In a later episode Apocalypse attacks the army and blows up a bridge causing a tank to plunge into the river. Fortunately as the tank falls from view we see two soldiers clinging onto the bridge having jumped clear. You think you have the series pegged but a moment later a helicopter is thrown into the Eiffel Tower and we definately don't see a guy leap out of the explosion with a parachute which is always the case in Gi Joe.

Repeatedly in later stories Morph is mentioned, when people are upset or disagree they (usually Wolverine) will shout "Do you remember Morph?" or "Don't you remember what happened to Morph?". The answer is probably "No" or "eh?". Rest in peace Morph, the X-Man no one ever remembers.