Rex Mason, a soldier for hire, was contracted by Simon Stagg to find the Orb of Ra. When he found it, his cohort, Java, stole it and left Rex in the light of an ancient meteor. This meteor transformed Mason into Metamorpho, the Element Man. Soon after; he sought the Justice Lord's help in restoring him to normal. This failed, and Rex also rejected the Lord's offer of membership and barley escaped with his life. After his escape he joined the rebels who in an attempt to cure him actually created a kind of clone of him who calls himself Shift. Shift has some fuzzy memories of Rex's life but is his own person and has lost the "human body" limitation on his elemental powers.