DC Comics Influenced A Classic X-Men: The Animated Series Character's Name

When "X-Men: The Animated Series" debuted in 1992, it was an exciting moment for young fans of Marvel Comics. The "X-Men" franchise had literally hundreds of characters, and the cartoon's creatives were determined to make the show reasonably faithful to its source material, specifically the "X-Men" comic book era that launched with "X-Men" #1 in 1991. As a result, the series' eponymous team included well-known heroes like Wolverine (Cal Dodd), Cyclops (Norm Spencer), Storm (Iona Morris), Rogue (Lenore Zann), Gambit (Chris Potter), Jean Grey (Catherine Disher), and Beast (George Buza), along with the then relative newcomer Jubilee (Alyson Court).

Confusingly, "X-Men: The Animated Series" also featured an X-Man in the form of the shape-shifting Morph (Rob Rubin). As far as most "X-Men" fans were aware, this was a wholly new character invented solely for the show. Morph was a giggling, comical sidekick, and kids didn't understand why they were there, especially since there was already a pre-existing shape-shifter in the "X-Men" universe known as Changeling. However, everything became clearer when the series' second episode, "Night of the Sentinels, Part II" aired. During a raid on a high-security robot lab, Morph was shot and killed by security guards. Their death raised the show's stakes, but they weren't so important that this turn of events risked causing an outcry among "X-Men" fans.

But then, Changeling isn't a well-known character either, so why didn't "X-Men: The Animated Series" merely used them instead? Well, as documented by Inverse in the outlet's 2022 oral history of the show's premiere episode, Marvel wasn't allowed to use that name. You see, "Changeling" was being used by DC Comics when the series debuted as an alternate moniker for the character Beast Boy.

"X-Men: The Animated Series" executive story editor Eric Lewald knew early on that he wanted to kill a central member of the X-Men right away, thus proving that X-Men can, in fact, die, and no one is protected by plot armor. At first, he and his team considered including and killing Thunderbird, a somewhat obscure X-Man introduced in the 1970s. Thunderbird, however, is a character of Apache descent, and the show's creatives felt that it would be in poor taste to murder their only Native American superhero. As such, Lewald started scouring "X-Men" comics looking for a notoriously dead character and found the shape-shifter Changeling. The character had been created in 1967 before dying in 1968 and returning as a ghost or a zombie in the '90s. He was perfect.

Unfortunately, by 1991, the name "Changeling" was taken. As Lewald told Inverse:

"We looked back at the X-Men who had died in the comics, and only, like, three or four had, and Changeling was one of them. Changeling was in the script for a while, but then we got a note from the attorneys about how DC has a character named Changeling and they didn't want to use that name. So, it was changed to Morph." 

As it happened, the DC Comics character Beast Boy (created in 1965) had undergone a re-brand in 1980. Beast Boy, for those unfamiliar, can shape-shift into any animal. He's better known these days for appearing on various animated "Teen Titans" TV shows. Starting in 1980, Beast Boy was referred to as Changeling, and DC owned the copyright to the name. It seems the Marvel character had been dead long enough, so DC snatched up the title.