History: (Metamorpho I #1) - Kurt Vornak worked as an associate of Simon Stagg, but like most people who worked for Stagg they had a bitter falling out. He turned to a life of crime, and created a generator to pump energy forms through phone lines into banks. The forms created force fields so his goons could rob the banks, but Metamorpho foiled his crimewave and destroyed his generator. Vornak wanted Metamorpho out of the way, so he started messing with a machine Simon Stagg claimed would cure Metamorpho. In truth he was working on no such project, and the machine was meant to turn protons into basic states. The machine exploded and Kurt Vornak became the Atomic Avenger, going on a rampage and trying to end the life of his former employer Stagg. He managed to turn Java back into the fossil state in which Stagg found him. Only an atomic explosion could destroy him, so Metamorpho risked his life, luring the Avenger into an underpass under a river and setting off a controlled nuclear charge. Simon Stagg gathered Metamorpho’s remains and promised Sapphire he would reconstitute him.