Changeling

CHANGELING

Real Name: Erik Razar

Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Professional criminal

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Keystone City, Kansas, 1940s era

First Appearance: Flash Comics #84 (June, 1947)

Powers: Changeling could shapeshift into any animal, complete with all its’ natural abilities and limitations.

History: (Flash Comics #84) - Erik Razar was a prison inmate who planned on breaking out by disabling the prison’s electrical system. After pulling several wrong switches he was jolted with a burst of electricity. He found that he could transform into any animal, and became a rhinoceros to burst through the prison. He planned on getting revenge on Topper Hull, a fellow crook who’d framed him and got him sent to prison. He spied on Hull and his gang, learning about an armored truck they planned on robbing. Jay (Flash) Garrick and several other police scientists discussed the curious case of Erik Razar; Jay dubbed him the Changeling, and was determined to look into the matter. Jay spotted Changeling, who dove in front of the armored car before transforming into an elephant, shattering the car and taking it’s loot. Flash tried to fight him, but changeling flung him away with his trunk. Flash survived the fall by directing himself towards a water tower. Flash studied Changeling’s prison records and learned about his grudge against Hull. Flash spied on Hull and his men, and Changeling was also peaking in on them. Hull’s gang took over a salvage ship to bring up the safe from a sunken vessel. Changeling went into action, changing into a shark and stealing the safe. Flash beat Hull and his men after a brief fight and confronted changeling. He battered Changeling, who was trying to turn into an octopus. The beating and the lack of oxygen finished off, and flash believed they were in a life and death struggle from which only one of them could have survived. He hope scientists could study changeling’s body to understand the secrets of his transformation.

Comments: Created by Robert Kanigher & E.E. Hibbard.

In the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths DCU Changeling lived on Earth-2.