Changeling uses his appearance-altering powers to grow his wealth and commit crimes until he has a change of heart and joins other mutants with a righteous cause.
Metamorph
Abandoned at an orphanage, the boy who is likely named Kevin Sydney and becomes known as Changeling regularly suffers at the hands of bullies. That is, until discovering his appearance-altering powers, which he uses to escape and further uses his abilities to acquire wealth.
The enigmatic Mutant Master enlists him as second-in-command of his would-be world-conquering Factor Three group. Upon discovering the Mutant Master’s true plot to wipe out both man- and mutantkind, Changeling frees the captured Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, and Sean Cassidy, AKA Banshee, who unmasks the Mutant Master as a member of the alien Siris race, and the X-Men and Factor Three’s mutant agents unite to defeat him.
Altered Appearances
Changeling is a metamorph, altering his appearance and voice to mimic that of any other human being (though he cannot duplicate fingerprints), presumably using his own body to duplicate his chosen template’s clothing. He develops a photographic memory upon discovering his powers.
Changeling has minor psionic talents that allow him to telepathically influence people to make them see what they expect to see. Professor X later boosts this ability tenfold and further endows him with limited telepathy, which activates Changeling’s own latent minor telekinesis.
Changeling is an efficient organizer of subversive activities as well as an extraordinary actor. He has a natural talent for forgery and is self-taught in computers, billiards and business administration.
While a member of Factor Three, Changeling often employs advanced weaponry of alien Siri design, including a personal ray gun.
Criminal Foes
At first associated with the criminal organization Factor Three and Mutant Master, who had maniacal and destructive goals, Changeling realizes the peril of his connections. He turns on them, with mutant allies in Factor Three, and defeats Mutant Master.
Samuel Barone, AKA Black Talon, forces Changeling to do his bidding but the metamorph resists his captor.
Mutant Allies
Changeling’s allies include the merry mutants known as the X-Men, especially Professor X whom he helps by impersonating.
A Changing History
Enlightened by the experience with Professor X and Banshee, Changeling discovered he had terminal cancer and sought to make amends. He approached Xavier, who asked Changeling to impersonate him while Xavier went into seclusion to prepare to repel the approaching Z’nox invasion. In this role, Changeling heroically died when an oscillotron machine exploded while the X-Men battled Grotesk, who sought to destroy humanity after his subterranean race was slain by nuclear testing, and the X-Men believed their mentor dead, though the real Professor X eventually returned.
Years later, the voodoo practitioner Black Talon resurrected Changeling as a zombie and forced him to serve in his X-Humed mutant zombie team. Chafing in his forced criminal role, Changeling morphed to impersonate the great musician Elvis Presley and drew attention to the X-Humed’s activities. After Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk, defeated the Black Talon, Changeling returned to true death.
Changeling seemingly returned as a malevolent ghost to haunt the British super-team Excalibur; but this was revealed to be a hoax perpetrated by the sorcerer Merlyn.
