10 Comic Book Characters Who Were Forced To Change Their Name

6. Changeling Became Morph

Shazam DC Comics
Marvel Comics

Morph, who was originally known as Changeling, is a minor character in the world of comics but is worth mentioning due to how much trouble his name caused. The first Changeling, Kevin Sidney, started off in Marvel as a recurring villain to the X-Men. After the shapeshifting mutant realised he had been manipulated by his benefactors, Changeling became an ally to Professor X but died shortly after.

When the character was to be introduced in the 1992 cartoon, X-Men, the studio ran into a problem. The DC Comics superhero, Beast Boy, had recently switched his name to Changeling. Because the company trademarked the name, Marvel had to swap Kevin Sidney's name in the X-Men cartoon to Morph.

However, Beast Boy reverted to his original name shortly after, making all this confusion utterly pointless. This means that Changeling changed his name because another character changed his name to Changeling but then changed it back. (Try saying that five times fast.)

Bizarrely, there is no character in Marvel or DC Comics called Changeling at the moment, even though the companies were fighting over the name for years.

Contributor

James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows