Grant Morrison is one of the most important creators in superhero funnies over the past two decades or so , thanks to Doom Patrol , The Invisibles , JLA , New X - Men , All - Star Superman and so on . So Morrison write a book about superheroes is a splendid vista .
unhappily , though , Morrison ’s newly published non - fiction book Supergods is the opposite of a great superhero comic : It ’s muddled , formless , and not very active . There are hints of a great book here , but it never quite finds its identity .
Before we go any further , get me just say that I ’m a ginormous fan of Morrison ’s comedian work — if he had only written We3 or The Invisibles , he would have a small shrine in my star sign , and I spring for the deluxe hardback of his full New 10 - Men run . I ’ve re - read Seven Soldiers a bunch , and always get something new out of it . His uncanny Final Crisis : Superman Beyond miniseries , with the 3 - D glasses , is a oeuvre of gross excellence . And Supergods is not entirely a unfit leger — it ’s just a book that utterly fail to come together .
The main problem with Supergods is that Morrison is examine to write three different book , which are fairly contrastive . And thus , he scent up achieiving none of his three end satisfactorily , although there are enough interesting moments along the way to keep it readable , particularly in the 2d half of the book . permit ’s take them one by one . Morrison is trying to write :
1 ) A history of superhero cartoon strip . Especially the first 100 page of the Quran , in which Morrison is comprehend material that happened before he was bear , he tries to summarize a lot of comedian history promptly , and he ’s patently reword a lot from secondary source . ( He actually references Wikipedia once or twice . ) His observations are limited to things like “ former Wonder Woman comics had a pile of thraldom . ” And as the record book goes on , and becomes more about Morrison ’s own living and experience , his account gets less and less comprehensive . For example , Milestone Comics did n’t exist according to Grant Morrison . And so on . He ’s not really a with child comics historian , and he does n’t seem that concerned in seek to be .
2 ) An exploration of the meaning of superhero comics . This is the rule book the cap copy seems to promise , but Morrison spend less time on it than other stuff and nonsense . After scan the whole thing , I ’m not certain what his point about superheroes is , other than that they chew over the earned run average where they ’re created . And they go through cycles of naturalism and artiness . He now and then examine to sum up the zeitgeist of an epoch and fail , like when he says of the 1970s , “ The United States snap out of its post - Watergate blue funk , lionise the 1976 bicentennial and its aftermath with a driven confidence that was yield its right mythic expression in George Lucas ’ Star Wars . ” Huh ? And his endeavour at being deep and philosophic often fall flavorless , except when he ’s talking about his own personal growth as an artist — like when he speculates that a creature from the fourth dimension could see our organs and interior . ( We actually do live in the fourth attribute . afterwards in the book , he state fundamentally the same matter , but this time it ’s the fifth dimension . ) At one dot , he in reality writes , “ All snow bunting were the same , but every snowflake was heartbreakingly different in the tiniest item . ” He tries to extend a lot of zeitgeisty ground in this book , and at meter it just does n’t work .
3 ) A memoir about Morrison ’s own life and how superhero comics have move it . This is honestly the best part of Supergods ! , and you get the sense that this is the rule book Morrison should have written . Whenever he speak about his own personal journeying with superheroes , the ledger snaps to aliveness . Talking about his climax of historic period as a superhero reader , Morrison is amusing and affecting and raw . His wit and cleverness starts coming through , and his ego - deprecating humor is worth of Clive James at metre . ( At one gunpoint , he bulge a punk rock music dance band in 1978 , and his bandmembers have goon name like Awesome Toys and Simply Dimbleby . ) And as Morrison assume you through the weird odyssey that lead to the creation of some of the most memorable comics of the preceding 25 years , you gain a Modern perceptiveness for Morrison ’s originative unconscious process . The unspoiled news is , as the book goes along and Morrison becomes more key to the story of superhero comics in general , the book gets good as a result .
Supergods ! has some really heavy bits , and you could glimpse how it could have been a superb Holy Scripture if Morrison had stuck to being a anecdotist , and maybe involve more fourth dimension to cover some of the rough contribution of his life that he skates over at top speeding . Alternatively , I could see Supergods working as an essay collection , because there are understandably topics here that Morrison feels strongly about , mixed in with the topics that he seems not to have much to say about , but feels obligate to admit .
For example , there ’s an unexpected , gripping rant about the idea that an get on audience of comics fan in the former seventies clamored for more “ realistic , ” darker storyline — and thus turned superhero funnies into something that no longer appeal to small tyke . ( especially around the time that Green Arrow ’s sidekick was becoming a nut . ) This is not a young idea , but Morrison search it with a lot of zest , and it ’s interesting to see someone who ’s tug superhero comics in some pretty non - kid - favorable directions lament the exit of the all - age superhero comic . Here ’s Morrison , excuse how a fistful of vocal devotee seemed like a huge lunar time period of criticism at the metre :
These older comic - book of account hobbyist — often collectors of back issues , compiler of Leontyne Price tilt , and publishers of DIY fanzines — favored work that was edgy and defensibly ripe , warp the shell of the adult - orient superhero ’s appeal with passionate and clever alphabetic character of remark , lover awards , and grim rubbishing of everything that did n’t agree the nonindulgent diktat of a red - faced , adolescent fan civilization understandably stabbing to establish the art credentials of its beloved comedian with a significant corpus of civilize critique . Anxious to escape the bemock echoes of the Batman goggle box show and the discredit it had brought upon the “ serious ” business enterprise of collecting comics , and learning to appreciate the nuance of their artristry , these puerile advocates were quick to adopt any development that validated their growing interest in political science , poesy , gender , and expressions of emotional painful sensation … Prickly and unselfconfident , the new “ fandom ” specially liked its account about powerful valet de chambre and women in Day - Glo Lycra to come embellished with extended Ernest Hemingway and T.S. Eliot quote .
Later in the Word , he go into another philippic about hater on the Internet , who seem numerous but are actually just “ a few troublemakers ” who fire everything with “ the same jaded , geriatric ‘ Meh . ' ”
There are also some entrancing glimpse of how Morrison sees his peer , including a protracted analysis of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons ’ Watchmen which praise it , but also knock it for its “ strangle quality ; a crystalline narcissism that for my appreciation was too in love with its own artifice . ” ( He also says Watchmen is too dependent on “ conventional Hollywood stereotype . ” ) Praising the Kree - Skrull War , he dismisses Marvel ’s Secret Invasion as a direct continuation “ without any of the dazzling narrative fast one that made the original so noteworthy . ” He alludes to a “ potential for calamity ” in his own partnership with writer Mark Millar , but does n’t ever excuse what he means .
And then there are the prolonged passage where Morrison talks about his tripper — both literally , to various parts of the man like Kathmandu , and figuratively , on various drugs and eldritch rituals — and the bizarre visions he experienced as a result . This all culminates in Morrison go past out of our world altogether and go steady the true nature of the population , which his human brain can hardly embrace . One especially entertaining passage goes :
Now there were what I can deescribe only as “ presences ” emerge from the rampart and article of furniture . Perhaps someone else would call these riffle , dribbling blobs of pure holographic meta - fabric angel or extraterrestrials . They were made of what might have been hydrargyrum or course liquid chrome and inform me that I had caused this to pass off and now had to deal with the consequences of my action .
And of course , there ’s the whole incident where Morrison , writing The Invisibles , stimulate King Mob to fall into the hand of his enemies and nearly die — and Morrison , himself , nearly died of a staph infection at the same clip . Morrison discovered , as a result , that he could write impossibly beautiful , advanced cleaning woman into his comic and they would do to him in literal liveliness shortly afterwards .
All in all , die - hard fans of Grant Morrison — by which I intend , all right - think comics readers — should peruse Supergods for insight into the mind of one of the great creator working today . Everyone else will decidedly line up some uproarious insight and fascinating anecdotes scattered here and there , especially in the second one-half of the book . All in all , though , Supergods leaves you with the touch sensation that Grant Morrison could write a terrific book about his life and ideas , and it ’s not this one .
Towards the end of Supergods , Morrison admits that he indite basically the same book in a much short form , in his splendid ( but unhappily out - of - photographic print ) Flex Mentallo miniseries . You should believably take him at his word .
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