Oh, me and Grant Morrison.... (sorry, this is going to be a bit long)
I'm not kidding when I say that I consider him the singularly most-talented and important writer working in superhero comics, who has done more to steer capes out of the "dark and gritty" morass (that Alan Moore warned against in the seminal works that actually helped start that trend - it's inherent in WATCHMEN, but "Pictopia" probably summed it up best - shame everyone was so dazzled that nobody was listening), retaining that much-vaunted "sense of wonder" and optimism that superheroes need (or at least the serial/soap-opera versions) and were losing as they devolved into adolescent sadism, while at the same time not getting all treacly and maudlin like some I could name (*cough*Busiek*cough*).
But he has his flaws and, more importantly, how people react to his work has a lot to do with what the reader is reading superhero comics *for* (I'll get to the non-super stuff in a bit). I've often felt he's writing specifically for me (we're about the same age) as my experience is that younger readers tend to only fixate on the flash and dazzle or cool ideas (which are cool, no doubt) and miss the wonderful referencing and healthy respect he has for the history (without being a continuity slave), while older readers or people my age either mistakenly lumped him in with the "Kewl" writers of the time ("he writes for Vertigo and thinks he so smart with his big ideas, plus he has "differently gendered" people in his books, ukky! Doesn't he know that the 'Death of Phoenix' was the ultimate comics story?!"), assuming he was all surface or too dark (anyone who'd read his FF-tribute issue of DOOM PATROL at the time knew that was bunk).
In fact, he's also occasionally written some of the most moving moments I know in modern superhero comics. A friend and I were talking comics recently and he asked me, out of the blue, "has there ever been anything that made you cry?" and I said sure - there are a few examples, some non-super stuff from Clowes or Los Hernandez, but the two that sprang instantly to mind were: the ending of ANIMAL MAN where, in direct conflict with "kewlness", audience expectation and even continuity, Buddy is given his family back because it's the right thing to do and compassion and wonder are the most important thing in the world ("when I was a child..."). Secondly, the ending of DOOM PATROL ("there is a better world...well, there must be.") which is both beautiful and heart-breaking. I still think DOOM PATROL is one of the most moving, complicated and important explorations of and ruminations on the purposes, uses for and limitations of "art" and "strangeness" that anyone produced in the 20th Century. But it's a superhero comic, so no one paid attention (except, seemingly, a bunch of adolescents at the time who are now creators in their own right).
So he's writing to neither the Claremeont/Wolfman/Busiek, soap-opera/continuity superhero model, nor the Miller/Image-era/ultra-violent, ultra-realism, tough-guy/cool-crowd model. In fact, a large part of his work seems inspired by the 60's/70's Arnold Drake/Steve Gerber "Fun/High Weirdness" approach to superheroes, seen through a post Alan Moore lens (that is to say, you can have "big ideas" but comics are also disposable trash). And some people don't want that, it's not what they like about superheroes (and that's fine, of course). And he does include elements of both of those standard approaches (the optimism and history of the former, the flash-action and pop-culture buzz of the latter), all while remembering that superhero comics should be for, well, not kids anymore, but adolescents - smart ones. I guess I'm stating this just to defuse any idea of a "Grant Morrison fans are all deluded/Grant Morrison haters just don't get it" stupidity that chokes the web.
Because, as a fan from the start (not ZOIDS era, to be honest, but I did buy the original Trident comics ST. SWITHIN'S DAY off the stands - "it was worth it, just to see her scared") I can say that he does have flaws. Primary is what I call the "Curse of Over-Respecting Your Audience" or "Grant Morrison missed a few Pages" syndrome. He's often got so many ideas, and is juggling so much stuff, that he assumes everyone is following along when he's not actually supplying enough storytelling beats for all the material he wants to include (and god forbid he jettison some of it!). I'm not kidding when I say that there are important story details in issues of THE INVISIBLES or THE FILTH that took me multiple, multiple re-reads to decipher or pick up (his sometimes lousy artists don't help - see below).
And it's not just big idea comics, BATMAN R.I.P. had some amazing stuff going on but was so cluttered (and so reliant on keeping details from his earlier arcs in mind, another Morrison trademark) that I can't blame anyone for losing track.
The shame of it is the beauty of some pay-offs really gets lost in the clutter. The actual, real, real, real reason for the name "Zur-En-Arrh" in BATMAN R.I.P. (not the mind-breaking, post-hypnotic suggestion from Dr. Hurt, nor the back-up "Rainbow Batman" survivorpersonality, nor the original Silver-Age, Batman-in-space/sensory deprivation tank hallucination, the real reason revealed on the last page of the arc) is so interesting and amazing, such a great way of reinterpreting Bruce's origin, tearing him out of the reductionist, grim-n-gritty, violent-psychopath-obsessed-with-his-parent's-death-who-works-for-good version, such a death knell to that approach that inevitably led to the "asshole Batman" of the previous decade, while STILL being psychologically complex AND valid within continuity, that it took my breath away. I didn't put the pieces of it together until two days after I read it, and considering the silence from the comics community (not that I checked, honestly), I think it might have sailed over the collective heads of the readers. Which is a shame, but that's another Morrison-ism - he's constantly spreading all these wonderful new takes on characters or re-inventions that open up new possibilities (for newer storytellers and younger readers) and yet most of them end up laying fallow.
Look at X-MEN, in which he worked hard to use mostly in-continuity stuff (not counting Xavier's twin sister) to re-inevnt the franchise out of the doldrums it had fallen into, just to have Marvel and their lumpen creators shrug their shoulders and follow it with a big event that returned to business as usual (The curse of that book is that everyone wants to rewrite their Claremont adolescence, "Kitty's First Day" and "Wolverine as tough guy" scenes). Even the last arc, the homage to (but also kind of a piss-take on) the "Days of Future Past" model that has plagued X-MEN with bad stories since Claremont did it initially (Claremont's was good, don't get me wrong but even he realized it was a melodrama-generating machine for his soap opera and milked it accordingly) made such a great point about these time-travel stories (that there are no "pivot moments" to travel back to and fix, EVERY moment is a pivot moment - Scott says "no" and an entire future timeline comes into being, but if Scott says "Yes", it doesn't).
So, that's a big flaw. But it's a complicated flaw because it partially arises out of good intentions - the desire not to hold the reader's hand too much. But if the reader has forgotten stuff between issues, or doesn't get the reference, or isn't reading closely enough, or if the artist sucks or doesn't pull off the direction (Morrison has worked with some great, if slow, artists like Frank Quitely and some appropriate, if not popular, artists like Richard Case, but he's also worked with some sloppy, pop-action styled artists, sometimes to his storytelling detriment) then the reader is lost - which is a pity, because he's one of the few comics authors (Moore's another) worth the effort.
AND it's inevitable that such a widescreen view of the potential of ideas and characters and universes (as he said, he grew up loving the idea of Earth-1/Earth-2/Earth3 etc. in DC and, just when he gets there, they trashcan the concept. So one of the first he things he did, way back in ANIMAL MAN, was to plant the seeds of its return with Anthro's cave drawings) can get out of control and FINAL CRISIS, while not as awful as some would have it, was the prefect storm for a talent and approach like Morrison's, while also hitting his flaws - large scale, operatic story with no time or space for explanations or details, and having to cram in everyone else's agendas as well, it was doomed to fail. Ironic, in that FINAL CRISIS is so jammed packed that it doesn't even have space for an underlying Morrisonian "big idea", which actually got shunted off to Morrison's SUPERMAN BEYOND (3-D) 3-issue spin-off mini-series.
SEVEN SOLDIERS, examined and taken as a whole, was much more successful as a critique of the current superhero comics scene. I could write loads about that, but will suffice to say that the symbolic act of writerly "psychic surgery" wherein the rotting "heart" of the DC universe (Cyrus Gold - Solomn Grundy/Swamp Thing analogue encasing Zor/Alan Moore analogue) is removed and much older (Kirby), more empowering, more powerful concept (Mister Miracle making the ultimate escape) fills the void, was just magic. The fact that Zatanna got all of us readers to help just sweetened the deal.
And there lays the point of all this (and I thank you for reading this far and apologize for the digressions) - if what you don't like about Morrison goes all the way back to the end of ANIMAL MAN (and by that, I assume you mean the fourth-wall breaking) than Morrison's DC superhero stuff may never be for you. Because that moment ("I can see you!" - it gave me shivers when I first read it, sitting in some shitty little college dorm in Coventry Polytechnic in 1989), that concept, that idea, is behind almost everything Morrison has ever done with superheroes in the DC Universe.
I don't mean it's an idea he's milked, nor some kind of storytelling limitation (a lot of his non-DC stuff have different ideas entirely), what I mean is it is his over-riding theme and his, in an occult sense, Great Work - he wants to breach the world of superheroes and our own and bring them together. Literally.
Oh, how that manifests in the real world is up for debate. I don't think he actually expects to see Superman flying in the real world anytime soon. But his stories constanty work, rework and update this concept. DC universe characters are constantly being awakened to and reminded of the fact that they are fictional. Animal Man knows it, Zatanna knows it, the Joker (I think) knows it. Superman got a big hint in SUPERMAN BEYOND. And there are millions of little details scattered throughout his work (we are the infant universe of Qward that featured highly in JLA and SEVEN SOLDIERS, for example). FLEX MENTALLO even lays out something of a blueprint for this migration/merging. And Morrison is pretty serious about it.
Now, if that idea doesn't work for you, his DC stuff may not be for you. May I suggest, as examples of his best, stand-alone work:
WE3 - short, punchy, touching, well done.
VIMANARAMA - if Jack Kirby had done Bollywood-styled, hindu-mythology superhero comics. Fun (and a great kids read).
THE FILTH - difficult but amazing meditation on dangers and purposes of infection and innoculation (of all kinds, literal, mental, spiritual) and the importance of scale, all dressed up in a skin of Gerry Anderson/THUNDERBIRDS visual style combined with a porno movie. Not for the faint of heart (lot of sex) but the ultimate point is quite profound. A definite anodyne for those who think the modern world is depressingly out-of-control and corrupt, but not through the usual "happy-shiny" bullshit approach. Even more hilarious to realize it started life as a NICK FURY: AGENT OF SHIELD pitch!
SEAGUY - fun, flighty, breezy, post-modern mythology with some things to say about the modern entertainment world. Went over a lot of heads. The second volume spelled things out a bit more. Third to come.
FLEX MENTALLO - meditation on why superheroes are important (to them and us).
If you don't dig superheroes, just stick with WE3 and THE FILTH. And, as I said, he just may not be for you anyway.
(as an aside, I loved THE INVISIBLES but it was very much an in-the moment read - not to say it's dated - and, while all the ideas are great, and hopefully being rediscovered by subsequent generations of adolescents, it may not hold the same intensity for the adult reader after the fact. Plus, the ending is a little flubbed.)
Oh, me and Grant Morrison, we go back a ways....
