We interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast of Countdowns to bring you this week’s entry into our latest column:
David has been away on vacation in “the Mecca of Comics,” Portland. Because of this, we are unfortunately unable to bring you your regular dose of Marvel vs. DC. However, I thought that in the nature of this site’s namesake and my undying love of his work, I’d interject with a column in order to keep the space filled. This week I thought it’d be fun to go into my library and pull out my favorite comics by Grant Morrison and list the top 5 for you.
Of course, the last time I really tried to write about my love of the writer’s work, a group of internet hooligans arrived to bash me down and tell me that their appreciation of the work was better than mine. So who knows – if we’re lucky, it’ll happen again! Until then, however, check after the cut for my thoughts on the top 5 must read Morrison books.
Morrison has quite an impressive body of work, and as such there will be a lot of titles I won’t be mentioning here. Those include some of my favorite books, such as the Filth, Seaguy, the Mystery Play, and Final Crisis. The man has over 30 years of comic books out now, all of which are worth reading in my mind. I simply had to do my best to distill it down to a smaller list and arrange it to those that I believe are all must reads. Hopefully, you’ll agree (although I admit now that I may be alone in my supreme love of my number one comic listed here):
5. The Invisibles
The Invisibles is one of Grant Morrison’s most important works to date, if not the most important work to date. It is as much an epic collection of ideas as it is one of the most epic tales available in the Vertigo back library. Centering around a group of British counter culturists and rebels, battling against the oppressive terrors inflicted from various angles of the society they live in.
Filled with a variety of top class artistic talent (including, at the time, a young unknown artist by the name of Cameron Stewart) and an intense barrage of references, the comic has opened itself up to heavy debate (see: Anarchy for the Masses) and continued analyses to this day. It’s one of Morrison’s final works and is a great example of the complexities that Morrison likes to use when concocting his tales. It was also a place for Morrison, through the voice of King Mob, to discuss some issues close to his art, including the incitement of a cultural revolution and elaboration of many conspiracy theories that Morrison subscribed to. It’s simply a can’t miss work by the author.
It’s also interesting to look at it now to see some of the controversy it caused at the time, featuring heavy editing by DC at the advice of their lawyers.
4. New X-Men/Animal Man (tie)
I’m torn between the two titles. Both are quite amazing, and absolutely classic to both of the hero groups it works with. It’s simply unmissable superhero comics.
In New X-Men, Morrison concocted a long and intense tale with varying subplots, all of which had the endgame of revitalizing the franchise. He began by murdering Magneto and allowing Professor Xavier to walk again, and continued on to creating some unforgettable characters still be used today, such as the Stepford Cuckoos and Fantomex. One cannot forget the chilling revelation behind Xorn as New York is transformed into a ghetto, but for me one of the most memorable moments was when the future endgame was revealed and the story jumped years into the future and the true dark villain behind the tale was revealed. New X-Men by Morrison has been an often imitated tale elaborated on after the fact quite frequently, and it is quite frankly one of the best X-Men stories I’ve ever read from front to back.
Then there’s Animal Man, which is one of Morrison’s most important works both personally and professionally. Animal Man was one of the first stages for Morrison to display his ideas and often reproduced thematic elements for comics, and he did so with quite an explosive story. Animal Man was very much a meditation on the importance of comic books and, specifically, super hero comic books and the super heroes role. From the fifth issue alone (Gospel of the Coyote), the reader could tell they were in for quite a different type of tale, as the story grew more and more odd throughout before the eventual reveal circulating around the retcon of the 80’s Crisis and Morrison stepping onto the page himself. The book is one of the most moving super hero comics around, and despite the weighty concepts and unique story telling habits, it’s one of Morrison’s most linear and intriguing tales to date. Animal Man was also a place for Morrison to take a more widespread stand on animal rights, turning Animal Man into a vegan and using him as a mouthpiece for the Animal Rights Movement, efficiently reflecting beliefs that Morrison himself had.
Both stories have their positives here. New X-Men is more of a straightforward superhero tale than Animal Man while Animal Man is more of a meditation on the ideals of superheroism. Placed next to each other, the two books generally show Morrison’s thoughts on the ideas of the costumed crusaders with some of the best stories he has written.
3. WE3
WE3 is a tale of three animals who were kidnapped and genetically engineered to be the world’s most powerful killing machines. As an animal lover, Morrison was able to use WE3 to bring back thoughts on animal rights in a truly heartbreaking way, as the cover to each issue featured the MISSING advertisement for each animal that starred in the series. The book also showed Morrison’s abilities as a writer as he both managed to tell one of the emotionally effective stories in three issues that I’ve ever read as well as create such an indepth world full of unique personalities and characteristics to the three heroes. On top of that, teamed with Quitely Morrison was able to really introduce some genuinely new ideas to sequential story telling. Quitely is an incredibly talented artist all on his own, but when paired with Morrison the two weave gold (as you’ll see in the next pick). The most notable aspect of the comic is how Quitely and Morrison were really able to bring the story to life, with the characters at times literally leaping through panels in such fluid motion that you cold see the comic come to life on the page as your eyes moved across the page. The entire comic is an impressive beast of it’s own, and an absolute must own for any comic book fan.
2. All Star Superman
Many people claim that this is not only one of Grant Morrison’s best works, but one of the most important works in comic books in at least the last five years. Unlike it’s All Star counterpart, Superman told the story of a hero on the verge of death, using what little time he had left to solve some left over problems and leave the world a better place than he found it. In many ways, it was Superman being reduced to the mortal man’s plight. But he’s not just any mortal man – he’s a Kryptonian born alien, who many writers have somewhat alienated from his more humble roots and the purpose of why he was created. Morrison remembered the power that Superman is capable of, the true inspiration he can give to people, and he brought that back in a story that is quite literally, to borrow a phrase, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.
Once again paired with Quitely, the two managed to convey a tale of loss and heartbreak that was at the same time a story of hope and inspiration. This is the only Superman story I’ve ever read that, to me, feels like Superman really exists.
Continued belowAnd last but not least,
1. Seven Soldiers of Victory
Seven Soldiers is one of my all time favorite comic books. I often tout to friends the importance of their reading this book on the same level that people feel it’s important to read Watchmen as comic fans. In fact, when I was in college I gave an entire report about why this comic is better than Watchmen, and I still believe that.
The reason why I love Seven Soldiers so much is that it was a truly unique way for Morrison to attack the ideas behind narrative structure. Concocting an intertwining tale whose aim was to not only revive a group of heroes but breathe life into individual heroes themselves as well as revitalize several franchise ideas. Each individual mini (the story comprised of seven) dealt with different themes, using the super powered characters as the crutch of each tale. The stories dealt with everything from the prostitution of heroes in the modern era, racial issues, familial burdens, and the pangs of loneliness.
On top of that, each mini read absolutely fine on it’s own. While to get the bigger picture you would of course have to read it in the proper order, you can read the Zatanna mini by itself and still enjoy the read. The individual stories hold true to many idioms and tropes of Morrison’s writing as much as the bigger picture does, and with seven different artists for the seven different books, it is impossible to go into this book and not come out with at least one new favorite artist.
Seven Soldiers remains one of my favorite DC books and Grant Morrison stories, forever and always, because of the way it challenged the way I had read comics at that point. While I certainly had read crossovers before (or even tie-ins), this comic took this idea to a brand new level. Leaving me with several new favorite artists and characters, most of whom you can now see working with Morrison quite regularly in books like Return of Bruce Wayne and Batman And Robin, Seven Soldiers remains one of the best comic books I’ve ever read, and the number one book by Morrison on my list.
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But that’s just me! There are plenty of books I didn’t mention. What are your favorite Morrison titles that you feel I didn’t give enough love? Leave some thoughts in the comments, and we’ll discuss!
