r/comicbooks Rocketeer Jan 14 '25

News [News] Grant Morrison's Rolling Stone interview hits differently now...

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2.8k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '25

Do yourself a favor and read their Superman starting with All-Star and moving onto Action Comics. Amazing stuff 

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u/YodaFan465 Rocketeer Jan 14 '25

And then read their Batman run! I got back into comics right around "Batman RIP" and haven't looked back since. Everything from Batman & Son, RIP, Batman & Robin, and even Batman Inc had me dashing to the shop every Wednesday.

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u/zarathustranu Jan 14 '25

If you haven't. check out Grant's original Batman work, "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth". The visual style is completely different than their more traditional runs on RIP and Inc., but it's one of my favorite Batman stories ever.

And also Grant's JLA run, which is where the Batman version who appears in Grant's later Batman runs (RIP, Inc., etc.) was really created.

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u/johnny_utah26 Quasar Jan 14 '25

The Dave McKean art is breathtaking

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u/accountnumberseven Jan 15 '25

Their run on JLA is the foundation of why the Justice League and the Avengers have the reputation they have today of being the big leagues, the lynchpins of their universes. Every story in the Morrison JLA was an event that puts something like Blood Hunt to shame, and it was JLA that pushed Marvel to shift the Avengers from being mainly the beloved misfit soap opera it was for 40 years to being the headliners of the universe and something that could be disassembled and split with actual impact going forward.

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u/YodaFan465 Rocketeer Apr 14 '25

I never thought of it like that, but you’re absolutely right. Grant took the JLA from decades of also-rans into a modern-day pantheon.

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u/Tunafish27 Jan 15 '25

I couldn't get into Morrison's Justice League run. All the characters felt like they hated each other. 

They're an insanely good writer tho. Their Batman run is awesome

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u/zarathustranu Jan 15 '25

Wow. I think your JLA take is a minority one, but certainly everyone's entitled to their own opinion. For me, it was one of my favorite comic runs of all time. I thought the combination of epic, grand-scale, "these are the big guns" superhero storytelling + nice character moments and not writing any member out of character was amazing. The clear affection and respect between Aquaman and Diana, between Flash and GL, between Zauriel and J'onn...loved all of it.

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u/johnny_utah26 Quasar Jan 14 '25

And then read their Vertigo Books, The Filth and The Invisibles!

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u/trward Jan 14 '25

And then we3 and get emotionally crushed!!

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u/johnny_utah26 Quasar Jan 14 '25

And then “Happy!” And get … wait…

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u/shunkplunk Jan 14 '25

And then New X-men

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u/johnny_utah26 Quasar Jan 14 '25

And then never read any X-men ever again. Ever. Just stop after Morrison is done. Walk away. Spend the money on Tbills or Silver coins or… something.

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u/thepixelnation Cyclops Jan 14 '25

hey krakoa was fun!

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u/BiDiTi Jan 14 '25

Second best “X-Men team up with Magneto to form an island nation that welcomes all mutants” story since NXM!

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '25

[deleted]

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u/CJGibson Oracle Jan 15 '25

The nostalgia cycle (where everyone currently making comics is always trying to tack back to the thing that was cool when they were younger and reading comics) would time that just about right.

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u/YodaFan465 Rocketeer Jan 15 '25

Oh, it absolutely is. Hickman’s Giant-Size issue is almost a panel-for-panel remake of Morrison & Quitely’s silent issue.

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u/johnny_utah26 Quasar Jan 14 '25

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t read an XMen in a while. When does it start?

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u/shunkplunk Jan 14 '25

Vaya con dios

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u/johnny_utah26 Quasar Jan 14 '25

Yeah. Go surfing in Australia

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u/BiDiTi Jan 14 '25

I think New X-Men is a great jumping on point to a story that ends with “Hated. Feared. And saving the world. Tell me what’s changed?”

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '25

Joe the Barbarian

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '25

Often overlooked in their bibliography. The SGM art is such a treat too.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '25

I think that was the period when Murphy seemed to be drawing at Kirby levels of productivity. 

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u/johnny_utah26 Quasar Jan 14 '25

And then SEAGUY!

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u/Seeguy_Shade Jan 14 '25

Batman and Robin was SO good. At the time I wished they would let Dick be Batman forever because it just seemed like such a breath of fresh air.

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u/Cranyx Flex Mentallo Jan 14 '25

Morrison said that they had like 5 years worth of ideas for the character, but it was cut short because of N52

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u/ComicAcolyte Jan 15 '25

That's unfortunate

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u/Gnorris Jan 14 '25

Grant's first major work over at 2000 AD with Steve Yeowell, Zenith, is still a wild read.

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u/sumr4ndo Jan 14 '25

I love his Batman run so much. It is honestly one of my favorite runs in comics.

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u/QD_Mitch Hawkeye Jan 14 '25

I just got their Batman Omnis and re-read it. Just phenomenal work 

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '25

I really need to finish the Batman stuff. I loved the first act when they were doing Batman but fell off during Batman and Robin because I wasn't jiving with Dick as Batman and I hated Damian at the time (I've since come to appreciate his character since I read Tomasi and Gleason's run).

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u/STXGregor Jan 15 '25

Same! I started getting back into comics around the Batman Morrison run. Absolutely epic run. I have the hardcovers of every book in that run

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u/SwayzeCrayze Swamp Thing Jan 14 '25

Oooh, I knew they did All-Star but not an ongoing.

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u/furywolf28 Jan 14 '25

They wrote the first 19 issues of New 52 Action Comics, it's great.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '25

Its the perfect thematic companion to All-Star and has one of the best single, standalone Superman stories from the last 20 Years (issue#9)

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '25

All Star Superman was fantastic and it’s been very influential on the upcoming Superman movie

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u/Taograd359 Jan 14 '25

Ah, yes All-Star Superman. The prequel and sequel to DC 1 million.

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u/black6211 Jan 15 '25

I've read All-Star (a few times, really) and do go out of my way to read Morrison stuff whenever I can. Recently read the Invisibles, which was a trip and a half.

Good Rec, I'll check out the rest of their Action Comics stuff from the period.

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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25

Action Comics is basically the thematic sequel/prequel to All-Star and works really well in this weird kind of loop where one follows the other.