Batman R.I.P was pretty impressive if you remember that it takes place mostly from the view of Bats going insane and trying to get back his sanity. I also loved the twist he came up for with 52. The man is a fantastic writer, he just doesn't go with simple stories or panders to the lower audiences. I like this, I can find myself examining his work when I read his stuff, going over the symbolism and themes. He trips up sometimes, but due to trying something new. I admire that. And that image pretty much sums up his entire career.

I more blame the editors for that. They tried billing these as huge turning points in characters and the universe and tied so much unneeded shit into it all. Morrison was never trying anything like that and actually outright said one of these massive tie ins, the shitstorm of Countdown, had nothing to do with his story.

Morrison does have an issue with a monthly format, though. His stuff rarely reads well with long waits, it's best to read it in one go if you can to understand it better. There's nothing wrong with depth in a superhero story, the problem is when you read issue by issue. I just get tradebacks so I don't have the same problem as most everyone else.

As for Final Crisis, I am a bit annoyed there was one needed tie-in for that tale, but it was only two issues so not a huge deal.

I can't stand him. I'll admit the guy can come up with some great ideas but his execution is complete shit. The first time I read anything that was just his was "A Serious House on Serious Earth" and initially I thought "oh cool an Arkham origin of sorts and Batman gets locked in with his rogues". By the halfway point it just falls apart with Bruce not caring for the lives of staff members and letting Joker easily get away from him.

Then I gave him a shot with the "Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul" story arc thinking "maybe it will be a great story to cement the Bruce/Damian/Ra's, and instead get another really out of character Bruce who sees nothing morally wrong with pumping up Ra's with drugs that would leave him a vegetable. You know, the same Bruce that left the JLA when he found out they mind wiped villains.

There were a few others but the last straw was "The Return of Bruce Wayne". I don't understand why something as simple as get Bruce back into his proper time period had to devolve into "he has selective amnesia and feels he belongs in each of these timelines." There's never any real explanation or significance to any of the books outside of "hey let's dress him up like a pirate, a cowboy and a pilgrim" which can work fine for comedy books like Booster Gold, but not Batman.

I love 52, and will admit that its what got me to make the shift from casual reader to collector; but its not because of Morrison. 52 had Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka and Kieth Giffen all on board; who coincidentally I also consider some of the best writers DC has seen in the past few decades.

I've been told on numerous occasions that I should give his JLA run a chance because I'm told its unlike everything else he's done, but I just don't care anymore. The other day I was at my comic shop and and when I went to pay for my books I over heard someone say Morrison may want to work on The Flash again which I cried out "NOOO!" and got a great laugh out of everyone there. We shot the shit for a few about how he ruins everything he touches and then I went about my way.

I'm aware. I'm also aware that he thought up the twist with who the real villain in Booster's story was and did it early enough so the team could change things as needed.

He does his stories just fine and I find them really easy to follow, where most people seem to have the issue is that he's too confusing. I honestly don't get that, he's very easy to understand, he just thinks on a higher ground and tries on a different narrative style than most writers.

I love Grant because he's different and usually very good at being different.

And read his JLA run. It's not him trying different, it's him trying blockbuster level stories and doing it better than every other major event ever. Seriously, that run had plenty of stuff that Marvel and DC would be milking as major events today, except actually well done, mainly because there are no annoying tie-ins.

As for his views on Batman, I find it interesting in Batman R.I.P since he's shown as a seriously troubled man (and he is) while also an amazing human being able to do what no one else can. Hell, he beat triggered insanity. Plus, writers have been messing with Bruce's moral code since forever. He started out as a Punisher type character with more stealth, Morrison takes this into account with the many other incarnations when writing him.

The only story I've read by him so far is We3, and that's one of my favourite comics ever. It touched me on a deeply emotional level, and is one of the few comics I've read that really made me tear up.

So, other than that, I can't say either this or that about him. Except of course that my comic book guy (who's advise I follow faithfully) says good things about him, and that places some of his other work on my to-read list.

I can't really critique Morrison when it comes to his own independent creations. I'd imagine We3 and Joe the Barbarian are probably some of the best work the guy has ever made because he doesn't have to worry about writing characters that others have written before him or that other writers will get assigned after him.

When it comes to established characters like Batman, Superman, Flash etc is where I feel he runs into far too many creative walls and it shows. The notion of "editorial mandate" is generally seen in a negative connotation because to readers we tend to take it as we aren't getting the story that was initially planned/written because it interferes with a direction a publisher wants to go. I believe it was Greg Rucka (if not I'm sorry) who put it best: When you're writing an established character for Marvel or DC its like playing with a friend's toys. You can have you're fun to a point, but at the end of the day you have to put them back in the toybox the way you found them." So when I hear stories like "well it wasn't the way it was planned, the editors came and screw it up" most of the time its more likely they were trying to protect their intellectual properties.

I'll admit the ending to 52 was an excellent idea (something I already gave the guy credit for) but it takes a great writer to translate a good idea into a good script, which was most likely written by Johns or Giffen seeing as how it played out in Booster's storyline.

As an aside, I know this all really comes down to what we each like as readers and I'm not out to change anyone's mind on the guy, just express my take on him. I'm actually happy with the compromise established with Batman Incorporated. Grant get his own separate book to write out his wacky stories, while the other Batbooks follow a more "traditional" (for lack of a better word) structure.

Countdown.

BTW, I've heard great things about All-Star Superman. Has anyone here read that?

I enjoyed Arkham Asylum. But that may have been more for the concept and trippy art. At the time I think it was a pretty dramatic departure for Batman, but we have seen that side many times since so I don't think it has quite the impact today.

WE3 is bad@$$. Check that out.



I saw the animated version and it was one of the best takes on Superman in awhile. It embraced a lot of the more fantastic and goofy elements of Superman but it felt honest an and really captured the spirit of the character. I imagine the comics would be better since they had to hack a lot of stuff out to get down to 70 mins or so.

I never really followed Morrison's stuff, just run into it from time to time. I guess if anything I'd like to check out his run on Doom Patrol which I hear is fantastic.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/07/05/the-flash-is-cocaine-culture-grant-morrison-at-foyles-in-london/

I read this article and didn't know whether to laugh or groan.

I think I'm going to add that to my sig

Cool story bro.

I get not liking the guy's superhero work since it goes against the norm for those books, but can you honestly say his non-superhero work isn't any good?