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Is Grant Morrison overrated?

Started by skoi, 04 November, 2008, 02:46:43 PM

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skoi

I honestly don't know how I would answer that question (that is, within twenty minutes).

I recently picked up the trade of his run on JLA; I had a couple of the individual issues when I was a kid and was desperate to see how it ended.  Turns out the JLA won.  Go figure.  But I was, on the whole, thoroughly disappointed with the whole shebang.  There was info-dumping all over the place, tongue-in-cheek sarcasm seemed to stand in place of wit and major threats were dealt with in the space of a few anticlimatic panels after pages and pages of build up.  

On the other hand, I thought that the Invisibles was marvellous (especially the earlier arcs) and I thoroughly enjoyed the Filth, even though it was impossible to follow.  That seems to be the principle problem, as far as I'm concerned: Morrison is clearly an ideas man, and it seems he can't get past a page without spurging a load of fresh creamy ideas all over the place (dirty bugger).  But this really crams up his space, and essential elements of the narrative get left out.  

Take the final book of The Invisibles: we have, at one point, Jack Frost waking up in a jet, with no memory of having got in the thing, or knowledge of how to land it safely.  He is informed over the radio that he has to learn to land the plane in order to demonstrate his status as the messiah as opposed to being a 'mere boy'.  He's gonna have to be quick, or he'll collide with a continent.  A great setup - how the hell is this gonna work out?  But next thing we know, several pages later, the plane's on the ground, with no depiction of the action between.  'Congratulations,' Jack's told, 'you just learned to fly.' Well, that's fine, but there's little satisfaction for the reader, because there's been no showing of the actual sequence of events.  It's like the need to cram so much into so small a space meant that the middle of the sequence - the bit where things actually happened, where the setup worked itself out - had to be left aside, leaving only setup and denouement (which I believe is some sort of donut).  

In terms of story-telling, I think Morrison just hasn't been better than in We3, where there was one simple driving idea behind the narrative, and a set minimum of speech (it was a story about animals, after all) meant he had to rein in the info-dumping.  

See what I mean?  It's been at least twenty minutes.

Thoughts?  Am I being too harsh?

DavidXBrunt

I think he's brilliant at the build up, the journey, the sidetracks. Not so much at endings.

TheEdge

"Save Trees, Eat Beavers"
"Animal Rights: Animals have the right to be tasty"

Proudhuff

Is Grant Morrison flinging a pot of paint in the public's face?
DDT did a job on me

Colin YNWA

Personnally I think not. If only because I don't think he is rated that highly.

What I mean by that if is there is one comic book creator that will polarise opinion it's Grant Morrison. Some people adore him, some people hate him. Even those who love the fella's work (and I include myself in there) often don't like particular bits of this stuff.

I think Zenith and Animal Man are the best comics / strips ever written. love um. Seven Soldiers and what we have to date of Final Crisis are close to the top of my lists as well. On the other hand while I loved Doom Patrol back in the day I find it a little cold now, a bit to cool for skool. The JLA stuff I've read (and I must admit its not a great deal) not so keen on.

I think if he was held in the high and almost universal esteem that Alan Moore is then yeah I think it would be fair to say he was over-rated (and whether Alan Moore is over-rated is a debate for another time). I think as it is his status as controversial but largely admired is about fair.

TordelBack

All good points, but I think the 'fill in the gaps yourself' style of storytelling can a like-it or loathe-it proposition from book to book, or day to day.  Sometimes I really enjoy working out what's going on from the tiniest visual clues (I'm thinking Seven Soldiers here) because it gives a comic terrific re-readability (which after all is otherwise €4-€5 for a 5 minute read), and can be very satisfying when it all clicks.  Other times however I just want a good read with an exciting conclusion, and Morrison is usually not that man.

JOE SOAP

Quote from: "skoi"On the other hand, I thought that the Invisibles was marvellous (especially the earlier arcs) and I thoroughly enjoyed the Filth, even though it was impossible to follow.  That seems to be the principle problem, as far as I'm concerned: Morrison is clearly an ideas man, and it seems he can't get past a page without spurging a load of fresh creamy ideas all over the place (dirty bugger).  But this really crams up his space, and essential elements of the narrative get left out.  



Morrison tends to inflate his ideas of himself and his talent, he's also just a lazy writer. Alan Moore, who has often been criticised by Morrison on many an occasion, is also an ideas man but is hardly ever lazy in how he tells his story, when Moore shows off his knowledge of culture he generally covers all the bases in storytelling.

W. R. Logan


Banners

IIRC, In an issue of The Invisibles and facing declining sales, he asked readers to bang one out over a symbol he had prepared. I gave up on him right there (but went and cracked one off anyway).

M@

JOE SOAP

Quote from: "mbanners"IIRC, In an issue of The Invisibles and facing declining sales, he asked readers to bang one out over a symbol he had prepared. I gave up on him right there (but went and cracked one off anyway).

M@


you wanked about Grant Morrison?

Roger Godpleton

Grant Morrison is bald. Hair is associated with youth which means that bald people are old and old people really fucken' suck therefore Grant Morrison really fucken' sucks.

Real answer: Morrison has given some of the most exciting, thought-provoking and moving moments in comics history. That said, he's always been mainly just a "moments" guy rather than a "story" guy preventing from having the lasting legacy that the elite creators have. In an ideal world he would have more influence on the comics mainstream than say, Frank Miller but that's just my crazy [spoiler]and incredibly right[/spoiler] opinion.
He's only trying to be what following how his dreams make you wanna be, man!

paulvonscott

While he has a brain, and obvious writing talent, I think his real ability is as a charlatan and flim-flam artist.  I'm sure if he hadn't made his fortune in comic books, he'd have made it somewhere else.  Perhaps we're lucky he chose comic books.

For me, he was everything that went wrong with comic books for me.  Writers should prove themselves through their stories, not their PR and bullshit as become the case for some writers.  Alan Moore's success was built on his stories, and he discarded the cult of personality.  Morrison took the opposite path.

I really enjoyed Zenith Book 1.  It had great ideas, characters and a story.  I suspect Morrison was reigning in all of his basic instincts to get a story published.  Once he had his success, he just seemed to give in to the spectacle and zeitgeist (I was tempted to say nonsense, but there's probably more to it than that).  To be fair I think he managed to finish Zenith with a coherant and satisfying end long after the story's plot had turned to jelly.  I often wonder if this is why he tries to claim ownership, partly out of devillment, partly because he can, but partly because it has something his later work doesn't.

Arkham Asylum, which was the first DC thing I bought by him, it was shit, but hugely succesful.  Which no doubt would have been a lesson to anyone.  I have dipped into other books he wrote, and they have been entertaining (I read some of Doom Patrol and Animal Man).  But I am always repelled by the self-awareness in his books and while Morrison appearing at the end of Animal Man may have been a stroke of genius to some, for me it was the revelation about what his comic books were really about.

He is clever at entertaining readers and sensing what they want, and making them feel like they've been given just that, like a perfect christmas present.  But I've developed the anti-bodies and can't read this stuff anymore, like scientology pamphlets or soap operas.

I met him once, and I could tell he was underwhelmed (many are, so I can't blame him for that), but that was the point when I stopped reading.  Grant Morrison had appeared and that was the end of the story.

p.s. I'm not trying to wind anyone up with this post, but for me this is just yet another tale of my attempts to move beyond the core writers who I loved on 2000AD in the eighties, of going on a long and often expensive journey, only to end up dissapointed and back where I started.  I'm clearly not as big a fan of comics as many people who love Grant Morrison's stuff and no insult is intended to anyone who does like his work.  They are probably much cleverer than me.

The Enigmatic Dr X

Lock up your spoons!

The Enigmatic Dr X

Which, thinking about it, is a more than apt title for his first ever 2000ad strip.
Lock up your spoons!

radiator

I find that a lot of high-profile comics writers try to create this eccentric, cool persona to separate themselves from the nerds that traditionally buy comics. Morrison is by far the worst offender in this case, and I find his whole PR thing pretty tedious. As a writer, though I think when he's good, he's up there with the best.

I find that I tend to prefer his work when he has strong editorial control that reels in his more pretentious excesses. Stuff like New X Men, Zenith and We3. I must admit that I also have a fondness for The Invisibles, especially Volume 1, though parts of it do my head in. Fans of Zenith should definitely get hold of the first three trades, especially Apocalipstick and Entropy in the UK. I haven't read Animal Man so I can't comment on that, though Doom Patrol left me completely cold.

In my mind, he's a bit like Tarantino - cherry picking bits from other media to create cool moments, that are maybe a little style over substance, but I'm glad he's around.