Amazingly prolific writer. I came back into comics after a 30 year hiatus. Was absolutely amazed at how well written and mature comics are today. Morrison's stuff was part of my initial read during this re-intro period for me. The writers seem to be bigger rock stars than the artists these days.
Read Morrison's Doom Patrol as it came out back in the day, getting the omnibus and rereading those stories was such a pleasure for me. One of the books that takes pride of place in my collection. Sooo need a reprint of the Animal Man omni.
My personal top ten: 1. Invisibles 2. JLA 3. New X-Men 4. Doom Patrol 5. All Star Superman 6. Flex Mentallo 7. Batman 8. Animal Man 9. Seven Soldiers 10. We3 or Seaguy... or maybe Arkham
So I’ve actually been doing a deep dive into Grant Morrison’s work during this time of isolation. Nothing like some good wholesome Morrison craziness to keep my own internal craziness company. I’ve picked up the New X-Men omnibus, the two Green Lantern trades, the Doom Patrol omnibus, and the Animal Man deluxe vol. 1. I’ve really been enjoying it all. I’m so glad you did this video because it shows me I’m not the only one applying the Grant Morrison therapy. Thanks for the overview.
Just my 2 cents, years ago when I fell in love with Morrison’s work I’m pretty sure his Batman run was my first main introduction to the character in depth. I think I had read Year One and Dark Knight Returns but I only knew his most commonly known trivia and villains. That being said I wasn’t lost at all and now the more I’ve learned about the character the more I get out of his run each time I reread it!
My favorite Grant Morrison works: THE FILTH (I own all,of the individual issues, the trade, the oversized full color hardcover) and MULTIVERSITY. But THE FILTH always seems to get the shaft for being too dark, too confusing, too much... It's an incredible read that i have read over and over and even bought a book ABOUT The Filth... Great stuff, but always badly maligned and overlooked.
I really enjoyed the filth as well! It’s tough to make a top 10 list like this because there are so many incredible Morrison stories that come in and out of my top 10. Zenith, invisibles, the filth, seven soldiers, final crisis, 52, etc. So many great stories!
Man, I just read Invisibles and like it so much. So I picked up thr filth in a comic shop without any prior knowledge. And I struggled to get it finished. I understood absolutely, nothing. Im not native speaker and also got none of the references. Too hard reading i thought.
Doom Patrol #63 (Empire of Chairs) is one of the single best comics ever written. An absolute heart-wrenching and simultaneously heartwarming conclusion to that run. In classic Grant Morrison fashion, he finds the despair and the hope of life all on the same page.
With Grant Morrison,he either hits it out of the park or completely strikes out with his comic trades/graphic novels imo. FLEX MENTALLO is his true masterpiece & that’s by some distance. It’s even on a far different level of genius too his now famous ‘Animal Man’ run imo. I can read that miniseries time & time & time again & I always see it from a different perspective & get something new out of it each & every time without fail. A true masterpiece & it’s criminally overlooked for his more mainstream work like All Star Superman, which is probably my favourite Superman story I’ve ever read & it deserves every bit of praise it gets. I need to get the Absolute edition of All Star Superman due to Frank Quitely’s amazing artwork. Both of those titles were collaborations with Frank Quitely. Frank always seems to get the very best out of ‘Morrison. They’re an amazing duo. Even the very best part of his huge & very varied quality Batman run was a ‘Quitely collaboration. It was the 1st half of the ‘Batman & Robin Reborn vol’1’ trade, which was the high quality watermark of his Batman run imo.
Found your page through your guest appearance on near mint, I really like your reviews and videos. Thanks for making these for us, especially when we are all starved for content while we sit at home all day haha you’ve convinced me I need to pick up animal man and joe the barbarian. Thanks again ✌️
@@frasert8779, i have read the book 3 times and have my oppinion what actually happened. But for others it might be totally different. That's the beauty of that story.
I’ve been collecting floppies for 41 years and never understood the omnibus hardcover fans, but I finally came around. Grant Morrison and Garth Ennis are tied for my favorite writer funny as they have two totally opposite styles, BUT I haven’t read all their work yet so the jury is still out. I just purchased Invisibles Omni and that’s what led me to your channel. I LOVE your style and great info! We3 may be the book I’m buried with along with his Batman run, but because of this video I just ordered Animal Man 30th anniversary Deluxe HC, and will let you know what I think! Great GREAT channel!
Just stumbled onto this channel, really enjoyed this vid and I feel like we are on the same wavelength with Morrison. I’m also not a huge X-Men fan but Morrison’s run on it made me fall in love with him and Frank Quitely’s storytelling. Just got JLA omnibus and it is awesome, so huge. His run on Green Lantern has been great as well. Thanks for posting!
My Top 10 Favorite Grant Morrsion Runs/Stories 10.Flash:The Human Race 9.New X-Men 8.Green Lantern 7.Arkham Asylum:A Serious House In Serious Earth 6.The Invisibles 5.Flex Mentallo 4.Doom Partol 3.Animal Man 2.JLA 1.All Star Superman
Great video! Grant Morrison is my favorite writer of all time. I found learning about his worldview and beliefs made his books much more understandable. I personally don’t believe in the supernatural but I’m so glad he does because his stories are so cerebral, couldn’t talk enough about him. For a look into his comic insights check out his appearances on Kevin Smith’s Fatman on Batman podcast!
Fraser Trotter I’ve listened to his appearance on Fatman many many times! He’s a really interesting person to listen to, and I’m on the same page as you, I love the way his brain works!
If I recall correctly. Grant wrote somewhere that he has a "wild" routine of getting into the creative zone. Envoking the inner madness so to speak. Is there an interview on that somewhere?
Wow great and unexpected pick for #1! It was the first Morrison book I read and the one that made me fall in love with him, and I feel like not as many people hold it as high as it should be
I just started the Doom Patrol omnibus, about 400 pages in and I cannot even explain how much I have loved the stories and characters. I wanna read the animal man soon for sure, as well as Morrisons Batman run. Great Video!
I consider myself self a Morrison face(I actually love final crisis lol) but you've reminded me of a few titles I really need to look into. Thank you. When you were at a loss for words I knew I needed to subscribe.
Sweet video! I've been getting into comics during COVID. I started reading Grant Morrison with Seven Soldiers of Victory and so far he's the writer I'm most interested in reading a lot more of! Edit: I picked up Klaus after watching this video. I've only read the first two parts, but it already is magical feels like a classic!
Great video. GM is one of the best. Been a long while since i read any GM though. Invisibles, St. Swithins Day, X-Men and Arkham and vaguely recall bits of Animal Man, think i need a reread of that. Will read WE3 and Doom Patrol for first time so that will be quite a moment.
I don't care for the show at all. It's too 'hip' for me. But Grant's run on Doom Patrol is the standard for the title. Love it!!! Also, his Animal Man is the standard for that title. Grant is a serious talent.
Had to revisit this video to find my next grant morrison read. I read all star Superman and it was good but it didn’t do much for me. Animal Man was good and then got amazing towards the end, probably my favorite read this year!
While it may not be his technically best work, I think The Invisibles is his most honest work, and the one that informs the DNA of all his subsequent works. While he since came down and lost some of the star-eyed druggy optimism and culture war commentary, I do think it's what he actually believes. I do think he was sincerely trying to cause the apocalypse by writing it. It's speaking to a minority of people, a niche audience sure but the one closest to his inner circle...anarchists, situationists, alien "contactees", tryptamine-smokers, would-be terrorist prophets, and people who've experienced psychosis...the Brotherhood of Dada. It has that diary element, and it's a manifesto. It also really, impressively nails the emotional dimensions of Acid and ecstasy, but that can be totally blink-and-miss for readers who haven't done it. Like trying to describe a dream to people, it can be totally mundane to many people, but here hes describing, "corroborating" a dream shared by other people. So it often gets dismissed as pretentious or too subcultural. But it predicts everything from gender nonconformity going mainstream to the QAnon phenomenon. It's about the eventual disintegration of consensus reality, that we are now living inside.
Thanks for the great Grant overview. It's difficult to argue with your choices. I can't wait for the upcoming Batman Omni #3 to do a massive Batman/Final Crisis re-read!
Grant Morrison for me is all over the place. All-Star Superman and Grant's Doom Patrol are both in my top 10 comic runs of all time. All-Star Superman is by far the best Superman story ever written. His run on Batman was amazing as well. Such a good run, for a long time and great consistency throughout. On the other hand, I found his New 52 Action Comics run to be one of the most boring runs of Superman I've ever read. I don't think his run on The Green Lantern is good, since Hal's character is written NOTHING like Hal Jordan, but more like Guy Gardner or Judge Dredd. I understand the appeal of the Silver-age style comics, but it's just not Hal Jordan's character. Then there's Arkham Asylum (A Serious House on Serious Earth), which was the most "meh" Batman story I've ever read.
Garth Ennis fundamentally changed Punisher and Johns fundamentally changed Green Lantern. Grant writes with a love affair to the silver age, so that may be his mistake with his GL run but if you look at his take outside of Geoff’s GL Rebirth it may work better for you. That’s Grant. He will crush it or miss it, always depending on the reader. There’s big reveals into his GL run so if you gave up early stick with it, if you’re still reading it, I get it. It’s like Nameless and Annihilator sometimes he can be a meh but that happened with Stan and Kirby too. GM is still THE comic God.
Haven’t read Grant Morrison’s Animal Man but I’ve read the Jeff Lemire run and liked it a lot. I also ordered Absolute All Star Superman and cant wait to read it.
For anyone looking for Animal Man, the trades are pretty affordable and relatively easy to find. WE3 is phenomenal, i have that in floppy. Im running out of shelf space with all of Grant's work.
I’d love to pick up a copy of Animal Man in that omnibus edition but I can’t find it anywhere! On Amazon is only 3rd party sellers, selling it at $200-300. Any idea where I can pick it up at a decent price? I live in Germany btw so I’d have to order from somewhere that ships
Great video, had to follow. Love Grant Morrison X-Men and I love even more the continuation Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon. I think they go great together. So you guys create your own dust Jacket's? That's awesome!
The Invisibles by Morrison is such a mindfuck..I've tried reading the first Library edition but christ..its such a trip..!! am I missing the point here..??!!!
Daniel Adams I don’t mind Final Crisis! It’s not the easiest Morrison read, since there is a lot happening in a compressed timeframe, but I’ve really grown to enjoy it after reading the full omnibus!
I have to give it to Batman and Robin. I love the entire Batman run but that section is the tops. Funny enough my favourite Superman from GM is definitely Superman Beyond from the Final Crisis series. I love all his Superman including his much under appreciated Action Comics run. I see it as his Alpha with his All-Star Superman being his Omega, much like Frank Miller has with Year One/The Dark Knight.
John Lindsay I have been waiting so patiently for DC to release Morrison’s Action Comics run in an oversized hardcover. I enjoyed it as well, and that alpha and omega comparison is perfect! Batman and Robin is brilliant and should have gone on far longer than it did. The Dick and Damian duo was a pleasure to read!!!
What i think is brilliant about Griant Morrison ... There are some writers that can write an intriguing story with an ending that doesn't make much sense. Or ... that only makes sense for them but not necessary for the reader. Morrison does it the other way around. That way of working is more compelling. His storyseeds are sometimes a little bit unclear, but that makes you want more as a reader, and at the end everything does make sense. For instance with his Batman run in the beginning i couldn't really see the attachments that clearly between the subarcs. But in the second omnibus everything came together brilliantly. And i haven't read Batman Inc yet, scheduled for the third omnibus, that would tie up even more 'loose' endings.
P C Absolutely! One seemingly insignificant page or panel can also end up carrying so much more meaning. As wild and crazy as his stories and ideas are, there’s a surprising amount of subtlety in some of his stories, like All-Star Superman. A Morrison title always gets me excited because I really have no idea wtf to expect. And that’s insanely exciting as a decently long time reader!
@@TheHardcoverComic I haven't read the Invisibles though. I have heard people say it's his ultimate masterpiece. Is there a reason why that's not on your top-tier list?
You know all i hear about is Rockstar Grant Morrison. How bout guys like Dan Jurgens ? His Rebirth works is superhero lightning in a bottle. Action Comics Batman Beyound Green Lanterns. Check em out.
Aside from Happy I've really only read Morrison's DC work. His JLA, Doom Patrol, Batman: Gothic and All-Star Superman are the best. His Flash (with Mark Millar), Green Lantern and Batman have highlights but overall don't stand up to the ones I mentioned previously. I didn't really like his Animal Man run despite all the hype I had heard about it before I read it.
C Mac Fair enough! The great thing about Morrison is that he’s done a wide variety of stories over many many years, so there’s something out there for everyone!
I don't disagree with anything on the list (except Joe the Barbarian, which I have not read) ... but I was amazed that Invisibles wasn't on the list. It's just such pure, unadulterated Morrison.
Mark Fossen I love Invisibles and I’m sure if I did another top 10 Morrison book list next week it would be on there haha! So many phenomenal Morrison titles!
What you think about The Invisibles? I'm a great fan of MOrrison but I always be afraid of spendding the money to get The INvisibles Omnibus, what do you think of it?
I read jla in comics format. Will definitely grab the omnibus. I want to get Animal Man Omnibus. Love the Doom Patrol DC Universe series, so I may get the omnibus. Always wanted The Multiversity, I have the All Star Superman Black Label, although I do not like Frank Quietly's art.
New X Men is hit and miss for me. Igor Kordey's at work is difficult to look at in some issues. And Planet X, the next to last story in this run, made the whole thing fall apart for me. But I really liked Here Comes Tomorrow. Totally agree with you on Animal Man being great. But my favorite Morrison run is definitely JLA. The overall story was great. But he also bought Wally, and Kyle up and laid some of the foundation for what Johns did with the GL mythos in Rebirth. I'm also a fan of The Invisibles.
