"You say hello, and I say goodbye"

Continuing on with the unofficial Batman theme @ the House this week, I'll be providing some scans from an interview with Grant Morrison and Neal Adams featured in Wizard Magazine#194.

But first,
if you checked in over @ bleedingcool.com, then you'll know that Morrison's planning or has planned to leave DC and possibly comics in general in 2013. It seems he's ready to do other stuff away from comics that doesn't include ignoring continuity and writing President Obama as Superman. I kid, I kid. I'm glad he chose to willfully ignore the reboot and do things his way; face it folks, he's one of the very few comic writers around to be able to do it and get away it. No Mr. Morrison's ready to spread his wings and write for movies, and what not. Here's the link to get the skinny on the whole thing:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/07/24/tuesday-runaround-grant-morrison-to-leave-superhero-comic-behind-in-2013/

Now he is supposed to finish up that long-delayed, long-talked about Multiversity mini by next year, so here's hoping because I and countless others have been waiting or that thing to come out since what, 2008?

And since the project doesn't have to be connected or rooted to the current DCU continuity, it stands a much better chance of being a success. Well at least it does to me. Who doesn't want to Morrison's take on The Watchmen? Or a whole world devoted to the Captain Marvel family? Throw in 6 other worlds, and call me sold!

Then following that, Rob Liefield announces he too is leaving in 2013. And no one cares.........
Seriously, who's buying Hawkman, Grifter, and Deathstroke right now? Anybody? He twitted(oh brother) all three titles sold out, which is nice and all, maybe for fans of those titles/characters. But what he didn't mention was that he was probably the one that bought 'em all in the first place. Oh you........

Anyhoo,
Here's the scans from that Wizard interview. This was wayyyy back in Dec '07 when Morrison was really  starting to get into the grove of his Batman saga. He was tasked with bringing Ra's Al Guhl back from the dead after writer Greg Rucka killed him off, or rather had Ra's daughter Nylissa do the deed.

This was a way too short interview that should have been at least 4-5 pages long, instead of the short 2 we got, as you can tell how much Morrison just loved talking about Batman with Adams. In the short space provided, we get a small glimpse of the wide range ot topics they go into; such as discussing how Ra's should be drawn, the dueling ideologies between Batman and Ra's, how hot Talia is, and how Batman should be portrayed. All good stuff, and no doubt they talked about a lot more stuff than that. Shame really, but that was how Wizard Magazine rolled in its later years. High on fluff, and a lot of the good stuff. Oh well, I'll still miss you Wizard.

So here they are in case you didn't see them the first time.....

Enjoy!

Finally, here's some parting music with who else, The Beatles! And yes if you didn't know already, this is their hit, and a personal favorite of mine, "Hello, Goodbye"

"Much ado about Morrison"

So I figured I'd talk briefly about Grant Morrison's X-Men run. There's a lot of differences in opinion concerning how he approached the X-Men. Some loved it, others hated it, and others were left wondering what the hell happened, especially concerning Morrison's last arc, Here Comes Tomorrow. I'll admit I don't have his complete run myself. I have E for Extinction, #'s122-123, the 1st part of Riot at Xavier's, all of the Planet X storyline, and 2 parts of Here Come's Tomorrow. But I think I still got a decent handle on where he was going, and I've recently read through on-line opinions about his run, and mostly the only legitimate complaint I see regards how Morrison portrayed Magneto.

Now granted it was confusing for most to see him apparently killed off during E for Extinction, then suddenly return as "Xorn" during Planet X, and I feel alot of that stems from the later retcon job that then EIC Joe Quesada and writer Chuck Austen performed. I get that Magneto was supposedly messed up in the head due to taking the x-gene enhancing drug "Kick", and that somehow he was possessed by the spirit of John Sublime, and that made him go so far in trying to kill off so many humans and ultimately kill off Jean Grey. I guess he wanted to finally get rid of Magneto, even though even he admits he went about it the wrong way.
I'd say overall, he did a fine job doing what he was hired by Marvel to do; namely shake things up and make the X-Men exciting again. He did just that, but unfortunately it seems like Quesada felt he went too far in his changes. Here's how he felt needed to change about the X-Men at the time:
"To make the X-MEN feel fresh once more, we need to take a closer, harsher look at what's not working in this book and the comics field in general. The recent X-MEN stuff has been written in an old-fashioned, overdense style for one, and we need to update, streamline and demystify the storytelling techniques considerably to appeal to modern sensibilities."

- Grant Morrison,
from "Morrison Manifesto"

 Then Qesada went back and let things get stale again and return to the status-quo he was wanting to change so much. Doesn't make sense to me, but then that's corporate thinking for you.


Here's a link to a good article about Morrison's X-Men run by Dirk Deppey of the Comics Journal:
http://archives.tcj.com/262/e_jista.html

And here's another one too. This article runs down what happened to each X-men during Morrison's run.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/400082/the_unofficial_guide_to_grant_morrisons_pg2.html?cat=4

So tell me what you guys thought of Morrison's run.

"Sweet Dreams, Superwoman...."

Random Comic Review time folks, and today I picked out a nice one. It's fairly recent, but no less exciting or lacking as a soon-to-be classic. I'm talking about Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman.

Now recently I told you all how I just picked up Vol.1 of Morrison and Quitely's Silver-Agesque All-Star Superman series, with Vol.2 to be picked up at a latter time and date. Trust me when I tell you if you haven't bought the series yet, or even the Absolute Edition, then you should. Run, don't walk to your local bookstore or comic book shop and pick up this series that'll make you feel like you just stepped back in time to the Silver Age. In the first volume alone, there's plenty of issues worthy for review; in truth it's hard to just pick one, so I'll no doubt come back and review more. But still, trust me when I say Morrison's Superman is written not just like he could be or would be, but how HE SHOULD BE.

Sure, not everyone is a Morrison fan, or if you are, you might not like all his work, but his version of Superman presented through Silver age lenses wrapped up in classic Morrison sensibilities, makes you wonder how come he's writing just Batman and not Superman on a regular basis. JMS be damned.

For today's review, I picked All-Star Superman issue 3, "Sweet Dreams, Super Woman..." I know, I know, there's so many more worthy, or just as worthy pics; such as issue 6 where Pa Kent dies, or Jimmy Olson being director of P.R.O.J.E.C.T. for a day in issue 5. And trust me I'll probably review those too, but for this one, I chose issue 3. This is where Superman grants Lois Lane the ultimate news scoop by letting her become like him, super-powers and all, for 24 hours. Just Imagine what that'd be like. To have powers like Superman, even if it is only for a day. What would you do? Where would you go? The possibilities truly would be endless, and now the star reporter for the Daily Planet, miss Lois Lane herself has them, what does she do? How's her day like? Let's see shall we?.......

The issue starts off where it previously ended, Lois had just walked in on Superman making/finishing his secret birthday gift for Lois. Now we get to see what he was working on. It's a liquid solution that contains all of Superman's powers, and gives it to Lois for her birthday. The catch is that the solution only lasts for 24 hours before the effects wear off. Nonetheless, Lois is very happy to get a chance to see life the way Superman does. She even gets her very own costume to boot.  "My Super-powers. In liquid form. Happy Birthday Lois." to which she responds "You're serious? I get to be like you? for a whole day? Bring it on." I believe Superman is giving Lois this opportunity for at least two reasons; one, so that he'll finally have Lois on equal footing as him at least temporarily, and two, it's a test. He obviously loves Lois Lane, and by giving her the chance to be like him, he's seeing and observing how'll she'd fit into his world. And of course she passes with flying colors.   The scene shifts to Metropolis, where a giant lizard monster calling himself Krull, is tearing up the city. Superman and Lois fly to the scene preparing to take Krull on, only to be beat to the punch by the mythical hero Samson. This is itself a throwback to the mid to late '50's, where mythical heroes like Hercules, or Samson, or even Atlas, would show up a fight Superman just to see who was the stronger of the two, and don't you know that's just what happens in this issue as well!  Samson and his buddy Atlas serve as possible suitors for a now super-powered Lois. And even though she tells them that it's temporary, they still have wild lust in their eyes for her.  After they all send Krull back to his subterraean world, Samson goes on to present Lois with radioactive crown jewel, which causes major trouble for Lois later on in the story. Samson and Atlas both takes turns attempting to woe Lois, all the while Lois laps it up with Superman saying "I don't get it Lois. I can't believe you're flirting with Samson and Atlas!" To which she responds, "Well maybe I'm teaching you a lesson. We both know you'll win any contest these losers can dream up. It's my birthday, have some fun!"
Superman figures, and rightly so, that the time-traveling Samson and Atlas are nothing but trouble, and tries to get rid of them. Of course Samson let's Superman know he knows Superman doesn't have that long to live, so why not try to get with Lois. The radioactive jewels Samson gave Lois eariler comes into play when the pervious owner, the Ultra Sphinx, decides he wants the jewels back.  The Sphinx grabs Lois, putting her in a state between life and death, only to relent if Superman answers, you guessed it, a riddle. The riddle is the same type of question that's been asked for years by scientists and laymen alike, and I won't spoil it here, but I guess the answer makes sense. I know what most likely would happen, but Superman's response is also acceptable. Even with all that, both men start to pick a fight with the man of steel on the basis that Superman didn't show what they thought was a true feat of strength. So Superman arm wrestles both men at the same time; Samson on one arm, Atlas on the other, saying "You can quit any time. Come on fellas, or would you like me to Push!?"And procedes to what else? Beat them both. So hard, that both of their arms  break due to the true strength of Superman.  Superman and Lois fly up to the moon, where Superman tell her "You know, there's something I've wanted to do since the very first day we met." They then proceed to kiss amidst the backdrop of a beautiful, full moon.
Lois and Supes fly back to Earth, where she proceeds to konk out due to the 24 hour limit expiring, and all the eventful things that transpired that day. The issue closes out with Superman tucking Lois in and kissing her forehead before leaving her to sleep. 

Not a bad issue, and really, you can say that for the whole 12-issue series. Again so many silver age concepts brought back and showcased here, but with that Morrison twist. I highly, highly recommend going out and picking this series up. It'll make you wonder why he's not writing Superman proper, or at the very least a sequel to All-Star.

Also, there is an animated movie version of All-Star Superman out by Dwayne McDuffie who just recently passed away. Some scenes are left out of the 80 minute movie, but from what reviews I've read, it's a really good movie overall.