Grant Morrison, now here’s a name that will stick with me until the end of time. Whenever I look or read about their work, they’re like this shaman high on his/her/their creativity. But true to my word I’m not going to cover Morrison’s creative style, Wisecrack beat me to that. Instead I’m going to make Comic Comparisons on not one, not two, but five series with similar tropes. If there is only one thing that separates Morrison from other writers it’s meta-narratives.
Disclaimer: Going forward I am going to refer to Morrison between he, him, and they. I don’t know where Morrison fits on the Nonbinary spectrum. But his/they’re website bio suggests a preference with some pronouns over others; unless it’s not by Morrison, seriously I do not know.
Premises
For out first glimpse into the madness, let’s look at the surface details. Animal Man, the Hypersigil Trilogy, and Annihilator all deal with a similar themes. All of them start out in pretty mundane down on their luck situations. But pretty soon things range from weird to outright insanity. In Animal Man’s Coyote Gospel, Buddy Baker’s encounter with a Looney Tunes-like character is just the tip of the iceberg.
Eventually the plots reveal a whole lot of wall breaking. Characters come to life in some way as they influence the POV character. In some cases the character meets the people behind them like in Animal Man or Annihilator. Other times the POV characters encounter the character in a mind bending fashion like in Flex Mentallo. All of which tell different aspects of Grant Morrison in the past, present, and future.
The Grant Morrison Avatars
In any of these series Grant Morrison makes an appearance in some degree or another. The most blatant example is in Animal Man where the Fourth Wall breaks down to its components. Buddy Baker encounters Morrison himself in the comic limbo. It’s right there that Morrison gets a good shake for a more sublime look on his life and comics. Some people can even say this serves as Morrison’s exposure to negativity. Which is why years later Morrison creates the Hypersigil trilogy.
Specific Examples
The Hypersigil trilogy features several stand-ins of Grant Morrison. In The Invisibles, the leader of the team King Mob is what Morrison becomes in the future. This is actually intentional as the Hypersigil is for Morrison as much as everyone else. I mean where else are you going to find a series that makes people jack-off? That said, I wonder if other aspects of Morrison’s less masculine sides are on display.
Then there’s the second part of the Hypersigil in Flex Mentallo. This mini-series features Wally Sage, a rocker on the verge of suicide after life goes wrong for him. Encountering his comic collection Wally goes through the ages of comic books with his teenage self as a redeemable villain. But then there’s The Filth, Morrison’s rage against the creative machine. Greg Feely and Ned Slade are the two sides of Morrison including the mundane life and his creative side.
But I guess comics aren’t the only thing Morrison has a shaky relationship with. In Annihilator, this sense of self is in two characters; the hedonistic Hollywood screenwriter Ray Spass and the character of Max Nomax. They are two sides of a creator which need to go through some serious self-reflection.
The Nature of Reality
Okay by all accounts this is a Grant Morrison staple. But these series have a large focus on how shifting realities have on a person’s psyche. Animal Man quite literally has Buddy confront the nature of comics. The Coyote Gospel alone wins awards for its depiction of how cartoons function in another world. An artist literally illustrates the scene as it happens. Later comes Animal Man’s encounter with Morrison. The writer gives the hero a lecture about how his character shapes his own beliefs. He even goes onto how Animal Man is still subject to change from who comes after Morrison.
Now comic books, especially the ones with characters under company ownership have a very relative reality. Everything changes on a semi-regular basis and creators always put a piece of themselves in it. Unless they’re essential to the character, the series goes in different directions. Or at the very least, stay true to the formula of what comes before. Animal Man however shows a nuance in this by displaying how a character can develop over time. More importantly, it mocks the gritty ‘realism’ of tragedy. Just because writers give their characters stakes, it doesn’t justify absurdism for its own sake.
Grant Morrison’s Hypersigil
And the part of Animal Man is just for mainstream contractual characters. When working with series where the creator owns the property, most bets are off. With the canon of DC not holding anything back, narrative walls don’t matter. But why just do a Deadpool when the inside of series can create truly influencing effects? As a follower of chaos magic, Morrison has a keen belief in how writing can influence life. The Invisibles for example have both King Mob and Morrison sick at the same time. So after discovering this power, he tries to refocus the effect on the readers.
While still working the Invisibles, Morrison also develops Flex Mentallo to put a new perspective on comics. The Silver Age is a famous time for many creators who influence their work. Morrison is no exception and is not a big fan of the Darker and Edgier Iron Age. The series calls this period out on how it affects people. It all goes in one quote: “Only a bitter little adolescent boy could confuse realism with pessimism“. For Morrison, comic books serve as a gateway to enlightenment once you look past the surface. But finding great truths isn’t always a good thing.
Confronting the Two Sides
In the final piece of the Hypersigil, The Filth, Grant remodels his idea for Nick Fury into a new role. A dirty old man gets a chance to renew his life through an imaginary version of himself. Flex Mentallo is about reconnecting with the past while The Invisibles is about expressing yourself. The Filth however is about immersion and redemption. Most creators tend to put a piece of themselves into their work; I should know Creator Highlights is full of these cases. This sense of self-expression helps define creators. But at the same time, this immersion creates disconnection with the real world. Morrison himself even states his more selfish intentions to get laid through the Hypersigil.
With the Filth however, the Grant Morrison avatars of Greg and Ned confront their sense of identity. Eventually though despite the bad set-ups the two make peace with each other. With the nature of their world and their place in it, both sides of the coin coexist despite their circumstances. In a manner of speaking the fans and creators of Grant Morrison become one. As for the reader, they realize that despite their small part in the world, they can still matter.
Inverting the Message
All of this is what makes Annihilator stand out. Ray Spass and Max Nomax are another two sides of Morrison. This time they focus on how characters are more than reflections. Narratives have this power to reflect the struggles in real life and in turn influence their viewers. The webtoon Friday: Forbidden Tales (not by Morrison) displays this in the Veritas saga.
For Morrison, he speaks out at his philosophy on how people are their own gods. Ray’s desires to create puts him at odds with the people he loves. It’s only by seeing his own toxicity in Max that Ray makes peace with his past. Ray’s screenwriting reveals that Max is the creator of Ray’s world. However, Max is just as entitled as the enemy he faces against, willing to destroy Ray’s world on a whim. Ray meanwhile is proof that Max can be better as well. The point of many of Morrison’s work is realization and self-improvement.
The Message of Grant Morrison
Morrison has a very long career and bibliography each with works about the nature of narratives. Like spells they can influence parts of our personalities that we never knew before. Other times they can rectify some personal wrongs. Morrison as a creator certainly has wrongs come their way; whether it’s Marvel rejecting them or relationships turning sour. The most important thing however is using that power to better your worldview through self-reflection. These narratives however are only a portion of the creator though so feel free to view more of Morrison’s insanity.
Thanks for coming to the end and as always, remember to look between the panels.