[SPOILERS ahead, I’m totally not kidding]
So at the conclusion of their run of Animal Man in 1990 – a comic that deal with, among other things, the nature of the various layers to reality — Grant Morrison their own self appeared in the book to speak directly to the title character:
It was certainly a surprise, if not entirely unprecedented, for a fictional character to suddenly find out that he’s a fictional character in a narrative controlled by another, particularly in a serious narrative. Just in comics we saw it in Silverwolf’s Fat Ninja from the mid-1980s…okay, maybe not a 100% serious comic but I still think it counts.
And then later on we’d see it in Cerebus and his interactions with “Dave” (AKA Dave Sim, his creator), and we’d get the Fantastic Four meeting God, or Someone in a similar position, who looks an awful lot like Jack Kirby.
You know, that’s just comics. Don’t get me started on Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Anyhoo, about a year later, in Suicide Squad #58, writers John Ostrander and Kim Yale, along with artists Geoff Isherwood and Robert Campanella, introduced The Writer:
…basically taking Morrison’s self-insert character and giving them the power to affect reality with what they write in the script on their computer. It was an amusing one-shot reuse of Morrison’s storytelling device, who ends up dying on the battlefield because they couldn’t type fast enough to fix things to their benefit, as I recall.
One thing I’ve kinda wondered about all these years was whether or not Morrison was aware that this particular bit of storytelling he used in Animal Man was appropriated for this Suicide Squad tale. I mean, beyond the general awareness that anything you create under a work-for-hire contract for a publisher like DC Comics is going to be owned by DC Comics, and can be freely reused by anyone, editorial permitting. But I’m going to guess Grant Morrison had no expectation of comics’ sensational character find of 1990, Grant Morrison, was ever going to have any kind of life outside of its initial purpose.
But here we are, a mere 35 years later:
…as Morrison brings together various bits and pieces of Marvel and DC lore that they created or (in the case of the Writer’s appearance in Suicide Squad) inspired by them. It’s a wild traipsing through a surreal landscape, and Morrisoin acquits themselves well in applying the Deadpool-style humor necessary to truly make this a fourth-wall breaking, self-referential Deadpool story. It’s that Animal Man twist of discovering he’s a comic book character, but played for laughs and not expense of the story. Obviously, if anyone knows how to do this sort of thing, it’s Morrison.
Can’t really fall into the trap of “is this better or worse than Marvel’s Deadpool/Batman crossover from a few months ago,” as these are two very different approaches. Marvel’s is more straightforward adventure, this one from DC is more…about itself, the layers of reality at play, both succeeding at what they were attempting.
My main issue with these new crosovers is that the lead stories seem a little short, making room as they do for multiple back-ups with other team-ups. In general, I think the additional stories in the Marvel release were maybe a little stronger, but the DC issue has a John Constantine/Dr. Strange back-up (with a Swamp Thing cameo!) that was fun. Again, I’d have liked a longer story to take more advantage of the opportunity, but I’m guessing a 48-page Constantine/Strange comic would have a little more trouble getting greenlit. The other shorts in this issue are fine…the Laura Kinney Wolverine/Nightwing team-up has a surprisingly emotional core to it.
This first batch (if two can be “a batch”) of DC/Marvel crossovers have been successful creatively and financially (at least so far…as I write this the Batman/Deadpool one-shot hasn’t been released to the public yet). I’m hoping the promised Spider-Man/Superman crossovers planned for next year will give us longer lead stories and fewer, if any, back-ups.
reminds me of this bit of greatness from Mike Carlin after Animal Man came out:
https://waitwhatpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/tumblr_od7eomwj0Z1qzoglfo1_1280.jpg
There was also the final issue of Steve Gerber’s Man-Thing stint. While not exactly the same as Morrison’s Animal Man, it’s revealed that Dakimh has been dictating the Man-Thing stories to Gerber, and Gerber is needed to write himself into the story to save reality, which leads to Man-Thing meeting Steve Gerber. At the end of the issue, Steve Gerber writes his resignation letter to his editor explaining why he now wants to quit.
I expect that Grant Morrison found the John Ostrander Suicide Squad usage all in good fun.
I really wanted a Grant Morrison written John Constantine/Dr. Strange crossover. This was so close. I guess Morrison writing a JC/Strange story wouldn’t get the attention of him writing the Batman and Deadpool crossover.
I wasn’t disappointed by the Batman/Deadpool story (Deadpool ended up playing well to Morrison’s writing). I’ve just wanted to see Morrison write Dr. Strange for years, and John Constantine being my favourite comic character (with a lack of enough Morrison penned JC comics), it was a disappointment that there was finally a JC/Strange crossover in a comic with Morrison writing, and I still missed out on my dream team-up.
The same pg. count & charging an extra buck is the height of ‘Gotham’s Greed’. Get bent you sleazy douche-nozzles of Disc-WB
There was a Zatanna comic where Zee suddenly reached out her arm and half the page was one giant drawing of her palm, as if she was reaching out directly to the reader. Then in the next panel three figures were shown in shadow and one said to another, “I’ve never seen one of them do THAT before.”
I thought “ha ha, Zee is so powerful she just made contact with the writer and artists of this book.” But later I found out those figures were supposed to be other comic book characters. Well, poo. That was a good idea that didn’t really happen, I guess. Zee SHOULD have broken that kind of fourth wall by now; she’s powerful enough.
Regarding the previous post: thanks for complementing the art in Zot. I have the Zot black and white book collection and in the commentaries, McCloud is constantly apologizing for how “bad” they look. As another artist I know the feeling, all you can see are the imperfections — but argh, he’s so wrong I want to slap him.
There was an issue of FLASH a few years ago wherein the reader was instructed to move the comic book around at different angles while reading it. The action moved from right-side-up, to sideways, to right-side-down, etc. GREAT.
Oh, the death of the writer. Killed by a werewolf-looking beastie during the War of the Gods crossover. I remember Wallers big recruitement drive. Most of the raw recruits winding up as cannon-fodder.
Wasn’t there a Batman- Sgt. Rock crossover in Brave & The Bold where the baddie had Bob Haney and Jim Aparo CHAINED TO A DESK, forcing them to create a story where Batman loses?
Regarding this most post-modern issue of Animal Man, I very much recommend Chaz Truog’s interview in The Comics Journal:
“If this script were any more self-indulgent, the pages would be stuck together. I couldn’t believe it. There’s a panel where Grant is talking, and Buddy is rolling his eyes in the background. He’s the proxy for me in that scene, thinking, ‘Are you kidding me with this crap?’”
I love that Morrison created a self-insert character for Animal Man. And I love that other creators poke fun at Morrison because it was a pretentious thing to do. The whole situation seems very “comic book culture” to me.
While Morrison and Mora are two of my favorite creators, I agree that $8 is too steep for what amounts to an oversized anthology book. Maybe I’ll catch up with this one during a back issue sale or something. On the list it goes!
Eh, I was willing to spend that amount of money on a Grant Morrison comic. Considering that I wouldn’t pay $1 for the majority of Marvel or DC’s current output*, and every month they are charging $5 a book for that material, I’m ok paying an extra $3 this once for something I am interested in reading.
*Exceptions for: Ryan North on FF (which is still $4, granted), Al Ewing’s Thor, and Matt Fraction on Batman
Otherwise, I am willing to pay $5 for certain quality non-Marvel/DC titles.
I guess I’m in the minority? I love when writers do things like this past April, which saw both Al Ewing’s coin toss issue in Immortal Thor #22, and Deniz Camp’s hold the end page up to the light in Absolute Martian Manhunter #1. So Morrison’s work in Multiversity was injected right into the sweet spot in my brain.
philfromgermany: good old Bob Haney! A guy in a red hood was pointing a gun at Aparo, who was in the middle of sketching either the splash page or the second or third page.
If I’m not mistaken, Sgt. Rock was in the comic, don’t ask me why.
That Flash issue that Snark Shark mentions — issue 776, by Jeremy Adams and Fernando Pasarin — is really worth checking out. It’s a blast!
I confess that I did a spit take when Deadpool did the “I CAN SEE YOU!” bit.
I guess nobody remembers Fish Police at all anymore
In Suicide Squad 58 the Writer’s in the middle of a battle, stops typing, and says something like, “oh no, writer’s block!” He’s then killed.
I liked the lead story in this issue more than in the first crossover. It was light, sure, but it was playful and weird. Cassandra Nova and Dark Claw showing up were legitimate surprises. It was nice to have Morrison write Cassandra and Damian for a few pages, two of their notable creations. The back-ups were fun, and I’m very happy we got a few pages of the Taylor/Redondo team that was so good on Nightwing.
Wait, didn’t Morrison make this character one of the Ultramarines later? Or was that just someone with a virtually identical power set?
You’re thinking of Pulse 8/The Master.
Morrison created Pulse 8 as a member of the Ultramarine Corps in JLA. He wielded “unified field harmonic generators” and “attractor discs” to alter the laws of physics, increasing local gravity to incapacitate Big Barda for example.
Later, in JLA: Classified, Pulse 8 had changed his name to The Master and used his “quantum keyboard” to “edit reality.” He could still modify gravity to fly, for example, but he could also make Green Lantern’s ring ineffective against anything yellow or give someone lots of tumors.
So Pulse 8 became a character who was more like The Writer, but it wasn’t him.
“I remember Wallers big recruitment drive. Most of the raw recruits winding up as cannon-fodder.”
They usually do! See also the “Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad Special”. Literally all the new squadmembers get slaughtered!
“That Flash issue that Snark Shark mentions — issue 776, by Jeremy Adams and Fernando Pasarin — is really worth checking out. It’s a blast!”
It really is!
“I remember Wallers big recruitment drive. Most of the raw recruits winding up as cannon-fodder.”
They usually do! See also the “Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad Special”. Literally all the new squadmembers get slaughtered!
“That Flash issue that Snark Shark mentions — issue 776, by Jeremy Adams and Fernando Pasarin — is really worth checking out. It’s a blast!”
It really is!
I think Chaz Truog is an underrated artist (I particularly like his work on Steve Englehart’s 1980s Coyote comic book series from Epic Comics), while Grant Morrison, for all his virtues (and vices), is overrated.
Wally Wood must be one of the earliest comic book creators to do a self-insert in a story, speaking directly to the readers (if not to any characters in the story), with “My World” story for EC Comics from Weird Science no. 22, 1953.
He later parodied that story in an underground comix story called “My Word” in Big Apple Comix, 1975. And he also did a semi-riff on his “My World” story with his self-insert for the splash page of his “Flight Into Fear” story for Marvel Comics in Tower of Shadows no. 5, 1970.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10228907355641872&set=gm.6915202221862900&idorvanity=492900044093182
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ECFanAddict/posts/8790773904305713/
By weird coincidence, a few months back I read all of Animal Man, as well as the Suicide Squad arc you mention, and I had exactly the same question about Ostrander’s use of The Writer. I’d be very curious to know what Morrison thought of it, and if he knew of it ahead of time.