Holy cow, am I ever tired of Grant Morrison

[jamespup]

Yes, they DID indeed stand around looking at Polaroids for all those issues, And I found it thoroughly captivating.

Son Of Frankenstein, the movie with Basil Rathbone, also has suprisingly little action, yet is intriguiing in the same way that Van Helsing was not

[Criadoman]

Actually, I've got to agree on the disliking Polaroid thing.  On the Morrison opening of JLA we shot straight into action, JLA level foes.  Riffed again in JL:TAS.  It was a great opening and instantly established the premier team here.  Shades of what made the JLA great in Silver and Bronze ages.

New JLA - shades of Infinite Crisis (repairing the wounds), distrust, etc. or in short, not the JLA I love.  I'm so with E2 Supes on what a bloody mess the heroes left.

No, I'm not liking the new JLA series.  I did like how Grant opened up the last one.

[JulianPerez]

When I said that Megiddo's look was pretty much ripped off from Pyaray of Chaos, I didn't say it to be snippy, catty, or unfair, but because it is completely true. Have a look for yourselves:

http://www.multiverse.org/imagehive/v/gameart/DietiesDemigods/Pyaray.gif.html

http://www.multiverse.org/imagehive/v/nnnnnnnnnnnn/ReaderArt/ReMeSubs/pyaray.jpg.html

[TELLE]

Wow, it really sounds as if both the Morrison and Meltzer/Johns schools have a lot of variety and points of similarity, not to mention connections to past comics continuity.  I would find it odd if any of them wanted to be identified as a sort of "Mr Silver Age" or "Pre-Crisis King" (with the exception maybe of Kurt Busiek?).  What they seem to be doing is taking the hands they have been dealt editorially, adding things they like from the older comics continuities, and writing stories in their own personal style and to their own tastes.  It just seems, on balance, that Morrison's DC superheroes are generally more fun and upbeat and less prone to include ugly art and scenes of dismemberment and rape than the other writers mentioned (Busiek again excepted).

[JulianPerez]

and scenes of dismemberment and rape than the other writers mentioned (Busiek again excepted).

Did you see the scene in Busiek's JLA where Ultraman flash-fries dozens of people? Those suckers were crisped to the bone.

The cynical part of me is thinking "yeah, well, that was Busiek, not Johns, so he gets Infinite Free Passes for doing the exact same thing Johns does."

and less prone to include ugly art

This statement needs to be re-evaluated. Grant worked on JLA with Howard Porter, whose style is defined by skeletal bodies and whose faces are always clenched, Rob Liefeld-style.

Again, the double-standard: only Johns's work need be judged if he is paired up with a bad artist.

[quote"TELLE"]It just seems, on balance, that Morrison's DC superheroes are generally more fun and upbeat [/QUOTE]

Have you read the issues where Morrison writes Plastic Man?

His spastic, pixie-stix fueled definition of "fun" makes me want to gouge my eyes out with x-acto knives. Quite like ASS, come to think of it - when did "fun" become a synonym for "annoying?"

Grant's "Jim Carrey" Plas makes Snapper Carr look like a paragon of usefulness and dignity.

[Klar Ken T5477]

Speaking of which, the last two issues of All Star Superman were less than stellar and seemed padded.

[TELLE]

Grant worked on JLA with Howard Porter, whose style is defined by skeletal bodies and whose faces are always clenched, Rob Liefeld-style.

I have to admit, I mostly just scanned those comics on the stand as I do with most new superhero comics because of the art.

[Jared4]

I also didn't like All-Star Superman as much as others have. I agree that the characterization seems minimal. Lois likes Superman because...well we know she does because that's how it's supposed to be.

Superman is really nice and polite here but he almost seems too fake. The "cute" stuff does seem a little to cute for it's own good. "Oh I'm just feeding a baby sun eater..." I understand the Silver Age was wacky,  and imaginative but here it seems as if there's no context for this stuff. We're just supposed to accept that Superman keeps crazy stuff in his fortress for fun. The minmalist text approach makes it worse. Even though I found it more enjoyable than John's run on Action Comics I don't rate it that high.

I've recently come across some Phantom Zone comics from back in the day and those stories are really good. Moore's approach to Supreme is very much like what Morrison did with A-SS but more complex. He used alot more gimmicks to to induce nostalgia like faux retro covers and strips.

That said, I think Morrison is leaps and bounds ahead of Johns, Meltzer and Simone. I don't know enough about Busiek though. His Astro City is great though and really strong on developing characters.

The thing with Geoff Johns though is that it seems like his only source of creativity is comic books whereas Morrison seems like he's a well read person. Geoff Johns only brought back Hal Jordan because the Kyle Rayner version had been around for a while and was not selling. Grant wanted to use Hawkman but was denied it because they just tried to revamp Hawkman and it failed so they wanted to take some time off from that concept.

Meltzer wote a pretty bad JLA in my opinion. I dentity Crisis was even worse.

Morrison has We3, Flex Mentallo and those two comics alone are better than most of Meltzer and Johns output. However those weren't traditional superheroes but stuff he created so maybe that's unfair. However, I can't see Meltzer or Johns coming uip with anything like that.

Gail did some great stuff with Secret Six but her WW run was average.