Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison

Mar 06, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, books-about-books, non-fiction, history, history-usa, signed-first-or-limited-edition, audiobook, mythstories-and-legends, pop-cultural

Scottish madman Grant Morrison deploys a slick, witty, rock-n-roll style to his narrative while providing a brilliant, insightful examination of the creation and evolution of the superhero as both mythical archetype and as a reflection of societal mores, attitudes and aspirations.

Good, good stuff.

I loved his artful, breezy prose, an example of which can be seen in this excerpt from his discussion of the creation of Superman and Batman in the 1930's:

“From the beginning, the ur-god and his dar

...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Riku Sayuj rated it 2 of 5 stars

In the title of Supergods, Grant Morrison seems to be promising an exploration of ‘What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God From Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human’. Does he live up to that promise? No. If you take up this book expecting moral philosophy or some kind of analysis on how the values in our fiction will help us be better humans, boy, are you in for a disappointment.

I have a sulky feeling that the only reason Grant published this book was to take advantage of...more In the title of Supergods, Grant Morrison seems to be promising an exploration of ‘What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God From Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human’. Does he live up to that promise? No. If you take up this book expecting moral philosophy or some kind of analysis on how the values in our fiction will help us be better humans, boy, are you in for a disappointment.

I have a sulky feeling that the only reason Grant published this book was to take advantage of the predicted upsurge in importance of comics that his pet theories tell him and the reason why publishers went ahead was to cash in on the sudden elevation in the status of pulp comics following Nolan’s reinvigoration of Batman.

So with a serious sounding title and an alluring subject matter, Morrison proceeds to happily serve up a brew of 75 years worth of comic book history, his own bildungsroman and literary criticism on his colleagues and praise for his favorites. The history that he presents is thoroughly colored by his own biases, but at least he never makes an attempt at projecting a dispassionate observer persona. The book is cursory and without focus for the most part; the history is too superficial for an ardent fan and would be way too detailed to serve as an introduction to comics. The analysis that he attempts to bring to the art of story-telling has already been done in much better fashion by Scott McCloud and the evolution of ideas and causal connection to real historical events could also have been better handled by a historian or in conjunction with one. The constant comparisons to Beatles, to Picasso and to Wagner, among others, makes one feel like Morison is trying too hard to fit something that we all know to be a mass product to the exclusive category of High Art.

Almost half the book is about the Golden and Silver ages which saw the birth of Superman and was followed by a burgeoning pantheon of copy-cat heroes like Batman and soon by original and radical version like Captain Marvel. One of Morrison’s pet ideas is the idea of the author inserting himself into the page. He gives a detailed analysis of how this grew in him and of his experiments in sending a 2D version of himself into the comic world to interact with the characters and this makes more and more sense as he himself blends into the narrative of the book in the last two-thirds and the book becomes more an autobiography than a history. Of course, the book becomes a completely psychedelic trip at this point with Morrison using up most of the remaining pages to convince us that he is God’s agent on earth to spread peace and truth. These quasi-religious ideas and Morrison’s long rants about peers soon make the book seem loose and untidy and it just plain comes apart in the last few chapters and all the good impression one might have built up for the book erodes away as the reader struggles through Morrison’s repeated assurances that there is more to the world than what we see and that extra-dimensional super heroes has made him the vessel to reach us through his art. As we close the book, even though we are thoroughly impressed by the force of his language and the wild imaginative scope of his ideas, it would be an effort in credulity to take Morrison or the book too seriously. At the very least, it pointed me to some excellent graphic novels and artists. For that and for the writing style, an extra star.(less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jonathan by: Stephen

Shelves: biographical, non-fiction

Part autobiography and part history of the superhero this is all literary flair. Grant Morrison writes an interesting and captivating non-fiction work with heavy elements of metafiction included. As a result the end product is a book which is as informative as it is entertaining.

While most people would not associate a graphic novel writer with great literature ability Grant Morrison here demonstrates that he is a writer. His work is full of beautifully composed prose and draws on a variety of q...more Part autobiography and part history of the superhero this is all literary flair. Grant Morrison writes an interesting and captivating non-fiction work with heavy elements of metafiction included. As a result the end product is a book which is as informative as it is entertaining.

While most people would not associate a graphic novel writer with great literature ability Grant Morrison here demonstrates that he is a writer. His work is full of beautifully composed prose and draws on a variety of quotes, images and references. As such the finished product contains much literary power, with some of Morrison's phrases being particularly notable in their poetry.

The one fault for me with this work was in Morrison's tendency to leave the superhero for long periods to talk about his drug taking, alcohol fuelled lifestyle and spiritual journey. For a book that was supposedly meant to be about superheroes it did seem as if the author did at times turn the attention solely on himself which was a detour from the interesting nature of the superhero material he was discussing.

Grant Morrison however was at his best when he was talking about the superheroes which was about seven eighths of the entirety of this novel in my estimation. He discussed the birth of the hero with Superman in Action Comics no. 1 and the rise of other costumed characters like Batman. He discussed the rise of the superhero worlds and what that meant and means for our three dimensional reality. He analysed the nature of how these heroes represented ancient ideas and archetypes of the old gods and mythologies. He mentioned the characters involved in creating the superhero filled world, from the likes of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee to the more contemporary Alan Moore and Frank Miller.

Speaking of which I view Miller's work in reinventing Batman as more important than Moore's Watchmen. Certainly Watchmen is a technically amazing graphic novel and receives a lot more applause from all critics for its scope and ideas ((view spoiler)) However I would argue that Miller's ideas have been more influential in defining the struggles of heroes. Whereas Watchmen stands on its own for me and has fewer of its ideas incorporated into modern comics/graphic novels.

Finally Grant Morrison concludes with looking at the transference of the hero to the screen. Which he uses to look at his biggest argument across the entire book: that superheroes are representative of old and grand ideas and as such can transfer across universes. He points out that while many people struggle to figure out whether those heroes trapped in their paper worlds have become real identities we are like them. We can be the superheroes. An idea which whether you accept it or not is intriguing in its way.

I do recommend this as a book for anyone interested in superheroes to read. You may even gain a glimpse at the workings of the graphic novel or comic business as well. But I'm sure whatever you find in this you won't be too disappointed.(less)

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Jul 22, 2011 Brian Norris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Supergods is part comics history, a pinch of Morrison memoir, and a huge chunk of the social study of comics on society. Is it a book that only people who enjoy comics will love? I say no.

Supergods is separated into 4 sections based on the comics of that "era". We start with the classic Golden Age of Superman and Batman's first appearance in comics. Morrison does a fantastic job of explaining the huge impact that these kind of super heroes had on a world that was spiraling into darkness. The Gre...more Supergods is part comics history, a pinch of Morrison memoir, and a huge chunk of the social study of comics on society. Is it a book that only people who enjoy comics will love? I say no.

Supergods is separated into 4 sections based on the comics of that "era". We start with the classic Golden Age of Superman and Batman's first appearance in comics. Morrison does a fantastic job of explaining the huge impact that these kind of super heroes had on a world that was spiraling into darkness. The Great Depression had America in a stranglehold, and the rest of the world was caught in the ripples it caused. Superman and Batman came along in at a time when the comics market was flooded with pulp crime heroes. Morrison doesn't dwell on just these two characters, although they are the main focus.

The Silver Age was a trippier time for comics in the United States. Morrison takes on a trip, no pun intended, through this age explaining how the Comics Code Authority changed the way the medium was perceived by the public. Superheroes were on the way out. Sales were falling into the gutter following the end of World War II. Marvel and Stan Lee changed all that. Morrison explains how the explosion of the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man put superhero comics back into the mainstream. Comics were starting to become cool again. While Marvel would take ahold of the industry, DC was preparing to overthrow them.

The Dark Age, an age not officially recognized by collectors or the industry in general, is a time where the comics became more real, in Morrison's opinion. He spends his time relishing over the great ideas that creators like Frank Miller and Alan Moore used to advance comics into new territory. Morrison once again states that he's not the biggest fan of Moore, but he recognizes that he's one of the most important creators in the history of the medium. He even discusses the history behind the creation of his own "Dark Age" book, Arkham Asylum. He also gets into the world of Image comics during this period. One thing I found astounding was that he wrote three issues of Spawn and claimed he could have lived off those royalties alone. He stated that McFarlane paid ten times as much for his freelance work as Marvel or DC would offer.

The Renaissance, another unrecognized era term that Morrison uses, is everything post "dark and gritty" comics until now. This is where we get into the meat of his work and his "memoirs". We find out about all his Flex Mentallo, Invisibles, JLA, X-Men, Seven Soldiers, and All Star Superman details. The most important thing I wanted to read about was the truth behind Final Crisis. Unfortunately, he only spent about four paragraphs on the subject. He never mentioned any of the rumored DC editorial interference in his work or the problem with delays due to JG Jones slowness. There's plenty more discussed in this area mostly involving his fellow European creators. We get some great stories about Mark Millar and Warren Ellis. Morrison is definitely not afraid to name drop. The other aspect I was disappointed with was that Morrison never really gets into what the future may hold for comics. He seems to stick more the future of comics in film and television.

All of these "eras" contain tons of insightful information that I had no idea about. I must have highlighted two or three dozen passages on my Kindle. I found the facts, or behind the scenes, stuff to be the most interesting. I found Morrison's take on these books, creators, and ideas to be fun, as well. However, he has the habit of getting long-winded in his descriptions. Sometimes, he will just carry on about a subject for many paragraphs without any type of point or conclusion behind his "rant". He also uses the old "More on that later" scenario too often. He'll start to talk about something and say "but more on that later". I understand he's referencing something from a future section of the book, but I felt he could have used a little variation in how he led into these future topics.

Supergods is a fun book even for people who are not fans of Morrison's work. The only part I could see them spacing out would be when Morrison goes on his crazy rant on how he experienced the fifth dimension. It's going to put a lot of people off. They might think of him as some of-his-rocker crazy person. He even takes the time to mention that you might think he's crazy, and that you might be right. People also might be put off about his opinion on some creators. He takes a couple stabs at Brian Bendis, a couple at Alan Moore, and one giant cut at Rob Liefeld. While I agree with some of these, especially Liefeld, I don't know how well people are going to take it. I already read an article on a comics site where the writer went on a tirade about Morrison's negative opinion on Alan Moore. The writer of the article admitted to not reading the book but only receiving the quote via a third party. If he would have read the book, he would have seen the whole chapter where Morrison performs literary fellatio on Watchmen.

In the end, I definitely recommend this book to Morrison's fans. They will absolutely love it. Comics fans will find the book very interesting, but may misunderstand some of the stuff Morrison is trying to express. If you're someone who isn't into the medium, I'd suggest checking out the first chapter for free via Amazon's Kindle service or checking it out from the library first. If you're interested in learning more about the medium and history without reading faceless article on wikipedia or jumping into random comics issues, BUY THIS.(less)

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Sep 08, 2011 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is your brain on drugs. I've always had a love hate relationship with Morrison's comics. When he's good, he's very good (All-Star Superman) but, when he's bad, he's bad (Final Crisis). This book suffers a bit from being unfocused in it's approach. It can't seem to decide if it is a history of comics, a biography or a manifesto on his philosophy and approach to writing. What you can expect though is a very educated and literate discussion on all things Morrison. His digressions into his vari...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Matt Segal

Recommended to Laura by: NPR

Shelves: being-human, cthulhu, fanfiction, fantasy, graphic-novel, hero-s-journey, history, madness, monsters, myth, politics, religious-studies, science-fiction

So you grow up next to a doomsday weapon. Its existence has changed the structure of the life in your town, now defined by the American military base on Scottish soil bringing guarding the bombs and bringing in the artifacts of an alien, American, life. You watch your father’s impotent marches against the looming darkness those bombs. Your nightmares are apocalyptic and oh-so-plausible. And your mother’s a science fiction fan. What to do?

The healthy mind finds ways to cope, and Grant Morrison fo...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Barnaby Thieme rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: comic-book, religion-mythology

When I read a book, I like to do the author the courtesy of taking it seriously in the terms in which it's presented. So when Grant Morrison offers a history of comic books shot through with scattered observations about metaphysics, cultural history, comparative religions, and psychology, my impulse is to take those observations seriously and evaluate them as such.

On that basis, I simply can't get behind his "reality as useful fiction," which, whatever he might think, owes a lot more to his abs...more When I read a book, I like to do the author the courtesy of taking it seriously in the terms in which it's presented. So when Grant Morrison offers a history of comic books shot through with scattered observations about metaphysics, cultural history, comparative religions, and psychology, my impulse is to take those observations seriously and evaluate them as such.

On that basis, I simply can't get behind his "reality as useful fiction," which, whatever he might think, owes a lot more to his absorption with comic books than his reading of Nietzsche or Dzogchen. His musings are often facile and misinformed, drawn from the smorgasbord of culture on the basis of what entertains and inspires, with little concern for the facts of the matter. And even as someone with an apophatic commitment, I still have the old-fashioned belief that there are facts of the matter.

When you peer behind the curtain at an artist's creative process, you often experience something of a disappointment. A great work like "The Invisibles" speaks for itself, and attempts to account for it simply diminish its scope. Many artists understand this and refuse to entertain questions about the origin or meaning of their work, but Morrison is surprisingly willing to play this game. Often, his work is concordantly diminished, as the stage mechanics of what seemed like divine inspiration come to light.

I get the sense that he gave in to the temptation to write this novel-length self-analysis because it gave him another outlet to elaborate and play with his public persona. As I read Supergods that increasingly seemed like his primary commitment, as little else binds this book together.

Morrison presents a roughly-chronological and fragmentary history of superhero comic books, offered in breathless drive-by analyses of whatever topic catches his interest for two or three pages. It consistently reads like he narrated the entire thing into a tape recorder, and an intern typed it all out.

Supergods occasionally delivers a top-rate insight, but it's too fragmentary and disorganized, too incoherent in style and subject, to qualify as guilty pleasure. Mostly I feel relieved to be done with it. (less)

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Mar 15, 2012 Trey rated it 3 of 5 stars

I started out thinking this was going to be a fantastic book. The well-reasoned critical discussion of comics history (for example, I had never thought to do an in-depth artistic analysis of the Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27 covers) and its relation to the contemporary culture that influenced it is terrific for many chapters. Everything was going smoothly... until Grant Morrison was born.

Once Morrison reaches an era where he can access his own memories, he immediately inserts himself

...more

I started out thinking this was going to be a fantastic book. The well-reasoned critical discussion of comics history (for example, I had never thought to do an in-depth artistic analysis of the Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27 covers) and its relation to the contemporary culture that influenced it is terrific for many chapters. Everything was going smoothly... until Grant Morrison was born.

Once Morrison reaches an era where he can access his own memories, he immediately inserts himself into the story (as he famously did during his run on Animal Man). The book becomes comics history as autobiography, relying too heavily on the books Morrison read and liked, the work he did, and the work his friends created. Once Morrison starts telling us about his experiences with psychedelic drugs, the book delves into the questions of philosophy alluded to in the subtitle (What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us about Being Human). At this point, the book becomes a weird hodgepodge of sociology, history, and Eastern philosophy. Though not exactly what I expected, Supergods is still well worth reading.

I could almost forgive Morrison for the merely half-brilliant book if he hadn't been so loose with his description of the multimedia rundown of Superman's end-of-the-century escapades. He claims the mulleted version of Superman "hung on grimly until 2000," but Clark actually got a haircut in time for his wedding in 1996. (He also carelessly says Superman Returns came out in 2007, not 2006.) It might seem like I'm nitpicking, but it's a detail like that that makes me wonder if there are any other typos or misrememberings I'm not picking up on. I'm not claiming this to be true, but I'd believe that Morrison would rely on his vast knowledge of comics for facts and dates instead of rigorous fact checking. Though he is clearly grateful for the opportunity to be in the comics business, it's fairly evident that his healthy ego is the lens through which the entirety of comicdom is viewed. I wonder if Morrison felt this was really the only way to tell his life's story, by showing early comics to be his ancestors in a de facto family tree, and his ideas, comics, and predictions as his descendants. Morrison has woven himself into the fabric of comics, the medium that birthed him, as the ultimate product of the masters and the driving force of change and predictor of future trends from the '80s onward.

(less)

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May 22, 2013 Arza Winters rated it 2 of 5 stars

Comic book writer Grant Morrison inscribes Supergods with Nietzsche: "Behold, I teach you the superman: He is this lightning, he is this madness." The subjects of Supergods are both superheroes and Morrison himself, and the epigraph speaks to both. Morrison's self-portrayal is equal parts lightning and madness, but that madness, the thunder in this duality, might overshadow the lightning.

Supergods, published in 2011, is Morrison's chronicling of the superhero genre, with his own autobiography a...more Comic book writer Grant Morrison inscribes Supergods with Nietzsche: "Behold, I teach you the superman: He is this lightning, he is this madness." The subjects of Supergods are both superheroes and Morrison himself, and the epigraph speaks to both. Morrison's self-portrayal is equal parts lightning and madness, but that madness, the thunder in this duality, might overshadow the lightning.

Supergods, published in 2011, is Morrison's chronicling of the superhero genre, with his own autobiography and cultural commentary thrown in. The madness begins in the lengthy subtitle—What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us about Being Human—and rarely lets up. While the expectation, as set up by the subtitle, is a cultural exploration of the genre, perhaps with its history thrown in, the result is about one-third history, one-third Morrison's life, and one-third cultural commentary. Supergods is set up in chronological order, beginning with Superman's inception and ending inexplicably with Morrison's reconstructionary All-Star Superman, a happy accident according to the book's back matter. Looking at the book as a whole, the structure works well, although ending in the same area as he begins seems hypocritical, after Morrison's derision of Watchmen and it's dense-as-a-black-hole structure.

The genre history is compelling, especially for periphery comic readers, and even the biography has intriguing moments. I could have done without the useless vulgarity, and the details of hallucinatory drug trips were somehow frustratingly dense and beautiful at the same time, albeit pointless. However, Supergods' greatest fault is Morrison's rambling and often pretentious (or at least arrogant) narrative and use of language. Arm yourself with a bedside dictionary before diving here, and at least a surface knowledge of British politics, ancient literature, and world history. Morrison's vocabulary and comics knowledge is obvious in every sentence, and he's not afraid to shove it in your ears. The intimidating verbiage is reminiscent of that college professor who is always on another wavelength, in another dimension, and you’re tempted to not show up to class. Just when I thought I was catching up to Morrison, he threw out another unfamiliar word, allusion, or concept, forcing me out of the narrative. Tangents abound, and I was frustrated by how much was brought up only to be dropped by the next paragraph, never to be revisited; the tangents become excuses for showy prose. Eventually Morrison eases off the pedal, resulting in the latter half being the stronger writing—if only the first half of the book understood the concept of "less is more." Of course, Morrison appears to be aware of his pretensions:

Nevertheless, the accusations of pretension stung horribly. . . . I was full of big talk, but big talk was all I’d ever had.

But I don't know that this self-awareness excuses what is, most of the time, patronization binded and packaged into book form.

Splitting Supergods in two would have been more productive: personal memoirs for the Morrison-as-character fans, and a history and culture of comics by Morrison-as-reader-and-writer. But as it is, Morrison's target audience and purpose is baffling throughout. I never knew his demographic, and I constantly lost any sense of thesis. This lack of vision, combined with the streaming self-indulgence, makes me wonder if his audience and thesis were merely "Grant Morrison." While the overall structure is generally clear, the paragraph and even sentence-level flow is disjointed and incongruous. Maybe I should have expected that, given Morrison's propensity for a structural laissez-faire attitude in his fiction, but here the stream of consciousness is pointless.

Supergods is redeemable in some respects. The outro section is short and spot-on and nearly makes the book worth it for me, if only I wasn't forced to wade through all the confusion and arrogance to get to the crux of the book. As someone who can't get enough metafiction, Morrison's opinions and knowledge on the subject proved worthwhile, and I enjoyed his commentary regarding the cultural effects of comics and comic book movies. His history is well chronicled, but I'm sure there are more complete and less tangential histories of the genre on the market. Finally, some passages do lift the book, particularly the lengthy commentaries on Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, two graphic novels that came out around the time Morrison was getting into comics professionally. But passages like these are rare.

While Supergods flies at times, Morrison would have benefited from doing it a bit closer to earth.(less)

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Feb 28, 2013 Michelle Cristiani rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs, graphic-novels-jla, nonfiction

I was curious to see how Grant Morrison writes without accompanying art. His regular prose is extraordinary. He is articulate, interesting, and open.

Not only did I learn a great deal about the history of superhero comics, but this book is part-memoir, so that his own story intertwines with comic history. I imagine some will be annoyed by his self-importance, but let's face it: he has a lot to do with the direction superheroes have taken, especially in DC. It fulfilled all my needs as a reader, f...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Tyler rated it 5 of 5 stars

I like biographies. I like chronologies. What Grant Morrison has done here is something that doesn't happen often; he has combined a complete and spanning history of the comic book medium and his own life.

There is something beautiful about the way this book works. It blends incites on what was important (both to the medium in general, and to Grant as a young boy) with history, personal experiences, thoughts, etc. The seamless and gradual transitions happen right where they should and tell us a...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Jennifer Weibel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, graphic-novels

This book was a strange mashup of memoir, selective comic book history, and social critique. It was at its best when it lived up to the promises made on the jacket - I picked it up expecting history and social commentary. The most readable sections were when this actually happened. Morrison has insiders knowledge and a wide understanding of art and contemporary history. When he brought those together this book shined.

However, just a couple of pages after I was really beginning to dig that parti...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Tony rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well thought out, well researched, semi-autobiographical and amazingly thought provoking; Grant Morrison does it again.

This book takes the read through comic book history, examining superhero comic books throughout the ages, from an almost mathematical dissection of "Action Comics #1" to the present day, interlaced with Morrison's own life experiences.

This really is a love letter to the genre and an examination the psychology of superheroes and how they interact with our own lives. Why do peop...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Aric rated it 4 of 5 stars

"The fictional universe I was interacting with was as "real" as our own, and as I began to think of the DC universe as a place, it occurred to me that there were two ways to approach it: as a missionary or as an anthropologist. I chose to see some writers as missionaries who attempted to impose their own values and preconceptions on cultures they considered inferior--in this case, that of the superheroes. Missionaries liked to humiliate the natives by pointing out their gauche customs and colorf...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Forrest rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels, literary-criticism

I'm having something of a "Henry James moment" here with Morrison. I know one of the criticisms against James was that, as a "founding father" of literary criticism, he pretty much created rules that made his works seems like the exemplar for others to follow (or, he wrote books to fit his mold of the novel done correctly). Either way, his bias as a critic is undercut (to some extent) by the fact he was also a writing--failure to be disinterested. I feel like I'm encountering some of this with M...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Edmole rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Grant Morrison has been a hero for as long as I've had heroes, me and my brother devouring Zenith when it was in 2000AD, having my first heavy meta experience in WH Smiths Sutton when Wile E Coyote dropped in to Animal Man to plead for release, to happy times reading my friend Andy's Doom Patrols in happy silence in his small Oxford flat, to consuming Morrison's Olympian Justice League for free under the twin tailed siren of Starbucks in Borders, hopped up and shaking on mocha, all the way up to...more Grant Morrison has been a hero for as long as I've had heroes, me and my brother devouring Zenith when it was in 2000AD, having my first heavy meta experience in WH Smiths Sutton when Wile E Coyote dropped in to Animal Man to plead for release, to happy times reading my friend Andy's Doom Patrols in happy silence in his small Oxford flat, to consuming Morrison's Olympian Justice League for free under the twin tailed siren of Starbucks in Borders, hopped up and shaking on mocha, all the way up to reading the first edition of All Star Superman, his greatest work, and the best super hero comic ever written, on a train from New Jersey to New York, never having felt happier to have spent three bucks on anything.

This book works as a history of the 'ages' of comic books, starting in the Golden Age, where Superman's success brought forth a whole slew of long-tights musclemen; to the Silver Age where those characters were reborn after McCarthy in a kaleidoscopic series of waking dreams, psychedelic nightmares and epic leaps into enormity from characters and creators; to the Dark Age where getting older, enlightenment and embarrassment gave rise to darkness and complexity which in turn became morbidity; then what Morrison calls the renaissance where comics accepted themselves and became an assured mirror for the best and worst of what current society tells us about ourselves, via a whole slew of long tights musclemen.

Writing about the state of NOW, Morrison happily evokes how we have all become Superheroes, with our online names and identities, our hyper-connected machine interface lives, and our ongoing self-constructed and publicised legends. He also touches on the flipside of that, the angry internet mob, angry anal scumbags in their lairs, lashing out at anyone who doesn't fit their tiny template of what's right, and trolling the happiness out of creatives and schoolkids as effectively and unpleasantly as any Joker mind-trap. Morrison doesn't say it explicitly, but if we are all superheroes through our constructed online selves, trolls are obviously the supervillains. (And just like the flip-flopping storylines where hero becomes villain and villain hero, we are all capable of being either.)

Having recently read Simon Reynolds Retromania, describing how music creators and consumers have moved away from the relentless neophilia of successive new trends of music, and now layer knowing history on knowing history, it was interesting to contrast that with the history of comics. In comics, nostalgia, referencing history and stacking up the past and the present have been fundamental to the form since its second age. Morrison has even been heavily involved in the various mega-event attempts to rationalise and condense the weight of and size of the history of the DC Universe, and he talks in the book about how big, complex and controversial a task this can be. One of the best things about Renaissance era comics is how (some) have happily accepted this billowing history and had fun with it, extending it out to the infinity of fiction (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) or whacking on new Universes in 'reality' full of fantastical echoes (Kingdom Come, Ultimates). Comics fans don't seem to demand the stasis that some music fans do, where only the albums they liked at their life's key moments of youth unfolded are any good, but they do want to always know what the characters they loved are doing, rolling through time and different ideas and minds.

As the book progresses and Morrison's own work becomes more important to the trends in comics, he starts to give a lot of interesting info about himself. He's a bit dismissive of 2000AD and his work on it, it seems like it was just a stepping stone to America, which I was surprised at. I also like his beef with Alan Moore, there's a lot of snidey digs between the two of them, but credit to Morrison, Moore and his work comes up throughout, and he is given his due.

What is interesting when Morrison talks about his work, he is quite happy talking about the phases of his life, there's no revision of slightly wanky periods or a smoothing over of surfaces, he is proud and interested in the different Grant Morrisons he's been. He is unashamedly interested in anticipating, informing and reacting to the zeitgeist, changing his self and his work in tune with it, even applying notions of cycles in culture and trying to anticipate them. Usually in a narrative we read about the individual as a defined self, and that self reacts to different circumstance. But here is a protagonist prepared to accept and admit that the self is fluid, and in that we can also redefine who we are deliberately and without embarrassment. Throughout the book, he talks about self applied magics, psychedelics and the effects of deliberate positive and negative thinking, willing himself into being in new shapes, even if those shapes do look a bit naff and outdated (DRESSING LIKE YR IN THE MATRIX), he's happy to have had them and to have made art with them. I am very happy he exists and have been able to go on the journey with him. Thanks Grant.

Ed (less)

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Apr 14, 2012 C.w. Smith rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wasn't put off by Morrison's erratic transitions between Supergods as a history of comics and Supergods as an artistic biography of Grant Morrison. Such a non-linear approach is characteristic of Morrison as a like-whoa postmodern writer and mystic--and, although he's classy enough to avoid stating so outright, an argument can easily be made for Morrison's emergence being directly related to the history of comics since the 1980s, as he ranks alongside Alan Moore as one of the visionaries of th...more I wasn't put off by Morrison's erratic transitions between Supergods as a history of comics and Supergods as an artistic biography of Grant Morrison. Such a non-linear approach is characteristic of Morrison as a like-whoa postmodern writer and mystic--and, although he's classy enough to avoid stating so outright, an argument can easily be made for Morrison's emergence being directly related to the history of comics since the 1980s, as he ranks alongside Alan Moore as one of the visionaries of the medium (Joyce and Pynchon, if you like).

What kept me from loving Supergods--and I most certainly enjoyed it--was the impression of conceit I couldn't shake in Morrison's prose voice. I adore the man's fiction, but Morrison seems to be stroking his own ego without complimenting himself or denigrating others (frankly, I was surprised by the relative absence of mud-slinging in a book like this). Morrison's history is thorough and informative, and his shamanistic perspective breathes life into his unorthodox interpretations of classic comic storylines and creative teams. But the language is consciously crisp and intellectual, perhaps to a fault. The best way I can explain this is by comparison: last year, I read a brief history of Andy Warhol by a member of the art scene. Although informative, the author's writing style reeked of "art scene"--the prose voice took precedent over the material. That's a pet peeve of mine, and Morrison is at times too wrapped up in Morrison's oh-so-daring intellectual and creative world when the reader just wants to get on with the history. (Not that Morrison's crazy drug tales aren't interesting, 'cause I dug them in spades; more restraint would have improved the book's focus and appeal is all I'm saying.)

Look at me, dwelling on the negative! I have to admit that Morrison's thesis and concluding idea in Supergods, that we should treat the superheroes like the gods we should and can become, is one we would be wise to follow. Art imitates life and life imitates art; if we tell stories about progress, peace, and love, maybe that'll make us a little more successful in our efforts to realize those ideals in the material world.

Good read, but I'd recommend catching it at a library. I'm thinking about donating mine. No reread value here, but the first time's pretty fierce. (less)

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Mar 15, 2012 Josh rated it 3 of 5 stars

Or, the history of comic books and superheroes and their effect on culture, as seen by Grant Morrison. Grant Morrison is a big deal in comic books, he is among the most prolific of comic books writers today and depending on who you ask, insanely imaginative or insanely overrated. I fall into the former category, I think his stuff is mind bending and all around awesome. The things he does with comics is unlike what everyone else is doing and I would go so far to say that his works are as thought-...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Mike Luoma rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essential-reference, key-influence

Grant Morrison is a writer whose imagination is a joy to behold at work. Whether he's hitting or missing, he lives and breathes in the 2D world of the page - sometimes literally, as his avatar "King Mob" in The Invisibles. Who better, then, to take a look at the superheroes and their worlds, where they came from and how we've gotten to where we are with them now. What do they mean? What do they represent? And, as advertised, what do they teach us about ourselves? Morrison takes us on a guided to...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: comic book fans, aspiring superhero writers and artists

Shelves: culture, essays, super-heroes

There is this interesting mental phenomenon, which you have probably experienced, called paradoelia. Briefly put, it is when our brains find a pattern where there is no pattern, making us believe that we see something that just isn't there. It's why every now and then, someone sees Jesus in a water stain in their basement. Or there's a cloud that looks almost exactly like a dragon. Or when you wake up at four in the morning, and you're squinting against the light and the toilet looks like a face...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Siskoid Siskoid rated it 4 of 5 stars

I finished reading Grant Morrison's Supergods, his history of the super-hero genre, part mythocritical analysis, part biography/liner notes. I'll start with a caveat. Morrison's handle on historical facts and timelines is imperfect, and he makes some unfortunate comparisons at times, like comparing the Superman fan club to Hitler Youth or Stan Lee's hucksterism to Mussolini's balcony speeches. But that's part and parcel of Morrison's own brand of shock-hucksterism, and all of that reads better i...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: superheroes

Grant Morrison is one of the best in comics today, and possibly THE best in the superhero genre. He has an understanding of their place and importance in contemporary society, and this book traces those origins in an interesting and insightful way. This book is an essential companion to any superhero fan. It is both a superhero history and a social history. It connects trends in the landscape to trends in culture and society, all the while giving backstory into Morrison's own biography, and thus...more

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Dec 12, 2011 Oscar rated it 4 of 5 stars

Grant Morrison chronicles the often told history of the superhero providing his personal insights and how different creators and characters have shaped his own contribution to the genre. Morrison successfully illustrates how superheroes have reflected and shaped culture and society, and therefore, becoming part of a modern mythology that can be studied in order to understand those who are part of the genre either are readers or creators.

I really enjoyed reading this book, which in many ways, st...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Craig rated it 2 of 5 stars

Let me start by saying that the only previous book of morrison's that I read was arkham asylum many many moons ago. I enjoyed it, but I got out of mainstream comics around the time he began writing them.... So, there weren't many preconceptions coming into this. I bought it for the title, primarily.

For me, this book ranged from interesting (the initial sections on the history of the silver and golden ages), to boring (the early personal history of the author), to annoying (his constant belittlin...more

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Sep 03, 2011 Paul Dinger rated it 4 of 5 stars

There is a lot to hate about Grant Morrison. Though I saw this book on many shelves at Comic con, I really resisted successfully to buy it. then I read an interview in Rolling Stone and before I finished it, I knew I was going to buy the book. Let me start by saying, I have followed Morrison's career literally from the beginning. I did read and enjoy bits and pieces of Doom Patrol and really, really loved Arkham Asylum. His titles from then on are a roll call of glory, especially his endless Ver...more There is a lot to hate about Grant Morrison. Though I saw this book on many shelves at Comic con, I really resisted successfully to buy it. then I read an interview in Rolling Stone and before I finished it, I knew I was going to buy the book. Let me start by saying, I have followed Morrison's career literally from the beginning. I did read and enjoy bits and pieces of Doom Patrol and really, really loved Arkham Asylum. His titles from then on are a roll call of glory, especially his endless Vertigo titles. He is up there with Neal Gamien when it comes to keeping Vertigo in business. I loved his work on the X Men and Marvel Boy. Having said that, I HATED his Batman RIP. I felt like it was a rip off that was already done better before in Knightfall and then Prodigal. I felt like his Batman and Robin were decent enough, but Dick Grayson never truly claimed the mantle of the bat. That is why Azrael made such a terrible batman, he never claimed it. Bruce earned the mantle of bat, literally created it. Spent years honing it until he took it on. Dick Grayson was just like the youth who inherits his father's multimillion dollar business, just as non chalent. At least in Prodigal there was some drama as he tried to fill his surrogate father's shoes fearfully, there was no fear there when he did under Morrison's tutelege. Isn't recreating a hero about isolating what makes him special, in effect dissecting that hero. They did this with superman, when Clark died, all of the different "superman"s were a reflection of him, the reborn Superman had to reclaim that mantle. Without any claiming of the mantle, Dick Grayson was just as much a pretender as Azrael, although no one got killed. Anyway, with that rant out of the way, this book isn't just an interesting take on comic history, it is an interesting take on someone who took his role as a super hero writer very seriously who used drugs, magic, and whatever else he could to get into the minds of what he was writing. Having seen Morrison at comic con, this is the intense and humourous young old man I have seen year after year who talks about comic book characters like they are real people. If you love comics, then you'll love this book although a lot about it, especailly his very bad critique of Watchman, seriously did you read the book I wonder, will make you go "WTF?"(less)

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Aug 05, 2011 Will rated it 1 of 5 stars

It's neither fish nor fowl. This book starts off as an analysis of Superman and Batman and their mythic significance, tells the story of the artists and writers who came after and built the superhero industry and tropes that we see today, and then...

And then there's the story of superheroes. Much of it is a laundry list of events and characters, which is might be interesting if you're not into comic books... but then again, Identity Crisis? Blackest Night? Civil War? They're manufactured events....more

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Aug 01, 2011 Zachary Roper rated it 3 of 5 stars

A very interesting and thought-provoking look at how comic books function as a completely unique art form, and how developments in the comic world have mirrored or often predicted major social changes in the "real" world. Morrison goes off on some irritating and self-aggrandizing tangents in the book, but some of his ideas about the power of the printed image and the possibilities of multiple dimensions of understanding life are worth slogging through his trash talk about his former (and current...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Grady Hendrix rated it 4 of 5 stars

Last week saw the release of Grant Morrison’s book, Supergods. One part memoir, one part meditation on superheroes, one part history of comic books and five parts psychedelic headtrip, it casually tosses off fistfuls of big ideas, odd anecdotes and strange observations like candy at a Shriner’s parade.

Below are four tiny idea nuggets from Supergods, each one containing seeds of a startling new mega-idea, to give you a taste of the kind of lysergic philosophizing that wafts off the pages of this...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Fletcher Wortmann rated it 5 of 5 stars

Comic books, metaphysics, enough narcotics to shame Hunter S. Thompson, polytheism, intellectual property: a heady brew, but one fans of the comic writer should be prepared for. There's little here that Morrison hasn't already discussed in interviews, but for the neophyte or the long-term fan reading the whole mess between two covers is revelatory. Morrison is least effective when he's simply recapitulating the history of the genre - there's a chapter near the end on recent superhero films that,...more

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Jan 11, 2011 Federiken Masters marked it as to-read · review of another edition Recommends it for: Veremos...

Recommended to Federiken by: Autor y premisa

Marco provisoriamente la edición española porque espero poder leerlo en castellano. ¡Pero qué fea que es la tapa! Parece esos seudo-libros pedorros que hay acá que son rejuntes de artículos de wikipedia. Y la onomatopeya berreta que metieron en la parte inferion no ayuda mucho que digamos.
UPDATE: ¡Me lo regaló lagorda conrulos! :D
La portada sigue siendo horrible pero la edición parece muy buena igual. Espero no colgarlo mucho, ya que lo poco que había leído previamente me pareció muy bueno.

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title link	preview: Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human
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Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human

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Quotes from Supergods: What Masked...