tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post1442022033016117844..comments2023-11-05T07:44:07.654-05:00Comments on GeniusboyFiremelon: Grant Morrison: Kicking Bat-Fans in the Face Like a Rabid Spider-Monkey?Timothy Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-61580369726487017332008-02-08T21:00:00.000-05:002008-02-08T21:00:00.000-05:00I specifically said "inconsistent art" because it ...I specifically said "inconsistent art" because it implies both conditions you state. On Animal Man and Doom Patrol and even JLA, one artist clearly produced the bulk of the issues (Truog, Case, and Porter, respectively) but all three of them had moments of quality and moments of seemingly rushed mediocrity. And X-Men had it even worse.<BR/><BR/>I don't think the "started well, faltered, finished strong" pattern is necessarily true (although it MAY turn out to be true in the case of Batman). On Animal Man, he started poorly, then picked it up with issue #5, dealt admirably with a couple of Invasion issues, then was hit or miss for a while (Freedom Beast?) until the strong finish. Doom Patrol was almost wall-to-wall quality except for the war-in-space issues, which were weak. <BR/><BR/> I actually think JLA started weakly as well--I still don't think the Hyperclan stuff is that strong, and then hit its stride with Rock of Ages before faltering back and ending with solid stories. X-Men was a great start and a great middle but an underwhelming end.<BR/><BR/>And I will continue to make your famouser and famouser, don't worry.Timothy Callahanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04078183191900311833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-2791017958522653412008-02-08T20:17:00.000-05:002008-02-08T20:17:00.000-05:00Thanks for continuing to make me famous, Tim!Serio...Thanks for continuing to make me famous, Tim!<BR/><BR/>Seriously, though, I want to query on and qualify a few points.<BR/><BR/>Inconsistent art - do you mean the art is inconsistent or the artists are inconsistent? Because, I'll agree with you on the latter in some cases. I'm going to reread Animal Man and Doom Patrol, but as I was looking up a website, I was surprised to see that Case did the overwhelming majority and when he wasn't on, it was done-in-one fill-ins or dream sequences (you know my old standby, the books are in storage, so I'm taking a little mad money to get the tpbs.) On Animal Man, Truog did practically the whole run. On X-Men and JLA - well now you're dealing with a monthly book that's part of a BIG machine. JLA did OK with the art but there was a loooong bad patch on X-Men until the last four arcs.<BR/> <BR/>Longer narrative arcs interrupted by shorter ones - I like the varying of rhythm like that.<BR/> <BR/>Forced inclusion of crossover bits - yeah, again that's the big machine at work. Too bad he couldn't have had a bigger hand in that like the "1,000,000" story. <BR/><BR/>But what I was talking about was the fact that on his longer runs, he starts off very well, falters in the middle third or 2nd quarter and comes back fast and furious in the 2nd half (and doubly in the last quarter) or the final third.<BR/><BR/>On Batman, that rhythm has been juggled a bit. However, I'm looking for the trademark Morrison "writing the next poor bastard into a corner" (that wasn't the case with JLA - maybe that's why that was his best selling book?)Marc Caputohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03293532769174212726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22842788.post-27880542172870876962008-02-08T11:19:00.000-05:002008-02-08T11:19:00.000-05:00Marc's comment provoked a similar response of "Wai...Marc's comment provoked a similar response of "Wait... who IS Morrison writing for?" since I never think about that sort of thing unless the work seems so overtly directed at a specific audience that you can't help but notice.<BR/><BR/>I think Morrison's intended audience is Grant Morrison just like every other thing he's written and, as you've alluded to, the only difference is that people aren't in synch with him this time. I would chalk that up to the fact that the conventions of the Bat-books are much more rigid than most other mainstream titles, and Morrison is actively working against them in many ways (as pointed out in Geoff Klock's various 'Morrison versus Miller' posts).<BR/><BR/>I do find it funny that Morrison's Batman has remained very consistent from his <I>JLA</I> run and people loved the character there more than any other member of the group.Chad Nevetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11785622045733202883noreply@blogger.com