Supergods by Grant Morrison

Supergods by Grant MorrisonPublished by Spiegel & Grau; Reprint edition (June 26, 2012)

Genre: Non-fiction, comics

Pages:480

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, and the X-Men the list of names as familiar as our own. They are on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and in our dreams. But what are they trying to tell us? For Grant Morrison, one of the most acclaimed writers in the world of comics, these heroes are powerful archetypes who reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Morrison draws on art, archetypes, and his own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of our great modern myth: the superhero. 

To start things off here at Literally Literary it would be befitting to post a book review. This is actually a revamp of a review I did last March. However, this book still holds importance to me considering it lead me to become more immersed in the comic world despite how little I actually enjoyed reading the book itself.

The book was gifted to me last Christmas and as excited as I was to read it I didn't pick it up till mid February.

 I found the first half of this book extremely informative. Morrison starts with Siegel and Schutser the two young men who drew and created the first Superman concept and then chronologically proceeds to talk about what the industry was at the time and how it changed and grew. He splits the chapters into Ages- "Golden Age, Silver Age, Dark Age" and also the "Renaissance." I found it all very edifying and throughout he added a few autobiographical asides that talked about he's interest in comics and how he viewed them as a child, teen and then young adult. 

It was when he reached the time period in which he started his writing career that the book went down a autobiographical rabbit hole. He spent the majority of two chapters talking about how he as a young adult was over comics and they weren't cool anymore then expounded upon the British punk movement. In part, this was  relevant because he used it to talk about how the overall population that used to enjoy comics outgrew them and moved on to other things-like punk music and drugs. 

My issue isn't so much that he chose to take up sizable chunks of the book with the stories of his life, but the tone which he wrote about himself grated my nerves. 

The latter half of the book was also informative but when I think about the Dark ages or Renaissance sections I have to extract the parts where he spoke of his life and what he was doing personally. It lost an objective look at the comic book evolution and industry that the first half had and every time he complimented a present day writer it seemed left handed and I pictured him smirking as he wrote it. He does seem to have a great respect for comic book artist treating even the mediocre ones with more grace then I would have expected based on his previous writings. 

I had to force myself through to the final pages which did not resonate with me in any way. It's as though when Morrison started this book he had a clear vision of what he wanted it to be about, but then got distracted half way through with the novelty of being able to write about his own life  and ideas for an audience.

Overall, there is one part of me that thoroughly enjoyed the information given in this book. I now know a few things about the comic book universe that I'm sure I never could have learned by just reading comics themselves. 

The other part of me just doesn't like Grant Morrison as a person- (I didn't think I would based on Batman: Arkham Asylum, but I like to give authors several tries) he comes off as arrogant and he's writing reflects that. However, it is his book and if he wants to talk about doing drugs, magic, traveling and his love life he can.

Oddly enough I'm planning on giving Morrison's writing another try. He mentioned in his book his stint on Animal Man and New X-Men which both seem to interest me enough that I might be able to change my mind about his writing though even if I were to end up on the same elevator as him I doubt I exchange as much as a hello. 

(I have since read his stint on New X-Men through Marvel Unlimited and it's sealed my great dislike for him. He's responsible for killing off Jean Grey AND starting Emma Frost and Scott Summer's relationship. I don't think anyone could have made me dislike him more.)