Publication
Imprint: New York : Spiegel & Grau, 2012. OCLC Number: 785335598. Physical: 1 volume : xvii, 454 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm. Features: Includes index, suggested reading.
Call number
LS / Morris
ISBN
9780812981384
Original publication date
2011
Collections
CSS Library Notes
Description: 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.
Contents: The sun god and the dark knight -- Lightning's child -- The superwarrior and the Amazon princess -- The explosion and the extinction -- Superman on the couch -- Chemicals and lightning -- The fab four and the birth of the marvelous -- Superpop -- Inifite Earths -- Shamans of Madison Avenue -- Brightest day, blackest night -- Feared and misunderstood -- Fearful symmetry -- Zenith -- The hateful dead -- Image versus substance -- King Mob: My life as a superhero -- Man of muscle mystery -- What's so funny about truth, justice, and the American way? -- Respecting authority -- Hollywood sniffs blood -- Nu Marverl 9/11 -- The day evil won -- Iron men and Incredibles -- Over the event horizon -- Star, legend, superhero, supergod? -- Outro: 'Nuff said -- Afterword to the paperback edition.
FY2017
Contents: The sun god and the dark knight -- Lightning's child -- The superwarrior and the Amazon princess -- The explosion and the extinction -- Superman on the couch -- Chemicals and lightning -- The fab four and the birth of the marvelous -- Superpop -- Inifite Earths -- Shamans of Madison Avenue -- Brightest day, blackest night -- Feared and misunderstood -- Fearful symmetry -- Zenith -- The hateful dead -- Image versus substance -- King Mob: My life as a superhero -- Man of muscle mystery -- What's so funny about truth, justice, and the American way? -- Respecting authority -- Hollywood sniffs blood -- Nu Marverl 9/11 -- The day evil won -- Iron men and Incredibles -- Over the event horizon -- Star, legend, superhero, supergod? -- Outro: 'Nuff said -- Afterword to the paperback edition.
FY2017
Physical description
xvii, 454 p.; 21 cm
Awards
British Fantasy Award (Winner — Non-Fiction — 2012)
Eagle Award (2012)
Media reviews
Like many visionaries before him, Morrison understood that he had to return from these heights—in his case to help “midwife” the infant earth-god. And so he came back, back into the meat-body. But back with a superpower. For a time at least, he could sense things, from a coffee cup to a
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coffee barista, in five dimensions: “I could see the shapes of things and of people as the flat plane surfaces of far more complex and elaborate processes occurring in a higher dimensional location.” Show Less
Description
Morrison draws on history, art, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this alternate universe as a comic book writer to provide the first true chronicle of the superhero.
Language
Original language
English
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User reviews
LibraryThing member Stevil2001
Grant Morrison is so good at superheroes that he's the only person who could get me to pick up a Superman reboot. Supergods is his history/manifesto of the superhero, explaining why the concept has appealed and continues to appeal. He grounds his statements in contemporary culture-- when
As the book goes on, though, more and more of Morrison's autobiography creeps in. When Morrison is a nerdy kid in 1960s and '70s Britain, this works, since his experiences provide some firsthand accounts of the appeal of the superhero. But once Morrison enters the comics industry himself, the book shifts to becoming an autobiography with the major changes of the comics industry as background. Plus, Morrison begins expounding on his crackpot metaphysical theories. But the major problem here is that his analysis becomes less insightful: I'm wary of what he says of his own work, but even what he says of the work of others, now that he can tell you what his friends meant to do, not what they actually did. The book flat-out disintegrates near the end, unable to maintain any semblance of order or organization, losing track completely of what made it interesting to begin with.
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discussing Superman, for example, he always takes care to explain why Superman worked in the 1930s, the 1940s, the 1950s, and so on. I doubt anyone who is into superheroes will find much new here: what Morrison thinks is the appeal in general is pretty much right in the title. What really worked about the book were Morrison's detailed analyses of the covers of specific comic books, explaining how stories like Action Comics #1 captured lightning in a bottle just with their very covers-- never mind the equally powerful insides.As the book goes on, though, more and more of Morrison's autobiography creeps in. When Morrison is a nerdy kid in 1960s and '70s Britain, this works, since his experiences provide some firsthand accounts of the appeal of the superhero. But once Morrison enters the comics industry himself, the book shifts to becoming an autobiography with the major changes of the comics industry as background. Plus, Morrison begins expounding on his crackpot metaphysical theories. But the major problem here is that his analysis becomes less insightful: I'm wary of what he says of his own work, but even what he says of the work of others, now that he can tell you what his friends meant to do, not what they actually did. The book flat-out disintegrates near the end, unable to maintain any semblance of order or organization, losing track completely of what made it interesting to begin with.
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LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
I'm a fan of Grant Morrison's comics writing and I picked up Supergods when it was first published six years ago, but it took me a while to get around to reading it. Although he did fulfill his ambition here to write "a personal overview of the superhero concept from 1938 to the present day" (419),
Morrison's verge-of-the-2012-apocalypse thesis is that we can all undergo apotheosis into the "supergods" of the title, if we are possessed of the sufficiently optimistic narratives he aims to supply. At the same time, he does observe the brutally frank counterpoint: "A growing population of 'kidults' could be sold on boys' toys and the new, improved on-screen adventures of Batman, Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Green Lantern, helped along by books like this one--which would suggest some hidden value in the smeary power fantasies of the disenfranchised" (312). Other passages in the book reveal that his ability to see himself as a villain is part of what contributes to his distinctive comics vision.
The book does treat the emergence and maturation of superheroes across various media: print comics, radio, television, and film. It omits their entry into more literary, non-illustrated fiction, such as Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. In fairness, such expressions have been pretty marginal to the development of the collective, mass-mediated superhero concept.
The cover of the book showcases Frank Quitely's art from All-Star Superman, which is in many ways the destination of Morrison's story. Throughout the book, there are a smattering of covers and pages reproduced (in black and white, alas) from DC comics. Morrison does give comparable discussion to the rival house Marvel, albeit unsupported by illustrations. An engaged reader of Supergods will benefit from occasional 'net searches to view the significant designs that are discussed, especially in the first half of the book.
Morrison is a practical occultist, and the second half of Supergods is full of his confessions regarding his engagement with ritual, drugs, and hermetic symbolism. I realize that he may have been trying to glamorize himself a little here, and that these elements may exoticize him for some readers. But as someone with similar (though perhaps less sumptuous) experiences, I found that these credible accounts humanized him significantly, contrasting with his magisterial "overview" voice. When he drops into the memoir format, though, he has a tendency to jump around associatively in a way that repeats or scrambles chronological items. On the whole, the writing is witty and entertaining, and I enjoyed my engagement with this rather hefty book.
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it is mixed with a personal memoir of his own comics career in increasingly liberal doses as the book advances. This feature, which some might find objectionable, is I think fairly inevitable given the reflexive and metafictional approach involved in Morrison's creative work. His notion of the "fiction suit," by which a writer can enter a fictional world exposed in those writings, is not only instrumental to many of his comics, but also to his novel perspectives on the superhero phenomenon. Morrison's verge-of-the-2012-apocalypse thesis is that we can all undergo apotheosis into the "supergods" of the title, if we are possessed of the sufficiently optimistic narratives he aims to supply. At the same time, he does observe the brutally frank counterpoint: "A growing population of 'kidults' could be sold on boys' toys and the new, improved on-screen adventures of Batman, Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Green Lantern, helped along by books like this one--which would suggest some hidden value in the smeary power fantasies of the disenfranchised" (312). Other passages in the book reveal that his ability to see himself as a villain is part of what contributes to his distinctive comics vision.
The book does treat the emergence and maturation of superheroes across various media: print comics, radio, television, and film. It omits their entry into more literary, non-illustrated fiction, such as Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. In fairness, such expressions have been pretty marginal to the development of the collective, mass-mediated superhero concept.
The cover of the book showcases Frank Quitely's art from All-Star Superman, which is in many ways the destination of Morrison's story. Throughout the book, there are a smattering of covers and pages reproduced (in black and white, alas) from DC comics. Morrison does give comparable discussion to the rival house Marvel, albeit unsupported by illustrations. An engaged reader of Supergods will benefit from occasional 'net searches to view the significant designs that are discussed, especially in the first half of the book.
Morrison is a practical occultist, and the second half of Supergods is full of his confessions regarding his engagement with ritual, drugs, and hermetic symbolism. I realize that he may have been trying to glamorize himself a little here, and that these elements may exoticize him for some readers. But as someone with similar (though perhaps less sumptuous) experiences, I found that these credible accounts humanized him significantly, contrasting with his magisterial "overview" voice. When he drops into the memoir format, though, he has a tendency to jump around associatively in a way that repeats or scrambles chronological items. On the whole, the writing is witty and entertaining, and I enjoyed my engagement with this rather hefty book.
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LibraryThing member Death_By_Papercut
This book starts off interesting enough, especially if you’re into early comic book history. The origin information is easy to find in many other books and web sites but it’s made more interesting by the fact that it’s being relayed and analyzed by one of the comic industry’s most popular
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insiders. Of course this also brings with it the pitfall of bias, which grows more prevalent as the book goes on. This is because Morrison seems to use this book as a sort of biography as the timeline gets closer to the present day. While fascinating at times he can be extremely boring at others. When talking about his own experiences outside the comic industry it just seems to drag on and on. Further exacerbating this problem is that, in my opinion, his descriptions are quite self indulgent; using three sentences full of very pretty words to describe everything from a drug “trip” to a trip to the grocery. You can see when his ego gets the better of him when he describes his own work with the same reverence as he describes the work of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Unfortunately this book is more about the author than the title suggests. Show Less
LibraryThing member Magus_Manders
Grant Morrison is a great storyteller, but in this case had far too many stories to tell.
Supergods presents itself as an examination of what superheroes tell us about humanity, and what we might be able to teach ourselves from them. Its chapters follow the development of the superhero from Action
Things start to veer off wildly when his timeline hits 1960, the year of his birth. Then, Supergods becomes a memoir of his creative life with some history of comics thrown in. Readers familiar with Morrison may know that he is a practitioner of magic; all well and good, but it's awfully distracting when he goes on for eight pages about his drug-fulled transvestite spirit-quests from which he culls many of his ideas. He is clearly proud of living a very... varied life, and occasionally comes off as meanly dismissive of those who have lived anything less, which appears to include many comic fans. Some chapters become rambles, with no focus or even clear subject, jumping from one idea, anecdote, or bender to the next.
Supergods does bring up some very interesting ideas. I was particularly fascinated by Morrison's idea that the universes in comic books, and all fiction, are just as real as our own, they just occur on paper. Likewise, the idea that an author can craft a "fiction suit" through which to affect and explore their creations is an eye-opener for the creative process. Finally, his closing comments on the usage of superheroes to show our greatest strengths, to which we can reach and aspire, was heartening and provocative. Indeed, many segments of Supergods were engrossing, but the book as a whole was unfocused and often terribly self-indulgent. Fans of Morrison (of which I am one, though perhaps not enough of one) will find some enlightenment, or at least back-story, to his work. However, it ultimately does a half-hearted job of meeting the promises of its albeit beautiful cover, having the potential of being more alienating than alluring.
Supergods presents itself as an examination of what superheroes tell us about humanity, and what we might be able to teach ourselves from them. Its chapters follow the development of the superhero from Action
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Comics #1 to this summer's movie blockbusters in roughly chronological order. Thus, it begins as something of another history, though Morrison keenly summarizes the archetypal beginnings and purpose of those early characters. In this, he joyfully displays his love of comics and the creators behind them with praise and respect for even the poorer or goofier publishing periods. He doesn't quite stay on point, but we readers can hope that the subtitle will work its way in later. Things start to veer off wildly when his timeline hits 1960, the year of his birth. Then, Supergods becomes a memoir of his creative life with some history of comics thrown in. Readers familiar with Morrison may know that he is a practitioner of magic; all well and good, but it's awfully distracting when he goes on for eight pages about his drug-fulled transvestite spirit-quests from which he culls many of his ideas. He is clearly proud of living a very... varied life, and occasionally comes off as meanly dismissive of those who have lived anything less, which appears to include many comic fans. Some chapters become rambles, with no focus or even clear subject, jumping from one idea, anecdote, or bender to the next.
Supergods does bring up some very interesting ideas. I was particularly fascinated by Morrison's idea that the universes in comic books, and all fiction, are just as real as our own, they just occur on paper. Likewise, the idea that an author can craft a "fiction suit" through which to affect and explore their creations is an eye-opener for the creative process. Finally, his closing comments on the usage of superheroes to show our greatest strengths, to which we can reach and aspire, was heartening and provocative. Indeed, many segments of Supergods were engrossing, but the book as a whole was unfocused and often terribly self-indulgent. Fans of Morrison (of which I am one, though perhaps not enough of one) will find some enlightenment, or at least back-story, to his work. However, it ultimately does a half-hearted job of meeting the promises of its albeit beautiful cover, having the potential of being more alienating than alluring.
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LibraryThing member SESchend
SHORT AND SWEET: This is a good book despite a number of flaws in the telling. As with this author's best works, I know I'll end up buying and rereading this to fully absorb/digest what he's written here.
RECOMMENDED TO: folks looking for an interesting new take/approach to self-help books or folks
Fair warning--if you're not already a fan of Grant Morrison's writing, this book may not be for you.
I'll admit to being hit-or-miss for me on the direction he takes some thing--loved his Doom Patrol & Invisibles, disliked his X-Men, and am still rather ambivalent on his most recent works.
That said, he's a strong writer with some intriguing ideas if you've the patience to separate the wheat from the chaff (or the points buried within his anecdotes).
If you're only interested in what he's got to say about his subtitle, you may get frustrated in searching for each chapter's few relevant paragraphs as GM covers his backstory and fills in the reader's comics history (for good or ill). Honestly, this could have easily been just a decent sized essay if not for having to explain comics to those who might not know them.
The most crucial chapters to read (in my opinion) would be the Intro, Chapters 10, 14, 16-20, 25, 26, and the Outro; even in saying that, I'll say you really are better served to follow the whole book, as it's an organic thing in which Morrison's ideas build upon each other and seeing from whence an idea sprang gives it better context later on.
SUPERGODS sometimes felt like a first or second draft idea padded out with a lot of anecdotal material and comics history for context. It might have been stronger had his core thesis been written in tight, concise essay form and THEN expanded after the fact with more in-depth detail and follow-up thoughts.
The bulk of the book is Morrison's walk-through of comics history and his own personal history both in and out of comics. Interesting but he plays a bit fast and loose with some chronology and/or character bits simply to make some points, but this isn't intended to be an official history of comics anymore than it's intended to be a full autobiography of GM himself.
Most surprising take-away from the book--He suggest the much-maligned Mort Weisinger used the Superman mythos under his 1950's control as a canvas/showcase for his personal Freudian analyses; amazingly it's a take I've never heard before and find it at least plausible on its face. I also liked that he has the spine to suggest his All-Star Superman and future work would be the Jung comics to Weisinger's Freud comics. :)
A number of folks have ranted on online comics sites against this book because of random toss-off statements; I suspect anyone looking for a reason NOT to like the book will find SOMETHING to offend them herein.
Grant's unapologetic about all his choices, be they drug use, shamanism & magic, or simply why he writes characters a certain way. I wasn't expecting a "How to Write Comics the Grant Morrison Way" (though I'd be interested to read that book, certainly). I accept the writer as he is (or at least as he's presenting himself) without judgment, since he's crafted books that present new things to me with each reread (and I have more fingers than I have writers who have rewarded me with intricate yet eminently approachable work like that).
"What Superheroes have to teach us about being human" is a very interesting idea from a very interesting writer and it's one that deserves more thought and weight; I suspect the reason it's not all here is because Morrison's doing what he's always done--put his ideas in his work and have his characters do the talking for him. Thus, it's changed my perception on a lot of his past work and it's made me want to pick up and reread the entire Invisibles series for the seventh time--wonder what new thing I'll see this time?
And that's the key (for me, at least) with this author--he sticks an idea into my brain that demands follow-up. My first impressions of each work do not necessarily stick. I always end up rereading a lot of Morrison's work and see more each time of the intricate watchworks of idea-building hiding just beneath the surface (which is, let's face it, where we end up reading most comics or books the first time through).
Morrison's got some very "out-there" ideas that won't resonate with all readers, but he does one thing very well in all his work--he buries his ideas into your head (especially good with those you don't notice at first) and keeps you thinking about things. And isn't that what we want from every writer's books?
RECOMMENDED TO: folks looking for an interesting new take/approach to self-help books or folks
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interested either in Morrison or comics from the writer's perspective.Fair warning--if you're not already a fan of Grant Morrison's writing, this book may not be for you.
I'll admit to being hit-or-miss for me on the direction he takes some thing--loved his Doom Patrol & Invisibles, disliked his X-Men, and am still rather ambivalent on his most recent works.
That said, he's a strong writer with some intriguing ideas if you've the patience to separate the wheat from the chaff (or the points buried within his anecdotes).
If you're only interested in what he's got to say about his subtitle, you may get frustrated in searching for each chapter's few relevant paragraphs as GM covers his backstory and fills in the reader's comics history (for good or ill). Honestly, this could have easily been just a decent sized essay if not for having to explain comics to those who might not know them.
The most crucial chapters to read (in my opinion) would be the Intro, Chapters 10, 14, 16-20, 25, 26, and the Outro; even in saying that, I'll say you really are better served to follow the whole book, as it's an organic thing in which Morrison's ideas build upon each other and seeing from whence an idea sprang gives it better context later on.
SUPERGODS sometimes felt like a first or second draft idea padded out with a lot of anecdotal material and comics history for context. It might have been stronger had his core thesis been written in tight, concise essay form and THEN expanded after the fact with more in-depth detail and follow-up thoughts.
The bulk of the book is Morrison's walk-through of comics history and his own personal history both in and out of comics. Interesting but he plays a bit fast and loose with some chronology and/or character bits simply to make some points, but this isn't intended to be an official history of comics anymore than it's intended to be a full autobiography of GM himself.
Most surprising take-away from the book--He suggest the much-maligned Mort Weisinger used the Superman mythos under his 1950's control as a canvas/showcase for his personal Freudian analyses; amazingly it's a take I've never heard before and find it at least plausible on its face. I also liked that he has the spine to suggest his All-Star Superman and future work would be the Jung comics to Weisinger's Freud comics. :)
A number of folks have ranted on online comics sites against this book because of random toss-off statements; I suspect anyone looking for a reason NOT to like the book will find SOMETHING to offend them herein.
Grant's unapologetic about all his choices, be they drug use, shamanism & magic, or simply why he writes characters a certain way. I wasn't expecting a "How to Write Comics the Grant Morrison Way" (though I'd be interested to read that book, certainly). I accept the writer as he is (or at least as he's presenting himself) without judgment, since he's crafted books that present new things to me with each reread (and I have more fingers than I have writers who have rewarded me with intricate yet eminently approachable work like that).
"What Superheroes have to teach us about being human" is a very interesting idea from a very interesting writer and it's one that deserves more thought and weight; I suspect the reason it's not all here is because Morrison's doing what he's always done--put his ideas in his work and have his characters do the talking for him. Thus, it's changed my perception on a lot of his past work and it's made me want to pick up and reread the entire Invisibles series for the seventh time--wonder what new thing I'll see this time?
And that's the key (for me, at least) with this author--he sticks an idea into my brain that demands follow-up. My first impressions of each work do not necessarily stick. I always end up rereading a lot of Morrison's work and see more each time of the intricate watchworks of idea-building hiding just beneath the surface (which is, let's face it, where we end up reading most comics or books the first time through).
Morrison's got some very "out-there" ideas that won't resonate with all readers, but he does one thing very well in all his work--he buries his ideas into your head (especially good with those you don't notice at first) and keeps you thinking about things. And isn't that what we want from every writer's books?
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LibraryThing member craso
I was very disappointed in this book and found it difficult to finish. I have read books on the history and sociology of comics and I thought this would be similar. Instead, this book is Grant Morrison's perspective of the world of superhero comics. It is extremely biased and I do not agree with
If you have read Grant Morrison's work before and you are a fan, it would be a great book for you. If you are looking for a sociological look at superhero comics there are plenty more serious, well researched, and well written books out there to read. Ironically, he lists many of these books under "Suggested Further Reading" at the end of the book.
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most of his view points. I also disliked his style of writing. He used too many drug culture references, pop psycho-analysis, and profanity. I requested this book because of my love of superheroes and because I thought Morrison would be drawing direct parallels between the human need to create mythical beings and the comic world. What I received was a book written with a twisted post-modern perspective.If you have read Grant Morrison's work before and you are a fan, it would be a great book for you. If you are looking for a sociological look at superhero comics there are plenty more serious, well researched, and well written books out there to read. Ironically, he lists many of these books under "Suggested Further Reading" at the end of the book.
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LibraryThing member dschander
This book is a mixed bag. It starts off with Morrison exploring the history of comics in a fairly straight-forward, scholarly way. Increasingly, Morrison begins inserting his own opinions and anecdotes into the book, as he becomes a reader then a writer of comics. The problem is that the two really
This is not to say the scholarly portions would have been perfect on their own either. The incredibly detailed descriptions of cover images (reprinted in the book) got tiresome, and the organization falls apart toward the end, as Morrison suddenly arranges his chapters by topics (movies, events, cons) rather than time periods.
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do not sit well together. I kept wishing I was reading one or the other, history or biography. Morrison clearly has biases, as anyone would who has worked in a profession for many years, but I found them intrusive upon the rest of the text.This is not to say the scholarly portions would have been perfect on their own either. The incredibly detailed descriptions of cover images (reprinted in the book) got tiresome, and the organization falls apart toward the end, as Morrison suddenly arranges his chapters by topics (movies, events, cons) rather than time periods.
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LibraryThing member quilted_kat
Supergods starts out as an interesting history of comic books from early 20th century onward. But, Morrison quickly turns it into a rambling memoir. He starts topics in one chapter, comes to a conclusion, and then revisits them in later chapters without apparently noticing that he already covered
Morrison spends several pages expanding descriptions of a single comic’s cover in detailed exploration, and then limits entire characters and series to a single paragraph. The writing felt uneven, like he could have used a good editor with a red pen to tell him when he was saying too much.
I’m not sure what I expected this book to be, but this wasn’t it.
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the same material.Morrison spends several pages expanding descriptions of a single comic’s cover in detailed exploration, and then limits entire characters and series to a single paragraph. The writing felt uneven, like he could have used a good editor with a red pen to tell him when he was saying too much.
I’m not sure what I expected this book to be, but this wasn’t it.
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LibraryThing member jmgold
I went into this book with very high hopes, being a long time fan of both Grant Morrison's comics and his prior writings on the medium. Unfortunately I was left severely disappointed.
The main problem is that Supergods is extremely unfocused, bouncing between various threads without much in the way
The main problem is that Supergods is extremely unfocused, bouncing between various threads without much in the way
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of connective tissue (or in the proof I read from copy editing). The early development of the super hero gives way to Morrison's travelogue of Nepal, which goes on to the history of Batman's costume changes in the movies, and every step of the way Morrison inserts quotes from his own bibliography. Some of these parts can be intriguing, particularly when Morrison goes into his own theories on the nature of fictional worlds, but the whole doesn't really hold together and the book ultimately comes off as a vanity project (particularly when Morrison starts name dropping people he's met like Sean Connery and Robbie Williams). Show Less
LibraryThing member mnorris3
As an avid comic book reader for the last 3 decades, and as someone very familiar with the works of Grant Morrison, I was looking forward to reading his take on comics. The book start off great, the history on the beginnings and growth of the modern superhero genre was insightful and a pleasure to
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read. But as the book progresses he begins to wander here and there and the book becomes more disjointed. I cannot say I did not like it, but neither can I say I enjoyed it as much as I hoped I would. If you are an ardent Morrison or comics fan there is stuff here for you, if you are not then stay away. Show Less
LibraryThing member aadyer
This started well, very promising, and very intelligent analysis of the main protagonists of comic book history. The middle two quarters though, were very different, and really were more autobiographical in nature. At times Morrison veers from quantum physics, patterning & string theory to his own
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drug use. This would have been fascinating if I thought that I wanted to read a biography of Grant Morrison. What I thought that this was, was an attempt to try to understand the appeal of the comic book hero over history to their audience. Here, I think that it failed. His return to the films of the Marvel organisation & also the latter parts of the book were more readable and more engaging. Overall, I think that you would have to be a Grant Morrison to get the absolute maximum out of this. The rest of us, comic book fans too, would be best to avoid. Show Less
LibraryThing member psutto
Morrison has written some “out there” comics and they’re not always enjoyable, although I did like [Arkham Asylum] and [the invisibles]. I thought though that his book on the history of comics would be an interesting read. However is was very dull and also from the point of view of
Overall – Just not for me
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“Aren’t superheroes simply the most amazing thing ever conceived of?” which became tiring in the introduction and didn’t improve in the 100 pages of the book I read before I decided that life’s too short. Morrison liberally drops in covers for comics, I only read the golden age and a little of the silver age sections but assume he does this throughout. He then tells you what you’re seeing, in mind numbingly tedious detail. OK point out subtextual detail or highlight particular technique, I can understand that, but to start to say “the cover shows superman lifting a car whilst around him there are x number of people and the person at the bottom left has an expression on his face of blah blah blah” I am not blind, the picture is right there above the text! Obviously the book also is full of anecdotes and little known (to me) facts about the creators but you have to wade through a lot of dross to get to them. Morrison also readily admits that he’s left a lot out but considering the huge amount of comics out there that’s not really surprising. It is also only really the history of DC & Marvel (or seemed to be from what I’d read of it – perhaps he covered non-US/UK stuff and US/UK stuff that isn’t DC/Marvel later?). Being focussed on Superheroes it’s not a history of comics per se.Overall – Just not for me
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LibraryThing member SeaBill1
Initially, I had a hard time with Grant Morrison’s Supergods. The book kept migrating toward the bottom of my To Be Read pile.
I was groaning mentally after reading the first fifteen pages. Since Supergods is an analysis of the superhero as first developed in American comics, Morrison has to
But, on page 21 he writes, “…Batman habitually found himself dealing with crimes involving chemicals and crazy people…his career had barely begun before he was heroically inhaling countless bizarre chemical concoctions cooked by mad black-market alchemists.” And I thought, Ah, now here’s a new perspective, one that I had not come across before. So I kept reading. And the book got a lot better as it progressed.
It helps that Morrison is a brilliant writer of prose. One would not know, from reading his comics that he could turn out graceful, insightfu,l perceptive non-fiction. Here’s a passage I like, from page 81. The author is discussing super heroes as they were being created in the early 60’s, when DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz was rebuilding the idea of the superhero:
“And so, Kennedy Man: the astronaut, the handsome scientist, the confident, pioneering go-getter with the beautiful wife or girlfriend and an eye on the stars and the shining future. The mad scientist villains of the past were being replaced by the sanest of scientist heroes.”
I liked that Morrison’s writing has none of the “scholastic stink” of academic criticism, but is instead vibrant, opinionated, passionate and cleanly articulated. I surely don’t agree with all his opinions, however.
As other reviewers her on Library Thing have noted, the middle of the book veers from historical criticism into autobiography. I don’t have any opposition to that as such. but the flow the book does bog down somewhat. Morrison is a member of the Hunter S. Thompson school of bald headed drug inhalers, a psychonaut who gave himself leave to push boundaries, where “Everyday was a party…during which I could be heard to speak in tongues, and with multiple voices.”
But the world view that such inhalation produces can sometimes be silly. He sees Magic working in the universe, he frames chance encounters in terms of “a pop-shamanic vision quest yielding pure contact with embodied archetypal forces.” (p.404). He sees superheroes “leaving the page and entering into our lives” and seems to mean that literally, not figuratively. Nope. There are no superheroes in our world, no one with the ability to fly, or see through walls, or run so fast that they can slow down time.
But when Morrison evokes his obvious love of comics, when he shows the depth of knowledge he possesses regarding these entire universes that have grown up thanks to the efforts of four generations of writers and artists sharing a shared fictional vision – then he can write sentences that really soar. In his “outro”, he writes, “We learn as much …from our fictional role models as we do from the real people who share our lives….If…we emphasize our glory, intelligence, grace, generosity, discrimination, honesty, capacity for love, creativity, and native genius, those qualities will be made manifest in our behavior and in our works.”
May it be so.
I was groaning mentally after reading the first fifteen pages. Since Supergods is an analysis of the superhero as first developed in American comics, Morrison has to
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start chronologically with the first avatar of the mythic super man: Superman. And since Morrison has nothing new to add to the historical perspective, I dreaded trying to finish the book.But, on page 21 he writes, “…Batman habitually found himself dealing with crimes involving chemicals and crazy people…his career had barely begun before he was heroically inhaling countless bizarre chemical concoctions cooked by mad black-market alchemists.” And I thought, Ah, now here’s a new perspective, one that I had not come across before. So I kept reading. And the book got a lot better as it progressed.
It helps that Morrison is a brilliant writer of prose. One would not know, from reading his comics that he could turn out graceful, insightfu,l perceptive non-fiction. Here’s a passage I like, from page 81. The author is discussing super heroes as they were being created in the early 60’s, when DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz was rebuilding the idea of the superhero:
“And so, Kennedy Man: the astronaut, the handsome scientist, the confident, pioneering go-getter with the beautiful wife or girlfriend and an eye on the stars and the shining future. The mad scientist villains of the past were being replaced by the sanest of scientist heroes.”
I liked that Morrison’s writing has none of the “scholastic stink” of academic criticism, but is instead vibrant, opinionated, passionate and cleanly articulated. I surely don’t agree with all his opinions, however.
As other reviewers her on Library Thing have noted, the middle of the book veers from historical criticism into autobiography. I don’t have any opposition to that as such. but the flow the book does bog down somewhat. Morrison is a member of the Hunter S. Thompson school of bald headed drug inhalers, a psychonaut who gave himself leave to push boundaries, where “Everyday was a party…during which I could be heard to speak in tongues, and with multiple voices.”
But the world view that such inhalation produces can sometimes be silly. He sees Magic working in the universe, he frames chance encounters in terms of “a pop-shamanic vision quest yielding pure contact with embodied archetypal forces.” (p.404). He sees superheroes “leaving the page and entering into our lives” and seems to mean that literally, not figuratively. Nope. There are no superheroes in our world, no one with the ability to fly, or see through walls, or run so fast that they can slow down time.
But when Morrison evokes his obvious love of comics, when he shows the depth of knowledge he possesses regarding these entire universes that have grown up thanks to the efforts of four generations of writers and artists sharing a shared fictional vision – then he can write sentences that really soar. In his “outro”, he writes, “We learn as much …from our fictional role models as we do from the real people who share our lives….If…we emphasize our glory, intelligence, grace, generosity, discrimination, honesty, capacity for love, creativity, and native genius, those qualities will be made manifest in our behavior and in our works.”
May it be so.
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LibraryThing member LancasterWays
Supergods, like its author, celebrated comic book writer Grant Morrison, is a complicated book. This is no primitively rendered Golden Age Superman. Nor is it some drug-induced phantasmagoria from the '60s or '70s. (More on that below...) Supergods, rather, is a sleekly designed tome delivered to
Supergods is, superficially, a history of superhero comics from their inception through approximately 2010. (The book was published in 2011.) It begins as any reader might expect: with Superman. Morrison expertly deconstructs the cover of the issue of Action Comics in which Superman first appeared, evoking the mystery of this new character archetype. He further elaborates on the story, discussing the artwork and dialog panel-by-panel. Morrison's analysis is impressive but worrying; the reader will wonder if Morrison's discussion of each character will be this exhaustive. Batman undergoes a similar analysis. But Morrison is setting the stage: the eternal tension in comics between darkness and light.
Although Morrison devotes the bulk of Supergods to superheroes, dividing the text into four units, each reflecting his understanding of the history of comics (Golden Age, Silver Age, Dark Age, Renaissance), the book is at its most interesting when he discusses his own life and his career as a writer. From his first impressions as a child near a US Naval base in Scotland, we are given a detailed biography of Morrison. The result is fascinating in an almost perverse way. Morrison seems, frankly, insufferable: A too cool for school teenager; a self-impressed “artist”; a comics phenom. Morrison relates bluntly how successful he is, how youthful he appears (repeatedly), and how wealthy he has become. Although off-putting, one can't help but be impressed by his honesty.
Morrison has his quirks, and he freely relates them. (He likely doesn't see them as quirks.) He practices and believes in the efficacy of Chaos magic. He heals his cat's cancer through sheer willpower. In one particularly eye-popping passage, Morrison relates a “vision” he experiences in Katmandu, temporarily leaving this reality and traveling to another world whose inhabitants appear to him as a constantly shifting array of fluorescent light bulbs. (This is, he claims, unrelated to the hashish he ingested immediately prior to said experience.) Horrified, one can't help but read on.
Supergods is, ultimately, strangely, inspiring. Morrison's story is that of someone who is completely comfortable with who he is. He creates for a living and earns considerable wealth doing it. More impressive, though, is his take on life. He accepts his artistic medium of choice, comics, on its own terms, and insists that superheroes needn't be “realistic” (or “grim 'n' gritty,” as we called them in my day) in order to be interesting and meaningful. This attitude is reflected in his own life: he acknowledges that something doesn't need to be objectively true for one to believe in it and, touchingly, in this age of cynicism and snark, insists that it's perfectly fine—even desirable—for one to believe in and feel strongly about things, without worrying what someone else might say about it. What a strangely liberating thing to hear, buffeted as we are by negative comments and Internet memes. Recommended less for comic fans than for writers and other creative types.
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us from the future. Like Medieval serfs delivered a computer, we poke, prod and stroke it, we admire it and guess its possible uses, but we are unable to comprehend its true potential.Supergods is, superficially, a history of superhero comics from their inception through approximately 2010. (The book was published in 2011.) It begins as any reader might expect: with Superman. Morrison expertly deconstructs the cover of the issue of Action Comics in which Superman first appeared, evoking the mystery of this new character archetype. He further elaborates on the story, discussing the artwork and dialog panel-by-panel. Morrison's analysis is impressive but worrying; the reader will wonder if Morrison's discussion of each character will be this exhaustive. Batman undergoes a similar analysis. But Morrison is setting the stage: the eternal tension in comics between darkness and light.
Although Morrison devotes the bulk of Supergods to superheroes, dividing the text into four units, each reflecting his understanding of the history of comics (Golden Age, Silver Age, Dark Age, Renaissance), the book is at its most interesting when he discusses his own life and his career as a writer. From his first impressions as a child near a US Naval base in Scotland, we are given a detailed biography of Morrison. The result is fascinating in an almost perverse way. Morrison seems, frankly, insufferable: A too cool for school teenager; a self-impressed “artist”; a comics phenom. Morrison relates bluntly how successful he is, how youthful he appears (repeatedly), and how wealthy he has become. Although off-putting, one can't help but be impressed by his honesty.
Morrison has his quirks, and he freely relates them. (He likely doesn't see them as quirks.) He practices and believes in the efficacy of Chaos magic. He heals his cat's cancer through sheer willpower. In one particularly eye-popping passage, Morrison relates a “vision” he experiences in Katmandu, temporarily leaving this reality and traveling to another world whose inhabitants appear to him as a constantly shifting array of fluorescent light bulbs. (This is, he claims, unrelated to the hashish he ingested immediately prior to said experience.) Horrified, one can't help but read on.
Supergods is, ultimately, strangely, inspiring. Morrison's story is that of someone who is completely comfortable with who he is. He creates for a living and earns considerable wealth doing it. More impressive, though, is his take on life. He accepts his artistic medium of choice, comics, on its own terms, and insists that superheroes needn't be “realistic” (or “grim 'n' gritty,” as we called them in my day) in order to be interesting and meaningful. This attitude is reflected in his own life: he acknowledges that something doesn't need to be objectively true for one to believe in it and, touchingly, in this age of cynicism and snark, insists that it's perfectly fine—even desirable—for one to believe in and feel strongly about things, without worrying what someone else might say about it. What a strangely liberating thing to hear, buffeted as we are by negative comments and Internet memes. Recommended less for comic fans than for writers and other creative types.
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LibraryThing member midnightbex
I'll be the first to admit I had a very difficult time getting through this book. As a long time comics fan and reader of Grant Morrison's comics work I thought this book would be right up my alley. In many ways it was. When Morrison writes about comics and superheroes and their history you can
If you don't mind the writing style and are a big fan of Marvel and DC Superhero comics, this book is probably exactly right for you. However, for the casual reader I'd give it a pass.
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feel how much he cares about the topic. Often the book was extremely interesting and engaging, but it was very uneven. The style of prose was rambling and often unfocused.If you don't mind the writing style and are a big fan of Marvel and DC Superhero comics, this book is probably exactly right for you. However, for the casual reader I'd give it a pass.
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LibraryThing member MarcusH
This is a very interesting book. Morrison, who is most well known for his work writing plot lines for comic books, takes the reader on a historical, philosophical, psychological, and at times, autobiographical journey through the mythology of the superhero. The book is split into four eras of comic
For older comic readers Supergods may be somewhat boring, as Morrison covers much of the background behind the foundations of DC and Marvel comics, as well as, the creative origins of some of the most famous superheroes (Superman, Batman, Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, etc.). For readers who are unfamiliar with Morrison's work, the autobiographical tangents may distract from the meat of the text. However, those tangents do provide some entertaining and insightful moments (i.e. Morrison's thoughts on the multiverse).
As the title suggests Morrison's purpose is to show the reader what the superhero can teach us about being human, and he does this with a clarity that only someone of his comic presence and experience can. Morrison shows us that every family can be a Fantastic Four, every dork or nerd can be a Superman or Spiderman, and everyone can face adversity and rise above it.
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book creation (The Golden Age, Silver Age, Dark Age, and the Renaissance). For older comic readers Supergods may be somewhat boring, as Morrison covers much of the background behind the foundations of DC and Marvel comics, as well as, the creative origins of some of the most famous superheroes (Superman, Batman, Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, etc.). For readers who are unfamiliar with Morrison's work, the autobiographical tangents may distract from the meat of the text. However, those tangents do provide some entertaining and insightful moments (i.e. Morrison's thoughts on the multiverse).
As the title suggests Morrison's purpose is to show the reader what the superhero can teach us about being human, and he does this with a clarity that only someone of his comic presence and experience can. Morrison shows us that every family can be a Fantastic Four, every dork or nerd can be a Superman or Spiderman, and everyone can face adversity and rise above it.
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LibraryThing member wilsonknut
What Morrison does very well in Supergods is offer an analytical history of superhero comics from the perspective of a fan and talented insider. The book is organized chronologically and progresses through the Golden Age, Silver Age, Dark Age, and Renaissance. Unfortunately, Morrison interjects his
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own memoir and new age belief systems, which are not all about comics. The book reads as if it should be two or three separate books, and the further Morrison gets away from analyzing the history of superhero comics, the more disjointed the book becomes. Show Less
LibraryThing member andy475uk
Like a lot of Grant Morrison's work in comics (which I really enjoy) his take on superheroes starts off relatively straightforwardly covering the early days of Batman and Superman and then careers all over the place to include his personal life, the comics and graphic novels he and others have
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worked on, cosmic theories and a myriad of other different ideas and concepts. At times my brain felt like it had been put in the washing machine on a never-ending spin cycle (in a good way). I would have loved to have found out a bit more about the comics gossip and creation side of things and it's frustratingly elusive at times (why Zenith is unavailable in trade paperback, We3 isn't mentioned, series like Final Crisis and Batman are skated over rather than covered in depth and the Invisibles probably could have had about fifty more pages on it), but there is much to recommend if you like or have liked comics during the last forty or fifty years. Show Less
LibraryThing member zzshupinga
Grant Morrison, writer of such standout works as All Star Superman (Vols. 1 and 2) and continued work in the DC Universe on Batman, turns his eye to the history of the superhero--a topic never really fully explored before. Morrison brings his insider knowledge to play and dazzles the reader, not
Morrison creates a text, that for the most part, is easy to read and to follow along a linear timeline. He shows us just how much comics and superheroes have impacted our lives. It seems like lately comics have fallen into the realm of "nerd" and not meant for everyone, but Morrison shows us that just isn't true. That they were created for the everyman to give us hope during dark times, laughter (well ok maybe that's not what they meant it for but we can still laugh at them), and inspiration to overcome obstacles. Morrison highlights not only the big names--Batman and Superman--but also introduces us to other superheroes that we have forgotten, but still have meaning.
Supergods is not just for the comic book fan/nerd/person. It's a text for everyone to understand how superheroes, whether we know it or not, have impacted our lives and the world around us. This is a must have book for anyone.
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only with the history of super hero comics, but the psychology behind it as well. Morrison also shows us how superheroes fit in to almost every aspect of our lives, reflecting our very selves in these figures that we create.Morrison creates a text, that for the most part, is easy to read and to follow along a linear timeline. He shows us just how much comics and superheroes have impacted our lives. It seems like lately comics have fallen into the realm of "nerd" and not meant for everyone, but Morrison shows us that just isn't true. That they were created for the everyman to give us hope during dark times, laughter (well ok maybe that's not what they meant it for but we can still laugh at them), and inspiration to overcome obstacles. Morrison highlights not only the big names--Batman and Superman--but also introduces us to other superheroes that we have forgotten, but still have meaning.
Supergods is not just for the comic book fan/nerd/person. It's a text for everyone to understand how superheroes, whether we know it or not, have impacted our lives and the world around us. This is a must have book for anyone.
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LibraryThing member storyjunkie
Part critique of creative movements in comic books, part memoir, and part manifesto Supergods is a handy microcosm of the issues facing, and problems of, the superhero comics. Morrison presents his own (highly insightful) interpretation of past works, his own response to movements in comics, his
As a microcosm, the work suffers from the same insular, self-reflective, and impermeable boundaries as comic books themselves. In a lot of cases, if you don't already know the people or titles that Morrison is referring to, then you are plain out of luck and his statements will float in a self-important but context-less bubble until he moves on to something that you do recognize. The flip side of this is, if you do know the references, then Morrison's insights as to why certain stories spoke to the self-selecting comic book audience, why there were certain creative movements among comics creators, and his withering critique of the industry machine are very valuable in adding an extra dimension to our understanding of how this pop culture medium works.
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own (industry-effecting) contributions, his underlying creative and life philosophies, and how he got there in a semi-chronological narrative. He does this so effectively that there isn't room for the reader's potential experience of comics as part of this interaction, just his own. A more apt subtitle would have been " What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Taught Me About Being Human". As a microcosm, the work suffers from the same insular, self-reflective, and impermeable boundaries as comic books themselves. In a lot of cases, if you don't already know the people or titles that Morrison is referring to, then you are plain out of luck and his statements will float in a self-important but context-less bubble until he moves on to something that you do recognize. The flip side of this is, if you do know the references, then Morrison's insights as to why certain stories spoke to the self-selecting comic book audience, why there were certain creative movements among comics creators, and his withering critique of the industry machine are very valuable in adding an extra dimension to our understanding of how this pop culture medium works.
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LibraryThing member rsottney
Comic books are not a new creation. The medium may be a 20th century creation, but the form follows a long history of mythology, legends, religions, cave art and glyphs. Superman is always compared to Jesus Christ, but he could just as easily be Samson, Achilles or Moses. The cape and tights are
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new, but his story is thousands of years old. Grant Morrison is an award winning comic book writer who understands the nuances and implications and possiblities of the medium; who better to write this book? If you like comics, mythology or pop culture studies, this book is a must-add to your library. Show Less
LibraryThing member commodoremarie
I had a very hard time making it through this book: it just never managed to grab me and hold me. The subject matter is at times extremely interesting, but told in a jangling prose that wandered more than I could handle. The result to me was, as another said, more of a "rambling memoir." Morrison
Overall, the unevenness of the book did it in for me. Glad I was able to learn, but save for needing to write the review, I'm not sure I would have made it all the way through. For true Morrison fans, a must. For the rest of us, take pause.
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clearly has a lot to say, and a great deal of interesting parallels and comparisons to make. Sometimes he goes on too long, others I wanted him to say a bit more. As a comic book fan, the information about the starts of the big houses (Marvel, DC) is great, but as a fair-weather fan at best, sometimes more than I was really committed to absorbing. Overall, the unevenness of the book did it in for me. Glad I was able to learn, but save for needing to write the review, I'm not sure I would have made it all the way through. For true Morrison fans, a must. For the rest of us, take pause.
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LibraryThing member m_k_m
More interesting when Morrison is analysing the works of others than when he is discussing the origins of his own work. There's some trippy-dippy talk of magic and cosmic journey that, despite the self-aware point the author is trying to make, journeys far into self-indulgence. But the rest is an
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informed, revealing rundown of superheroes and their place in culture, from Prometheus to Promethea. Show Less
LibraryThing member rivkat
In law school, we used to joke about a class that would be called “Law and What I’ve Been Thinking.” This is “Comics and What I’ve Been Thinking.” In all honesty, this is not so bad in a book, but overall I wasn’t incredibly interested in Morrison’s acid trips (though he does strike
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a pretty good balance between ‘I totally believe in the mystical transdimensional experience I had’ and ‘this is valid for me, but I’m not telling you that I believe it’s the factual structure of the universe’) or his opinions on the various Batman films. Show Less
LibraryThing member DanielJSinger
I really have to disagree with the title. This book is not about what comic book heroes can teach us about being human. It's about the history of comics and Grant Morrison's autobiography. Oh, there are snippets here and there that remind us what superheroes and other characters might remind us of
If this was about what [insert hero here] could teach us about being human, I'd expect more philosophy, self-reflection as a race, etc. But there's hardly any of that in this book.
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inside ourselves, but mostly it's a memoir.If this was about what [insert hero here] could teach us about being human, I'd expect more philosophy, self-reflection as a race, etc. But there's hardly any of that in this book.
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