Grant Morrison

Comixology Sale Picks: Grant Morrison

Hello. Sorry, yes, we know, it's been a while. We've been a bit busy, and it's prevented us from getting much done around here. But Comixology are running an absolutely massive Grant Morrison (DC/Vertigo only) sale this week, and we simply couldn't let that pass without comment - so read on to find out just how much of your hard-earned cash you need to be throwing away...

Best Comics of 2014: The Multiversity

Around five years or so ago, the prospect of Grant Morrison writing a multiverse-spanning, self-referential exploration of DC's superhero lineage would have been pretty much the most exciting thing in comics. But as the time between The Multiversity's conception and its actual execution grew ever longer, the doubts began to creep in. The resetting of DC's entire continuity was the biggest elephant in the room: if The Multiversity was originally conceived pre-New 52, would it be compromised by eventually coming out after it?

But even aside from that, with what seemed to be Morrison's final definitive statement on the superhero comic, in his epoch-defining Batman run, finally at an end, and following the apparent inability of his Action Comics to stake out a claim for greatness in this new era, this supposed final hurrah began to feel like little more than an afterthought. Sure, it would be nice to see a bit of new Frank Quitely art, especially if he was drawing the Blue Beetle. But would The Multiversity really have anything new to say?

It turns out that yes, it did. And what it had to say was The Man Don't Give A Fuck.

Comixology Sale Picks: Batman 750

Update 26.11.14: The Batman 750 sale is back! So we're re-bumping our guide to it - it seems to be basically the same 750 comics as before, though we haven't had a chance to go through and check in detail to make absolutely certain. But if you missed it the first time, now's your chance...

Seven hundred and fifty Batman comics? Seven hundred and fifty? No way are we going to be able to give you a yes or no on every single item featured in Comixology's mammoth Batman anniversary sale, but if we go through and pick out a few choice things we think are worth looking at, it might help you actually navigate the sale without it taking the entire week that it lasts for...

Review: The Multiversity: The Just #1

So it turns out that, in pretty much the most Grant Morrison thing that has ever happened, The Multiversity is basically a story about how characters on all of the different Earths in the DC multiverse can read comics about the goings-on on all of the other Earths in the DC multiverse, and one of these comics (the one that's about Earth Prime, of course), is a dangerous "haunted" or "cursed" comic that, as best as I can see, is the closest thing the series as a whole has to a unifying story macguffin.

And it further turns out that The Just, an issue that I have to admit I wasn't necessarily expecting to be much in the way of great shakes based on its cover and its solicit, is Morrison attempting to do something akin to The Kingdom (which is in itself ironic given that The Kingdom brought Morrison's once-abandoned "Hypertime" concept into official continuity for all of five minutes), only actually good. So it's a story of a world in which the Golden and Silver Age DC heroes age in real time, and so by the year 2014 have mostly (but not entirely) been replaced by their offspring and other successive generations. But rather than being made-up possible future heroes, they're all the legacy heroes from the '90s and beyond.

Or, to put it another way: The Multiversity: The Just is a Silver Age-style "imaginary story" featuring 1990s characters, filtered through a distinctly Morrisonian layer of metatextuality. With Damian Wayne in it.

I mean, if there's anything that I could better wave in people's faces and say "this is how I like my comics", I'd like to see it.

5 + 2 reasons to buy 52

DC's 2006/07 weekly series 52 is going cheap on Comixology this week - giving you the opportunity, until Tuesday 20th, to get the whole thing for around £35. What follows isn't one of our usual Buyers Guides - as that would simply consist of me saying "Buy it, it's great" - but instead a list of seven reasons (52... 5 + 2... geddit?) why you should take a punt on it.

Interview: Grant Morrison on UK Comics

We've got a real treat for you today: Graham Kibble-White, the man behind the excellent Off The Telly, has dipped into his personal archives found an interview with Grant Morrison that has remained unpublished since it was conducted - at least, until today. It's a rare opportunity to get Morrison's take on the UK scene and his earliest work in it, and we're hugely grateful to Graham for allowing us to present it here, as unabridged as his dictaphone allows. But enough from us! Take it away, Graham: