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JLA
#36-41
Grant
Morrison drops the big one.
 Writer:
Grant Morrison
Artists: Howard Porter, John Dell, Drew Geraci
Colorist: Pat Garrahy
Letterer: Ken Lopez
six-issue story-arc
Published by DC 2000
$1.99/issues #36-40, $2.99/#41.
Reviewed
by Pindaros
With the completion of the "World War Three" story-arc, Grant
Morrison ends his run on JLA, and, in part, this phase
of his career. While his threats to leave comics forever may well
be hollow, by ending his tenure as writer of DC's premier superhero
team and his Vertigo series, THE INVISIBLES, at very nearly
the same time, he is certainly creating a sense that an era is
ending. From the visibility of these works, and the respect they
have won, it seems fair to say that Morrison has moved into the
first rank of comic writers, along with Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.
| "[Morrison] depicts a raver's
pan-sentient universe." |
Like Moore and Gaiman, Morrison's work carries with it more than
just the cleverness of words well written or characters drawn
too clearly to easily forget. Whether in superhero series or postmodern
conspiracy adventures, Morrison, like Moore and Gaiman, draws
a unique and recognizable cosmos for his stories. In place of
Moore's recombinant pulpisms and Gaiman's cloistered mythologies,
he depicts a raver's pan-sentient universe. Life, power and will
permeate every mode of being, asking only that the storyteller
focus on those points at which the world soul articulates itself
most fully.
While THE INVISIBLES allows Morrison to construct such
a world ex nihilo, it is perhaps an even more remarkable
achievement how fully he has been able to realize this same metaphysic
in JLA. "World War Three" envisions a monstrous weapon
that destroys all life by directing it against itself. In this
way, he locates an overly familiar confrontation between Justice
League and Injustice Gang within a context that renders it merely
another instance of the all-consuming power of the true enemy.
The DC Universe seems particularly well suited to such an enterprise.
Given the company's policy of buying out whatever comic companies
it can, and of spinning off new books and characters constantly,
it is virtually the narrative equivalent of kudzu. There is something
remarkable about the confidence involved in shaving off huge chunks
of the DCU every 10 years or so in "Crisis on Infinite Earths"-style
crossovers. Go ahead and kill off another Flash or Dr. Fate. The
DCU will just exude another one, somewhere, sometime.
Morrison does his own cutting in "World War Three," blinding
Aztek and having Metron assure everyone that the New Gods are
now leaving Earth forever. But before he cuts, he makes sure draw
together as much as possible. Mesoamerican mythology, the Christian
Heaven, Kirby's Fourth World, an insectoid hive world, a shadow
story-book dimension, a whole other world of superheroes (depicted
primarily as casualties at the beginning of the tale), even notions
of the perfectibility of the entire human race, are all integrated
fluidly into the conflict.
| "There is a fine line between
the incredible and the ridiculous." |
Of course he can hardly be faulted for excess in the depiction
of the Justice League. It's fair to say that Gardner Fox, with
his love of other planets and dimensions, would have written the
same story had he had the knowledge of myth and supply of hallucinogens
that Morrison has at his disposal. Of course, just as with Fox's
classics, there is a fine line between the incredible and the
ridiculous. Seeing the Earth dwarfed by a giant octopus, as it
is in "WW3," forces one to think about that line pretty closely.
Furthermore, there is the fact that the more of the world you
can get into the same place, the more claustrophobic the whole
thing feels. Call it "The Next Generation" factor: the universe
in the original STAR TREK actually seems larger because there's
so much less in it. Like STAR TREK TNG, "WW3" starts to feel a
little like a well-equipped Victorian parlor's functional, even
attractive, but also cluttered with all sorts of objects and furnishings.
I can find it a bit too much at times.
Still, there are plenty of times when too much is just about
enough.
Recommended.
Pindaros
is a regular contributor to PopImage.
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