Wizard #145 - Grant Morrison Q&A

Originally published in Wizard, the Comics Magazine #145, November 2003

GRANT MORRISON

The writer full of 'mad ideas' exits New X-Men to revamp DC's big guns and 'no-hopers'... is Superman in the cards?

WIZARD: Why leave New X-Men for DC Comics?

MORRISON: I'd reached the end of what I had to say on New X-Men. My whole run on X-Men has been designed to be read as one long novel, and I finally got to the last chapter. I was feeling the need for a new direction, so everything fell into place at around the same time. Plus, DC made me an incredible offer , which allows me to create all the new material I want, as well as play around in the DC Universe.

What do you have planned at DC?

I have a bunch of new series and characters. I'll be launching at Vertigo. And I've been talking with [DC VP/Editorial] Dan Didio about doing extensive work with several DCU characters. I won't be going back to JLA, but I will tackle some other high-profile characters, as well as some also-rans who need a boost.

What also-rans would that be?

Mostly second-string, no-hopers I'd like to lift up into the first rank by "re-imagining" the concepts - the Demon, Mr. Miracle and the Metropolis Guardian are a couple of characters I'd like to do. I also have some unusual ideas for Captain Marvel Jr., the Shining Knight and Manhunter from Mars. I have a lot of mad ideas about this stuff all the time and it would be impossible to indulge every whim.

You've talked about Superman a lot too...

I'd still like to do something with Superman but right now, I see more potential with some less well-known characters. I see Superman as the American Christ, simple as that. No one's yet really touched on the inspirational possibilities of that idea. After years of cowboys, soldiers, tough private eyes and gangsters at a time in the late 1930's when America's self-image was built around the use of guns as a means to tame a young and restless country - and on the eve of a war no less - two teenage boys [Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster, Superman's creators] came up with their brilliant notion: an All-American icon hero witha code against killing. Here we have a living flag, who always uses his immense strength and super-intelligence to solve problems without leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. What a forward-thinking, utopian idea that is! Superman as the New World Testament!

But before you depart for DC , how are you tackling your New X-Men arc with Marc Silvestri starting in January's #151? Is it your 'defiitive' X-Men tale?

I don't tend to think in terms of "definitive" stories on X-Men - the X-Men is a long-running soap opera, so I tend to think of it all as one big epic with incredible flashpoints along the way. The Silvestri Story is set in the future and there's a whole new X-Men team with a couple of familiar, if unexpected, faces. The world is very different. The conflict is global and apocalyptic, and is one we've never seen before in an X-book. It's pretty wild... and it's also my last word on the Phoenix.

What will you miss about leaving Marvel?

I'll miss the characters for a while. I was quite surprised by a bizarre pang of loss when I wrote my last line of dialogue for Wolverine and my final Scott Summers [a.k.a. Cyclops] scene. I'm most worried about Scott and I hope whoever comes after me looks after him - he's only just managed to find a personality and I'd hate to see him lose it again.

What else do you have coming up?

I've written the Sleepless Knights screenplay for DreamWorks and I've done two major franchise computer games, but I can;t talk about any of them because I've signed non-disclosure forms which state that I can be buggered and beheaded then hung from a bridge by my internal organs if I breathe a word of what I'm doing.

Okay, I won't ask. But tell me this. What's the best advice you've ever gotten?

The best advice was "Know when to get off stage" and its served me well. The worst advice came from DC staffers who, in 1995 told me, "You can't put Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman in the JLA. No-one will buy it!"

As one of the slickest dressed men in comics, what's your advice for the stylistically challenged comic fans?

Simple. Stop looking at the Hulk and Solomon Grundy for inspiration, and try Steranko's Nick Fury instead.

MIKE COTTON