Grant Morrison Writes ... (Part 3)Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 [T]he
Justice League O.K., let me ask you another question about continuity. In the past,�you�ve done a lot of work with DC�s continuity. In Animal Man, you�pulled a lot of it together and made it work. In Justice League every�month you�re busy balancing the continuity of the characters with where�they�re appearing, and you�re trying to balance the League�s history�with its present. In Doom Patrol, you brought back Mr. Morden. [Both�laugh.] So�do you actually enjoy playing with all that continuity? Oh, yeah, I do. It�s kind of an jazzy thing. In your head, there�would be no jazz gauge or blues gauge. But in reality, you�ve got the�twelve-bar blues�and the six-, or whatever you want to use to play�it�but within that framework, you can go creative. That�s kind of what�Jimi Hendrix did for me. And it�s kind of approaching a comic in the�same way. That�s a refreshing thing to hear when so many people are talking�about continuity as a necessary evil. Yeah, well, you know, I have a lot of problems with it. But there�s�also lots you can do with it. I think it should be a lot more flexible�in a sense. For some things, I feel. You know, someone was talking to me�about Justice League 5, and I had Metamorpho�s funeral in there. You�know Java, who�s the old manservant of Simon Stagg from the first series�in the �60s? I had him at the funeral, but someone said to me, "You�know, Java�s dead." No, I didn�t know it at all. Continuity can be�difficult because it�s just impossible to know everything when you�re�working for a company that spins 800 books a month. So I can�t. I�m�winging it a lot of the time, hoping it works out. You were talking about playing the blues� Yeah. �and you�ve talked a lot over the past couple of years about the�punk musicians and their influence on rock-and-roll. Mm-hm. This an arguably comics-related question: Do you consider yourself a�punk writer? It seems to show a lot� Ah, yeah, I guess I do. [Laugh.] Yeah, I mean I grew up in that�period. ... [T]here�s no nostalgia in it to me when I look back on it or�when I hear the idea of the Sex Pistols reforming, but those attitudes�kind of formed me when I was a teen-ager, so I guess it�s still there.�In things like The Invisibles and even Justice League, you can see it.�You know, there�s all this gung-ho, but at the same time I think,�hanging around, there�s paranoia. Since you�re talking about both The Invisibles and Justice League,�here�s a question I�ve been wanting to ask you for quite a while:�Between the two books, it seems like you�re tackling the whole idea of�the team book from two completely different directions. Yeah. And you�re doing it at the same company, which is a nice thing to�see. [Laugh.] Ten years ago I don�t know if that would have been possible. What�are the similarities and the differences that you can see between the�two books? Ahhh. The similarities are that there�s a team, and both teams are�pretty much super-heroes, as such. The Invisibles is set in something�like the real world. I don�t know anyone who can do that level of magic�or telepathic stuff to that degree, so obviously they�re super-heroes. [Laugh.] The Invisibles is a comic book aimed at adults but pertaining to�young people. But in actual fact�maybe you�ve asked me this question�before, now I think of it�I�m actually telling the same story in both�books, you know. The same ideas and the same responses to the world are going into both�books, even though the Justice League kind of represents order and the�Invisibles represent chaos. ... But beyond that, I can�t know anymore.�Obviously there�s less similarities that differences, but from where I�am, you know, I�m writing one one day and then one the next day. I was just wondering if that was intentional when you began Justice League, since you are planning to bring both books to their climax[es]�in 2000, or thereabouts. Yeah, I don�t think it was intentional, but it�s almost as if it�s�psychologically intentional, because somewhere deep down part of your�brain is saying, "Do this, do this." It�s overwork. End everything when everything else [ends], I guess. Yeah. If I can, I kind of trust in that. [Laugh.] I didn�t really�make plans for it, and obviously I didn�t think when I sat down, "I�ll�do Justice League like The Invisibles" because the two just aren�t the�same. But there is a certain spirit from The Invisibles that�s crossing�over to Justice League. Also, some of the weirder speculations of�Invisibles are coming up in Justice League�in a lot more simplified�form. That�s interesting. It reminds me of when Gerard Jones was doing the�Justice League Europe book at the same time he was writing [Green Lantern:] Mosaic. I�don�t know if you read either of those books� Yeah. �but there were similar themes handled differently in both books.�It was quite a thrill to see how he juggled both of those at the same�time. Yeah, well, now that�s something that I do like to see, but most�writers (and particularly in America) will�you know, they�ll either�stay in the mainstream or they�ll do the undergrounds. And never the�twain shall meet. And I kind of like to see someone doing both. Let me get back to Justice League for just a moment. Sure. There�s been a lot of talk about the "mysterious twelfth member."�When are we going to see him or her [Morrison laughs] finally joining�the League? Issue 15. Fifteen! Yeah. So that�s going to come at the conclusion of the big epic? Well, no, it�s actually�sorry, issue 15 is the one that�s following�the epic. And that�s going to essentially start off a story called�"Camelot," and it�s going to involve the team dealing with a new big�villain. (We�re going to introduce him.) And it�s the first time we�ve�seen the big, bad twelve. Well, Mark Waid recently told us that the twelfth member had indeed�been a member of the League in a previous incarnation. Yeah, it turns out he has�after me, I made such a point that he�hasn�t. O.K. I just wanted to make sure there was some truth to that. Well, I can say that this is one of those things [where] you�ve got�to know your Justice League from the top. [Laugh.] Which has everyone around here running back and forth�looking for old issues of the Justice League and making guesses. |
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