What went wrong with Grant Morrison's Action Comics?

Have you ever been excited for a new creative team that looks perfect for a certain series only to end completely disappointed with the final product?

I'm pretty sure you have since is something quite common in every entertainment medium.

Well, that's not exactly what happened to me with Morrison's run on Action Comics but it's close.

Let's start talking about how everything began. Superman, one of DC's oldest and most popular franchise was stagnant after the cosntant unappealing crossovers and some failed experiments like author JMS' infamous "Grounded" storyline which focused on Superman trying to reconnect himself with humanity by walking across America, it was an interesting premise that ultimately ended as a letdown in terms of execution and wasn't even finished by JMS but by writer Chris Roberson who did the best he could to try to save the story but the damage was already done.

At the time however, DC revealed that they were going to reboot the DCU just like they did with Crisis on Infinite Earths and they were going to start all their titles with a brand new issue 1.

This presented to be a great opportunity to erase past mistakes in the Superman franchise and begin completely fresh with a new direction and reinvention of its mythos and who was the author chosen to do the job? None other than Grant Morrison.

Morrison who not only managed to reinvigorate the Batman brand by using concepts from its different eras and apply them to a truly groundbreaking story that created the direction of the whole family of books for several years but also wrote All-Star Superman, one of the best stories based on the character that showed an immense amount of respect and love for its history. What could possibly go wrong?

Okay, for one Morrison based his take on a rejected pitch for the beginning of the 21st century named "Superman 2000" proposed by him, Mark Millar (Morrison's old apprentice who likes to twist the idea of superheroes), Mark Waid (Who has huge nostalgic feel for characters) and Tom Peyer (Who I honestly have no idea what he was doing here since he's a pretty average writer).

Anyway, the pitch consisted in making Superman go back to his roots, the "Champion of the oppressed" from the Golden Age mixed with the uberpowerful Kryptonian who could move planets from the Silver Age, a Superman isolated from humanity after the death of his parents and also making him return to the original characterization of "Superman is being disguised as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent".

Now, in 1986 after Crisis on Infinite Earths, John Byrne was the one responsible to reboot Superman in the miniseries Man of Steel into a more relatable character by reducing some of his most ridiculous abilities and turning Clark into the main persona and a really admirable man on his own, a man who was inspired by the kindness of both his adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent. It bears to mention that previous to this incarnation, Ma and Pa Kent were dead and Superman spent the rest of his adult life simply remembering them and characterizing Clark as a pushover to hide his true identity, Byrne changed that by adding the Kents to Superman's supporting cast and giving Clark a much more humane perspective.

I don't think I have to mention how successful this incarnation ended being. Both fans and critics loved it, it was a juggernaut in sales and helped to reintroduce Superman to a modern audience that could actually take him more seriously. It eventually lead to some of the most important moments in Superman's history like his death and rebirth and the marriage with Lois Lane, his eternal love interest.

I suppose that by now you're thinking: "Oh, you hate it because it erased all the aspects you loved" but that's not truly the problem. I'm a person that is always willing to try new things and I will always have an open mind for change, for positive change mind you.

First problem that I noted in Morrison's proposal even before it hit the stands was that this was a pitch from more than ten years ago. Speaking logically, a project that could have worked for an era may not find the same luck in another one, times change and ideas should also change with them.

Second problem that came to my mind was that several of the concepts that Morrison wanted to use here were already used before in projects like Mark Millar's Red Son, Mark Waid's Superman: Birthright, Geoff Johns' Action Comics run and even in Morrison's own All-Star Superman. All these creators were surprisingly better at executing them but I will get to that point.

Third and finally, Morrison was working on his own this time. There was no Millar to help with more ideas and neither Waid to help with the characterization, this may not seem like a big problem at first since Morrison has handled fantastic projects by himself in the past but it's something that would eventually become troublesome in this project.

The analysis (or whatever I'm doing is called) begins.

The first arc consisted on 8 issues where we see a young and cocky Superman in t-shirt and jeans dealing with a corrupted businessman meanwhile a mysterious threat lurks in the shadows. Here, we're presented to the classic supporting cast of Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and of course, Superman's archenemy Lex Luthor.

I have some reservations about the portrayal of these characters, for one Lois and Jimmy are not bad but they're not exactly great either, they're depicted adequately which means that there's nothing wrong with their characterization but there's nothing that leaves you a lasting impression unfortunately.

I have more complaints about Luthor though, in this storyarc he's

introduced as an egomaniacal man that only wants to prove that he's the smartest person on earth and wants to destroy Superman just to prove how superior he is, you know, "classic" Luthor. That's in fact one of my biggest complaints here, this is supposed to be a reboot for the whole franchise and most of the cast are still the same, there's nothing new here, especially concerning Luthor, he's still the same envious and egocentric guy who just wants attention, after more than 20 years of stories with this kind of villain I was expecting something different and I wouldn't have realized how tired I was about this trope if it wasn't for Scott Lobdell's superior reinterpretation of the antagonist that came later.

Okay, enough derailing, let's go back to the story. Luthor manages to capture Superman and is willing to experiment on him because he knows he's an alien, Superman however, is able to escape and it's revealed that Luthor is actually working with Brainiac who has bigger plans and he plans to realize them by posesing a new Metallo. This story continues until issue 4 and it's a solid one so far, not groundbreaking but solid enough, that's when the other major flaw of this series starts.

We immediately jump to a different story consisting of two issues narrating the origin of Superman and a time travel tale with the Legion of Super-Heroes, you may wonder "What the hell happened?" and it's fair. Morrison mentioned that Rags Morales, the main artist of the series needed a break, so they decided to put Andy Kubert, for this sole reason Morrison wanted to tell another story. It feels disjointed, the origin is basically the same that we have seen a million times before and the time travel plot have some interesting ideas but aren't introduced in a powerful way.

We go back to the main story in issue 7 and 8 where Superman needs to save Metropolis from Brainiac and will learn about his his planet of origin and what is the true objective of the creature. In this couple of issues we see the simbolical transition from the Golden Age Superman to the Silver Age one by making him fly for the first time and giving his new Kryptonian costume, there's another problem though, I think the transition between the two eras wasn't that natural nor progressive enough, I believe that Morrison should have taken more time to build this young Superman to prepare him for doing the jump. Still, it's an appropiate ending for a adequate first storyline but it's heavely affected for the two issues interlude which makes the ending not as strong as it should have been.

But then comes a spark of brilliance, issue 9 focuses this time on a different Superman, President

Calvin Ellis from Earth 23 who is basically SuperObama fighting against the incoming threat of a Superman gone wrong named Superdoom who was created by the imagination of a corporation who wanted a cold antihero with a tragic past to sell to the masses (tragic past strangely resonates with our current Superman unfortunately). It was a fantastic one-and-done issue where Morrison exploits his creativity to deliver an engaging and unique story, this was the point where I thought that things were actually going to improve.

However, after that wonderful issue came the worst storyline from his run. This time Superman is having problems with his dual identity and is planning to stop being Clark Kent and dedicate full time to superheroism while the menace of Captain Comet, the "first" Superman arrives, it's a battle that feels pretty dull, anticlimactic and touches a lot of themes from issue 9 but not as successfully and the worst part is that it was 3 issues long, it lasted until issue 12.

Issue 0 becomes another interlude called "The boy who stole Superman's cape" is a solid one-and done story but sadly it lacked the kind of heart that a tale like this requires. I think we're starting to see a trend here.

But oh look at this! Issue 13 deals with a ghost story appropiately released in October. Superman has to deal with a Kryptonian prisoner from the Phantom Zone who managed to escape and now has imprisoned Superman who will need the help of the Phantom Stranger to defeat his enemy. and save a fan favorite character from the franchise. This issue officially reintroduces Krypto, the Superdog to Superman's life and it was a pretty good standalone story full of charming moments, found another highlight!

In issue 14 Superman has to fight against the Multitude, an army of angels on Mars! Sadly again, it doesn't end being as good as it sounds since the battle is unimpressive and the ending is equally as dull.

We're almost coming to the end and it's time for the final arc where the villain who has been planning to destroy Superman's life not only since the beginning of his carreer but also from his past reveals himself and the worst thing is that he comes with all the other enemies that Superman has fought during all this time including Superdoom, the killer franchise from another reality. In issue 18, the conclusion of Morrison's run, Superman has to fight with an horde of interdimensional threats to try to save his life and everybody else's.

I have to say that I really like Morrison's final arc, it's probably my favorite storyline from his run. It was pretty nice to see how most of the plot points and ideas that he used on his run connect to the bigger picture in the end and he's able to draw parallels from the different eras of Superman and inject them into the story, it felt kinda rushed and a bit convoluted but it was still satisfactory.

However, I also have to say that I don't feel it's a really appropiate conclusion. I will probably sound a bit overcritical but I don't think a series with so many flaws deserves an ending like this, I could have seen this kind of epic finale more appropiate for Morrison's Batman run (which ironically received an ending with much less fanfare) since it was the better executed of the two and by far the most revolutionary.

So, what went wrong with Grant Morrison's Action Comics?

The most obvious flaw is that the execution was not up to par, especially compared with All-Star Superman which made not only its protagonist but the rest of the cast a lot more compelling. Plus, the story itself was not as consistently engaging as it could be, there were a few hits but God, so many misses.

One of the reasons for this might be that Morrison was probably burned out of superheroes at this point which is much more evident considering his interviews lately where he mentions that he wants to focus in different genres, that would explain the lack of passion that it feels in the overall series.

Something that also needs to be addressed is Morrison's insistence of continuing with this pitch despite of not being as exciting nor as innovative as in the early 2000's. He should have recognized that some of the aspects from the post-COIE were good enough to keep, the most important being the Kents which really helped to make Superman a much more uderstandable character.

This is only my opinion but I don't believe that Superman works as an isolated hero as Batman, Superman is not supposed to be inspired by tragedy but just by doing the right thing because that shows that anybody could become like him.

Another flaw that escapes from Morrison's hands are the artists. Rags Morales, the main artist of the series is good but rarely consistent, most of the time his pencils looked rushed and told the story poorly, not to mention that it needed a lot of fill-in artists to keep working.

In the end, this wasn't as big as a hit as it could be. It did improve the title's sales initially in comparison to the past but was losing readers by the month. The reviews were mixed at best, some liked it while others didn't, it was very polarizing. Finally, it didn't receive as much attention from the media as other relaunched series, most of them were just ignoring it and when it ended most just didn't care.

And that's the worst that could happen to a series I guess, be ignored.

Did Morrison's run meet with my expectations? Nope. Do I think it's bad? Nope either.

It was okay, simply okay and that's why I call it a disappointment. It was an interesting experiment that could have been something special but ended being average.