Grant Morrison has made a big announcement, revealing their return to the Big Two for the first time since DC Pride 2023. Morrison’s career in the last few years has been very different than what it was in the past. They wrote a novel, Luda, an extremely queer story of magic, love, and hate, and have also been using their Substack to talk about their older works, as well as experimenting with the comic art form. Morrison returning to the Big Two is a huge development for the comic industry, as Morrison has always been one of the bestselling and critically acclaimed in the medium. Now, they’ve confirmed that they are coming back and fans should expect more specific news very soon.
“Curiously enough, I accepted another unlikely comic book team-up project offered to me last week,” Morrison wrote on their substack. “It’s Big 2, with an artist I love dearly, and although it’s been a long time since I’ve had reason to write mainstream superhero comics, I got an idea straight away and couldn’t wait to do it, so expect a very unlikely announcement sometime soon!”
Morrison is one of DC’s most prolific creators. Their work on the Justice League and Doom Patrol gave readers some of the best team comics of all time, with brilliant solo runs on characters like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and Animal Man. Morrison moved to Marvel from 2000 to 2004, putting out Marvel Boy and Fantastic Four: 1234 before going to New X-Men, the best X-Men comic of the 21st century. However, Morrison’s relationships with Marvel and DC are very different, which could give Morrison’s fans an ideas of exactly where they’ll be writing and maybe even who they’re writing.
Morrison’s relationship with DC has been mostly fruitful. Morrison is a DC scholar, and their work for the publisher has given readers some of the best superhero comics of all time. There was, of course, the time Morrison left the publisher at the end of 1999, over the “Superman 2000” pitch’s denial and feeling that The Matrix stole their ideas and was allowed to by Warner Brothers, DC’s parent company. However, their relationship with the publisher improved after their 2004 return. Morrison has no problem pointing out the problems of DC, but they seem a lot happier working at DC than they do at Marvel.
Morrison’s time at Marvel was much less peaceful than their long tenure at DC. Morrison came over at the height of their ire with DC, but Marvel is a very different place than DC. Marvel has always been much more editorially driven than DC, and Morrison is known for having a rather leery view of editors, often having clauses in their contracts that editors can’t change their stories. This seemed to be what led to their rift with Marvel; in their book Supergods, Morrison revealed that they were getting into weekly shouting matches with Marvel editors. This led to Morrison leaving New X-Men despite having several more years of stories planned.
Morrison’s relationship with DC did get contentious, even after they came back to the publisher — anyone who knows the behind the scenes stories of Final Crisis knows that Morrison and DC still have their problems at times. DC has changed a lot since Morrison left the publisher, with a new editorial structure in place. Morrison’s relationship with Marvel is much worse, and many of the same editors that were in power back then are still in control of Marvel. With Morrison, it’s always prudent to assume they’re going back to DC, but looking at their statement, there’s a good chance that Morrison may be returning to Marvel for the first time in over twenty years.
Morrison talked about the project being “unlikely”, which can point towards them going to Marvel. Morrison wrote this statement for their fans, who know their history with Marvel. Morrison has basically worked with all of the biggest names in DC, so it’s very hard to figure out what unlikely character they would be doing at DC. However, Marvel has way more characters that no one would expect Morrison to write. It’s as safe an assumption as a return to DC to believe that Morrison is going back to Marvel. It is impossible to know at this point where Morrison will go, but looking at their statements, it should be a very exciting development for them and their fans.
Grant Morrison has made a big announcement, revealing their return to the Big Two for the first time since DC Pride 2023. Morrison’s career in the last few years has been very different than what it was in the past. They wrote a novel, Luda, an extremely queer story of magic, love, and hate, and Read More