Supergods : what masked vigilantes, miraculous mutants, and a sun god from Smallville can teach us about being human

Format:

Book

Title:

Supergods : what masked vigilantes, miraculous mutants, and a sun god from Smallville can teach us about being human

Other title(s):

Super gods

Author:

Morrison, Grant.

ISBN:

9781400069125

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

New York : Spiegel & Grau, [2011]

Physical Description:

xvii, 444 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Contents:

The sun god and The dark knight -- Lightning's childl -- The superwarrior and the Amazon princess -- The explosion and the extinction -- Superman on the couch -- Chemicals and lightening -- The fab four and the birth of the marvelous -- Superpop -- Infinite earths -- Shamans of Madison Avenue -- Brightest day, blackest night -- Feared and misunderstood -- Fearful symmetry -- Zenith -- The hateful dead -- Image versus substance -- King Mob : my life as a superhero -- Man of muscle mystery -- What's so funny about truth, justice, and the American way? -- Respecting authority -- Hollywood sniffs blood -- Nu marvel 9/11 -- The day evil won -- Iron men and incredibles -- Over the event horizon -- Star, legend, superhero, supergod? -- Outro: 'nuff said.

Summary:

Morrison draws on history, art, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this alternate universe as a comic book writer to provide the first true chronicle of the superhero.

Subject(s):

Comic books, strips, etc. -- United States.

Superheroes -- United States.

Geographic Term:

United States.

Genre:

Comics (Graphic works)

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	741.53 Morrison, G. 2011	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

From one of the most acclaimed and profound writers in the world of comics comes a thrilling and provocative exploration of humankind's great modern myth: the superhero

The first superhero comic ever published, Action Comics no. 1 in 1938, introduced the world to something both unprecedented and timeless: Superman, a caped god for the modern age. In a matter of years, the skies of the imaginary world were filled with strange mutants, aliens, and vigilantes: Batman, Wonder Woman, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and the X-Men--the list of names as familiar as our own. In less than a century, they've gone from not existing at all to being everywhere we look: on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and dreams. But what are they trying to tell us?

For Grant Morrison, arguably the greatest of contemporary chroniclers of the "superworld," these heroes are powerful archetypes whose ongoing, decades-spanning story arcs reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves, our troubled history, and our starry aspirations. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Morrison draws on art, science, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of the superhero--why they matter, why they will always be with us, and what they tell us about who we are . . . and what we may yet become.

Author Notes

Grant Morrison is one of the most popular and acclaimed contemporary writers of any genre. His long list of credits as a comic-book writer include JLA, New X-Men, Seven Soldiers, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, The Invisibles, We3, The Filth, and Batman: Arkham Asylum, the bestselling original graphic novel of all time. He is also an award-winning playwright and screenwriter.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

A Scottish playwright and comic book writer, Morrison (Arkham Asylum) traces the rise of superheroes from the 1940s golden age to the comics industry of today. This excellent survey of pop deity origins begins with "the ur-god and his dark twin," Superman and Batman. As Morrison sees it, "archetyped, pop-mythic tales of superpowered heroes and villains" soared into our collective imaginations in an explosive fashion. Superman, "the personification of a thrusting industrial tomorrow," had a primal impact. Soon there was a pantheon of gods and figures from legend and myth: Hawkman ("an avatar of hawk-headed Horus"), the Flash ("the Greek god Hermes") and Captain Marvel, whose magic word, "Shazam," was an acronym: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury. When writers brought the superhero gods down to Earth and gritty real life (as in Watchmen), Morrison went back to basics: "I decided I would plant my flag in the world of dreams, automatic writing, visions and magic." The second half of this engrossing book covers his own comics career while also probing his personal psyche. Morrison is a skilled word magician, seeking creativity in a cosmological dimension. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

An illuminating, if occasionally biased history of the most American of iconsthe superheroas told by one of comics' most prominent writers.Morrison (Absolute All-Star Superman, 2011, etc.) is ideally suited to the task of chronicling the glorious rise, fall, rise, fall and rise again of comic-book superheroes, from Superman's auspicious beginning as a Depression-era symbol of the power of the individual to Wolverine's rise to prominence in a more morally ambiguous era. The author has the fan credentials (growing up "on the dole" in his native Scotland, superhero stories were his favored means of escape); the professional credibility (having authored hugely successful runs on fan-favorite titles likeBatmanandJLAas well as critically acclaimed runs on lesser-known books likeThe InvisiblesandDoom Patrol); and the intellectual capacity (his close-reading critique of superhero motivations and mores reads more like a dissertation than an all-ages historical narrative). Unfortunately, his insider status hamstrings his efforts when he reaches the "Dark Age" of superhero comicsthe same period in which he entered the field. Personal relationships with certain luminaries (including Mark Millar and Warren Ellis) color his commentary, and an unfulfilling experience writing Marvel'sNew X-Mengives rise to a vendetta that spurs him to dismiss that company's recent efforts as pale imitations of DC Comics' more inventive large-scale superhero event storiestales that Morrison himself has had a big hand in crafting. Biased commentary aside, this is as thorough an account of the superhero phenomenon as readers are likely to find, filled with unexpected insights and savvy pop-psych analysisnot to mention the author's accounts of his own drug-fueled trips to higher planes of existence, which add a colorful element.For serious comics aficionados only, but those who dare enter will find the prose equivalent of a Morrison superhero tale: part perplexing, part weird, fully engrossing.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.