Grant Morrison burst onto the American comics scene in the late 1980s and quickly became one of its top writers. Morrison has written for nearly every major comic book publisher in North America - but their best work has arguably been at DC Comics. DC was Morrison’s gateway to the mainstream, and saw their mind-bending mastery applied to many household-name properties, changing them forever.
Morrison remains one of the most iconic figures in modern comics, but where should fans start reading their work? Here are the top fifteen projects Morrison has written for DC Comics, ranked by their must-read status (though really, any fan of graphic novels needs to check them all out ASAP.)
15 The Filth
Some of Grant Morrison’s best DC Comics are their creator-owned books. Works such as The Invisibles and We3 (more on those later) helped establish Morrison as one of comics’ top writers. The Filth, published between 2002 and 2003 under DC's adult-oriented Vertigo imprint, was one such book. For a brief period in the early 2000s, Morrison wrote for Marvel, and The Filth actually began as a potential Nick Fury book.
Like most of Morrison’s work, The Filth is bizarre, and somehow continually ups the ante, piling on delirious fourth-wall breaking and postmodern narrative trickery. Pornography is one of The Filth’s central themes, which may make it a hard sell for some fans. However, those sticking out will be richly rewarded with an 'Us vs Them' story that is firmly on the side of the world's oddballs. Furthermore, Morrison has stated it is one of their favorite projects.
14 The Green Lantern
Grant Morrison had tackled Green Lantern before in the pages of JLA, but at the time, soft-hearted cartoonist Kyle Rayner was the sole member of the Corps - it was many years before Morrison returned to the character in 2019’s The Green Lantern. By this point, Hal Jordan, arguably the definitive Green Lantern, had returned to the role. Whereas previous Green Lantern writers had focused on concepts such as Green Lantern's rivals in the Emotional Spectrum Corps, Morrison opted to take the character back to his roots as an intergalactic police officer.
Across two different runs, Grant Morrison and artist Liam Sharp subjected Hal to a continuous stream of bizarre (and terrifying) intergalactic criminals. As with their other superhero work, Morrison's The Green Lantern welcomes all the hero's past canon to co-exist, resulting in some mind-bending moments that are still firmly rooted in love for the character. Morrison's run includes a Green Lantern who is a sentient disease and an alien planet-napper who tricks its victim by pretending to be their idea of god - big ideas for a character who deserves them.
13 DC One Million
By the late 1990s, Grant Morrison had gone mainstream. Their JLA run almost single-handedly carried DC Comics through the late 90s sales slump and in 1998, Morrison unleashed their first ever crossover event: DC One Million. DC One Million was a four issue miniseries, penned by Morrison and drawn by Val Semeiks; furthermore, many other DC titles released tie-ins - each numbered one million. The event’s premise was simple: the Justice Legion-A, the primary superhero team of the 853rd century, travel back to the 20th to meet their idols. However, thanks to the villainous star computer Solaris as well as Vandal Savage, the Justice Legion-A is stranded in our time. DC One Million, parsing high-concept science fiction through mass-market superheroes, is peak Morrison.
12 Final Crisis
Another DC event spearheaded by Grant Morrsion, Final Crisis ranks as one of their most challenging mainstream superhero works. Billed at the time as "the final chapter" in the Crisis saga that began with Crisis on Infinite Earths, Final Crisis saw Darkseid attempt to take control of the newly reborn multiverse. The Lord of Apokolips has never been as close to his goal of total conquest as he was in Final Crisis, and only Batman was able to stop him.
Final Crisis was released as a seven-issue miniseries, with several tie-in minis and one-shots. Allegedly, Morrison had a specific reading order for the event, with some tie-ins meant to be read between regular issues. However, DC did not do a good job letting fans know this, and many complained of how choppy the series read. Eventually, DC collected Final Crisis the way Morrison intended - and it reads like the masterpiece it is.
11 Superman and the Authority
In 2006, Wildstorm Comics tapped Grant Morrison to revamp both WildCATS and The Authority. Only a few issues of each made it to stands before Morrison moved onto greener pastures. They would return to the Authority many years later in the four-issue miniseries Superman and the Authority. An aging Man of Steel puts together a new incarnation of the team, including stalwarts Midnighter and Apollo, to replace his fading powers and liberate WarWorld from the tyrant Mongul. While Superman’s fight for WarWorld ultimately played out elsewhere, the seeds were sown in Superman and the Authority. Morrison punched up the Authority’s proactive stance, and Superman’s liberation of WarWorld is perhaps the ultimate fulfillment of the Authority’s original mandate.
All this, and Morrison only took the project to stop DC's intended direction of depicting an older Superman sliding into autocratic rule over Earth. Superman and the Authority is a great series, and all the more enjoyable because fans can read it knowing that it vanquished a far, far worse idea.
10 Seven Soldiers
After a few years at Marvel, Grant Morrison returned to DC in 2003 and hit the ground running by rebooting and retooling a number of heroes for the modern era, such as Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters. Published between 2005 and 2006, Seven Soldiers saw Morrison work their mojo on a number of B-list characters, such as Zatanna and Mister Miracle. Furthermore, they introduced new characters to DC lore, such as the Bulleteer and Frankenstein.
Yet what truly gave Seven Soldiers its edge was how it was organized: seven four-issue miniseries that, while telling their own stories, were also pieces of a larger whole - a 'team' of heroes who didn't actually know they were working together. The end result was a spectacular superhero epic and a triumph of serialized storytelling.
9 The Multiversity
Grant Morrison was heavily involved in 52, the weekly maxi-series that introduced DC's new multiverse. Eight years later, Morrison returned to explore that multiverse in the epic The Multiversity. Across its eight issues, Multiversity redefined DC’s rich multiverse, all the while introducing ideas and concepts that would play out across the DC Universe for years to come. While this alone would make The Multiversity worthwhile, each issue is a gem unto itself. Morrison and their collaborators took readers on a thrill ride through the multiverse, giving classic worlds such as Earths 4 and 5 new and intriguing layers. The story echoes Seven Soldiers, as a cursed comic containing a dangerous 'mind virus' connects each tale - and tries to escape into the reader's reality too.
8 Flex Mentallo
The controversial Flex Mentallo was a spin-off of Grant Morrison’s seminal Doom Patrol run. Along with the aforementioned The Filth and The Invisibles, it forms what Morrison calls the “hypersigil” trilogy. Morrison fans regularly point to it as one of their best works. Unfortunately, the series languished in limbo for years after its initial publication, thanks to a lawsuit by the Charles Atlas company; the muscle-bound Charles Atlas was Morrison and artist Richard Case’s inspiration for Flex Mentallo. Eventually, Flex’s appearances were reprinted, including his four issue miniseries by Morrison and Frank Quietly, allowing a new generation of fans to rediscover this unique character and his cheerfully surreal adventures.
7 The Invisibles
Prior to the publication of The Invisibles, Grant Morrison had a number of creator-owned projects at DC already under their belt, including Sebastien O and Mystery Play. In 1994, they delivered a new creator-owned book: The Invisibles. This landmark and subversive title has become one of Morrison’s signature books, and, depending on who you ask, was the uncredited inspiration for much of The Matrix's plot and aesthetic.
The Invisibles are a group of revolutionaries fighting a meta-cosmic battle against the Archons, who wish to enslave the human race. Featuring one of the wildest team line-ups in history, including King Mob (who bears a strong resemblance to Morrison themselves), The Invisibles took readers on a metaphysical joyride (one reportedly fueled by the ghost of John Lennon.)
6 Animal Man
After years of working in British comics, Grant Morrison came to the States via Animal Man. Animal Man has been around since the 1960s, but did not catch on with the public until Morrison’s 1988 series. Morrison took this obscure D-list character (who was at one point part of a team called “the Forgotten Heroes”) and made him far more compelling than many of DC’s A-listers. Animal Man features a number of themes common to Morrison’s work, particularly the idea of comics as a lower - but still valid - rung of reality. Morrison has employed the series' fourth-wall-breaking style in other titles, but it finds its best expression in Animal Man, and the run culminates with Animal Man meeting Morrison themselves. But it's not all postmodern fireworks - Morrison also explored Animal Man’s family life, adding a poignant layer to the character that survives today.
