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Grant Morrison – Done With Superheroes?

Interviewed by Comic Book Resources, Grant Morrison revealed his plans to end his high profile work with both Superman and Batman in the near future.

Once you finish these things, it really is like squatting out a bizarre, book-shaped child you've been labored over. Honestly, once I'd wrapped ‘Supergods‘, I felt like I'd said everything I needed to say about that stuff. Besides wrapping up "Batman Incorporated" and my Superman work right now and "Multiversity" kind of getting done, it felt like a farewell.

Morrison is careful to note that this is not a definitive farewell to the superhero genre. Someday, perhaps, his Multiversity book for DC Comics will be produced, and he continues to work on a self-contained Wonder Woman project that may also see the light of day. But besides that, there are no superhero works on his horizon after concluding his runs with Superman and Batman. And if anything, he states that it would take the form of limited series rather than any further ongoing work from him.

Morrison now joins Ed Brubaker, who also recently announced his intentions to shift focus away from work with the Big Two to focus on his own creator-owned projects. For Morrison’s part, the first thing coming through the pipeline is HAPPY! from Image Comics. Fans certainly have that to look forward to.

HAPPY!

While good news for Morrison, this is potentially very bad news for DC Comics. Morrison has been second only to Geoff Johns in terms of how much DC has depended on a writer for sales. He will not be someone that can be easily replaced or followed. This puts the new Superman franchise in a precarious position. One glance at the difference in sales between Action Comics and Superman tells the story. Morrison’s Action Comics outsells its companion title by a significant margin, and that margin is most likely due to Morrison himself. Without him holding up the franchise’s tentpole, Superman’s overall sales could very well decline back to its pre-New 52 levels.

The Batman franchise, of course, has much less to worry about. It was a sales juggernaut before Morrison, and in its short break without him, it has shown it will continue to be without him. His Batman Incorporated series, while a strong seller, is not even the top selling Batman title. His work will likely be missed, but Batman will carry on strong when he's done.

Grant Morrison ends his Action Comics run with issue #16 in January and his Batman, Incorporated run with issue #12 in... whatever month that ends up falling in.

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