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From the very moment DC Comics, Inc. first made public the knowledge that the highly-regarded Grant Morrison had been signed on to resuscitate the all-but-flatlined Justice League franchise... there was a tiny (yet dismayingly loud; and abusive) mini-faction within the larger comics readership who simply Would Have None Of It.

They didn't at all approve of the author's stated intention to "bring the JLA back to its original Silver Age 'roots' "... even if such a scheme mandated that the vast majority of DC's derisive post-CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS disavowings of its own decades-rich canon be treated with a cheery sense of disdain.

They seethed with a (thankfully) impotent rage over the notion that the days of dreary, wearying "BWAH-ha-ha"ings and issue-long "knock knock" jokes had -- finally; at long last -- run their predestined course (straight into the bloody ground, in fact), and were soon to be relegated to the ashcan of comics history.

... and: they yowled and spat like so many scalded back-alley cats at the revealed knowledge that the League's most recently appointed Boswell simply didn't care how many continuity-niggling, basement- dwelling fanboys (and fangirls) stamped their feet and threatened to hold their collective breaths over the matter.
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Not that any of the cretinous aforementioned allowed that to keep them from trying their level damndest to lob a few mean-spirited spanners into the storytelling "works," nonetheless.
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Example: the thoroughly ludicrous brouhaha over the entire "Aztek" affair.
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From the very beginning, Grant Morrison had intended to include within the JLA's roster a fascinating character of his own design: the complex, agenda-driven Aztek. [See cover reproduction, accompanying]

As conceptualized, the (then-)concurrently published AZTEK concerned the ongoing "stranger-in-a-strange- land"-style odyssey (both heroic and emotional) of the appealingly naive and altruistic "Curt Falconer": a man raised from infancy (in near-total societal isolation) in lifelong preparation for the pre-ordained arrival of a malefic someone (or something) known only as "The Shadow God."

A character such as this -- part myrmidon, part naif -- would (obviously) have added quite a bit to the storytelling dynamics of the (otherwise) All Experienced Veterans League... and, too: the conceit of any given JLA scripter always having been (previously) allowed the equivalent of one "freebie" character induction which otherwise might not withstand close and careful scrutiny has been a practice of long and accepted standing. (e.g.: Dennis O'Neil's conscription of the Earth-Two Black Canary; Len Wein's induction into the ranks of the Elongated Man; Gerry Conway's wholly inexplicable obsession over the eminently forgettable Zatanna; and so on, and so on.)

(As previously stated: it's a tradition which goes way, waaaaaaay back.)

The anti-Morrison contingent greeted the news of the intentionally "Silver Age"-ish Aztek'splanned inclusion with one shrill and sustained screech of thwarted, near- apoplectic fanboy- ish shock and horror.

There were scalding, venemous postings in every online fan-forum you've ever heard of (and a few of which you haven't) to the effect of: "Just who does this 'Grant Morrison' think he is, anyway? How dare he even think of including some character I don't happen to like over [Fill-In-the-Name-of- Mercifully- Forgotten-Former- '80's-JLA-Non- Entity Here]? Who's in charge, here, anyway: the freakin' writer, f'chrissakes... or MEEEEE --?!?"

(Actually: that last codicil was never phrased in precisely that manner, of course. Still: it captures the essential flavor of said snivelings quite nicely, overall.)

The sensitive Mister Morrison -- not wishing, apparently, to be tarred with the absurd-on-its-very-face charge of "comics nepotism" -- gave in to the fanboy bleatings, on this issue. A scant several months after his having vaulted into the august ranks... he was quitely excised from the team's roster.

(The final laugh, however, may well be Mister Morrison's, after all. Bear that thought in mind; we'll be returning to it, soon enough.)

Next on the agenda of the Morrison-bashers was an even uglier ploy: that of attempting to label the flamboyantly left-leaning writer as being (believe it or not) both "racist" and "misogynist." (!!)

The furor began soon after the publication of JLA #1 (which, incidentally, sold out nationwide with no fewer than four separate printings). Postings began to crop up with an imbecilic (and metronomic) regularity -- in all of the now-standard online forums -- to the effect that "there are no racial or ethnic minorities in Grant Morrison's JLA; and only one woman! Therefore -- ipso facto -- Grant Morrison is a woman-hating racist! Maybe a former Nazi death camp kommandant, even! Who knows, really -- ?!?"

(These plainly poisonous ululations -- which, for a brief [but no less disreputable] time, were even being taken up by one of Mister Morrison's fellow "professionals" over at DC [!!] -- were particularly odious ones when considered in light of the fact that the writer's most "personal" and revealing work for DC Comics to date -- the quirky and intelligent THE INVISIBLES -- includes amongst its chief protagonists such eminently sympathetic characters as a black, female ex-cop; a transgendered South American homosexual; and the almost eerily competent "Ragged Robin": the team's putative leader. Thus do the true hate-mongers within the greater fannish body politic reveal themselves: by their callous and unblinking disregard for the truth... solely in the service of getting some spandexed comics character of their own preference better promoted or utilized. I'm just sayin', is all.)

Not even Mister Morrison's planned (and later realized) inclusion of the modern- day Green Arrow within the team's roster was enough to silence the caterwaulings of the anti- Morrison contingent. [See page reproduction, alongside] Nothing less, apparently, than a precisely formulated and itemized laundry list of (quote) "acceptable" (unquote) characters -- all of whom (such a coincidence) happened to be deservedly-forgotten costumed detritus from the League's "80's" incarnation -- would serve to still the slanderings.

(Incidentally: for those of you keeping score in the studio audience -- the "core" JLA roster, a la Morrison, was [and continues to be] comprised as follows: two alien beings [one of these quite noticeably non- caucasian]; one human/Atlantean hybrid; one Greek demi-goddess; and three "baseline" humans. Not exactly your typical Ku Klux Klan "Welcome Wagon" committee, is it...?)

Once again, the redoubtable Mister Morrison handled apotentially divisive (and nakedly scurrilous) situation with his now- customary elan. By adding a "second tier" of super- heroic "supporting characters" to the League's line-up -- Big Barda; The Huntress; Oracle; Orion; Steel; and (his own creation) the angelic Zauriel -- he effectively (and ingeniously) took all of the steam out of the anti-Morrison contingent's noisy online jihad... WITHOUT having to sacrifice his own character and/or storytelling preferences, in so doing.

It seems to matter not one whit to the Morrison-bashers that the above-referenced characters serve primarily (in storytelling terms) as "understudies" to the series' rightful stars (i.e., "The Big Seven"; eight, if you count the increasingly-popular Plastic Man). Their simple, occasional presence every now and again seems to have well and truly satisfied the "nose-counters," for the nonce... proving, ultimately, that the shameful and squalid online imbroglio really was nothing more than just another bottle of whine, pressed and aged from the same old sour grapes.

One really must admire the subtlety and ease with which Grant Morrison routinely handles these silly, self-serving types.

Still... all of the foregoing simply serves to beg the question: what is it, precisely, which so infuritates the die-hard anti-Morrison contingent, anyway...?

This brings us back, once again, to the earlier-alluded notion (on Page One of this very entry) of Grant Morrison's serving as the harbinger of "The New Silver Age."

With nothing more than a single, ongoing mainstream adventure series... Grant Morrison has -- demonstrably; irrevocably -- altered the decades-long formula for What Makes a Profitable (and Creatively Worthwhile) Comics Title.

The pendulum has already begun to describe its long, slow arc back towards the storytelling verities and precepts of the first Silver Age. Witness the following examples (merely a select handful from a larger, dizzying complement of same):

*** DC Comics, Inc. enjoys both massive critical and sales success with the legacy-affirming JLA: YEAR ONE, featuring such long-vanished (and sorely missed) Silver Age icons as Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan; Barry (Flash) Allen; and the original Doom Patrol.

*** Likewise: the similarly "retro" JLA-oriented mini-series THE NAIL outsells virtually all of its comics competition... despite the (potential) drawback of a hefty per-issue cover price.

*** DC also reunites the original Silver Age "core" membership of the defunct TEEN TITANS, in response to comics fandom's growing demand for Comics As They Jolly Well Used To Be.

*** Writer James Robinson engages in a virtual "retro" comics love fest, each and every month, within the pages of the critically-sacrosanct STARMAN.

*** Silver Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan is brought back for a six-issue story arc within the title currently being usurped by a pretender to the name. Sales for all six issues "spike" upwards on the sales charts an otherwise wholly inexplicable EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT (!!).

*** DC Comics finally owns up to the fact that, yes, they actually (oh, my heart...!) Made A Mistake, and announces their concretized intention to resurrect the (pointlessly) butchered Silver Age icon Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen.

*** Inveterate Silver Age aficionado Kurt Busiek scores with the most overwhelmingly feted and adored "independent" comic ever: the much-lauded (and deservedly so) paean to the Silver Age of Comics, ASTRO CITY.

*** The spectacular belly-floppings in recent years, sales-wise, of such stridently morbid anti-Silver Age-ish offerings as Marvel Comics' PUNISHER and GHOST RIDER franchises; as well as the similarly dark-tinged and tiresome DC Comics "revampings" of DOCTOR FATE and THE HAWK AND THE DOVE (" ... and good riddance to bad rubbish," says I.)

*** DC Comics announces that "fan favorite" authors Mark Waid and (you guessed it) Grant Morrison are already laying the groundwork for the return of that venerable and magnificent Silver Age institution: the comics "multiverse," wherein varying storytelling concepts and character interpretations will, once more, be allowed room enough to prosper and flourish. (As telling and final an all-but-shouted admission on the part of DC that the "all-history-is-bunk" excesses anent the publication of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS have all but crippled this medium as could possibly be imagined, sans the public stripping and whipping of randomly-selected fanboys outside the New York corporate offices of the Time/Warner conglomerate. I'm just sayin'...)

Now: the Good Lord alone knows that I've never been one toindulge in unseemly and/or indecorous spates of gloating, outright; BUT --

... to coin a phrase: "BWAH-ha-ha-haaa -- !"

To elucidate the matter as clearly and cogently as possible: this medium has suffered under the heavy, adamantine yoke of a particularly small-minded; insular; inbred; and shamelessly selfish breed of "comics fan" for... well: for a much, much longer length of time than has ever been either necessary or desirable.

To this slope-browed sub-sub-sub-sect of the greater readership, en masse, super-hero comics are (and ought to be) a private and exclusive sort of meta-fictive "gentleman's club"; one in which only the True Initiate -- inculcated in the increasingly rarefied lexicon and lore of their clannish kind -- may feel well and truly comfortable, or at ease. A mingy, cringing "mini"-medium in which their increasingly disproportionate voices might assume an ever greater pitch and measure; the better that their self-referential (and self-adoring), Ourborous-like storytelling "needs" might be met by their own risen-through-the-fannish-ranks kind.

Despising the casual or "newbie" reader as a sort of unwashed barbarian Visigoth... they eschew clear, unencumbered and readily accessible storylines that might serve to attract the same. Therefore: the storytelling precepts of the Silver Age are as agonizing anathema to their kind.

Fearing that they may have long outgrown the naked need for increasingly flaccid four-color wish-fulfilment fantasies... they hector and yowl for ever-greater lardings of soap operatic angst in their chosen fare. Therefore: the understated precision of Silver Age-style characterization is to them as a jewel-encrusted crucifix, thrust towards the hissing countenance of one of the vampiri.

Most unbearable (and unforgivable) of all, however: the notion that a return to Silver Age storytelling virtues and verities totally alien to their kind might well render them not only superfluous, but honestly unwanted...

... for this inarticulate awareness -- above all others -- they spit and snarl and seethe against the industry's last-ditch attempts to muscle itself away from the lip of the economic tar pit over which it finds itself teetering, arms windmilling in wholesale panic.

Which means that they must count the Silver Age -- and the harbingers of its long- arrested return -- as their most deadly and implacable of foemen.

... and the most visible (and successful) of these: Grant Morrison, Esq.

Because the sweet, clear, clarion message he has brought with him, from over the storytelling hills of an earlier, better time, is this:

"We don't need you any longer."

"We never did, really."

We'll be examing some of the other books of The New Silver Age within this section, in the weeks and months to come.

All of these well and truly "fit" within the self-imposed parameters of this site, due to their calculated and cheerful embodying of the true spirit of the works of such earlier storytelling titans as Jack Kirby; Gardner Fox; John Broome; Robert Kanigher; Sheldon Mayer; and all the other savants and Prometheans who first carried their guttering torches to the farthest ends of their respective caverns.

"The Silver Age" isn't simply a matter of chronology, after all...

... it's a state of mind.

Never, ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

Oh, yeah: P.S. -- well-placed rumor has it that Mister Morrison is once again giving serious (and welcome) consideration to the re-inclusion of Aztek within the League once more.

You go, Grant!

"Panning for Silver: Grant Morrison's JLA": PAGE ONE

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