The first half of this book is a stylish and entertaining history of comics.. I was already familiar with the history of comics but Grant Morrison brings an intelligent and insightful perspective to it. At around the half way mark the history of comics catches up with his own life story which then proceeds to engulf the narrative.

I would never have bought an autobiography of Grant Morrison but that is essentially what the book is. It's filled with self-indulgent details about his life. At one point he tells us about what he used to have for breakfast in 1986. He has a tendency to write himself in to his fictional works and he could not help but put himself at centre stage again.

Follow up:

A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism and particularly in fan fiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. The term 'Mary Sue' is thought to evoke the cliché of the adolescent author who uses writing as a vehicle for the indulgence of self-idealization. Grant Morrison explains an elaborate (and far fetched) philosophical system to excuse this irritating writing trap.

He talks a lot about using the creative process as an act of magic. He shows no desire to use these "powers" for anything other than personal gain. This unashamed advocation of what the occult community would consider black magic unsettles me. Messing around with those ideas can be dangerous for your sanity and your health as he himself learnt. Yet, he offers no warning.

For all of his lip service to mythology and psychology he fails to notice an important aspect of the ancient stories that Superman draws from. He correctly identifies Superman with the solar gods but fails to mention that the sun symbolises the ego. Many of the invulnerable mythological heroes had their own version of kryptonite. Achilles had his heal, Hercules his poison and Baldur his miseltoe. Achilles was shot in the heal as she showed off within range of the Trojan archers. Hercules was killed by the poisoned blood of a honourable enemy he killed in cold blood. Baldur invited all of the God's to throw weapons at him to show off his invulnerability only for Loki, the trickster God, to thrown a spear of miseltoe at him. They were all killed as a result of their inflated ego. I find it ironic he not only misses this lesson but falls into exactly the same trap himself. His own ego ruins the book.

By the end of the book I felt that I had been suckered in to participating in one of his self aggrandising magic rituals. He is trying to create a mythology around himself that renders him a super hero. If we would believe him he is the son of an ascended master, he can see in "5-dimensions", heal cats and he even suggests that he can manifest fictional characters in to physical reality. I also feel that he massively overstates his influence in the comic book world and wider culture.

I should have guessed his intentions from the cover of the book (Shown above). I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but if you can take him seriously in that picture then you'll probably enjoy the book. If on the other hand, like myself, you think he looks like a self indulgent pretentious twat then don't bother.

Too harsh? Maybe. Well, I am just reading the epilogue now and he is saying some truly inspirational words about comics and superman. He may have redeemed himself..

No! He's ruined it in the last sentence by revealing that it was all a slow sell for his next venture.. an inspirational story about superman!