A lot has been said about the work of Grant Morrison, sweeping, epic, and metafictional. His newest comic “Annihilator” #1 is none of those things. Yet, still manages to be some of his most prolific work.
WRITTEN BY: Grant Morrison
ART BY: Frazer Irving
PUBLISHER: Legendary
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: September 10, 2014
Anyone whose ever written anything and got a laundry list of notes knows what “Annihilator’s” Ray Spass is going through. He’s a man lost in the gigantic mechanism of Hollywood forced to finish a script he can’t even remember how to write. He’s lost in the surreal sun drenched mess of California laboring between detaching from his script and being lost inside the mess it has created.
It’s something any writer has dealt with at one time or another, but Morrison adds his own brilliant spin on the whole affair. This isn’t a Ray’s own grand idea, this is a story he’s interpreting, making sense of, serving as a conduit between himself and something so much bigger.
This is a love story between a man and his creation. The thin line between the creator, the created, and reality, which I suppose is vague, but it’s the best way to describe what’s happening on these pages.
It’s a surrealist look at the world of Hollywood, and what it takes to write a script when millions of dollars are backing your ideas. The tentpole film as held up by one man, the writer, who must do everything to balance the needs and wants of everyone with some cash at stake in the project.
Frazer Irving splits his duties between a surreal and sun drenched Hollywood and the grounded reality of a space station from Ray’s script. I know that sounds funny, but Irving’s work goes the extra mile to make the “real” world of Hollywood a more psychedelic experience by playing with light and perspective in beautiful ways. Whereas his work in space feels a lot more grounded and clearly communicated. Creating an incredible juxtaposition that most comics would opt to tackle in the opposite way.
The finished product is a labor of love about love. It’s hard to fathom why anyone would put themselves through the hell of writing films if it wasn’t for love, and Morrison’s script really makes a compelling argument as to why the pursuit is worth it. The characterization of Ray, and his creation Max Nomax show a great duality to the themes on the pages that creates an engaging and intoxicating narrative.
This may just be the best Grant Morrison comic in years. It’s not bound by archetypal superheroes, metatextual meanings, and incomprehensible truths, but instead straddles the weird disillusionment that sometimes comes with the act of creation. It’s inviting and beautifully realized without being challenging. It’s the beginning of a new age of Morrison stories, and is quite possibly one of his finest works yet.
