Friday, June 8, 2012

Friday Quotations: Supergods

"Lee's vision of the sentinel of the spaceways was more Suffer than Surfer, and the character was given to endless gnarled-hand outbursts that questioned his very being or expressed his infinite agony in the form of one more claw-fingered gesture in the direction of a mute and merciless firmament.  Every issue saw him hurling himself vainly at one insurmountable barrier after another before fizzling back to Earth, limp and futile, but just in time for one more miserable monologue on a lonely mountaintop far from cruel nonsilver bastards.  I suspect the yearning warble of Stan Lee's own tortured teenage soul.  Somewhere behind the reassuring huckster image of Smilin' Stan lay this sobbing mask of chrome, but readers found the hand-wringing lyricism uncomfortable.  The Silver Surfer series lasted eighteen issues before it was put to death with the same ruthless efficiency as Jesus himself."
--Grant Morrison, Supergods.

The funny thing is, sacrilegious statements aside, Morrison is spot on with the Silver Surfer.  Even his 90s TV series is one of the most introspective, emo experiences ever to hit children's cartoons.  But the way Morrison expresses it... well, you either hate the overtop approach, or embrace it.  And since the whole book is like this, I have embraced it.  Excelsior.

Later Days.

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