The Best Team Books in Comics All Come From Grant Morrison

There are few creators in the modern comic industry with the kind of reputation that Grant Morrison has. The Scottish scribe was part of DC’s British Invasion of talent and made a splash immediately with Animal Man, a piece of metafictional analysis of superheroes and fiction. It’s an astounding work — if you haven’t read it, go out, and get Morrison’s 26 issues of the book — and their next book would show that Morrison was more than a flash in the pan: Doom Patrol.

Morrison’s Doom Patrol is one of DC’s best team books, and showed off just how well the writer could write a team. Morrison would go on to work on several other team books — namely JLA and New X-Men — both of which would become known as some of the greatest team books of all time. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that Morrison is the greatest team writer in the history of comics.



As a writer, Morrison has always been able to take the fruits of the past and look at them through a modern lens. Their team books are the perfect example of this. Taking a closer look at Morrison’s work on team comics shows the way to move these kinds of books forward while also paying homage to the past.

Morrison is very much a unique talent, and their team works stand out as some of the best superhero comics ever written.Doom Patrol, JLA, and New X-Men Are the Pinnacles of Team ComicsDoom Patrol is everything that Morrison does right with team comics. The Doom Patrol is the weirdest team in comics, a group of misfits brought together by the Chief to fight the world’s strangest threats.

The Doom Patrol can be a difficult nut to crack. It takes a very particular kind of creator to make it work, and Morrison was able to do this because they looked at the origin of the team. The Doom Patrol aren’t conventional superheroes and they can’t be written in a conventional manner.

DC had tried to bring the team back as a more run of the mill team before Morrison’s run started but it failed because it took away what was special about the Doom Patrol and replaced it with more standard superhero plots and characterization.Morrison reversed this course and tapped into something that was always a part of the Doom Patrol — trauma. The book opens with Cliff Steele, the Robotman, in a mental health facility, trying to deal with all of the trauma of his life.

While there, he meets Crazy Jane, a woman with DID on the same kind of journey that he’s on, and the book goes off to the races. Morrison brings in a new Negative Man, creating an intersex being known as Rebis, creating a new core team and immediately pits them against a threat that could destroy the universe. It’s all there — the trauma, the offbeat superhero, and a threat that is both as bizarre as it can be and has stakes far beyond anything readers had experienced before.

Morrison’s work on Doom Patrol followed this kind of formula, using the the trauma of the characters in the book to inform their battles against the weirdest threats ever. It’s messy, sad, joyful, and never anything less than the strangest superhero book that anyone had ever read. RELATED: Are There Too Many Batman Comics?Morrison’s next two team comics are more run of the mill than Doom Patrol.

JLA and New X-Men were both books that needed a refresh after years of mismanagement, and Morrison did this by, at fist, going back to basics. In JLA, Morrison brought back the Big Seven League — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter — and pitted them against the kind of threats that only the League could handle. Meanwhile, New X-Men focused on the team as teachers and mutant rescue workers, putting the dream of Charles Xavier first and foremost, all while dipping into ideas and plots that hearkened back to the best X-Men stories of all time.

However, Morrison was able to bring their own wild sensibilities to both titles from their first stories. In JLA, it was the White Martians and in New X-Men, it was Cassandra Nova. Each of these threats played into villains the teams always would have fought, but presented them in new ways.

Morrison’s JLA is brilliant widescreen superhero action. Morrison pit the League against massive threats — corrupted angels, the Injustice Gang, Darkseid, and universe killing machines made by the old gods — and tweaked the formula ever so much. Morrison knew they couldn’t do much with the characters in the book, all of whom except Martian Manhunter had their own books, but they could use them to tell the coolest superhero stories ever.

Meanwhile, in New X-Men, Morrison could work with the characters, giving readers the best version of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Emma Frost, and Xavier they’d ever seen, and introducing Fantomex, one of the coolest mutants of the 21st century. Morrison was able to make the old new again — just look at the way they use concepts like Darkseid, the villain team, the Phoenix Force, Weapon X, and more, taking each of them and going places they’ve never gone before. They were able to balance the bombast of the Justice League with the heart that makes the DC Multiverse so unique in JLA and created a brilliant superhero soap opera in New X-Men that made readers look at old characters in new ways.

Morrison’s Doom Patrol, JLA, and New X-Men are each perfect team books, redefining what each team could be by taking the past and tweaking it ever so much.Morrison’s Team Books Have Never Been MatchedTeam books are a delicate balancing act. Creators have to find a way to pay homage to the past while also giving readers something entirely new.

In the years since Morrison left New X-Men, there have been some excellent team book runs, like writer Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four, Avengers, and New Avengers, but few of them have ever risen to the level of Morrison. Most of them do parts of what Morrison did — going back to basics with the teams — but few of them can match the sheer inventiveness that Morrison brings to the table. This is why Morrison’s team books are, simply put, superior.

Comics have a status quo problem. On the one hand, there’s reasons why the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Justice League, Teen Titans/Titans, Legion of Superheroes, and more all work so well — the ideas at the core of the books still draw fans. However, too many times all readers get is the same thing they’ve gotten in the past.

Morrison always made sure that this didn’t happen. They were able to take the classic ideas at the core of teams and use them to take the teams to new places. This is why Morrison is the greatest team writer of them all.

Morrison is the best of the best and their teams books are yet another example of this.What’s your favorite team book from Morrison? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!The post The Best Team Books in Comics All Come From Grant Morrison appeared first on ComicBook.com.

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