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In a recent Substack post of Grant Morrison‘s Xanaduum, they have been talking about their work on the Multiversity comic book at DC Comics, going into intricate detail on the book’s creation, page by page, including the much-appreciated Pax Americana comic drawn by Frank Quitely. And this paragraph got my antennae buzzing a little. Grant Morrison writes “The Question, who like Rorschach in the Crimebusters scene from Watchmen has more self-assured body language here, while Blue Beetle seems more youthful, bursting with bullshit and eager to please. Some say the snatches we see of the Blue Beetle/Question partnership’s beginning, development and decline, contain deliberate wry echoes of my relationship with Mark Millar but I couldn’t possibly comment.”
Once upon a time, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar worked as a creative team. Taking over 2000AD for their Summer Offensive, writing comics together such as Swamp Thing, Skrull Kill Krew, Flash and Aztek, they also planned to take over the Superman books with Mark Waid and Tom Peyer until internal DC Comics politics put paid to that. Then, on the back of The Authority, The Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men, Mark Millar’s star began to rise. Grant Morrison wrote some of Millar’s Authority when Millar was sick, but didn’t believe they got the appropriate credit for it. Coupled with Millar’s subsequent astronomic rise, with the likes of Old Man Logan, Civil War, Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kingsman and the like getting made into movies, and Millar showing less than obvious gratitude, Grant Morrison was less than kind to their former protege. The pair fell out badly, and never worked together – were have never even been seen together – since. They deliberately avoid each other, even not attending the same comic book conventions, by design. Once when asked if Grant would see him when he was in Glasgow, they said “There’s a very good chance of running into him, and I hope I’m going 100 miles an hour when it happens.”
So, as to Pax Americana… with The Question accusing the Blue Beetle of having made compromises he “can barely live with”… and not being able to get it up. While the Blue Bettle accuses The Question of being “in the closet.”
Since then, Grant Morrison has come out as being nonbinary. And Mark Millar sold all his creator-owned comic books to Netflix.
And with the Question asking Blue Beetle if he can look at himself in the mirror, I guess we know who is who, right?
The Blue Beetle criticising The Question for using drugs, and the Question criticising the Blue Bettle for what he does with all his money….
At this point, it’s not even guesswork, is it?
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