Quarter Bin #52 "Grant Morrison, Cosmic Odyssey"

Comics featured in this column were not necessary bought in in a quarter bin.  This is a back issues feature.

Animal Man #24 (DC)
From June 1990.
Animal Man #25
From July 1990.

Recently Zimmie's (my local comics shop these days) actually had a selection of bargain back issues.  I love poring through boxes of this stuff.  Fortunately, wherever this selection came from had a keen interest in Grant Morrison.  I've read both these issues already (collected in Animal Man: Deus Ex Machina, the most memorable and iconic volume of his run).  The first issue features Superhero Limbo, which rereading the complete Final Crisis made me realize is a concept Morrison actually revisited.  The second has Buddy Baker on the verge of finally breaking the fourth wall, meeting Morrison himself, on his way to realizing he really is a character in a comic book.  The more recent Animal Man comics (recently concluded) from Jeff Lemire has been the closest to this era the character has come in years, although without all the existential awareness.

Cosmic Odyssey #4 (DC)
From 1988.

One of several DC crossover events (including Legends, Genesis, and the aforementioned Final Crisis) to feature Jack Kirby's New Gods as the primary context, this is the event that became best known for Green Lantern John Stewart's from-that-point defining moment of losing an entire planet on his watch.  In this issue he grapples with suicidal grief, with Martian Manhunter helping him get over the hump.  The writer is Jim Starlin, which is hugely appropriate, given that this is a Darkseid story, and Starlin is best known for his Darkseid pastiche, Thanos (coming soon to Marvel movies everywhere!) in such crossover events as The Infinity Gauntlet.  The artist is Mike Mignola in perhaps his best-known work prior to creating Hellboy.  Aside from John Stewart, it's always been Mignola's work that I wanted to experience from this event.  If I were DC, I would keep all of these New Gods crossover events in print.

Doom Patrol #22 (DC)
From May 1989.
Doom Patrol #29
From January 1990.

via Simon Bisley Gallery

I didn't buy all of the Grant Morrisons in the selection, but picked and chose.  The first of these two Doom Patrol issues is the finale to his opening arc, "Crawling from the Wreckage," which I hadn't read before (it would help, I assume, to read the complete story).  The second is the finale to "The Painting That Ate Paris," a story I have read in its entirety.  Aside from the narration from a poorly educated man (amply reflected in his poor spelling), this issue may perhaps best be known for Morrison's first handling of DC's icons (aside from, I guess, Arkham Asylum).  Doom Patrol has recently resurfaced in Forever Evil and Justice League.  This team is the original X-Men, just as the Challengers of the Unknown are the original Fantastic Four.  Morrison tended to take an extremely surreal approach to the team, the first version of his Invisibles, as it were.