Grant Morrison On Writing Themselves Into Batman/Deadpool (Spoilers)

Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: animal man, Batman Deadpool, dan mora, deadpool, grant morrison, suicide squad

Grant Morrison On Writing Themselves Into Batman/Deadpool (Spoilers)

Grant Morrison On Writing Themselves Into Batman/Deadpool (Spoilers)

Published Sun, 30 Nov 2025 08:57:05 -0600
by Rich Johnston
|
Comments

Article Summary

• Grant Morrison discusses writing themselves into Batman/Deadpool and DC lore connections
• The comic revisits Aeaea Island from Suicide Squad #58, with a twist on its original setting
• The return of The Writer character ties back to Morrison’s iconic Animal Man run
• Cassandra Nova and Damian Wayne confront their creator in a meta, fourth-wall-breaking plot

In Grant Morrison's Substack newsletter, they write about the Deadpool/Batman comic from last week, including the setting, saying "Aeaea Island was the setting for a fateful battle which appeared in the previously mentioned Suicide Squad #58 – old time DC fans or lore fiends may see where this is going!"

"Aeaea actually exists – we've taken care to give the place an accurate look. The original location appeared tropical in Suicide Squad #58 but we've given it the correct Mediterranean flora and climate (doing my due diligence, I've just read John Ostrander talking about this issue, and he says it takes place in the Amazon rainforest, which is indeed what it looks like in the book." I mean, more than that, it repeatedly says that it is in the Amazon rain forest… and doesn't mention Aeaea in the comic at at all.

Grant elaborates. "However, the Suicide Squad are supposed to be attacking the fortress of the goddess Circe, which was established to be on Aeaea – so who knows where the f-ck this was supposed to have happened. Sometimes research is a waste of time)!"

And then the moment we'd been waiting for. A dead body. "The cadaver belongs to THE WRITER – torn to pieces, we must assume by those 'beastiamorphs' from Suicide Squad #58, where he met his grotesque demise."

"The remains can be recognized by the distinctive and bizarre clothes The Writer character wore (by the time Animal Man artist Chaz Truog's interpretation of what I wore in 1990 had been passed through the nib of Suicide Squad penciller Geoff Isherwood, it resembled some version of a Russian peasant outfit from Fiddler on the Roof)"

To recall, Animal Man #19-25 (1989) by Grant Morrison and Chas Truog. In which Buddy Baker, Animal Man, under the influence of peyote, sees the comic book's reader, breaking the fourth wall and falling out of reality. Then Grant Morrison meets Animal Man in the comic itself, talking about their struggles writing the comic book, their own personal life, and the trouble they have heaped on Buddy Baker.

And Suicide Squad #58 (1991) by John Ostrander, Kim Yale and Geof Isherwood. A new character, The Writer, clearly inspired by Grant Morrison's Animal Man, joins the squad.  In the middle of the war against Circe's army, the Writer was not able to write quickly enough and was killed by a "Beastiamorph".

Talking to Comic Book Counselling podcast, Grant Morrison said "What drove me mad about that whole thing was that The Writer in the story is defeated because he has writer's block. I was always driven daft by this because we don't have writer's block."

Comics Alliance once asked John Ostrander what was it like to kill Grant Morrison (in Suicide Squad #58), and if the two ever talked about it? John Ostrander laughed and replied, "I never talked directly to him, and I get the sense that he was maybe not that pleased! And yeah, I was being kind of a snot, a little bit of a brat. But he'd written himself into Animal Man, which meant that he was technically a DC character, so my justification was that I was freeing him! Also, it's not Grant Morrison

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!