Grant Morrison’s Watchmen Parody Secretly Insults a Former Friend

They were the best of friends, until it all went awry. Now, Grant Morrison reveals how one comic they wrote cuts promos on their former collaborator.

They were once the best of friends and close collaborators, but Grant Morrison and Mark Millar haven’t spoken in years after having a fierce falling out. Recently, Morrison revealed they may have used their fractious relationship with Millar in developing the friends-turned-rivals dynamic between Blue Beetle and The Question, as seen in Morrison’s Watchmen-inspired The Multiversity: Pax Americana #1.

In their Multiversity annotations via their newsletter Xanaduum, Morrison has been revealing behind-the-scenes secrets and their overall thoughts on their 2014-2015 DC Comics crossover, which saw them collaborate with a variety of artists to chronicle the various worlds of the DC Multiverse. The fourth issue, Pax Americana, featured art by Frank Quitely and acted as a direct comment on Watchmen, focusing on the Charlton heroes of Earth-4. One of the subplots running throughout is the disintegrating friendship between Blue Beetle and The Question, mirroring the relationship between Nite Owl and Rorshach in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ ground-breaking series. And, according to some fans, that may not be the only relationship mirrored in the Blue Beetle/Question pairing, with some pointing out the similarities between Morrison and Millar. Morrison remains coy when addressing the possible connection: “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.”

Related: Grant Morrison’s Watchmen Takedown Is DC’s Biggest Missed Opportunity

Are Blue Beetle and The Question Based On Grant Morrison and Mark Millar?

Looking at the way The Question and Blue Beetle are characterized throughout the issue, it’s not hard to see each hero representing each creator. 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 bulls–t and eager to please.” It’s easy to see who represents who, at least in Morrison’s perspective. The Question’s calm, Zen-like intellectualism lines up rather well with Morrison’s persona, while Blue Beetle’s reliance on his government overlords could be seen as a criticism of Millar “selling out” to Hollywood.

In Supergods, Morrison’s nonfiction analysis of superheroes, the writer further elaborates on their contentious relationship with Millar: “I met Mark Millar when he was eighteen years old in 1988,” Morrison writes, describing the connection as immediate, with the two quickly becoming fast friends: “Soon we were speaking on the phone every day, usually for four-hour stretches, in hysterics. I suppose I was flattered by his attention and his ability to find everything I said funny, so I overlooked the potential for disaster in our unequal partnership.” Morrison and Millar would go on to collaborate on several comic series during the nineties, with the elder, more established Morrison giving his friend the boost by recommending him for jobs at DC Comics. According to Morrison, they were the ones to recommend Millar taking over the popular Authority series from Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, which made Millar (and, oddly enough, their Pax Americana collaborator Frank Quitely) a superstar in the comics field virtually overnight. According to Morrison, that’s where the trouble began: “I worked with him on the plots of the first five issues of (The Authority) and even ghostwrote one when Mark was ill and behind. As Mark’s star began to rise, however, our collaboration fell by the wayside and he went his own way.”

It’s sad to think that success became a barrier between two former close friends, but that’s the way things happen sometimes – especially in high-stakes, highly-competitive fields like the comics industry. In many ways, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar’s friendship became the victim of its own success.

Next: Watchmen Killed American Superheroes, According to Grant Morrison

Sources: Xanaduum, Supergods by Grant Morrison