Loooooved this book! It's a more or less chronological look at the development of superheroes, their creators and influential creative teams, and the kinds of stories the genre cycles through in response to various social influences going around at the time, with some examination of superheroes in other iterations, like movies or TV. All of this is interspersed with Morrison's own biography, examining his own discovery of superhero comics and the effect they had on his development as a person, and then later talking about how various events in his own life influenced how he thought about and wrote superheroes himself. I liked that it wasn't just an examination of the heroes and creative teams and looking at how and why certain eras are either great or have lost the plot, but it pulls back focus a bit and really shows how cyclical the nature of superhero storytelling is, going from one era of optimism to another of camp to one of pessimism to another of empty hedonistic violence and back and forth again.

But what I loved most was Morrison's own love of the genre. There is some choice snark in here, no doubt, but through it all it's plainly obvious that he loves superheroes and takes them very seriously. Not seriously as in SUPERHEROES ARE SRS BSNS DARK GRITTY ANGST FOREVER ARGH, but serious in that he absolutely believes in the power of the genre and the importance of telling meaningful, well crafted stories with it. I loved his absolute conviction in the power of storytelling to actively shape how people understand themselves and the world around them and his belief that good superhero stories have the potential to be a powerful encouragement to our Better Angels.

Also, he was a lot more gracious toward Alan Moore than I had expected. And apparently, he is a very serious mystic and ceremonial magician. I don't know why that came as such a shock to me, but it did. An awesome shock.

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