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The Multiversity #1-9
The Multiversity
The biggest adventure in DC's history is here!
Join visionary writer Grant Morrison, today's most talented artists, and a cast of unforgettable heroes from 52 alternative Earths of the DC Multiverse!
Prepare to meet the Vampire League of Earth-43, the Justice Riders of Earth-18, Superdemon, Doc Fate, the super-sons of Superman and Batman, the rampaging Retaliators of Earth-8, the Atomic Knights of Justice, Dino-Cop, Sister Miracle, Lady Quark, and the latest, greatest Super Hero of Earth-Prime: You!
The Multiversity is more than a multipart comic-book series: it's a cosmos spanning, soul-shaking experience that puts You on the frontline in the battle for all creation against the demonic destroyers known as the Gentry!
Featuring artwork by Ivan Reis (Justice League), Frank Quitely (All-Star Superman), Cameron Stewart (Batgirl) and many others, The Multiversity
Collecting: The Multiversity 1-2, Guidebook, The Society of Super-Heroes, The Just, Pax Americana, Thunderworld, Mastermen, & Ultra Comics
Join visionary writer Grant Morrison, today's most talented artists, and a cast of unforgettable heroes from 52 alternative Earths of the DC Multiverse!
Prepare to meet the Vampire League of Earth-43, the Justice Riders of Earth-18, Superdemon, Doc Fate, the super-sons of Superman and Batman, the rampaging Retaliators of Earth-8, the Atomic Knights of Justice, Dino-Cop, Sister Miracle, Lady Quark, and the latest, greatest Super Hero of Earth-Prime: You!
The Multiversity is more than a multipart comic-book series: it's a cosmos spanning, soul-shaking experience that puts You on the frontline in the battle for all creation against the demonic destroyers known as the Gentry!
Featuring artwork by Ivan Reis (Justice League), Frank Quitely (All-Star Superman), Cameron Stewart (Batgirl) and many others, The Multiversity
Collecting: The Multiversity 1-2, Guidebook, The Society of Super-Heroes, The Just, Pax Americana, Thunderworld, Mastermen, & Ultra Comics
448 pages, Hardcover
First published October 27, 2015
About the author
Grant Morrison
1,792 books4,327 followersGrant Morrison has been working with DC Comics for twenty five years, after beginning their American comics career with acclaimed runs on ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL. Since then they have written such best-selling series as JLA, BATMAN and New X-Men, as well as such creator-owned works as THE INVISIBLES, SEAGUY, THE FILTH, WE3 and JOE THE BARBARIAN. In addition to expanding the DC Universe through titles ranging from the Eisner Award-winning SEVEN SOLDIERS and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN to the reality-shattering epic of FINAL CRISIS, they have also reinvented the worlds of the Dark Knight Detective in BATMAN AND ROBIN and BATMAN, INCORPORATED and the Man of Steel in The New 52 ACTION COMICS.
In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.
In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 410 reviews
July 30, 2018
The whole multiverse is in danger!!!
This Deluxe Edition Hardcover TPB contains: “The Multiversity” #1-2, “The Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes” #1, “The Multiversity: The Just” #1, “The Multiversity: Pax Americana” #1, “The Multiversity: Thunderworld Adventures” #1, “The Multiversity: Guidebook” #1, “The Multiversity: Mastermen” #1 and “The Multiversity: Ultra Comics” #1.
Creative Team:
Writer: Grant Morrison
Illustrators: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Jim Lee, Doug Mahnke, Frank Quitely, Chris Spouse, Ben Oliver and Cameron Stewart
MUSIC & IMAGINATION INTO MATTER
This is an overwhelming masterwork by Grant Morrison, where he shows u show music can be solidified and imagination can be crystallized!
The whole multiverse is in danger, but not only the 52 different Earths, but also other realms like New Genesis, Apokolips, Dream, etc… along with dimensions like the Speed Force, even planes like the Limbo and the Source Wall are threatened…
…the first to answer the menace is the las tones of the monitors…
…and the first to fall too! Corrupted by insidious evil.
Harbinger, loyal assistant of the original Monitor, must rise again, now in a computerized form and calling for heroes from the whole variety of the 52 Earths to deal with a group of vicious creatures trying to break the status quo of the multiverse…
…but beyond the comprehension of heroes and evildoers…
…the multiverse itself has developed an inconspicuous natural defense system…
…in the forms of comic books…
…with hidden power giving clues of how to stop this mutltiversal menace.
But maybe it’s already too late!
This Deluxe Edition Hardcover TPB contains: “The Multiversity” #1-2, “The Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes” #1, “The Multiversity: The Just” #1, “The Multiversity: Pax Americana” #1, “The Multiversity: Thunderworld Adventures” #1, “The Multiversity: Guidebook” #1, “The Multiversity: Mastermen” #1 and “The Multiversity: Ultra Comics” #1.
Creative Team:
Writer: Grant Morrison
Illustrators: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Jim Lee, Doug Mahnke, Frank Quitely, Chris Spouse, Ben Oliver and Cameron Stewart
MUSIC & IMAGINATION INTO MATTER
This is an overwhelming masterwork by Grant Morrison, where he shows u show music can be solidified and imagination can be crystallized!
The whole multiverse is in danger, but not only the 52 different Earths, but also other realms like New Genesis, Apokolips, Dream, etc… along with dimensions like the Speed Force, even planes like the Limbo and the Source Wall are threatened…
…the first to answer the menace is the las tones of the monitors…
…and the first to fall too! Corrupted by insidious evil.
Harbinger, loyal assistant of the original Monitor, must rise again, now in a computerized form and calling for heroes from the whole variety of the 52 Earths to deal with a group of vicious creatures trying to break the status quo of the multiverse…
…but beyond the comprehension of heroes and evildoers…
…the multiverse itself has developed an inconspicuous natural defense system…
…in the forms of comic books…
…with hidden power giving clues of how to stop this mutltiversal menace.
But maybe it’s already too late!
September 6, 2015
Grant Morrison’s long-awaited Multiversity series is nine extra-long issues of a Crisis-like event that threatens to destroy DC’s 52 universes that make up the Multiverse.
Besides Ivan Reis who draws the two issues that bookend the series, each issue is drawn by a different artist: The Society of Super-Heroes = Chris Sprouse, The Just = Ben Oliver, Pax Americana = Frank Quitely, Thunderworld Adventures = Cameron Stewart, The Multiversity Guidebook = Marcus To (mainly - there are contributions from a few dozen others!), Mastermen = Jim Lee, and Ultra Comics = Doug Mahnke.
Like many of Morrison’s books, The Multiversity is an ambitious project - but was it worth the wait and is it any good? Yes and no.
Let’s start with the premise: The Gentry, a collection of monstrous villains comprising Dame Merciless, Hellmachine, Lord Broken, Demogorgunn, and Intellectron, are seeking the destruction of the Multiverse. A “superjudge” called Nix Uotan is also doing the same - maybe he’s tied into the Gentry, I’m not sure. The superheroes from the various worlds unite and fight against this threat to save the Multiverse (no prizes for guessing whether they do or not).
It’s hard to get excited about yet another Crisis-sized melodramatic event book from DC - they’ve done just too many at this point. Not to mention Morrison himself whose Final Crisis apparently wasn’t so final after all! More than that though it’s an extremely generic superhero template - the goodies vs the baddies, etc.
If you wanted to, you could just read The Multiversity #1 and #2 - the bookend issues - skipping the seven issues in between, and still get the gist of the book. That’s not great storytelling! And what was all that nonsense about Multiversity being a “haunted’ comic? Was there any payoff to that? None that I can remember.
However, Morrison being who he is, it’d be unfair to judge his book purely on its surface qualities. There’s subtext here, as well as a playful celebration not just of the rich texture of the DC Universe but of the comics medium itself, and some pretty good stories too.
The subtext, or “real meaning” of The Multiversity, as I see it: Nix Uotan is a comics blogger/critic who is reading/experiencing Multiversity and engaging with it on that level, though the characters perceive him as a threat to the fabric of their universes, destroying it through analysis. The Gentry are evil because they’re gentrifying comics, eliminating the magic and madness of classic superhero comics through intellectualising a fun medium - DC’s whacky characters like Captain Carrot, Obama Superman, and the Marvels, are just a few who stand against that. Or it could just be a hyper-aware representation of reading a superhero comic - seeing it through your eyes, through their eyes, back through your eyes.
While it’s clever, and of course if that’s what he was going for, then the whole “critics/intellectuals are ruining superhero comics” isn’t very successfully rendered in this book, not least because Morrison is one such comics writer who’s blazed a trail of respectability in the medium, making thought-provoking, complex comics, like Multiversity, that appeal to adult audiences.
The “celebrating the strange esoterica of the DCU” side of things will appeal to the hardcore DC base, of which I’m not really a part of. Seeing characters like Abin Sur, the original Blackhawks, the original Captain Marvel, Kamandi, and scores of others crop up didn’t do much for me. Huh? was the usual response followed by a shrug. But it does do a good job of highlighting the vastness of characters/worlds in the DCU.
The best issue by far was the Frank Quitely-drawn Pax Americana which is a great story: Peacemaker assassinates the President, the Question is trying to solve a murder, and Captain Atom is in the midst of a breakdown. It’s a very obvious Watchmen pastiche but it’s also a very smart use of the comics medium. Ultra Comics especially riffs on breaking the fourth wall and how comics are read, but Pax Americana does something similar in a much more subtle, artful way.
The rubik’s cube is an important symbol in this book. It appears several times throughout and is essentially a metaphor for The Multiversity and, I think, what Morrison was aiming for in theory for how the book was meant to read. Besides Quitely’s sublime art, Pax features the best example of a rubik’s cube as a comic with interlocking panels that form different stories at the same time (they’re different “colours”) while certain panels create a pleasing symmetry, like when Atom is walking through the park.
Besides Pax and Ultra, the only other issue I quite liked was the Jim Lee-drawn Mastermen which posits: what if Superman’s pod had crashed in Nazi Germany during the war? Superman, or Overman as he is known in this comic, wins the war for Hitler and eventually becomes ruler of the Third Reich. It’s up to Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters to beat Overman’s totalitarian regime. It’s not an especially complex comic but it’s a fine story similar to the also great Elseworlds book, Superman: Red Son.
The other issues are generally quite dull. The Multiversity #1 and #2 are superhero excess at its worst (hundreds of superheroes fighting villains for page after tedious page), The Society of Super-Heroes is retro-dull and more of the same fighting, The Just imagines a world where crime is eliminated and the superheroes sit around vapidly redundant, Thunderworld is just another average Captain Marvel story, and the Guidebook is overloaded with forgettable detail.
Morrison tries tying them all together by throwing in Multiversity comics into the comics themselves - they’re visions of real worlds, not just comics - along with cameos from the Gentry here and there, but it doesn’t work in creating a coherent story. Instead Multiversity comes off as a series of mildly entertaining short stories, which isn’t the worst thing it could be but it is nonetheless underwhelming given the talent and the hype behind the project.
I’d recommend giving this a look for the terrific art alone - every artist on this title brings it - but Morrison has written some real gems here as well. It does feel a bit like homework at times but Multiversity, while challenging, is an interesting effort from one of the few creators trying to stretch the boundaries of superhero comics, and that makes the effort worthwhile. Just don’t expect a masterpiece or especially to know what anything means - it is Grant Morrison after all!
*
I reviewed each of the issues (except for the last one) on GR as they came out so if you want to read my more detailed looks at the individual comics, the links are below:
The Multiversity #1
The Society of Super-Heroes #1
The Just #1
Pax Americana #1
Thunderworld Adventures #1
The Multiversity Guidebook #1
Mastermen #1
Ultra Comics #1
Besides Ivan Reis who draws the two issues that bookend the series, each issue is drawn by a different artist: The Society of Super-Heroes = Chris Sprouse, The Just = Ben Oliver, Pax Americana = Frank Quitely, Thunderworld Adventures = Cameron Stewart, The Multiversity Guidebook = Marcus To (mainly - there are contributions from a few dozen others!), Mastermen = Jim Lee, and Ultra Comics = Doug Mahnke.
Like many of Morrison’s books, The Multiversity is an ambitious project - but was it worth the wait and is it any good? Yes and no.
Let’s start with the premise: The Gentry, a collection of monstrous villains comprising Dame Merciless, Hellmachine, Lord Broken, Demogorgunn, and Intellectron, are seeking the destruction of the Multiverse. A “superjudge” called Nix Uotan is also doing the same - maybe he’s tied into the Gentry, I’m not sure. The superheroes from the various worlds unite and fight against this threat to save the Multiverse (no prizes for guessing whether they do or not).
It’s hard to get excited about yet another Crisis-sized melodramatic event book from DC - they’ve done just too many at this point. Not to mention Morrison himself whose Final Crisis apparently wasn’t so final after all! More than that though it’s an extremely generic superhero template - the goodies vs the baddies, etc.
If you wanted to, you could just read The Multiversity #1 and #2 - the bookend issues - skipping the seven issues in between, and still get the gist of the book. That’s not great storytelling! And what was all that nonsense about Multiversity being a “haunted’ comic? Was there any payoff to that? None that I can remember.
However, Morrison being who he is, it’d be unfair to judge his book purely on its surface qualities. There’s subtext here, as well as a playful celebration not just of the rich texture of the DC Universe but of the comics medium itself, and some pretty good stories too.
The subtext, or “real meaning” of The Multiversity, as I see it: Nix Uotan is a comics blogger/critic who is reading/experiencing Multiversity and engaging with it on that level, though the characters perceive him as a threat to the fabric of their universes, destroying it through analysis. The Gentry are evil because they’re gentrifying comics, eliminating the magic and madness of classic superhero comics through intellectualising a fun medium - DC’s whacky characters like Captain Carrot, Obama Superman, and the Marvels, are just a few who stand against that. Or it could just be a hyper-aware representation of reading a superhero comic - seeing it through your eyes, through their eyes, back through your eyes.
While it’s clever, and of course if that’s what he was going for, then the whole “critics/intellectuals are ruining superhero comics” isn’t very successfully rendered in this book, not least because Morrison is one such comics writer who’s blazed a trail of respectability in the medium, making thought-provoking, complex comics, like Multiversity, that appeal to adult audiences.
The “celebrating the strange esoterica of the DCU” side of things will appeal to the hardcore DC base, of which I’m not really a part of. Seeing characters like Abin Sur, the original Blackhawks, the original Captain Marvel, Kamandi, and scores of others crop up didn’t do much for me. Huh? was the usual response followed by a shrug. But it does do a good job of highlighting the vastness of characters/worlds in the DCU.
The best issue by far was the Frank Quitely-drawn Pax Americana which is a great story: Peacemaker assassinates the President, the Question is trying to solve a murder, and Captain Atom is in the midst of a breakdown. It’s a very obvious Watchmen pastiche but it’s also a very smart use of the comics medium. Ultra Comics especially riffs on breaking the fourth wall and how comics are read, but Pax Americana does something similar in a much more subtle, artful way.
The rubik’s cube is an important symbol in this book. It appears several times throughout and is essentially a metaphor for The Multiversity and, I think, what Morrison was aiming for in theory for how the book was meant to read. Besides Quitely’s sublime art, Pax features the best example of a rubik’s cube as a comic with interlocking panels that form different stories at the same time (they’re different “colours”) while certain panels create a pleasing symmetry, like when Atom is walking through the park.
Besides Pax and Ultra, the only other issue I quite liked was the Jim Lee-drawn Mastermen which posits: what if Superman’s pod had crashed in Nazi Germany during the war? Superman, or Overman as he is known in this comic, wins the war for Hitler and eventually becomes ruler of the Third Reich. It’s up to Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters to beat Overman’s totalitarian regime. It’s not an especially complex comic but it’s a fine story similar to the also great Elseworlds book, Superman: Red Son.
The other issues are generally quite dull. The Multiversity #1 and #2 are superhero excess at its worst (hundreds of superheroes fighting villains for page after tedious page), The Society of Super-Heroes is retro-dull and more of the same fighting, The Just imagines a world where crime is eliminated and the superheroes sit around vapidly redundant, Thunderworld is just another average Captain Marvel story, and the Guidebook is overloaded with forgettable detail.
Morrison tries tying them all together by throwing in Multiversity comics into the comics themselves - they’re visions of real worlds, not just comics - along with cameos from the Gentry here and there, but it doesn’t work in creating a coherent story. Instead Multiversity comes off as a series of mildly entertaining short stories, which isn’t the worst thing it could be but it is nonetheless underwhelming given the talent and the hype behind the project.
I’d recommend giving this a look for the terrific art alone - every artist on this title brings it - but Morrison has written some real gems here as well. It does feel a bit like homework at times but Multiversity, while challenging, is an interesting effort from one of the few creators trying to stretch the boundaries of superhero comics, and that makes the effort worthwhile. Just don’t expect a masterpiece or especially to know what anything means - it is Grant Morrison after all!
*
I reviewed each of the issues (except for the last one) on GR as they came out so if you want to read my more detailed looks at the individual comics, the links are below:
The Multiversity #1
The Society of Super-Heroes #1
The Just #1
Pax Americana #1
Thunderworld Adventures #1
The Multiversity Guidebook #1
Mastermen #1
Ultra Comics #1
October 30, 2015
Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths.
Short Version: A collection of fairly self-contained stories with an overarching plot that attempts to tie them all together. Some of the stories were good; some were bad. Overall, I liked The Multiversity, but the main story was a bit bizarre and a tad confusing — in other words, typical Grant Morrison.
Long Version: Yet another ambitious DCU story focusing on the destruction of the Multiverse. This time the apocalypse is being orchestrated by a group of uber villains dubbed “The Gentry.” These guys’ devious plot is to insert a cursed comic book into every world, thereby causing a chain reaction which will ultimately lead to the total devastation of worlds!
Naturally, when reality begins to unravel, the various heroes of all the different multiverse earths have to uncover what is causing the problems, unite in some way, and fight to keep everything from being destroyed in a Final Crisis! (Uh, didn’t Morrison already write about a Final Crisis? Okay. Guess this is another one.) Brawl-fests ensue thereafter.
Like people who read my reviews know, I’m one of those on the fence about Grant Morrison. Honestly, I’ll read one story and be blown away by his mind-warping plot lines, but then I’ll read another and think it is a load of shite, which he has made obtuse and overly complex merely to hide its overall stench. And The Multiversity didn’t really change my view of Morrison in the least.
Most of the issues in this series are decent, if not spectacular. The Multiversity #1 and #2 are the usual big event type stories with pages and pages of superheroes fighting villains. In between these bookend issues, there are one-shots stories; each set in a different world with a different set of heroes. In one, Morrison and Frank Quitely channeled their twenty-first century Watchmen, producing 'Pax Americana.’ In another the focus is on a world where crime has been eliminated and a celebrity culture of superheroes has grown up. The Society of Super-Heroes goes all retro in one issue; Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew make an appearance; and there is even a Guidebook filled with details about the multiverse worlds.
The only issue which really struck a nerve with me was the Grant Morrison-Jim Lee ‘Mastermen.’ Here Morrison tackles the question of “What if Superman had crashed in Nazi Germany and been raised by Hitler?” Naturally, Supes (now known as Overman) wins World War II for Hitler and eventually becomes the next Fuhrer of a Third Reich which rules the world. Only Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters still resist the Overman’s enlightened but totalitarian rule. Pretty straight forward but had some real strength to it.
Now to be fair, there are much smarter comic reviewers out there saying the whole set up in The Multiversity has a deeper meaning. Its complexity meant to express a more important message. Specifically, Morrison is setting The Gentry up as the representative of intellectuals who are ruining comics and the character Nix Uotan as the adult bloggers/critics who are destroying the magical mayhem of comics by always seeking to make it more adult oriented and logical. I didn’t see that in the story, but it might be there, and perhaps it will make the series more meaningful to some of you. As for me, I’m reading to be entertained, not enlightened, so the whole “deeper meaning” stuff didn’t make me like this series any more or any less.
The one thing I can rave about is the art. Each comic is drawn by a different artist, and every one of them does an excellent job. Ivan Reis, Chris Sprouse, Ben Oliver, Frank Quitely, Cameron Stewart, Marcus To, Jim Lee, and Doug Mahnke to name just a few. Each bringing their A game to The Multiversity, making it a real joy to keep turning the pages.
So should you buy this collection? If you’re a Morrison fan, you don’t even need to ask the question, because you will undoubtedly love The Multiversity. If your not a Morrison fan, then don’t expect to have anything here change your feelings about his work. And if you’re on the fence about all this, what do you have to lose? Nothing. So pick this one up and dive in, because you might love one of the stories.
Short Version: A collection of fairly self-contained stories with an overarching plot that attempts to tie them all together. Some of the stories were good; some were bad. Overall, I liked The Multiversity, but the main story was a bit bizarre and a tad confusing — in other words, typical Grant Morrison.
Long Version: Yet another ambitious DCU story focusing on the destruction of the Multiverse. This time the apocalypse is being orchestrated by a group of uber villains dubbed “The Gentry.” These guys’ devious plot is to insert a cursed comic book into every world, thereby causing a chain reaction which will ultimately lead to the total devastation of worlds!
Naturally, when reality begins to unravel, the various heroes of all the different multiverse earths have to uncover what is causing the problems, unite in some way, and fight to keep everything from being destroyed in a Final Crisis! (Uh, didn’t Morrison already write about a Final Crisis? Okay. Guess this is another one.) Brawl-fests ensue thereafter.
Like people who read my reviews know, I’m one of those on the fence about Grant Morrison. Honestly, I’ll read one story and be blown away by his mind-warping plot lines, but then I’ll read another and think it is a load of shite, which he has made obtuse and overly complex merely to hide its overall stench. And The Multiversity didn’t really change my view of Morrison in the least.
Most of the issues in this series are decent, if not spectacular. The Multiversity #1 and #2 are the usual big event type stories with pages and pages of superheroes fighting villains. In between these bookend issues, there are one-shots stories; each set in a different world with a different set of heroes. In one, Morrison and Frank Quitely channeled their twenty-first century Watchmen, producing 'Pax Americana.’ In another the focus is on a world where crime has been eliminated and a celebrity culture of superheroes has grown up. The Society of Super-Heroes goes all retro in one issue; Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew make an appearance; and there is even a Guidebook filled with details about the multiverse worlds.
The only issue which really struck a nerve with me was the Grant Morrison-Jim Lee ‘Mastermen.’ Here Morrison tackles the question of “What if Superman had crashed in Nazi Germany and been raised by Hitler?” Naturally, Supes (now known as Overman) wins World War II for Hitler and eventually becomes the next Fuhrer of a Third Reich which rules the world. Only Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters still resist the Overman’s enlightened but totalitarian rule. Pretty straight forward but had some real strength to it.
Now to be fair, there are much smarter comic reviewers out there saying the whole set up in The Multiversity has a deeper meaning. Its complexity meant to express a more important message. Specifically, Morrison is setting The Gentry up as the representative of intellectuals who are ruining comics and the character Nix Uotan as the adult bloggers/critics who are destroying the magical mayhem of comics by always seeking to make it more adult oriented and logical. I didn’t see that in the story, but it might be there, and perhaps it will make the series more meaningful to some of you. As for me, I’m reading to be entertained, not enlightened, so the whole “deeper meaning” stuff didn’t make me like this series any more or any less.
The one thing I can rave about is the art. Each comic is drawn by a different artist, and every one of them does an excellent job. Ivan Reis, Chris Sprouse, Ben Oliver, Frank Quitely, Cameron Stewart, Marcus To, Jim Lee, and Doug Mahnke to name just a few. Each bringing their A game to The Multiversity, making it a real joy to keep turning the pages.
So should you buy this collection? If you’re a Morrison fan, you don’t even need to ask the question, because you will undoubtedly love The Multiversity. If your not a Morrison fan, then don’t expect to have anything here change your feelings about his work. And if you’re on the fence about all this, what do you have to lose? Nothing. So pick this one up and dive in, because you might love one of the stories.
January 10, 2021
"This is not a comic book."
Whatever it is, I enjoyed the Multiversity. If I can give you some advice to enjoy it: let go. I was trying to apply logic to the narrative and the events like any ordinary adventure story. But nope. Just be entertained. And I'll explain why.
Morrison doesn’t care about your understanding, about linear narratives, about the ordinary adventure story. But he does care about you, about entertaining and enlightening you. The Multiversity, for me, is greatly entertaining. I laughed more than I probably should have, but maybe not, maybe Morrison really meant for this to be so absurd and so anti-ordinary adventure story that it's actually a blend of fantasy and comedy, with its light and open-ended resolution, the metafiction and absurdity, the ironic platitudes and self-aware dialog, and the hilarious hyperbole, like that Hitler scene. That alone.
Morrison mostly importantly cares about being clever, smart, and informative by putting in as much non-comic ideology as possible, and transcending the ordinary adventure story within that very genre. Ambitious, right? Although his transcendence, one could argue, borders on the pretentious, you can't argue that it's entertaining, weird, fun, memorable, thought-provoking, and intelligent. It's the most extra-ordinary adventure story I've probably ever read. And you just know he's over it. I mean, those "normal" Event stories have their place, those stories still juggle a lot of subplots, but they are limited in what they can achieve in storytelling. In Multiversity, however, the characters speak to the reader, they read Ultra Comics, The Multiversity Guidebook and Map, comics in which they appear, and use these to solve problems. How cool is that?
"Forgive me, but in this room of very dangerous things, that comic book is the most dangerous thing of all."
Whether you love or hate, get or don't get the story, the artwork is phenomenal. My favorite illustrations are by Frank Quitely (Pax Americana), Cameron Stewart (Thunderworld Adventures), and Jim Lee (Mastermen).
A Short Note on the Deluxe Edition...
Grade: B-
This is actually one of the nicer DC deluxe editions, which are known for being shitty. My big complaint? Binding, as usual. The glued binding is too tight and the gutter loss is absurd, whole details and characters are invisible. However, apart from that, the jacket design and printed glossy hardcover are brilliant, and the paper seems thicker and glossier than usual. If DC would’ve done a moderate sewn binding this would be great.
Whatever it is, I enjoyed the Multiversity. If I can give you some advice to enjoy it: let go. I was trying to apply logic to the narrative and the events like any ordinary adventure story. But nope. Just be entertained. And I'll explain why.
Morrison doesn’t care about your understanding, about linear narratives, about the ordinary adventure story. But he does care about you, about entertaining and enlightening you. The Multiversity, for me, is greatly entertaining. I laughed more than I probably should have, but maybe not, maybe Morrison really meant for this to be so absurd and so anti-ordinary adventure story that it's actually a blend of fantasy and comedy, with its light and open-ended resolution, the metafiction and absurdity, the ironic platitudes and self-aware dialog, and the hilarious hyperbole, like that Hitler scene. That alone.
Morrison mostly importantly cares about being clever, smart, and informative by putting in as much non-comic ideology as possible, and transcending the ordinary adventure story within that very genre. Ambitious, right? Although his transcendence, one could argue, borders on the pretentious, you can't argue that it's entertaining, weird, fun, memorable, thought-provoking, and intelligent. It's the most extra-ordinary adventure story I've probably ever read. And you just know he's over it. I mean, those "normal" Event stories have their place, those stories still juggle a lot of subplots, but they are limited in what they can achieve in storytelling. In Multiversity, however, the characters speak to the reader, they read Ultra Comics, The Multiversity Guidebook and Map, comics in which they appear, and use these to solve problems. How cool is that?
"Forgive me, but in this room of very dangerous things, that comic book is the most dangerous thing of all."
Whether you love or hate, get or don't get the story, the artwork is phenomenal. My favorite illustrations are by Frank Quitely (Pax Americana), Cameron Stewart (Thunderworld Adventures), and Jim Lee (Mastermen).
A Short Note on the Deluxe Edition...
Grade: B-
This is actually one of the nicer DC deluxe editions, which are known for being shitty. My big complaint? Binding, as usual. The glued binding is too tight and the gutter loss is absurd, whole details and characters are invisible. However, apart from that, the jacket design and printed glossy hardcover are brilliant, and the paper seems thicker and glossier than usual. If DC would’ve done a moderate sewn binding this would be great.
October 24, 2017
and with this review, I can at long last put this graphic novel to bed! it was a memorable relationship, one with a lot of sweet love, some interesting experimentation, and sadly a bit of ok-let's-just-get-this-over-with. this was an intense, sometimes frustrating, sometimes exhausting, but often very exciting experience. it left me tired, but mainly in a good way.
there is so much brilliance between Multiversity's covers, so many fascinating ideas and cheeky asides and enjoyable art (especially from Frank Quitely; no surprise there). there was so much Grant Morrison. he is a literary hero to me but like all artists, all humans, he has his flaws too. in this case the major flaw is that the sum is not greater than or even equal to several of its parts. there is unfortunately less connectivity between the stories being told here than those told in his Seven Soldiers of Victory miniseries - which was all of a piece, each piece being one part of an ingeniously constructed puzzle that made sense when put together. The Multiversity wants to be something similar but it just isn't... what it is is a collection of sometimes related parts that share certain themes and storylines but don't come together in a form that is as pleasing or as challenging as Seven Soldiers. it is not as organic as it so strenuously strives to be. eh, what of it. several of these stories are practically standalones anyway and they don't even need connectivity to the other stories to be amazing accomplishments.
I can't say that I got a lot out of the framing stories (The Multiversity #1 and The Multiversity #2: Justice Incarnate. there was an often exhilarating breathlessness to its pacing; the sheer number of characters and concepts and potential & actual plotlines being thrown at the reader was a lot of head-spinning fun. but those framing stories also felt chaotic and at times rather sloppy and rushed.
perhaps the most endearing part overall was when I was reminded of the musical version of Peter Pan - specifically the part where Peter calls on the audience to believe that Tinkerbell can live again, just believe as hard as you can and clap her back to life. that message to the reader, the breaking of the fourth wall and the inclusion of the audience within the narrative, that plea to comic lovers to be a part of the story itself and to turn wishes and dreams into reality... it should have been corny but I found it be charming. who knew that meta could be more about feeling than thinking. well, I guess the musical version of Peter Pan knew. and so does Grant Morrison! at times.
reviews for each of The Multiversity's components:
The Society of Super-Heroes - 4 stars
The Just - 4 stars
Pax Americana - 5 stars
Thunderworld Adventures - 3 stars
Guidebook - 3 stars
Mastermen - 3 stars
Ultra Comics - 2 stars
there is so much brilliance between Multiversity's covers, so many fascinating ideas and cheeky asides and enjoyable art (especially from Frank Quitely; no surprise there). there was so much Grant Morrison. he is a literary hero to me but like all artists, all humans, he has his flaws too. in this case the major flaw is that the sum is not greater than or even equal to several of its parts. there is unfortunately less connectivity between the stories being told here than those told in his Seven Soldiers of Victory miniseries - which was all of a piece, each piece being one part of an ingeniously constructed puzzle that made sense when put together. The Multiversity wants to be something similar but it just isn't... what it is is a collection of sometimes related parts that share certain themes and storylines but don't come together in a form that is as pleasing or as challenging as Seven Soldiers. it is not as organic as it so strenuously strives to be. eh, what of it. several of these stories are practically standalones anyway and they don't even need connectivity to the other stories to be amazing accomplishments.
I can't say that I got a lot out of the framing stories (The Multiversity #1 and The Multiversity #2: Justice Incarnate. there was an often exhilarating breathlessness to its pacing; the sheer number of characters and concepts and potential & actual plotlines being thrown at the reader was a lot of head-spinning fun. but those framing stories also felt chaotic and at times rather sloppy and rushed.
perhaps the most endearing part overall was when I was reminded of the musical version of Peter Pan - specifically the part where Peter calls on the audience to believe that Tinkerbell can live again, just believe as hard as you can and clap her back to life. that message to the reader, the breaking of the fourth wall and the inclusion of the audience within the narrative, that plea to comic lovers to be a part of the story itself and to turn wishes and dreams into reality... it should have been corny but I found it be charming. who knew that meta could be more about feeling than thinking. well, I guess the musical version of Peter Pan knew. and so does Grant Morrison! at times.
reviews for each of The Multiversity's components:
The Society of Super-Heroes - 4 stars
The Just - 4 stars
Pax Americana - 5 stars
Thunderworld Adventures - 3 stars
Guidebook - 3 stars
Mastermen - 3 stars
Ultra Comics - 2 stars
September 1, 2024
The Gentry are encroaching on the Multiverse and Nix Uotan, last of the Monitors, must assemble a force of the mightiest beings of the 52 worlds to stop them!
Okay, that's the bare bones of the plot but it's hard to write a teaser for this level of insanity.
Grant Morrison and I don't have the best track record. I loved All-Star Superman but Final Crisis did nothing for me. I either wind up loving their work or not knowing what the fuck is going on. The Multiversity is some crazy shit but it's coherent, awesome crazy shit. Grant Morrison is a DC historian and The Multiversity hits most of the stops on the map.
The story is bookended by Nix Uotan's plight against the Gentry, creatures from outside the local multiverse. The rest of the book is done in one tales set on different worlds in the multiverse. Without spoiling too much, Doc Fate's retro future 1940s, Pax Americana's Watchmen-like take on the Charlton characters, and Thunderworld's tales of Captain Marvel were easily my favorites. The stories were written so that any of them could be the starting point of a new title for DC. Of course, they have yet to take advantage of any of them in favor of churning out more Superman and Batman.
Grant Morrison always throws big ideas around and may be the heir of Jack Kirby in that regard. Hints of untold stories lie on every page. Each of the earths visited feels lived in and not just whipped up for one issue. Nuggets of DC history are focused through Morrison's lens and worked into something different. It's a Crisis made up of individual crises.
Easter eggs abound, from Enemy Ace being the one to discover Superman's rocket to Dino-Cop, the Savage Dragon analogue that gets a surprising amount of screen time. It's been a long time since Ultra The Multi-Alien has been seen. I might have to dig out Who's Who to identify some of the characters when I inevitably reread this.
The Multiversity is Grant Morrison's psychotic love letter/ransom note to the DC multiverse and comics in general.
2024 Reread This seems like even more of a fun mess on the reread. Favorite issues this go-round are the Society of Super-Heroes and Thunderworld. Pax Americana is still a fucking mess. Call me a party pooper but I think being clever doesn't mean much if the end result isn't easy to read and/or understand. I think my favorite thing about the Multiversity is that it gives a glimpse of the unrealized potential of the DC multiverse.
Okay, that's the bare bones of the plot but it's hard to write a teaser for this level of insanity.
Grant Morrison and I don't have the best track record. I loved All-Star Superman but Final Crisis did nothing for me. I either wind up loving their work or not knowing what the fuck is going on. The Multiversity is some crazy shit but it's coherent, awesome crazy shit. Grant Morrison is a DC historian and The Multiversity hits most of the stops on the map.
The story is bookended by Nix Uotan's plight against the Gentry, creatures from outside the local multiverse. The rest of the book is done in one tales set on different worlds in the multiverse. Without spoiling too much, Doc Fate's retro future 1940s, Pax Americana's Watchmen-like take on the Charlton characters, and Thunderworld's tales of Captain Marvel were easily my favorites. The stories were written so that any of them could be the starting point of a new title for DC. Of course, they have yet to take advantage of any of them in favor of churning out more Superman and Batman.
Grant Morrison always throws big ideas around and may be the heir of Jack Kirby in that regard. Hints of untold stories lie on every page. Each of the earths visited feels lived in and not just whipped up for one issue. Nuggets of DC history are focused through Morrison's lens and worked into something different. It's a Crisis made up of individual crises.
Easter eggs abound, from Enemy Ace being the one to discover Superman's rocket to Dino-Cop, the Savage Dragon analogue that gets a surprising amount of screen time. It's been a long time since Ultra The Multi-Alien has been seen. I might have to dig out Who's Who to identify some of the characters when I inevitably reread this.
The Multiversity is Grant Morrison's psychotic love letter/ransom note to the DC multiverse and comics in general.
2024 Reread This seems like even more of a fun mess on the reread. Favorite issues this go-round are the Society of Super-Heroes and Thunderworld. Pax Americana is still a fucking mess. Call me a party pooper but I think being clever doesn't mean much if the end result isn't easy to read and/or understand. I think my favorite thing about the Multiversity is that it gives a glimpse of the unrealized potential of the DC multiverse.
March 22, 2021
Although not Grant Morrison's finest work ever (the comparative Seven Soldiers comes to mind, similar but even better), Multiversity is infinitely finer than anything else in superhero comics today and definitely deserves five stars.
Years in the making, it kind of reads like a crossover but it stands alone. That in itself is very refreshing. Hypothetically DC could use all these other Earths in the future, but unfortunately Grant Morrison's track record shows that after he's done with a brilliant run nobody wants to go back to those mythos.
All in all, some of the chapters are absolutely perfectly-crafted comics. I quite enjoyed The Just, an irreverent take on superheroes and tabloids. Captain Marvel was a lot of fun, both cheesy and poignant. Of course, the Guidebook lays out the whole universe and the explains the metafictional elements in fascinating manner. And mostly I must praise the absolute perfection of Pax Americana -- ostensibly a riff on Watchmen and political comics yet does it in its own original way. Nothing like Frank Quietly and Grant Morrison working together.
Does get repetitive at times with the mysterious villainous forces trying to psych you out with how evil they are. But I get it, supposed to be epically into the good vs. evil themes of hero stories and does so as apologetically as possible.
Morrison is often weakest in endings. What did it all mean? Will there be a sequel? I can only hope there will be more to read, and I hope it doesn't take too many years to come out...
Years in the making, it kind of reads like a crossover but it stands alone. That in itself is very refreshing. Hypothetically DC could use all these other Earths in the future, but unfortunately Grant Morrison's track record shows that after he's done with a brilliant run nobody wants to go back to those mythos.
All in all, some of the chapters are absolutely perfectly-crafted comics. I quite enjoyed The Just, an irreverent take on superheroes and tabloids. Captain Marvel was a lot of fun, both cheesy and poignant. Of course, the Guidebook lays out the whole universe and the explains the metafictional elements in fascinating manner. And mostly I must praise the absolute perfection of Pax Americana -- ostensibly a riff on Watchmen and political comics yet does it in its own original way. Nothing like Frank Quietly and Grant Morrison working together.
Does get repetitive at times with the mysterious villainous forces trying to psych you out with how evil they are. But I get it, supposed to be epically into the good vs. evil themes of hero stories and does so as apologetically as possible.
Morrison is often weakest in endings. What did it all mean? Will there be a sequel? I can only hope there will be more to read, and I hope it doesn't take too many years to come out...
December 27, 2021
A good example of my complicated admiration for Grant Morrison – parts of this were brilliant, other parts I wasn’t sure about and other parts were just weird.
Well, let me say, it’s all brilliant, Morrison really is an important creator in the comic universe – some of this I liked more than other parts.
REALLY COOL – his descriptions of the various Earths like Earth -3, Earth – 7, etc. We see different Batmans, Supermen, diverse alternate universes with divergent backstories and histories.
COOL BUT SKETCHY – Morrison explains how the seams between the worlds is bleeding through in the form of comic books. This is cool and provides some interesting break the fourth wall opportunities, but it also got a little weird.
TOO WEIRD – I was not a fan of some of the alternate realities and the way he ties it all together was a little on the -meh – side.
Overall, a fun and entertaining – and important – entry in the DC multiverse.
Well, let me say, it’s all brilliant, Morrison really is an important creator in the comic universe – some of this I liked more than other parts.
REALLY COOL – his descriptions of the various Earths like Earth -3, Earth – 7, etc. We see different Batmans, Supermen, diverse alternate universes with divergent backstories and histories.
COOL BUT SKETCHY – Morrison explains how the seams between the worlds is bleeding through in the form of comic books. This is cool and provides some interesting break the fourth wall opportunities, but it also got a little weird.
TOO WEIRD – I was not a fan of some of the alternate realities and the way he ties it all together was a little on the -meh – side.
Overall, a fun and entertaining – and important – entry in the DC multiverse.
January 14, 2019
Great all around art with an A-list artist taking on each issue. As with most of Grant Morrison's work, it's confusing in places. I have to say I enjoyed the stand alone stories more than the overarching storyline, especially since the first several issues barely even mention it.
October 16, 2015
(Received from Netgalley for review.)
So. This is a thing that happened, and I read it. That could probably be my capsule review for something like 65% of Morrison's work, and it would likely be a fairly valid review. I have respect for Morrison as a creator who isn't afraid to think big, and this is pretty damn big. I also feel a certain level of frustration for his work, as he regularly has ideas that are too big for him to convey effectively. This is maybe one of them, a story so big that it spans fifty realities, with layers of meaning that I'm not sure I was able to penetrate.
So let's put the layers aside for a moment, and look at the work on the surface. You could essentially read the first and last issue of Multiversity as one complete story and get basically everything it has to offer. Everything in between is sort of filler, except it kind of isn't, because the filler is kind of the point, I think. Because I do think that at least part of the point, for Morrison, was getting to play in all these different playgrounds. Which he does quite well, actually. The Society of Super-Heroes, Pax Americana, and Mastermen issues were all remarkably well done. Yes, Pax Americana is a sort of Watchmen send up, but it's a damn good one. If the entire Multiversity event had only been about letting Morrison write every genre of comic in history, I think I would have been pretty happy. The actual event part was, in my opinion, the weakest part of the collection.
The art is uniformly good across the entire series. Not bad, considering the sheer number of artists, well over half a dozen. Not only is the quality consistently high, the styles are perfectly matched to the current story. Unfortunately, Multiversity never quite becomes more than the (admittedly very good) sum of its parts. But that's kind of Morrison's thing, isn't it?
So. This is a thing that happened, and I read it. That could probably be my capsule review for something like 65% of Morrison's work, and it would likely be a fairly valid review. I have respect for Morrison as a creator who isn't afraid to think big, and this is pretty damn big. I also feel a certain level of frustration for his work, as he regularly has ideas that are too big for him to convey effectively. This is maybe one of them, a story so big that it spans fifty realities, with layers of meaning that I'm not sure I was able to penetrate.
So let's put the layers aside for a moment, and look at the work on the surface. You could essentially read the first and last issue of Multiversity as one complete story and get basically everything it has to offer. Everything in between is sort of filler, except it kind of isn't, because the filler is kind of the point, I think. Because I do think that at least part of the point, for Morrison, was getting to play in all these different playgrounds. Which he does quite well, actually. The Society of Super-Heroes, Pax Americana, and Mastermen issues were all remarkably well done. Yes, Pax Americana is a sort of Watchmen send up, but it's a damn good one. If the entire Multiversity event had only been about letting Morrison write every genre of comic in history, I think I would have been pretty happy. The actual event part was, in my opinion, the weakest part of the collection.
The art is uniformly good across the entire series. Not bad, considering the sheer number of artists, well over half a dozen. Not only is the quality consistently high, the styles are perfectly matched to the current story. Unfortunately, Multiversity never quite becomes more than the (admittedly very good) sum of its parts. But that's kind of Morrison's thing, isn't it?
March 28, 2021
Finally taking proper time and research to re-read Multiversity, I can't help but be completely mesmerised by what Morrison did here. Multiversity is, in a lot of ways, a culmination of everything they did at DC since the 80's. And I mean everything — seeds of Multiversity can be seen as far back as their 1988 run of Animal Man, and most of their other work gets tied into this mega-event at least thematically, if not plot-wise. It's amazing, and the amount of plotting, structuring and actual engineering that went into this series is truly staggering. I mean, who else could come up with the actual, working, down to the last detail model of a DC multiverse? And then show it on a page in a way that makes sense and is easy to grasp? That alone is a stunning achievement, and the smart and engaging story that comes with it almost feels like a bonus.
But yeah, that story. Multiversity is not structured like a regular event comic. Instead it's more like a series of loosely connected one-shots bookended by two main issues and split in the middle by a textbook. On the surface it may seem like a regular good-vs-bad superhero schtick, and it is, on some level. But it's THE ULTIMATE good-vs-bad superhero schtick, because it's basically all of them happening at once. And it's also so much more than just that! It's Morrison's ultimate commentary on the history and the state of DC in particular and superhero comics in general, it's the culmination of almost three decades they personally spent writing comics, as well as an attempt to close the book on several big DC titles, namely Watchmen with Pax Americana and Kingdom Come with The Just.
It's also meta as all hell. It's the most Morrison-y book out there outside of The Invisibles, so people who can't stand their particular idiosyncrasies generally have a blast tearing Multiversity to pieces. Personally, they've become my favourite writer over the years, so I obviously tend to love their style, and I found the meta aspect of Multiversity really cool. And it's something that went completely over my head the first few times I've read this book! The concept of other universes' realities being other universes' comic books is something they've been doing for years, but here that concept reaches its peak. Spoiler alert for a plot point that most people seem to miss anyway: the much-hyped 'cursed' issue of Ultra Comics is set on Earth Prime, which is our actual Earth. Just by reading this issue you, the reader, become the entry point for the villain inside the multiverse, who then proceeds to spread and infect every other connected comic world. It infects the multiverse through your thoughts! Brilliant!
Of course, there are also all the easter eggs, the little details, the winks and nods and the references. I am not a DC scholar, but I always aspire to learn more about this universe. And books like Multiversity are the reason — they tend to show off the best, most unique and imaginative aspects of its universe (or multiverse, as the case may be) that make my poor geeky heart beat that much faster. As much as I love Marvel and their built-in interconnected narrative, their universe has got nothing on DC in terms of scale, scope and structure, or at least none of their creators went to the same lengths as Morrison did to dig it all up and string it together.
And then there is the art. Each issue is done by one of comics' top tier artists like Ivan Reis, Cameron Stewart, Ben Oliver, Jim Lee, Frank Quitely and many others. Not only does every issue look spectacular in itself, each artist is perfectly matched for the story they're working on. Who else to (attempt to) close the book on Watchmen with Grant Morrison other than Frank Quitely and his flawlessly structured 8-panel grid? Who else to evoke the spirit of Alex Ross on Kingdom Come than the airy painted art of Ben Oliver? And who else to draw Hitler shitting in agony in the homage to pure 90's comic book excess other than Jim Lee himself? Yes, that Grant Morrison knows how to pick their artists alright.
Overall, Multiversity is definitely a challenging read, and it took me several readings over the years to really fall in love with it. It requires a lot of background knowledge to really appreciate its themes, plots and structure, it was largely ignored by other DC creators since its release, it had its editorial and publishing hiccups, and it's ultimately not a book that will end up on many readers' list of favourites. But it is on mine, because it's one of those comics that I keep thinking about and coming back to revisit, and I always find something new and exciting.
But yeah, that story. Multiversity is not structured like a regular event comic. Instead it's more like a series of loosely connected one-shots bookended by two main issues and split in the middle by a textbook. On the surface it may seem like a regular good-vs-bad superhero schtick, and it is, on some level. But it's THE ULTIMATE good-vs-bad superhero schtick, because it's basically all of them happening at once. And it's also so much more than just that! It's Morrison's ultimate commentary on the history and the state of DC in particular and superhero comics in general, it's the culmination of almost three decades they personally spent writing comics, as well as an attempt to close the book on several big DC titles, namely Watchmen with Pax Americana and Kingdom Come with The Just.
It's also meta as all hell. It's the most Morrison-y book out there outside of The Invisibles, so people who can't stand their particular idiosyncrasies generally have a blast tearing Multiversity to pieces. Personally, they've become my favourite writer over the years, so I obviously tend to love their style, and I found the meta aspect of Multiversity really cool. And it's something that went completely over my head the first few times I've read this book! The concept of other universes' realities being other universes' comic books is something they've been doing for years, but here that concept reaches its peak. Spoiler alert for a plot point that most people seem to miss anyway: the much-hyped 'cursed' issue of Ultra Comics is set on Earth Prime, which is our actual Earth. Just by reading this issue you, the reader, become the entry point for the villain inside the multiverse, who then proceeds to spread and infect every other connected comic world. It infects the multiverse through your thoughts! Brilliant!
Of course, there are also all the easter eggs, the little details, the winks and nods and the references. I am not a DC scholar, but I always aspire to learn more about this universe. And books like Multiversity are the reason — they tend to show off the best, most unique and imaginative aspects of its universe (or multiverse, as the case may be) that make my poor geeky heart beat that much faster. As much as I love Marvel and their built-in interconnected narrative, their universe has got nothing on DC in terms of scale, scope and structure, or at least none of their creators went to the same lengths as Morrison did to dig it all up and string it together.
And then there is the art. Each issue is done by one of comics' top tier artists like Ivan Reis, Cameron Stewart, Ben Oliver, Jim Lee, Frank Quitely and many others. Not only does every issue look spectacular in itself, each artist is perfectly matched for the story they're working on. Who else to (attempt to) close the book on Watchmen with Grant Morrison other than Frank Quitely and his flawlessly structured 8-panel grid? Who else to evoke the spirit of Alex Ross on Kingdom Come than the airy painted art of Ben Oliver? And who else to draw Hitler shitting in agony in the homage to pure 90's comic book excess other than Jim Lee himself? Yes, that Grant Morrison knows how to pick their artists alright.
Overall, Multiversity is definitely a challenging read, and it took me several readings over the years to really fall in love with it. It requires a lot of background knowledge to really appreciate its themes, plots and structure, it was largely ignored by other DC creators since its release, it had its editorial and publishing hiccups, and it's ultimately not a book that will end up on many readers' list of favourites. But it is on mine, because it's one of those comics that I keep thinking about and coming back to revisit, and I always find something new and exciting.
July 15, 2016
#HotGloriousMess. That's the only tag-line I can think to describe this sprawling epic by legendary comics scribe Grant Morrison; I found this book hypnotic and engaging, and I was quite literally unable to put it down until I completed it.
This "event series" was in large part the finale of the "Crisis" saga (Which, for the purposes of brevity and sanity, I'm not going to attempt to recap), and the precursor of the "Convergence" event that DC published in early 2015.
In a nutshell, the DC Universe posits that there are 52 seperate Earths, each one different from the other, but all interlinked. What this series posists is that the DC Multiverse is under-attack by extraplanar entities and the brightest heroes of the Multiverse must band together to stop them.
What seemingly annoyed many readers (but I enjoyed) was the fact that you generally won't see many of the A-List superheroes of the DCU. What you will see is new takes on existing characters (Earth-2 Superman), or revivals of long-forgotten ones (like Abin Sur.) And, on a personal note, as an unashamed fan of "Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew", I was pleased as punch to see his appearence in this series!
Additionaly, the book was a sort of a meta-textual narrative, where the narrative is driven by a young comics fan, blogging about the very issue he is reading, only to realize that he is actually a Monitor of the Multiverse, and a linchpin of this fight.
For a Grant Morrison book, this is surprsingly accessible, and shockingly doesn't require absolute knowledge of the DCU; everything you need to digest the series is contained in these pages, and the Guidebook is a sort of excellent "Coda" explaining about each worlds quirks in a nutshell.
4 Mulitverse-shattering stars. (Full disclosue: With many thanks, I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
This "event series" was in large part the finale of the "Crisis" saga (Which, for the purposes of brevity and sanity, I'm not going to attempt to recap), and the precursor of the "Convergence" event that DC published in early 2015.
In a nutshell, the DC Universe posits that there are 52 seperate Earths, each one different from the other, but all interlinked. What this series posists is that the DC Multiverse is under-attack by extraplanar entities and the brightest heroes of the Multiverse must band together to stop them.
What seemingly annoyed many readers (but I enjoyed) was the fact that you generally won't see many of the A-List superheroes of the DCU. What you will see is new takes on existing characters (Earth-2 Superman), or revivals of long-forgotten ones (like Abin Sur.) And, on a personal note, as an unashamed fan of "Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew", I was pleased as punch to see his appearence in this series!
Additionaly, the book was a sort of a meta-textual narrative, where the narrative is driven by a young comics fan, blogging about the very issue he is reading, only to realize that he is actually a Monitor of the Multiverse, and a linchpin of this fight.
For a Grant Morrison book, this is surprsingly accessible, and shockingly doesn't require absolute knowledge of the DCU; everything you need to digest the series is contained in these pages, and the Guidebook is a sort of excellent "Coda" explaining about each worlds quirks in a nutshell.
4 Mulitverse-shattering stars. (Full disclosue: With many thanks, I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
November 13, 2016
I thoroughly enjoyed this entire series!
Yes, possibly confusing and potentially disjointed, I'm not sure it was intended to be smooth and consistent. Intended to be a possible launching point for several stories (Multiverses!) it revisits many older ones and hints are ones we may have suspected but...well, didn't. (We all suspected The Watchmen - being a Vertigo title - could have been a DC alternate. Dr. Manhatten could have been a Superman alternative. Our visitation to Pax Americana confirms all these things!)
My favourite was Thunderworld. There is something nostalgic, simple, and wholesome about this version of Captain Marvel.
DC succeeded in Multiversity what it dismally failed to accomplish in its multiple cross-over title Convergence. (Let's call it what it is. Convergence ended up being a not-so-well-hidden excuse to sell comics.)
I would give Multiversity four-and-a half stars, but I don't know how to give half-stars.
Yes, possibly confusing and potentially disjointed, I'm not sure it was intended to be smooth and consistent. Intended to be a possible launching point for several stories (Multiverses!) it revisits many older ones and hints are ones we may have suspected but...well, didn't. (We all suspected The Watchmen - being a Vertigo title - could have been a DC alternate. Dr. Manhatten could have been a Superman alternative. Our visitation to Pax Americana confirms all these things!)
My favourite was Thunderworld. There is something nostalgic, simple, and wholesome about this version of Captain Marvel.
DC succeeded in Multiversity what it dismally failed to accomplish in its multiple cross-over title Convergence. (Let's call it what it is. Convergence ended up being a not-so-well-hidden excuse to sell comics.)
I would give Multiversity four-and-a half stars, but I don't know how to give half-stars.
September 4, 2017
As part of my 2017 rereading list, The Multiversity by Grant Morrison is an ambitious project that is really worth a second read. With the recent events in DC's Rebirth era, this book becomes an even more relevant (yet still an unnecessary) read for DC comics fans.
The Multiversity is a series of mostly one-shots whose stories can stand alone, almost independent tales from different worlds covered by an overarching plot that some evil called the Gentry (and ) has been causing chaos throughout the Multiverse. Such event with an extremely big scope can be handled by only a few writers, like Morrison himself. Despite having tendencies for the philosophy and dialogue drowning with "Morrison-isms", I personally feel that The Multiversity is one of his most reader-friendly creations.
The stories in this book vary from the political Pax Americana to the golden age feels of Thunderworld advntures. What is really, really good with this series is that it has a wide spectrum of comic book story archetypes and sometime along the way, a reader would most definitely like at least one of these stories. The Multiversity goes beyond telling stuff from different universes, but also genuinely captures each of the universe's tone and emotion.
That is the Endless Destiny at the top.
My least favorite issue is the one that supposedly tells about how our on universe is invaded by this evil world. The 4th wall breaks in this issue were really forced and annoyingly abundant, whereas they were more subtle and natural (sometimes creepy) in the other issues. I also did not like the last issue. It was very underwhelming and not worth the buildup. The last issue made the whole Multiversity series more of a teaser.
And that is in fact true. The Multiversity has been referenced in both explicit (see DC Metal #1) and unverified theories in DC Rebirth. So if you are interested in reading this, I ask that you read it with an open mind. This book has some genuinely creepy and happy moments that you will either savor or hate.
The Multiversity is a series of mostly one-shots whose stories can stand alone, almost independent tales from different worlds covered by an overarching plot that some evil called the Gentry (and ) has been causing chaos throughout the Multiverse. Such event with an extremely big scope can be handled by only a few writers, like Morrison himself. Despite having tendencies for the philosophy and dialogue drowning with "Morrison-isms", I personally feel that The Multiversity is one of his most reader-friendly creations.
The stories in this book vary from the political Pax Americana to the golden age feels of Thunderworld advntures. What is really, really good with this series is that it has a wide spectrum of comic book story archetypes and sometime along the way, a reader would most definitely like at least one of these stories. The Multiversity goes beyond telling stuff from different universes, but also genuinely captures each of the universe's tone and emotion.
That is the Endless Destiny at the top.My least favorite issue is the one that supposedly tells about how our on universe is invaded by this evil world. The 4th wall breaks in this issue were really forced and annoyingly abundant, whereas they were more subtle and natural (sometimes creepy) in the other issues. I also did not like the last issue. It was very underwhelming and not worth the buildup. The last issue made the whole Multiversity series more of a teaser.
And that is in fact true. The Multiversity has been referenced in both explicit (see DC Metal #1) and unverified theories in DC Rebirth. So if you are interested in reading this, I ask that you read it with an open mind. This book has some genuinely creepy and happy moments that you will either savor or hate.
February 17, 2019
I read somewhere that Grant Morrison looks upon the "Pax Americana" chapter of this book as his "Citizen Kane".... After reading "Multiversity", all I can think is, "wow, what an insult to Orson Wells".
Multiversity is a frustratingly incoherent mess of a comic book. There are very few moments of cogency, and even when those few moments are upon the reader, they are so random and disconnected from everything else that it is virtually impossible to gleam any meaning from them. It is exactly what we've come to expect from Morrison; flighty, pseudo-philosophical nonsensical dots that can only be connected by the author in a later-to-be published essay or interview. It's the opposite of good storytelling.
I have no idea if the events in this collection actually hold water with the future of the DC continuity, so at this point, until it is known for certain what this 400-page monstrosity means in the grand scale, I say skip the whole damn thing. Maybe pick up the "Guidebook" issue as it is the only issue that seems to contain anything relevant..
1/5
Multiversity is a frustratingly incoherent mess of a comic book. There are very few moments of cogency, and even when those few moments are upon the reader, they are so random and disconnected from everything else that it is virtually impossible to gleam any meaning from them. It is exactly what we've come to expect from Morrison; flighty, pseudo-philosophical nonsensical dots that can only be connected by the author in a later-to-be published essay or interview. It's the opposite of good storytelling.
I have no idea if the events in this collection actually hold water with the future of the DC continuity, so at this point, until it is known for certain what this 400-page monstrosity means in the grand scale, I say skip the whole damn thing. Maybe pick up the "Guidebook" issue as it is the only issue that seems to contain anything relevant..
1/5
June 30, 2016
Just could NOT force any more of this Morrison crapfest down my throat. It's just paint by numbers plot and not very interesting, other than trying to keep track of characters, and that gets annoying, not fun. Too meta, self aware, whatever, just not going to pole any further into it, and I think I'm about done with GM for a long while now...
May 23, 2016
Can't say I'm completely sure about this one. Very Morrisoney but still a fun read. Prepare for confusion, as always.
February 1, 2016
If you know anything about Grant Morrison, is the complex ways of how he expresses his love for the long history of DC Comics, from his legendary seven-year run on Batman (in which the writer took every aspect of the caped crusader’s seventy-five-yearlong history and made it one man’s life) to Final Crisis (which took seven issues of a convoluted narrative to tell a simple message). With his latest DC creation, Morrison presents arguably his most ambitious project that branches through the DC multiverse.
When the multiverse is being invaded by a race of cosmic parasites known as the Gentry, a team must assemble featuring characters from all over the 52 universes to prevent this extra-dimensional threat from annihilating all of reality.
With the premise of a band of superheroes coming together to stop the big threat, this is an idea that goes back to the Justice League or even the Avengers. However, when it comes to Morrison, simplicity is not an option as ultimately what this nine-issue story arc is, is less about plot progression and more interested in exploring the alternate realities as shown in each of the six one-shot issues.
Throughout these particular issues is Morrison’s clever use of pastiche, such as The Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors from the Counter-World (illustrated by Chris Sprouse and Karl Story) in which we see a pulp-style Justice Society of America led by Doc Fate, waging war with their villainous counterparts led by Vandal Savage. Evoking both the pulp fiction and WWII comics, the characters struggle with the boundaries of what’s right and wrong during this time of war. This theme is reflected upon other issues such as the seventh chapter Mastermen (illustrated by Jim Lee and Scott Williams) where Nazi Germany won World War II and an utopia is built by this world's Superman despite the evil he has helped won.
The consequences of heroism in a complicated world of power and politics has always been a fascinating concept from Watchmen to now the best Multiversity issue Pax Americana which is Morrison and artist Frank Quitely’s own pastiche to the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons masterpiece. Taking cue from many elements of Watchmen in terms of themes and artistic structure, Pax Americana finds its own voice that is narratively complex and pushes the boundaries what comics can do visually. This issue continues to prove that when Morrison and Quitely collaborate, do expect the very best of modern comics.
When we get to Thunderworld Adventures (illustrated by Cameron Stewart) which features characters from the Captain Marvel family, this is pure nostalgic superhero storytelling that is plain and simple fun. Perhaps the weakest (certainly the least action-packed) of the one-shots, The Just (illustrated by Ben Oliver) is simply an examination of future generational superheroes that are less about fighting crime – due to a lack of it – and displayed more like celebrities you read about in gossip magazines.
The connection to these issues is that of Ultra Comics (illustrated by Doug Mahnke) in which Morrison is playing with the metaphysics of comic books which are gateways to other universes. Many will say that comic books is a truly powerful art form, but the idea of a haunted comic that will destroy the multiverse is a rather negative exaggeration of the power of comics. You do question about what the writer is trying to say here, but it never gets as frustrating as he did with Final Crisis.
Like I said before, the central plot (The Multiversity #1 and #2 illustrated by Ivan Reis) is really the least interesting aspect of the book which is a visually impressive odyssey through the DC multiverse as drawn by artists – Ivan Reis, Jim Lee, Doug Mahnke, Frank Quitely, Chris Sprouse, Ben Oliver, Cameron Stewart – who are all doing their best at visually translating Morrison’s grand ideas. If you’re a DC anorak, you’ll definitely get a good kick out of The Multiversity Guidebook, a map showcasing detailed entries on all 52 earths.
When the multiverse is being invaded by a race of cosmic parasites known as the Gentry, a team must assemble featuring characters from all over the 52 universes to prevent this extra-dimensional threat from annihilating all of reality.
With the premise of a band of superheroes coming together to stop the big threat, this is an idea that goes back to the Justice League or even the Avengers. However, when it comes to Morrison, simplicity is not an option as ultimately what this nine-issue story arc is, is less about plot progression and more interested in exploring the alternate realities as shown in each of the six one-shot issues.
Throughout these particular issues is Morrison’s clever use of pastiche, such as The Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors from the Counter-World (illustrated by Chris Sprouse and Karl Story) in which we see a pulp-style Justice Society of America led by Doc Fate, waging war with their villainous counterparts led by Vandal Savage. Evoking both the pulp fiction and WWII comics, the characters struggle with the boundaries of what’s right and wrong during this time of war. This theme is reflected upon other issues such as the seventh chapter Mastermen (illustrated by Jim Lee and Scott Williams) where Nazi Germany won World War II and an utopia is built by this world's Superman despite the evil he has helped won.
The consequences of heroism in a complicated world of power and politics has always been a fascinating concept from Watchmen to now the best Multiversity issue Pax Americana which is Morrison and artist Frank Quitely’s own pastiche to the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons masterpiece. Taking cue from many elements of Watchmen in terms of themes and artistic structure, Pax Americana finds its own voice that is narratively complex and pushes the boundaries what comics can do visually. This issue continues to prove that when Morrison and Quitely collaborate, do expect the very best of modern comics.
When we get to Thunderworld Adventures (illustrated by Cameron Stewart) which features characters from the Captain Marvel family, this is pure nostalgic superhero storytelling that is plain and simple fun. Perhaps the weakest (certainly the least action-packed) of the one-shots, The Just (illustrated by Ben Oliver) is simply an examination of future generational superheroes that are less about fighting crime – due to a lack of it – and displayed more like celebrities you read about in gossip magazines.
The connection to these issues is that of Ultra Comics (illustrated by Doug Mahnke) in which Morrison is playing with the metaphysics of comic books which are gateways to other universes. Many will say that comic books is a truly powerful art form, but the idea of a haunted comic that will destroy the multiverse is a rather negative exaggeration of the power of comics. You do question about what the writer is trying to say here, but it never gets as frustrating as he did with Final Crisis.
Like I said before, the central plot (The Multiversity #1 and #2 illustrated by Ivan Reis) is really the least interesting aspect of the book which is a visually impressive odyssey through the DC multiverse as drawn by artists – Ivan Reis, Jim Lee, Doug Mahnke, Frank Quitely, Chris Sprouse, Ben Oliver, Cameron Stewart – who are all doing their best at visually translating Morrison’s grand ideas. If you’re a DC anorak, you’ll definitely get a good kick out of The Multiversity Guidebook, a map showcasing detailed entries on all 52 earths.
September 14, 2016
"Who dares get in OUR way? What power triumphs over sheer ABSURDITY?"
Truer words were never spoken, Captain Carrot.
Truer words were never spoken, Captain Carrot.
June 30, 2020
This is a really cool experiment which kind of works! He didn't start anything here, he just connected the whole DC universe for fun. Many people here ask if this was necesary? I don't know but I am glad I bought this book.
The story is good. (yes something can just be good). He was so into the ambitious concepting of this project that the rest was just scuffolding to support all this build up, even if that big premise at the end, does not tell us anything we don't allready know about ourselves and the comicbook industry. Heck, even tho the scuffolding is so visible, he wrote it with his crazy humor and usual quality that I just end up liking it, and thats probably where it might fall apart for some, if you don't like Morrisons writing this is him with little to no constraints. (not for everyone)
The different visits to the multiple earths was what I cherrished the most about this book, what a cool way of tying them together! I was thinking this is where there could've been more pages of story, simply by exploring.. and in certain cases revisiting these characters and letting them interact with each other. It does feel a bit like a missed opportunity but thats probably just the little kid in me shouting "I want more!", still I am sure this book will get better over time.
What I felt was lacking the most was a more satisfying "punch line" as this seemed pretty run of the mill: 2+2= this ending. Which is surprising because in the Invisibles, Grant Morrison carefully crafted a great rewarding ending, here it seemed all that attention went into the second act of the book (middle).
It does not try to be mindblowingly grand as thats what every other cross over event tried to be and in some cases was, so this simple ending might be his way of swimming against the mainstream. As he probably would have hated to write just another crossover-story about the good guys teaming up against the great danger from outer space/dimension.
If you read other Grant Morrison material this will feel like familiar territory sprinkled with themes he explored allready, but it works and in my opinion Morrison was the perfect man for writing this event. With more time he could've probably fleshed it out better but I guess this could have been a endless time sink or lets call it a beginning with no end.
Recommended for avid comic readers 4.0 out of 5 stars
The story is good. (yes something can just be good). He was so into the ambitious concepting of this project that the rest was just scuffolding to support all this build up, even if that big premise at the end, does not tell us anything we don't allready know about ourselves and the comicbook industry. Heck, even tho the scuffolding is so visible, he wrote it with his crazy humor and usual quality that I just end up liking it, and thats probably where it might fall apart for some, if you don't like Morrisons writing this is him with little to no constraints. (not for everyone)
The different visits to the multiple earths was what I cherrished the most about this book, what a cool way of tying them together! I was thinking this is where there could've been more pages of story, simply by exploring.. and in certain cases revisiting these characters and letting them interact with each other. It does feel a bit like a missed opportunity but thats probably just the little kid in me shouting "I want more!", still I am sure this book will get better over time.
What I felt was lacking the most was a more satisfying "punch line" as this seemed pretty run of the mill: 2+2= this ending. Which is surprising because in the Invisibles, Grant Morrison carefully crafted a great rewarding ending, here it seemed all that attention went into the second act of the book (middle).
It does not try to be mindblowingly grand as thats what every other cross over event tried to be and in some cases was, so this simple ending might be his way of swimming against the mainstream. As he probably would have hated to write just another crossover-story about the good guys teaming up against the great danger from outer space/dimension.
If you read other Grant Morrison material this will feel like familiar territory sprinkled with themes he explored allready, but it works and in my opinion Morrison was the perfect man for writing this event. With more time he could've probably fleshed it out better but I guess this could have been a endless time sink or lets call it a beginning with no end.
Recommended for avid comic readers 4.0 out of 5 stars
May 8, 2015
Some of Morrison's best stuff. Ambitious, but not (overly) drenched in pretensions. From the concept to the execution, this book is pretty damn out there, but consistently enormously entertaining and original. Here's a comic where Morrison is actually about as good as he thinks he is.
November 16, 2020
This is my second re-read of this Book. The first time I gave it a 3/5 and that original review, most of which stands, is below this "Updated" review.
With a bit more understanding of the clusterfuck that is "continuity" for DC comics, I have a better understanding of the background for The Multiversity. With stories such as "Crisis" and "Infinite Crisis", DC did try to get some order to this mess. But it was still a mess (and is). So they decided to give Grant Morrison a lot of drugs and an attempt to make sense of this mess. This is The Multiversity. It explains the different "Earths" and tries to bring some semblance of order to the DC multiverse. In fact, there are some great maps and info in this volume that help to explain quite a bit.
Thus, with that in mind, I gave the series an additional star. It is still an amazing work of creativity and the artwork is still stellar. I give GM a great deal of credit for trying to fix this mess and to a certain extent, he does do so. Sp 4/5. Odd but highly recommended. Original review follows:
Grant Morrison has written a magnum opus in the Multiversity. But in typical GM fashion there is much that is laudable and much that is open to criticism. First the good- Multiversity is a HUGE concept. GM specializes in huge concepts, it's just his ability to pull them off consistently that is in question. Multiversity is, in essence, about a cursed comic book that is destroying different multiverses. As stupid as that sounds it is not the real gem of the story, since the story itself is rather pedestrian. The beauty of this series is the depth and breadth of vision in creating these different multiverses. Each one has a different artist rendering it. The scope is awesome. The sheer difference between certain worlds and their heroes is mind-boggling and only someone like GM could have come up with this. So why the 3 stars only?
The story. In a nutshell- its confusing and all over the place. While it is interesting to see the different multiverses, and enjoy their unique art styles, the overarching story will leave most readers with a WTF feeling. This is a story most people will either love or hate. I, personally, did not care for the story-but the unique art and the visions of the different multiverses do mitigate the confusing and often bizarre plot. This will have traction as a work of art but as a great comic story? Not so much.
With a bit more understanding of the clusterfuck that is "continuity" for DC comics, I have a better understanding of the background for The Multiversity. With stories such as "Crisis" and "Infinite Crisis", DC did try to get some order to this mess. But it was still a mess (and is). So they decided to give Grant Morrison a lot of drugs and an attempt to make sense of this mess. This is The Multiversity. It explains the different "Earths" and tries to bring some semblance of order to the DC multiverse. In fact, there are some great maps and info in this volume that help to explain quite a bit.
Thus, with that in mind, I gave the series an additional star. It is still an amazing work of creativity and the artwork is still stellar. I give GM a great deal of credit for trying to fix this mess and to a certain extent, he does do so. Sp 4/5. Odd but highly recommended. Original review follows:
Grant Morrison has written a magnum opus in the Multiversity. But in typical GM fashion there is much that is laudable and much that is open to criticism. First the good- Multiversity is a HUGE concept. GM specializes in huge concepts, it's just his ability to pull them off consistently that is in question. Multiversity is, in essence, about a cursed comic book that is destroying different multiverses. As stupid as that sounds it is not the real gem of the story, since the story itself is rather pedestrian. The beauty of this series is the depth and breadth of vision in creating these different multiverses. Each one has a different artist rendering it. The scope is awesome. The sheer difference between certain worlds and their heroes is mind-boggling and only someone like GM could have come up with this. So why the 3 stars only?
The story. In a nutshell- its confusing and all over the place. While it is interesting to see the different multiverses, and enjoy their unique art styles, the overarching story will leave most readers with a WTF feeling. This is a story most people will either love or hate. I, personally, did not care for the story-but the unique art and the visions of the different multiverses do mitigate the confusing and often bizarre plot. This will have traction as a work of art but as a great comic story? Not so much.
April 19, 2016
Even if his name wasn't on the cover, this positively reeks of Grant Morrison. In some ways, this is the opposite of the 80's series, Crisis On Infinite Earths. Ultimately, the concept of alternate Earths was too rich (and useful for a company with such a long history) to ever go away, despite Crisis' best intentions. So this series sets up a bunch of alternate Earths, as well as an overarching structure to the whole concept. We'll see how long this lasts. Writers are a clever lot, and it's inevitable that someone will eventually write a story that adds further layers of complexity to this idea, and then THAT will be further complicated, and so on. This story is, perhaps, more for comics fans than casual readers. There's a certain delight in recognizing Captain Carrot, and the Lieutenant Marvels, and the Freedom Fighters, and Harbinger, and Kamandi, and OMAC, and the Charlton heroes (in a Watchmen homage, no less), and so on, that people unfamiliar with those characters won't feel. That said, I think this story works quite well. The metatextual aspects were enjoyable. Morrison tends to paint with broad strokes, and trusts the reader to fill in the details. This can be frustrating to keep up with at times, but he keeps it relatively under control with this book. I'd even go so far as to say this is one of the best things he's written since We3, or even his initial run on Doom Patrol. Definitely recommended!
November 18, 2016
Wow, this is not for the faint of heart. I would only recommend this to serious DC fans. It's incredibly long for a comic and it's also really tricky. One issue I had with this is that it reaches really far without really explaining the science of how some being is attacking the entire multiverse. Maybe it did somewhere in there and I don't remember. It's also a little difficult to keep up with all the new characters and Earths. But overall, this was really cool. I'm glad that they opened up possibilities for different characters and worlds with this and it's cool that they didn't show the heroes we are all so used to at all really. There are some really cool issues in this and the Multiverse Guide Book is incredibly useful. I guess the best way to describe this book is Crisis on Infinite Earths in 2015 on cocaine, haha. In a good way.
October 20, 2015
Eh... Morrison is a very 50/50 writer, 50% chance it will be great, and 50% chance you have a bad case of Morrisoneitas headache afterwards! This was a Morrisoneitas read! Now first lets get to the premise, its pretty simple, heroes from Parallel earths, come together to from a Multiverse League which has every earth under its jurisdiction! Unfortunately the story gets really confusing as you read it! You will probably have to read it a second time, to know what the hell was going on! But passed the negatives this book had many pros, one being the addition of the Black Superman from earth 38! (A Morrison created character from Action Comics!) Also some other welcomed characters like a rabbit superman?(I'm not joking) The artwork was also really good! Overall an okay read!
July 21, 2019
170719: ambitious. i do not know how usual this might be in comics- but naming the villain 'the gentry' certainly reflects level of self-directed satire. how many of these 52 worlds are actual comics i do not know, why 52 i do not know, how representative i do not know... v good, consistent, illustration style, nothing much too out of place. read this over weeks, bit by bit, as i imagine one does read comics. more fun, less fun. sometimes 5, sometimes 3. just generally intriguing. now i feel there are entire catalogs of superhero comics i do not need to read...
September 6, 2016
The Good: Awesome concepts, awesome art, and possessed of an awesome sense of energy and purpose...
The Bad: It's ethereal; separated from other comics by a gulf not even a Super can bridge. It needs a "Guidebook" to understand what is going on. The subtleties behaved like black holes, sucking the good plot points away. No appearances by the Earth-1 superheroes that we have come to love.
The U.G.L.I.E. (Ultimately Great Little Individual Extravagances): First of all, Ultra -- The Living Comic Book was ultra-awesome in concept and execution! Then, True Believer, there were several vary subtle revenge strikes against That Other Comic Publisher. The jibes could almost go unnoticed, but they were absolutely hilarious.
In the end, though, the story was (for me) too hard to follow and not smoothly gathered into the conclusion. I can only go as high as (for me) a 3.5-star rating. (3.5 makes it merely likeable, but with some really really likeable aspects.) Ultimately it had the feel of something published to increase sales for a season, and not a a story I need on my shelf.
HOWEVER, I must tell one little tale. To enjoy it, we must briefly leave the DC Multiverse and visit the Marvel Zombies Universe. In the Marvel Zombies collections, an unnamed super-super-dooper superhero from some never-before seen universe is the last surviving creature from his world -- but he is a brain-craving flesh-eating rotting zombie. He super-punches the barrier between worlds and breaks into the Marvel universe, beginning the infection.
There have been several explanations for this unknown superhero. The story I like best, and it has some supporting evidence, is that this was a hidden easter-egg of Superman (a DC character), and that the creative team felt that DC, the corporation, was occupied by mindless zombies, so who better to be the source of the infection. True or not, it is possible!
Into our TARDIS to advance several years and return to the DC Multiverse!
I found two occasions in The Multiversity where zombie-creatures are fighting the heroes of the DC Multiverse. The first is dressed much like the Zombie-Zero. The second is an entire team of zombies with an incredible visual similarity to Marvel teams.
Coincidence? I think not!
What's my bottom line? A fun romp that can be overcomplicated at times, over-maudlin at others, and over-commercial at the worst possible moments. You can have fun with it if you try, and as much as I would normally rave about Grant Morrison's genius, I think he took a risk here that could have been really great, but left his average readers behind when he did so.
The Bad: It's ethereal; separated from other comics by a gulf not even a Super can bridge. It needs a "Guidebook" to understand what is going on. The subtleties behaved like black holes, sucking the good plot points away. No appearances by the Earth-1 superheroes that we have come to love.
The U.G.L.I.E. (Ultimately Great Little Individual Extravagances): First of all, Ultra -- The Living Comic Book was ultra-awesome in concept and execution! Then, True Believer, there were several vary subtle revenge strikes against That Other Comic Publisher. The jibes could almost go unnoticed, but they were absolutely hilarious.
In the end, though, the story was (for me) too hard to follow and not smoothly gathered into the conclusion. I can only go as high as (for me) a 3.5-star rating. (3.5 makes it merely likeable, but with some really really likeable aspects.) Ultimately it had the feel of something published to increase sales for a season, and not a a story I need on my shelf.
HOWEVER, I must tell one little tale. To enjoy it, we must briefly leave the DC Multiverse and visit the Marvel Zombies Universe. In the Marvel Zombies collections, an unnamed super-super-dooper superhero from some never-before seen universe is the last surviving creature from his world -- but he is a brain-craving flesh-eating rotting zombie. He super-punches the barrier between worlds and breaks into the Marvel universe, beginning the infection.
There have been several explanations for this unknown superhero. The story I like best, and it has some supporting evidence, is that this was a hidden easter-egg of Superman (a DC character), and that the creative team felt that DC, the corporation, was occupied by mindless zombies, so who better to be the source of the infection. True or not, it is possible!
Into our TARDIS to advance several years and return to the DC Multiverse!
I found two occasions in The Multiversity where zombie-creatures are fighting the heroes of the DC Multiverse. The first is dressed much like the Zombie-Zero. The second is an entire team of zombies with an incredible visual similarity to Marvel teams.
Coincidence? I think not!
What's my bottom line? A fun romp that can be overcomplicated at times, over-maudlin at others, and over-commercial at the worst possible moments. You can have fun with it if you try, and as much as I would normally rave about Grant Morrison's genius, I think he took a risk here that could have been really great, but left his average readers behind when he did so.
December 9, 2015
This isn't really a big mini-series. Rather, it's a book-ended series of one-offs held together by the narrowest of conceits (comic books as communication between dimensions, and a multiversal invasion!).
With that said, it's a series of one-offs that gives Grant Morrison the opportunity to really show that he's a master of the comic-book form. The Watchman homage may be the best. Morrison uses the Charlton heroes in place of the Watchmen. He mimics the carefully gridded pages, but uses some techniques that Moore never did. It's rather masterful. I could say the same of the Earth-X Mastermen comic. Morrison revamps the old Freedom Fighters dynamic and creates a truly spectacular start to a story that I'd like to see the rest of!
In the end, it's not the bookended story that's the most important element of The Multiversity. Instead, it's the wonderful creation of a whole new Multiverse. Some we see in wonderfully written individual issues, and others are consigned to just a page in the Guidebook and perhaps in the bookends. It's nonetheless obvious that Morrison could do just as wonderful of things with them as he does with the six one-off stories here.
This could be the basis of a great new era for DC ... if they haven't already blown up Morrison's Multiversity with their grossly subpar Convergence.
With that said, it's a series of one-offs that gives Grant Morrison the opportunity to really show that he's a master of the comic-book form. The Watchman homage may be the best. Morrison uses the Charlton heroes in place of the Watchmen. He mimics the carefully gridded pages, but uses some techniques that Moore never did. It's rather masterful. I could say the same of the Earth-X Mastermen comic. Morrison revamps the old Freedom Fighters dynamic and creates a truly spectacular start to a story that I'd like to see the rest of!
In the end, it's not the bookended story that's the most important element of The Multiversity. Instead, it's the wonderful creation of a whole new Multiverse. Some we see in wonderfully written individual issues, and others are consigned to just a page in the Guidebook and perhaps in the bookends. It's nonetheless obvious that Morrison could do just as wonderful of things with them as he does with the six one-off stories here.
This could be the basis of a great new era for DC ... if they haven't already blown up Morrison's Multiversity with their grossly subpar Convergence.
January 8, 2016
Grant Morrison is maddening. Much of his work can be dismissed as overloading on either sheer absurdity or distractingly meta deconstructionism. His plots can be loopy. His tone can be dismissive or sneering of the very genre in which he works. But when he lets his inner fanboy loose, he can capture heroic and iconic moments better than anyone. For instance, in Multiversity his homages to Alan Moore's Watchmen and C. C. Beck's Captain Marvel are simply amazing. I would love to see either of those chapters expanded to whole works. Same for the chapter featuring Earth-Me. But then the rest of the book revels in and simultaneously mocks every trope of the comic industry major crossover event, using way too many Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman doppelgangers to fill out the sound and fury of it. When I read Morrison I can enjoy moments of his work and then am made to immediately feel bad for having let myself enjoy it. No other comic writer makes me feel as if I am dueling with him as I read him. The challenge can be fun, but it means never letting your guard down and just losing yourself in the story.
September 14, 2015
2.5 stars, barely.
Overall, this is a mess. I'm not sure where the storyline was for most of the book, and felt like I was being ripped from one story to another related story without any explanation of what was going on or why.
A few of the stories made sense, and seemed like self-contained issues, but these were few and far between. Also, at no point did any of the "regular" heroes make an appearance. You'd think that if something was threatening the entire multiverse, Clark Kent/Superman and the rest of the "real" Justice League would be involved somehow.
I hinted at this for my review of Convergence, but I'll make it more clear this time: DC needs to stay away from these Crisis-type events, focus on developing complex storylines for its core characters, and leave it at that. Enough with the massive crossovers!
Overall, this is a mess. I'm not sure where the storyline was for most of the book, and felt like I was being ripped from one story to another related story without any explanation of what was going on or why.
A few of the stories made sense, and seemed like self-contained issues, but these were few and far between. Also, at no point did any of the "regular" heroes make an appearance. You'd think that if something was threatening the entire multiverse, Clark Kent/Superman and the rest of the "real" Justice League would be involved somehow.
I hinted at this for my review of Convergence, but I'll make it more clear this time: DC needs to stay away from these Crisis-type events, focus on developing complex storylines for its core characters, and leave it at that. Enough with the massive crossovers!
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