The Multiversity #1 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (story), Ivan Reis (pencils), Joe Prado (inks), Nei Ruffino (colors)

The Story: It’s the Superman-Captain Carrot team-up you’ve all been waiting for.

The Review: At least, it arrives, a project long-touted and already somewhat overhyped. It’s not just the Morrison name, although there’s certainly that; it’s also the fact that he’s working on a project so aligned to his talents and interests, one that sprawls not only over the DCU proper but the entire Multiverse as well. Any good DC fan is sure to be interested in how the Multiverse’s current structure looks now and how it may be used in the future.

Personally, I’m bummed that arbitrary limitation of 52 worlds remains in place, although Thunderer (Earth-7), one of the many featured heroes, refers to them as “fifty-two known worlds,” suggesting unknown ones may pop up later. But even with the cap in place, Morrison has a massive playground to run wild in, using each Earth to site different themes of heroes, almost all of them with a sly wink. Earth-23 is home to an all-black Justice League; Earth-36, where Red Racer and Power Torch (Flash and Green Lantern doppelgangers) are lovers; Earth-11, in which all our favorite characters’ genders are reversed.

If the joke of Earth-11 didn’t escape you, you’ll know immediately that Morrison is sending up superhero comics even as he’s telling a massive story honoring the genre (more on that later). Morrison’s too purposeful a writer for there not to be commentary in everything he does. Why else does he make Earth-8 a universe of Marvel analogues, where the Retaliators, consisting of the armored Machinehead and shielded American Crusader, battle the masked Lord Havoc over such relics as the Omni-Gauntlets and Genesis Egg? Red Racer geeks out, referring to them as the “Major Comics characters,” poking fun at Marvel’s majority status in mainstream comics.

But the metafiction goes beyond such gags, obviously.* This is a Morrison comic. Nix Uotan, last of the Monitors who protect the Multiverse itself, encounters on Earth-7 the Gentry, hideous, massive creatures who not only raze the universe until the very laws of physics are disabled, but who take pleasure in crushing its heroes, first their courage, then their heart, dignity, and finally their flesh. This goes beyond Darkseid’s goal of stealing the will and freedom of all living things; indeed, the Gentry use the Anti-Life Equation for the purpose of keeping their victims alive to torment them further.

This is an attack on the pure idea of superheroes, plain and simple, and a reflection of the state of superheroes today. Thunderer, proud god among Earth-7’s champions, is reduced to a hopeless, naked, weeping version of himself, and Nix suffers an even worse fate, being twisted into a crowing mad villain. Nix decries his fate, which seems to one shared by so many superheroes nowadays:

“I gave my all. I fought and I suffered for eternity upon eternity! And all for what? I endured eons of pain and disillusion. For you ingrates?”

It’s not a coincidence that the cause of Nix’s transformation is called the Gentry, defined as the high social class, the aristocracy, a.k.a. the highbrow, the elite, the ones who would rather break down heroes in the name of realism and sophistication instead of letting them be what they originally were: the embodiment of our greatest values and unrestricted imagination, which is what each of the characters gathered in the Hall of Heroes are, even Captain Carrot and Dino-Cop. The Orrery of Worlds is being corrupted, but moreover, so is the spirit of superheroism. Multiversity will decide whether either will survive.

You’d think Reis would be too mainstream for Morrison’s wild ideas, but he keeps up just fine here. In fact, his conventionally beautiful style makes the comic more accessible than a Morrison comic tends to be, such as the travel between universes represented as a ship crossing from one comic book panel to another. Reis’ supermodel figures also make every hero, from Earth-23’s Superman to Captain Carrot, look like genuine champions of their respective universes. Which is not to say he can’t draw some decidedly unattractive imagery, too; the sight of a giant, elastic hero’s body stretched across the ruins of a city, the agony etched in his melting face, is pretty disturbing, and there are others like it. Kudos also to Ruffino, who captures the bold spectrum of costumery across the Multiverse.

Conclusion: This is Morrison at his superhero best; while Multivesity doesn’t break ground he hasn’t trodden before, it’s probably the most refined version of his ideas and theories of the superhero genre.

Grade: A-

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: * My favorite has to be Earth-8’s version of the Hulk, a.k.a. Behemoth, a.k.a. Dr. David Dipple transforming into an oversized, blue baby in a diaper who tries to “bash” everyone.

– I think I love Earth-23 Superman nearly as much, or even better, than Prime Earth Superman. “When in doubt, smash robot.”

– One endearing quirk of Morrison is his awe of his own ideas: “Messages in bottles from neighboring universes. It’s—it’s amazing!” “It’s frozen music—unbelievable.”