Anghus Houvouras reviews The Multiversity #1…
Grant Morrison is one of the most polarizing writers in comics. There are those who hail him as genius, and those who believe he is quite insane. Chances are, they’re both right. His work has always created strong opinions and generated passion from comic fans. For me, there’s very little nuance to his work. There’s no such thing as an average Grant Morrison story. Either you dive in head first buying into the insanity he consistently weaves, or you cut bait after an issue or two declaring the whole thing an epic disaster. I don’t know a comic fan who doesn’t really enjoy a Morrison story like the amazing All Star Superman. On the other side, you’ll be hard pressed to find a fan who will sing the praises of Final Crisis.
Multiversity is going to be one of those titles that draws a strong line right down the center. I’ve already read the book three times and I’m fascinated by the wonderous amount of bananas Morrison is working with. It’s a multiverse spanning tale featuring a number of strange characters and a plot that not only requires your attention but a working knowledge of Morrison’s previous DC stories. It’s dense, strange, and almost impossible for newcomers to get into…
…and I loved every page of it.
Anyone who slogged through Final Crisis will see the echoes of that story. Nix Uotan, the last monitor, is drawn into an inter-dimensional conflict by a comic book which beckons to him. He heads to Earth 7 where a mysterious group of world conquering villains are slaughtering heroes. Earth 7’s final hero, Thunderer, is saved by Uotan who takes his place as a captor of these brutal villains. Thunderer activates a device which assembles an inter-dimensional league of heroes who help stop the crisis including The Superman of Earth-23 (who is also President), a female version of Aquaman, a practically litigious version of Savage Dragon called Dinosaur Cop, and my personal favorite: Captain Carrot. They board a ship and start travelling across dimensions encountering the very Marvel-like world of Earth 8 in a confrontational that reveals the final monitor might actually be a threat to the multiverse rather than a savior.
The Multiversity is textbook Morrison packed to the brim with all his high-end concepts and fascinating science fiction concepts. Once again he brings back out the idea that the multiverse runs on different frequencies, therefore travel is initiated by a song. In what other book would you have a character describing a spaceship as ‘frozen music’. Morrison commits to his crazy composition and orchestrates it like a conductor with a penchant for indulging his impulses. Like all Morrison stories, it is rife with potential. It will be loved by some, loathed by others, and ultimately stand as another fine example of his left of center style. Ivan Reis’ excellent artwork feels like George Perez’s fabulous Crisis on Infinite Earths work. There’s a lot going on in every panel and his style works well for the launch of this epic cosmic event.
While I don’t consider myself particularly clever, I did sense a very ‘meta’ storytelling vibe from the villains of the story. I have this sinking feeling that I’ve already figured out the twist that will be revealed at the end of the eight issue story. If you don’t want to hear my theory, skip to the end.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD
In the opening of the story we’re introduced to a series of villains who speak in a broken, almost text-message/Twitter like cadence. Words like ‘You’ are spelled ‘Yu’ and ‘to’ becomes ‘2’. The villains tell our heroes ‘We want yu 2 give up on your dreams.’ They advocate the heroes commit suicide and that they will join them in eternal anguish. The villains are us, the comic readers. Each of the characters in the story talk about the ideas and concepts for their inter-dimensional travel coming from comic books.
The angry, universe destroying monsters are the comic fans. The trolls who spew negativity and constantly malign the comics. Am I the only one that picked up on this? I have a feeling the eighth and final issues is going to deliver something along the lines of Mark Millar’s Wanted where we learn that much of the story is set-up for an epic punchline.
END OF THEORETICAL SPOILERS
The Multiversity #1 is 10 pounds of crazy in a five pound bag.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published August 23, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
