Ivan Reis

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 show more 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. show less

Genuine work of genius, dazzling in its formal craftsmanship, density of vision and in its control of huge numbers of characters, themes, plots, concepts and universes, executed in a way that seems gloriously, confusingly mess,y but upon careful reading appears to be generating that sense of teeming, overwhelming chaotic detail through sheer dint of good writing. Whether you're interested in a work of genius based around variations of the DC universe executing yet another variation of the show more Crisis On Infinite Earths is a whole other matter.

The story is about multiple realities being invaded by malignant higher life forms using comic books which provide glimpses of superhero adventures in different alternate realities as meta mental traps, allowing them to propagate across the multiverse. Between two bookends we explore the looming threat impinging on different Earths with different artists as appropriate to the style of each reality, Morrison showing off his rather intimidating imagination, skill and knowledge. The high-point is probably the Pax American issue with Frank Quietly, where the Carlton characters who were the basis for Watchmen find themselves on different sides of a conflict when one of them assassinates the President they were supposed to be protecting. In some ways the sprawling mess of Multiversity is a rebuke to the claustrophobic formalism of Watchmen, but the Pax Americana chapter in particular pulls of a whole slew of eye-popping experiments in graphic narrative without ever resorting to the rigid structures and layouts of Watchmen.

This was my second read-through of the whole thing, and I enjoyed it a lot more in one sitting and with an idea of what to expect. That the whole thing turns out to be a prelude to an epic adventure that has not yet materialised doesn't detract from it - comics are always barreling towards their next Crisis crossover anyway, might as well acknowledge it and conclude that even if that story is never told, it's happening right now, somewhere, out there in the Multiverse. show less

Choose your own adventure:

1) A righteous and determined protector of the earth struggles against the excesses of capitalistic practices that are killing our planet.

2) A very stable genius billionaire vigilante fights to protect his fellow-billionaires from socialist eco-terrorists.

3) A noble superhero faces off against a genocidal super villain.

No need to flip around the pages making choices at critical moments, just bring your preconceived notions and read it straight through.

I like DC's space heroes a lot-- they combine two of my favorite genres into one, after all-- but I didn't like this. For some reason, whenever DC does a space hero story, they feel compelled to chuck in all the space heroes. Captain Comet, Adam Strange, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Hawkwoman, Starman, Tigorr, multiple Green Lanterns are all here, and I challenge you to get a grasp on any of their characters or personalities. The story in particular wants you to care about Adam Strange and family, but show more I don't; I'm not even interested in Captain Comet or Starman, and I've read and enjoyed other stories featuring them. These are just a bunch of people shouting exposition loudly at one another, fighting against a villain I don't really care about to protect a group of people that aren't interesting. This is the kind of stuff I should love: desperate battles against deadly villains. But the plotting feels arbitrary (there are, like, twelve last stands) and when major characters die, it doesn't even seem to matter. God, I wanted to like this so so much, and that makes its failure all the more disappointing.

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