This isn’t a standard review, in fact, I don’t think my mind is wired for those anymore anyways. This is just a document of the random thoughts I notated as I read the book.
1. First of all, I’m hit n’ miss with Morrison. I’m also not exactly a DCU kind of superhero lover, so before giving this a try I was thinking, “It’s DC, I won’t care what’s going on, I won’t know any of the characters” and blah, blah, blah. But I pushed all of that away and got pleasantly surprised.
2. It’s science-fiction superhero comics near or at its finest.
3. Classic Morrison meta-fictional aspects abound here, as usual. But it’s maybe best summed up when Capt. Carrot says: “I always suspected that one world’s reality is another’s fiction”. That is a brilliant concept to let the mind run wild with. That entire scene, hell, just the page was so mind-tingling fun. “These comic books are showing us what’s REALLY happening on all our different earths. MESSEGES IN BOTTLES from NEIGHBORING UNIVERSES. It’s – it’s AMAZING.” Can we agree it’s Capt. Carrot FTW?
4. I always appreciate Morrison’s penchant for challenging the cognitive abilities of his audience.
5. Only problem I had was the spelling of analogue as “analog”, but that’s a nitpick. Speaking of analogues, I loved the stand-ins from Marvel (Major Comics) and Image (DinoCop = Savage Dragon). A lot of cool “Marvel Cameos” but I don’t want to spoil more than I have. I’m a little surprised DC allowed GM to include those analogues. It’s also great that he is including all of comicdom within the Multiversity of 50+ worlds/realities (all of which make up 1 true reality. Or do they???)
6. Also, I would think that Captain Carrot’s animalistic nose would help him tell multidimensional humans apart.
7. Here’s the thing about Grant Morrison…the man LOVES comics (probably more than you or I) and you feel that in his stories, especially these kinds of stories where he is essentially writing love letters to ALL manner of comics and paying homage and deep respects to the very advent of comics as a thing, as a culture, as a zietgiest — Morrison truly believes in the “real magic” of comics. And with that you get the feeling it’s less about a job for him and more about love and adoration. I get the sense he’s one of few creators who would create mainstream comics for free so long as he and his wife made a living another way.
8. Even with the Crisis aspects of Multiversity and that dire situation, it’s still a lot more FUN than the stuff Marvel’s passing off as events these recent years. This is something an old friend and fellow former comics retailer and I discussed over dinner the other night…that missing sense of FUN in mainline Marvel comics. Their event stories are all so bleak. Yet the movies are fun. Pretty sad when the comics need to take a hint from movies. But I digress.
9. I’m giving this comic a 4.0 out of 5, which means this bad boy will chart well on the CBR Fetish Favorites list for August. Easily a Top 10 book for the month.
10. I’m going to have to add Multiversity to my pull list at my LCS today.
Annnnnd, just in case you need a map to The Multiversity
Comic Book Fetish 