4 out of 5

It is funny how often Grant has written the basic story of Multiversity, going at it from different angles since even the Zenith days… except, unfunnily, and in fact rather amazingly – and why we like Grant – he keeps writing it in interesting ways.  Initially – in his indie works – this seemed to be an avenue for Grant to grapple with his own views on over-lapping realities, and how they affect us personally, culminating in one of the angriest, saddest, and most personal things – by my opinion – he’s written: The Filth.  As he would get access to the sandboxes of Marvel and DC, his love for comics combined with these world views would bubble up in fascinating ways, whether it was the middle-finger restart of his X-Men work or the bubblegum COMICS exclamation point of JLA.  And then there was more.  Starting with Seven Soldiers, Grant suddenly seemed intent on creating a worldview that could encompass everything, reader included.  Again, this had been poking around in various formats already, but the “essence” of the story no longer seemed internal (concept-driven) or emotional; it was cosmic.  Seven was sprawling, and I guess proved to DC that, given discarded or side characters and doing something rewarding with them, Morrison could be trusted with the reigns of larger properties, and so we got cosmic reboots of Superman and Batman and… 52, which, at its core, evolved into something clearly Grant-y.

But he’s still going.  Recent years have flirted with some genre attempts that have been iffy (Joe the Barbarian, Happy).  Multiversity returns Grant to the “we are the cause and the effect” concepts as applied to the DC Multiverse, essentially boiling down some of the concepts he worked on in 52 to a tight nine issues and doing that cosmic reboot for the whole of the world.  The series still suffers from Grantyness, where Every Detail Matters and then a couple of issues will seemingly arrive out of left field – with Multiversity, the Pax Americana issue, and the Mastermen issue, both good reads but neither directly developing the main story – and divert you from the understanding you’d been building.  But you can stay the course and puzzle it out later on rereads, which are always fun with Grant.  And, in a way, ‘Multiversity’ is also a bit less exciting than previous efforts because of how up front it is.  From the opening issue, we’re being told how the reader is an essential part of the fictional universe (we, the reader, occupy one of the 52 multiverses, our fictions other universe’s reality), and so there’s not a big reveal to build to except for the artistic rendition of this particular crisis’ Anti-Monitor.  But that’s not the point of the series so much as to celebrate the comics process itself, hence each issue lunging head first into a different universe; hence Grant’s “guidebook” (one of the one-shots) which lovingly maps and details the multiverse in a completely understandable fashion.

As I said, though, this is all still interesting, and the breadth keeps it as such despite the lack of real ‘threat’ to our heroes or “reality.”  The design scheme (Rian Hughes, presumably) is lovely and cohesive and Morrison’s ability to really tighten up this concept and make it clear and fun is truly astounding, and proof of his love for the comic world.  So feel free to ignore the forever reboots of DC, or Marvel, or any other comic.  ‘Multiversity’ is the in-story version of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, executed by an ace writer with a full staff of awesome artists, colorists and inkers each well-chosen for their particular contributions.