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jrrgordon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
fanteisimo's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
librarylad's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars.
Multiversity is a tonally incoherent collection of short stories about superheroes from parallel worlds colliding. At its centre is an intricately constructed story called "Pax Americana", a pastiche of Watchmen, beautifully drawn by Frank Quietly. It's a puzzle box, a political thriller, ambitiously told with a light touch and meticulous attention to detail. Pax Americana is worth a read, and worth a re-read, but sadly not worth slogging through the rest of this volume.
The other stories in Multiversity veer from disappointingly thin to unreadably dense. The bookend stories, intended to tie everything together, are overladden with dozens of barely sketched characters and portentous dialogue requiring detailed annotations to fully understand.
Rather than plodding through this, I'd recommend buying Pax Americana separately, and another of the issues, "Ultra Comics", which has a fun fourth-wall-breaking premise and solid art by Doug Mahnke.
Multiversity is a tonally incoherent collection of short stories about superheroes from parallel worlds colliding. At its centre is an intricately constructed story called "Pax Americana", a pastiche of Watchmen, beautifully drawn by Frank Quietly. It's a puzzle box, a political thriller, ambitiously told with a light touch and meticulous attention to detail. Pax Americana is worth a read, and worth a re-read, but sadly not worth slogging through the rest of this volume.
The other stories in Multiversity veer from disappointingly thin to unreadably dense. The bookend stories, intended to tie everything together, are overladden with dozens of barely sketched characters and portentous dialogue requiring detailed annotations to fully understand.
Rather than plodding through this, I'd recommend buying Pax Americana separately, and another of the issues, "Ultra Comics", which has a fun fourth-wall-breaking premise and solid art by Doug Mahnke.
scrooge3's review
4.0
This is an ambitious and challenging look at the DC multiverse. It's clear that Morrison spent a lot of time and energy researching DC's history and integrating that legacy with some new ideas and characters to create something complex yet flexible. The various issues that make up the series are nominally one-shots, but there is an overriding narrative that becomes more apparent as the series continues. While each issue focuses on one of the 50-odd DC universes, they bleed into each other at times, with the ultimate crossover taking place in the "real" world of the reader. I don't know how much of this was originally intended to launch a new reboot of the DC multiverse, but it will play an important part of the upcoming Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths event, from what I gather. Probably the most useful aspect of this series is seeing the various alternate Earths and their superhero characters delineated carefully and concisely. DC tried eliminating the multiverse in the 1980s with Crisis on Infinite Earths, but I think it's better for them to reclaim those worlds, even if it sometimes gets a bit confusing for readers, because it opens up the possibilities for interesting and creative storytelling. Trying to shoehorn every story into a single continuity is even more confusing. This series is probably not a good starting point for a new comic book reader, but readers with even a slight knowledge of comics history should enjoy the various permutations of characters like Batman and Superman and the many easter eggs hidden within. The quality of storytelling varies from issue to issue, depending on how into the weeds Morrison gets, but one thing they all have is superior artwork by some of the best artists working at DC. My guess is that this will become an indispensable reference guide coming out of Dark Crisis.
kleinm486's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
nathannish's review against another edition
5.0
I finished reading this comic and didn't really care for the ending: "Too meta", as stated at one point in the comic, and I wish there had been more. Then I kept thinking about it. A good entertainer can't be faulted for leaving their audience wanting more. Thinking about it some more, "too meta" is exactly what I was looking for when choosing this book. If anything, could it be my fault as a reader for thinking it was "too" meta when that's exactly what I wanted?
Overall, the beginning pulled me in and I set it aside for a few months, knowing there would be quite a proverbial ride ahead for this read. When I finally got to it, I (usually) sped through a few chapters a day. There's a map of sorts that gets pretty dense, and this is one part where I would have specifically wanted more. In any case, one can't complain about density if more would have been welcome.
The artwork compliments everything really well. All the alt covers in the back are worth checking out for anybody who likes superheroes. Admittedly, I'm the sort who likes to flip through pages when I'm told not to do so by a comic book, so they were a good distraction from outright spoiling things if my page turning got to excited.
Overall, the beginning pulled me in and I set it aside for a few months, knowing there would be quite a proverbial ride ahead for this read. When I finally got to it, I (usually) sped through a few chapters a day. There's a map of sorts that gets pretty dense, and this is one part where I would have specifically wanted more. In any case, one can't complain about density if more would have been welcome.
The artwork compliments everything really well. All the alt covers in the back are worth checking out for anybody who likes superheroes. Admittedly, I'm the sort who likes to flip through pages when I'm told not to do so by a comic book, so they were a good distraction from outright spoiling things if my page turning got to excited.
amiracleinamirror's review against another edition
2.0
I wonder if I was not who I was (someone who's a relatively casual fan of comics and has a very basic understanding of DC Comics), I wouldn't be so utterly confused when reading this. Instead, every story made me more confused than the next and it took reading the plot summaries on the DC wiki(?!?) to understand what was even happening. I did appreciate the variety of art styles from issue to issue, but I cannot earnestly claim that this was a good reading experience.
awurdeman's review against another edition
4.0
I loved the art. It feels like the best of DC's stable of pencillers and inkers, and the colors are vibrant and what you'd hope for from a book with this rainbow-style cover. But besides a few Marvel family cameos, I felt like the plot was too smart for me to follow.
undulateabyss5's review against another edition
4.0
This saga of different DC superworlds colliding with comics as the weapon felt like a candy variety pack with plenty of colorful treats. Most of the worlds are very interesting, while also being a little odd such as some worlds having their supers being chibi formed, Nazi fitted or looking like a brooding CW show. Still a fun trippy ride, despite it’s abrupt ending. B+ (83%/Very Good)