A review by scrooge3
The Multiversity by Juan José Ryp, Jim Lee, Jon Bogdanove, Chris Sprouse, Kelly Jones, Norm Rapmund, Mark Irwin, Ben Oliver, Stanley "Artgerm" Lau, Nicola Scott, Mike Hawthorne, Sandra Hope, Declan Shalvey, Jake Wyatt, Bryan Hitch, Jaime Mendoza, Rian Hughes, Walden Wong, Frank Quitely, Emanuela Lupacchino, Jed Dougherty, Kalman Andrasofszky, Christian Alamy, Grant Morrison, Keith Champagne, Darwyn Cooke, Richard Friend, Jonathan Glapion, Karl Story, Gene Ha, Eber Ferreira, Trevor Scott, Paulo Siqueira, Cameron Stewart, Andrew Robinson, Marcus To, David Finch, Dan Jurgens, Chris Burnham, Joe Prado, Doug Mahnke, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Yildray Cinar, Scott Williams, Todd Nauck, Gary Frank, Ivan Reis, Brett Booth

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.