Multiversity- questions. Spoilers

[Deniz Camp]

Yeah, Multiversity stuff is coming, but in the form of OGNs, and the MULTIVERSITY title is really just a marketing gimmick to tell whatever weird, wonderful stories Morrison has in mind for superheroes.

The first one is going to be his FLASH story, which had nothing to do with Multiversity per se; it was just a grounded take on the Flash. I believe it was originally developed as a Screenplay for a Live Action film (Morrison was a consultant on DC films a while ago), and then he talked about re-purposing it for a Flash: Earth One story. Instead they just decided to give Morrison free reign to do whatever he wants with his unused superhero ideas in MULTIVERSITY TOO and BATMAN BLACK & WHITE, which I am 100% a-okay with.

They talked about other, Morrison-picked creators being a part of that line, and I know he's pretty friendly with John Hickman (John was a guest at MorrisonCon), so that's sort of where I expect to see him, if anywhere at DC.

[t hedge coke]

I do think the "loosely enforced child labor laws" bit was tongue-in-cheek, tough.

It is, but it's also only cute until you think on it a bit. That world is the whitest world, too. All the superheroes are white or a tiger. Boys take action over girls. Running the show is the good father, who narrates the story and doles out the power and authority. It's fantastic fun, as a story, but those are flaws in the universe, especially when compared/contrasted with the other worlds we see. Pax and Thunderworld are both dad universes. Thunderworld won't be as infected by the Gentry as others, but that's in large part to Thunderworld likely resetting constantly. It's not going to advance. It's preserved. Or, so it seems to me.

But, I don't mean that to imply Morrison is using the world only or even primarily to criticize. I don't think any of them are that. They're not "Oh, God, who would ever want to read this comic" stories. They're all compassionate takes, they're just all "doomed" and special in their own ways. (Mostly zombie post-apocalypse ways.)

[Patrick_C]

But that's the thing, isn't it? There no darker undercurrent to a child working as a journalist. There's no underground ring of miserable child slaves. It's only a joke to explain a part of the the mythos which wouldn't make much sense today (A kid journalist). The good father is, indeed, a good father, not a sinister authoritarian figure hiding behind a benevolent façade. These "darker" aspects only appear if you forcibly project "real world" worries into what is supposed to be, indeed, a pristine, feel-good.

Not every nice looking city is Stepford.

[t hedge coke]

Is the bit in Pax where Captain Atom says the comic is the last one his father did... a case of a wrongly attributed dialogue balloon, or s there something weirder or subtler going on there between him and the once and reread VP?

Pax is a weirder comic/chapter than it can seem at first. The doves released, unlike the free-flying ones of the Captain Marvel issue, hit the fourth wall and leave a bloodstain, because, well, they're trapped in that comic along with everybody else.

I guess Thunderworld was about Nostalgia.


(Whether said nostalgia is misguided or not is for the reader to decide.)

The funny thing about Thunderworld, to me, is that it's an Adventures book. It's less "classic," and more 90s/00s cartoon tie-in book. The notes on the cover suggest a chrome cover, which would've made it even more 90s and I wish they'd gone with it.

[Elegant Dreamer]

Oh, boy. We're going to debating "what were the Gentry?" until the end of time.

Morrison's stuff tends to be multi-layered. On one level, you can just read the Gentry as evil, extradimensional villains who feed on despair and chaos. On another level, they're metatextual, and they're personifications of everything that Morrison sees wrong with modern comics: violence, despondency, obsession with death, needless destruction, etc. On a third level, they're BOTH--Morrison has this grand metafictional idea that the DC Multiverse actually exists and we, the real world, are a part of it on Earth-33. Our ideas feed into the Multiverse, which creates Earth-0 and all its spinoff variants. Our good ideas create all the heroism and positivity and self-sacrifice of the DC Heroes. Our bad ideas are what's been corrupting the Multiverse and led to an endless cycle of it being wiped out and recreated for its own sake in the form of various Crises and reboots.

I think that each chapter of the Multiversity had something to say about "bad ideas," the idea being that both we as the reader and each individual Earth were being infected by the bad ideas of the Gentry. S.O.S. suggested that heroes are, at their core, violent beings who can ultimately only solve problems through force and death. The Just suggested that if we keep our heroes around forever, then their existence will ultimately be pointless. Master Men hinted that heroism is a relative term and that one man's Freedom Fighter is literally another man's terrorist. I can't remember what we were supposed to learn from some of the others.

In my small weird opinion, this here is the reason why I think the Gentry is the best evil group created in the last 10 years. Like I wrote, this is my small weird opinion.

I would love to see more Multiversity one day.

I also loved the reimagining of Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew!

[t hedge coke]

Not every nice looking city is Stepford.

It's an exceptionally white city. It may be, in fact, an all-white city.

In an America that has only just managed to have a rocket to the moon, despite being 2015.

[PyroTwilight]

Interestingly Ultra Comics is one of the more either dark or hopeful comics depending on how you view it.

Ultra is in a constant cycle of being absorbed/death. But at the same time the undercurrent can be seen as no idea ever stays dead, and he's a living idea, possibly playing with the thought that he may be able to break the loop someday.

[t hedge coke]

Interestingly Ultra Comics is one of the more either dark or hopeful comics depending on how you view it.

Ultra is in a constant cycle of being absorbed/death. But at the same time the undercurrent can be seen as no idea ever stays dead, and he's a living idea, possibly playing with the thought that he may be able to break the loop someday.

The important thing, to me, is to remember that while the other issues represent "real" worlds, Ultra Comics only exists to entertain us and to trap one of the Gentry because he/it can't see it for what it is. The real world in Ultra Comics is outside it; us.

[Thor-Ul]

In my small weird opinion, this here is the reason why I think the Gentry is the best evil group created in the last 10 years. Like I wrote, this is my small weird opinion.

I would love to see more Multiversity one day.

I also loved the reimagining of Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew!

Meanwhile remember than Multiplicity starts in Superman #14!

[Thor-Ul]

The important thing, to me, is to remember that while the other issues represent "real" worlds, Ultra Comics only exists to entertain us and to trap one of the Gentry because he/it can't see it for what it is. The real world in Ultra Comics is outside it; us.

And that is the best part of everything. Ultra comics itself it was the vehicle yet the savior. You never are going to make the real world in a comic or in any other work of fiction. Only you are going to get a representation/interpretation of the real world ("ceci n'est pas une pipe"), but with Ultra comics, the real world became part of the adventure. And President Superman is angry with us.

Pax is a weirder comic/chapter than it can seem at first. The doves released, unlike the free-flying ones of the Captain Marvel issue, hit the fourth wall and leave a bloodstain, because, well, they're trapped in that comic along with everybody else.

I had assumed it was because a hawk had hunted the dove, you like there is always a menace lurking even for the best planned projects for world peace.

[t hedge coke]

And that is the best part of everything. Ultra comics itself it was the vehicle yet the savior. You never are going to make the real world in a comic or in any other work of fiction. Only you are going to get a representation/interpretation of the real world ("ceci n'est pas une pipe"), but with Ultra comics, the real world became part of the adventure. And President Superman is angry with us.

I'm spoiling some of the unfortunately delayed article, but Intellectron's rose-colored glasses and Ultra Comics' wounded red eye (and good blue one) inspired me to play with 3D glasses and all the red text that disappears when you look through red lenses alters the meaning of what's otherwise there. If he, in his disguise, read the comic, he wouldn't be able to see, for instance, the "NOT" on the cover's blurb of "You Must NOT Read This Comic!"

I had assumed it was because a hawk had hunted the dove, you like there is always a menace lurking even for the best planned projects for world peace.

I could believe that, but (I just checked) we don't see one, and it's on a page where two people are trying to plan their escape and figure out Algorithm 8. What we see is just the two doves freed, flying fast for the sky/us, and then the bloodstain in midair in our extreme foreground.

I like your interpretation, too, though. It has good resonance.

[CentralPower]

Well, somebody here got the latest edition of "Multiversity".

The funny thing about Thunderworld, to me, is that it's an Adventures book. It's less "classic," and more 90s/00s cartoon tie-in book. The notes on the cover suggest a chrome cover, which would've made it even more 90s and I wish they'd gone with it.

Many of the 90s cartoon comics, especially at DC, were out of step with the 90s, playing to (artificial) nostalgia for the 30s. (Paul Dini "Batman" did not really look like anything from the 30s, but it reminded everybody of the 30s.)

I had assumed it was because a hawk had hunted the dove, you like there is always a menace lurking even for the best planned projects for world peace.

It is probably a little of both. (A hawk killed the dove, but the visual was a bloody "smear" on the panel.)



At this point, I am just waiting for good follow-up to "Pax Americana" and "Society of Superheroes". I would also like to see more "Mastermen". But, I am unsure if DC has any writers who are up to it.

[Abe]

I'm spoiling some of the unfortunately delayed article, but Intellectron's rose-colored glasses and Ultra Comics' wounded red eye (and good blue one) inspired me to play with 3D glasses and all the red text that disappears when you look through red lenses alters the meaning of what's otherwise there. If he, in his disguise, read the comic, he wouldn't be able to see, for instance, the "NOT" on the cover's blurb of "You Must NOT Read This Comic!"

Very interesting... Need to try that...

[t hedge coke]

I would also like to see more "Mastermen". But, I am unsure if DC has any writers who are up to it.

I was really taken aback how much hate/dismissal Mastermen got when it hit. I expected it with The Just, because it plays so self-critically (there are no "worthy" people or heroes, except there are doctors and painters and a sorcerer supreme solving a murder; in our world these are often respectable jobs). But with Earth 10, we went from love and lauding to "meh, this is trash" and oversimplifications of the plot and characters.

Very interesting... Need to try that...

Morrison likes to play with 3D in other comics. But, I hold to Mark Gruenwald's joke/observation about anaglyph glasses like a mantra.

Q: What comics are best read with 3D glasses?

A: All of them!

[Thor-Ul]

I could believe that, but (I just checked) we don't see one, and it's on a page where two people are trying to plan their escape and figure out Algorithm 8. What we see is just the two doves freed, flying fast for the sky/us, and then the bloodstain in midair in our extreme foreground.

I like your interpretation, too, though. It has good resonance.

Check again, you can see the shadow of another bird above the dove, with a different silhoutte in his wings. Also, remember in the same page you can see how Peacemaker is being interrogated by Sarge Steel and President Eden.
mmm, Eden, I had not catch that: Nightshade, Eve Eden;Captain Atom, Adam Allen. Biblical.