Multiversity Guidebook #1 2nd Ptg

The Multiversity #6

by Grant Morrison

The guidebook to the greatest adventure in DC’s history is here! With a detailed concordance featuring each of the 52 worlds in the Multiverse, a complete history of DC Comics’ universe-shattering “Crisis” events, a map of all known existence, AND an action-packed dual adventure starring Kamandi of Earth-51 alongside the post-apocalyptic Atomic Knight Batman of Earth-17 and chibi Batman of Earth-42, this 80-page mountain of MULTIVERSITY madness cannot be missed! The MULTIVERSITY GUIDEBOOK contains everything you ever wanted to know about DC’s parallel worlds and their super-heroic inhabitants. Meet the Agents of W.O.N.D.E.R. The Light Brigade, the Super-Americans and the Love Syndicate! Meet the Accelerated Man, Aquaflash, BiOmac and more! Overflowing with today’s top artists and completely written by Grant Morrison himself, readers of the DC Universe can’t afford to pass up this oversized, sixth chapter of MULTIVERSITY!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Humor, Comics Manga

32 pages, Comic

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Grant Morrison has been working with DC Comics for twenty five years, after beginning their American comics career with acclaimed runs on ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL. Since then they have written such best-selling series as JLA, BATMAN and New X-Men, as well as such creator-owned works as THE INVISIBLES, SEAGUY, THE FILTH, WE3 and JOE THE BARBARIAN. In addition to expanding the DC Universe through titles ranging from the Eisner Award-winning SEVEN SOLDIERS and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN to the reality-shattering epic of FINAL CRISIS, they have also reinvented the worlds of the Dark Knight Detective in BATMAN AND ROBIN and BATMAN, INCORPORATED and the Man of Steel in The New 52 ACTION COMICS.

In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

a curiously confounding and often compelling compendium of conundra. confusing and complicated but not cacophonous and certainly no conflagration. the most slapdash yet of this series of standalones, and also the most central to series connectivity. 52 dimensions of evil Dr. Sivana was a treat; an actual map of the 52 dimensions and their outer layers was more than a treat, it was a delicious meal. two narrative strands of varying interest: the first featuring Lil' Justice League from Earth-42 and adorable Lil' Batman meeting his dour counterpart from post-apocalyptic Earth-17; the second featuring the Earth-51 adventures of Kamandi & OMAC & Tuftan at the end of time, watched by some surprisingly chilly New Gods, and finding an empty, opened tomb of Darkseid (never a good thing). the Batmen adventure was okay and the art by Marcus To was rather unremarkable, but the Kamandi adventure had me yearning for more, more, more. the setting and the art by Scott McDaniel were fantastic! Guidebook also features many pages illustrating the various earths and their various Justice Leagues. that portion was at first exciting but eventually rather numbing. still, the big takeaway here for me was Kamandi Adventures at the End of Time! I want a whole series of those.

okay, just checked and have discovered that there are actually two separate series about Kamandi, patiently waiting to be read by me. yahoo!

[Tawfek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something is wrong with goodreads on my phone lol
Finally done with this monster issue, but it was amusing I learned so much about the 52 different earth's of the dc multiverse that I will forget in two days or something!
But now the fun can continue and we can continue this monster volume called the multiversity, 450 pages I am at page 266, and see if this story is tied together or not.
I had my fun little game reading about the 52 Earth's to know which Wonder Woman is the hottest, Earth 1 won in the end.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bios of each earth bookended with two stories. Both I’m sure are connected in some way I’m probably missing. Did like the Kamandi and New Gods stuff. Felt like a good nod to Kirby.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grant Morrison’s already bloated-seeming Multiversity series gets even bigger with The Multiversity Guidebook, surpassing the lofty price-point of $4.99 per regular issue to $7.99! Well… this better be the best Multiversity issues yet, grumblegrumble… and it’s not! Damn you, Morrison!!

The chibi Batman of Earth-42 is joined by the psychotic, gun-toting Batman of Earth-17 for a fight to the death against a gathering of Dr Sivanas (Captain Marvel’s enemy) and their army of robots. Then hold onto your masks because we’re woooooahhh! off to Earth-51 for an adventure with Kamandi, Tuftan (a humanoid tiger), and Ben Boxer/OMAC! What does it all mean? The same thing every issue of Multiversity has meant: a celebration of DC’s colourful (read: bonkers) history and a bland bad guy trying to destroy the Multiverse - heroes to the rescuzzzzzz...

I guess it’s fun to see chibi Batman because he’s so ickle and cutey-wooty and dawww, he’s got a mini-cowl! Lil Gotham was a really underrated series, even though that’s a different chibi Batman, and seeing this guy contrasted with gun-crazy Batman is an amusing pairing. I kind of want to read a comic starring the Batman of Earth-17, aka Bat-Dredd, now.

Then chibi Batman picks up an issue of The Multiversity Guidebook - a character in each issue picks up a comic in the series because META - and we’re off to Earth-51 for a boring adventure with nobody’s favourite character, Kamandi, the last boy on whatever.

Because Morrison really loves being trippy for trippy’s sake, Kamandi picks up some old DC comics and whoosh! we’re told a truncated history of DC’s superheroes from Golden Age Flash and the various people who’ve been Flash, right up to Crisis on Infinite Earths. This includes the many Crises there have been since then, right up to the latest, The New 52, and a glimpse at the next: this summer’s Convergence.

So why is this such a massive issue? Well, living up to its title of “Guidebook”, Morrison “treats” the reader to 34(!) pages of factoids about the 52 DC Earths in the Multiverse. You’re either going to like this section or not, and I certainly didn’t! The format is Earth-# followed by an explanatory paragraph followed by an illustration of familiar superheroes wearing unfamiliar outfits, multiplied way too many times. Ugh. What a waste of time and money! And all for a prop that chibi Batman uses once!

As you can probably tell, I’m not terribly impressed with this issue, or this series for that matter. The problem is with repetition and shallowness. Every issue is the same: some menacing “thing” is threatening a particular world, heroes from another universe drop by, they pick up a Multiversity comic, terrible things happen (like a formless monster gobbles up the heroes), the end. Every. Single. Issue! And the “story” is so pitifully weak - heroes fighting villains. The only differences are in their costumes!

Morrison does a couple of things to waylay the fans by presenting the fights out of sequence or taking away panels and sections to make them seem more arty and substantial. And then he dangles characters from the past and the issue descends into “who can spot the most DC trivia”! Whaaaatever.

Marcus To draws the chibi Batman/psycho-gun-toting Batman section while Paulo Siqueira draws the Kamandi section, and both look great. There are also literally dozens of other artists who contribute art to the 34 page factoid fest.

But at the end of this overlong comic I still found myself wondering what exactly I got out of it. Seeing Morrison put a story within a story within a story decorated with hundreds of DC characters - that’s it? Maybe the hardcore DC fans will love this for the pure superficiality of it, ditto fans of these obscure characters, but if Multiversity has shown me anything it’s that I’m not one of the red-meat base that make up the DC Nation.

The final words of this comic are “Empty is thy hand” and empty describes the reading experience.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not hid, in previous reviews, what a fanboy/sucker I am for guides like this So with that said, who is The Multiversity Guidebook for?

It is for a the hardcore DC Comics fan of almost any age, but I hesitate to say a comics fan in general. A casual fan might go what is happening here, and why should I care about all of these other Earths? For a long time comics reader the fun here is what I consider Grant Morrison's wink and nod towards all fans. If you have a favorite DC AU (be its 1960s Imaginary Story, 1990s Elseworlds, Tangent, Stan Lee Imagines, etc.) tale Morrison pretty much finds a way to include it. After reading this I can even argue that he fit in the Batman Animated Series.

Yes, this does tie into the ongoing Multiversity series (which I plan on reading in trade, so I'm probably missing a little something here), but I think this can be read outside the context of that series. I also think this was the best use of Jack Kirby's Kammandi that I have read since the King's days on the title. In addition, I liked how Morrison took Wolfman/Perez's History of the DC Universe OMAC/Kammandi connection and tied it into the framing device.

Read this, turn your mind off, and have fun.

[Phil Bova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who doesn't enjoy seeing Superman growing up with Communist ideologies, or a world in which the Nazis win WW2, and the heroes fight for socialist beliefs. Or how about a world controlled by evil vampire heroes, and yet another planet where peace is everywhere...
The Multiversity is leading up to one of the biggest events since Crisis, and I'm sure with all these worlds colliding, Convergence will make waves across the entirety of the time continuum.

[Jedi JC Daquis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't like the story here, typical Morrison blah blahs and stuff. But this is a Multiversity guidebook! It is a fun descriptive issue of the whole DC Multiverse! I absolutely dig the collection of characters, descriptions and worlds.

The map is freakingly awesome.

[Venus Maneater · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who isn't familiar with all the alternate Earth's if DC's multiverse, this is a great way to get to know them. Text-wise it's sparse, but the art is wonderful and I love how meta it gets.

[Guido · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guía-historieta de casi todas las 52 Tierras del Multiverso.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although a solid enough book in the context of the whole Multiversity storyline, as a stand-alone it is admittedly a little confusing.
As much as I love Morrison, he’s not one to pander to the readers, so you’ll need,to make sense of this yourself.
There are two separate stories running side by side, as well as a rundown of the 52 Earths in the (then) new Multiverse, with what characters live on which Earth.

Not the best of the Multiversity books, but an essential one for the run down of Earths.

[Tariel Yong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really neat way to reveal the other variations of DC's worlds/characters in concise format for old and new fans of the series.

Makes me excited to reread some of the series that I've already read, those that I have missed out on or was unaware of their existences (in the market).

Will have to reread again in the future to ensure that I check out whiehever series that have caught my attention, to explore.

[Max Solis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es el cómic más emocionante de Multiversity hasta ahora. Luego de que los Sivana llegaran a otra Tierra a continuar sus planes, y los Shazam fueran tras de ellos, pudimos ver cómo los pequeños superhéroes de la Tierra 42 han encontrado que tienen un gran secreto guardado, el cual desconocen, y cómo los de Tierra 51 investigan en la tumba de Darkseid todos los acontecimientos extraños en el multiverso, conociendo el origen de este y de lo sucedido durante todas las crisis.

[Delanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ACTUAL guidevook was fine but the extra plots and framing devices brought it down.

[Tropo Alegro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro clave en la comprensión del multiverso y todas sus aristas, la mayoría de ellas bastante desaprovechadas.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ufa, que já fazia falta. Mergulhar nos delírios de Grant Morrison sem um mapa a guiar estava a tornar-se demasiado penoso. O que sobressai deste guia é que põe a nu a avassaladora pesquisa que Morrison teve de fazer para povoar as suas cinquenta e duas Terras paralelas. Vai buscar de tudo, desde os clássicos Earth-2 aos mundos Elseworlds, as coisas muito estranhas dos anos 60 e 70 com os Bizarroworld e séries alternativas, cartoons televisivos ou os Tiny Titans. Recupera também nos seus mundos originais os personagens da Charlton Comics que Alan Moore metamorfoseou em Watchmen. Nem se esquece do Batman 1889 do Mike Mignola para criar uma Terra paralela steampunk. Mas a minha Terra favorita é esta Terra-33, onde não há seres com super-poderes mas que exerce uma estranha influência sobre todo o multiverso. Diz-se, até, que os sonhos dos habitantes desta Terra se materializam como realidade nas terras paralelas... yep. Só Morrioson para nos entreter com psicadelismo filosófico a questionar o tecido do real.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Preveo que este capítulo va a ser uno de los que más revisite en las muchas relecturas que le quiero dar a Multiversity, no porque haya sido mi favorito, sino porque encontré mucho jugo en las fichas y cruces entre las 52 tierras.

[Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there's an amusing way to cover all the worlds that needed to be covered, it had to be meta.