From the mind of writer Grant Morrison prepare to meet the Vampire League of Earth-43, the Justice Riders of Earth-18, Superdemon, Doc Fate, the super-sons of Superman and Batman, the rampaging Retaliators of Earth-8, the Atomic Knights of Justice, Dino-Cop, Sister Miracle, Lady Quark, the legion of Sivanas, the Nazi New Rechsmen of Earth-10 and the latest, greatest Super Hero of Earth Prime.

The Multiversity is six complete adventures with a bookend framing story that looks at the numerous worlds of the DC Multiverse. This issue begins the adventure, that while interesting, is geared towards die-hard DC fans who might understand the numerous references and nods. For me Morrison runs hot and cold, for this very reason.

While this first issue is good, not knowing many of the references I could really only focus on the story, and to me that was just ok. There’s a big threat, heroes from around the Multiverse are gathered together to battle it, this is the start of that. All of it’s ok, and introduces us to each main character very well. That’s the strength of the issue, introducing us to all of these different worlds, and lots of different characters.

The downside to all of that is that reading through the issue I knew that a lot of it was going over my head. There’s entire posts (on other sites) explaining all of the details, nods, basically Cliff’s Notes for the first issue. I shouldn’t feel like I need a degree in Morrison to read an issue.

Morrison benefits from the art of Ivan Reis, who is one of my favorite artists. His work is crisp and beautiful to look at. In one issue he has to pull of numerous types of characters, worlds, and more, and does so all with ease. If he was the artist on every issue, his art alone would be a reason to check out the series, but alas he’s not.

While there’s lots of interesting things in the first issue, I think it overall attempts to be too cute at times with its layers, like it’s trying to be Watchmen redux in that manner. For the die-hard fans, I’m sure there’s a lot here that they’ll love, but for those not in that category (like me) the story is really nothing too special. At its heart, it’s a story we’ve seen before, just with different characters and different settings.

Story: Grant Morrison Art: Ivan Reis
Story: 7 Art: 8.5 Overall: 7 Recommendation: Buy

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review