Multiversity: And Lo A Rabbit Shall Lead Them

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Dave-El here and I'm back with another post for Comic Book Week. Today, I look at the end of Multiversity.   


I wrote before about how much I enjoyed Grant Morrison's Multiversity project. Morrison's track record isn't perfect but he hits way more than he misses and this was a comic book endeavor that was built for Morrison's type of story, an epic of big ideas springing from the minutia of small details and characters left by the wayside.  

Who else could craft a story where the very fabric of reality itself is in danger and among those who are going to try and save the day... is a super-powered rabbit. And here's the funny thing: the Capt. Carrot in Multiversity is the one from his long ago series back in the 1980's, not some derivative re-designed to appeal to a darker, more serious narrative. No, this is THE Capt. Carrot and he works just fine next to the varied heroes of multiple worlds. The fact that he comes from a world of cartoon animals is both relevant ("Who else wants to argue with cartoon physics?") and not that big a deal. It's an 8 feet tall rabbit in a yellow and red costume. So what? So we have Grant Morrison employ a plethora of heroes which includes Capt. Carrot and the good Captain isn't the weirdest hero in the room. But he's still a cartoon rabbit! 

Gee, I seem to be obsessed with Capt. Carrot. 

Here's the thing: I'm not entirely sure I understood everything about Multiversity, particularly the finale that came out last week. There were a lot elements in motion here and I may be a bit fuzzy on what happened and why. 

There are criticisms that Morrison just throws as much stuff in his cerebral blender as he can, pushes puree and sees what happens to come out. It's a maddening rush of ideas that may or may not make sense in the end. 

I'm sure Grant Morrison has gone into AGMM (Automatic Grant Morrison Mode) a few times. But for most of what I've read of his work, I can find a method in the madness. But it takes time, it takes attention. And given how much comics cost these days, I want a writer to challenge me. I want to be able to read a comic more than once and still find new things. 

But in the process of meeting that challenge, you hold on to something. And that brings me back to Capt. Carrot.  'Cause if you can hang on the concept of a cartoon super rabbit flying into battle to save multiple universes, then you can handle anything. 

As I noted before about the previous installments, Multiversity makes me really, really, really want to see more comics set in these other worlds. Please, DC, don't let these worlds be forgotten. 

Oh, I should say something about the art because it was fantastic! I've watched Ivan Reis' career at DC where he started as an artist of considerable promise and has actually exceeded the boundaries of the promise. Multiversity#1 and #2 gave Reis a lot of opportunities to draw a variety of settings, adapting slightly to each world as needed but linked by his unique style. I wish that Ivan Reis could draw, well, not all comics, but at least 1/3 of them. Yeah, I would be cool with that. 

OK, I've think I've prattled on enough about this for now so I will end with this: if this is Grant Morrison's swan song as a writer for DC Comics, his work will be sorely missed but he went out on a fantastic note. 

What the hell? Capt. Carrot is NOT on the cover?! 

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Tomorrow, Comic Book Week continues as I look at the question, what do I want from a Shazam comic book series. Until then, be good to one another.