Grant Morrison Does it Again

A while back I wrote about how I felt DC needs to pull away from its multiverses and follow Marvel's idea of more consistency.

This feeling remains unchanged, but the recent Multiversity guidebook almost made me change my mind.

Multiversity is the brain child of the incredible Grant Morrison.

Morrison stands as a truly great writer of graphic novels along with Sandman creator Neil Gaiman.

It was Grant Morrison who, in the early 90s, ended his reboot of Animal Man, by making the titular character meet up with himself as the author of the comic book.

The surrealistic ending still stands as one of the best ending to a series arc in history.

Now, DC has given Morrison the task of teaching everyone about the Multiverse.

And, not unusual for Morrison himself, he's also teaching the characters within the Multiverse itself.

Every issue of the current series includes comic books left for characters to find which are the very same comic books the reader is currently reading.

The issues have been somewhat confusing... until now!

On Wednesday, DC released The Multiversity Guidebook by Morrison.

This amazingly extra-long issue contains not only the best story and the best artwork, but also the best explanations of the 52 universes which have sprung up since the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The best part of the massive graphic work is the description of each of the individual universes.

(While the following aren't necessarily spoilers, I highly recommend picking up this issue at your local retailer)

First off there's Earth-0 which is what we are currently reading in the New 52.

There are a few universes which are being told now like Earth-2.

Still others have played out in previous graphic novels like Earth 30: the story line Superman: Red Son where Superman lands in Soviet Russia rather than Smallville, Kansas.

Still others come directly from the genius mind of Grant Morrison like gender-bender Earth-11, Steampunk Earth-19 and groovy Earth-47.

Morrison even left seven Earths unknown which could certainly play into the current and upcoming television and film superheroes.

The most interesting aspect of Morrison's Multiversity Guidebook comes from the realization it is truly a handbook I can't put away.

My habit as a comic book collector is to bag and board each issue upon reading it.

Not so with this one.

Grant Morrison's The Multiversity Guidebook will remain on my shelf as a much needed reference for what I expect to be a mind-blowing dive into the future of DC Comics.

While I still question DC's choice to double-down on the inconsistency in its works along print, TV and film, I'm excited to see there this leads.

Any thoughts? Please leave me a comment below...