The Multiversity: Mastermen #1

Next up for Grant Morrison’s Multiversity series is his story about Nazi Superman aka Overman and the rest of the Axis Power superheroes of Earth-10. This was a title I had been looking forward to, both because of the story of Earth-10 seemed really interesting and having the character of Uncle Sam be the underdog fighting against Overman seemed like a unique take. Not to mention that Jim Lee’s artwork is always very eye catching and truly unique, which was very evident in this issue.

We open the issue on a very graphic depiction of Eart-10 Hitler on the toilet (which is a ridiculous scene I cant believe hasn’t been played out more often) and being told about the baby Kal-El who fell to earth. In the care of the Nazis he becomes Overman, and helps the Third Reich achieve total world domination. He has his Nazi Justice League counterparts- Leatherwing (Batman), Lightning (The Flash), Underwaterman (Aquaman) and Brunnhilde (Wonder Woman) and his own German version of Jimmy Olsen (called Jurgen).

This issue was definitely less ambitious than I had hoped, especially with the first few pages having been released early showing Hitler on the toilet (again, it was gross- but not the worst depiction I have seen) that there would be a lot more to this issue than that. Really, these issues are only a piece of the story and not entirely complete, until (I hope) Multiversity #2 comes out in two months time. The artwork was beautiful, and the cover was everything I would have expected from a Grant Morrison Nazi Superhero story drawn by Jim Lee.

I didn’t even notice when I read through the page that showed Leatherwing walking alongside Overman, and Leatherwing having almost Liefeld-esque quads (im talking gigantic. Like they would barely be able to strap a pouch to those gamms…) which was a bit ridiculous, but I didn’t even see it until someone on twitter pointed it out to me, so obviously it wasn’t too egregious an exaggeration of anatomy and proportion.

I wish that the story would have been longer, but that is precisely the function of this book- to give us a snapshot of a world, a glimpse into an unforeseen alternate reality, that then leaves us wanting more. So in this regard, it has absolutely succeeded; I want an Overman series, and I want to see at least a miniseries from the Shazam Family as well. These books have been a lot of fun in a DC lineup that doesn’t have a lot of lighthearted books (at least not any that I’m reading or seeing reviewed) so this being such an epic, universe-spanning series that also incorporates funny and intriguing elements into it’s storytelling is really something I look forward to each month.

Overall this series has been a mark in the positive column for DC, and it shows that Grant Morrison really REALLY needs to get back onto a monthly book for them. I really enjoyed Batman Incorporated, and I think that if DC even just let Morrison take ONE of the Multiverse Worlds and spin it into 12 months of issues, they would have a rousing success on their hands. But what do I know?

Go pick up this book, and go back and read the rest of the Multiversity series while you are at it. If you want to go further back, go pick up Final Crisis in trade- that’s the kind of batcrap crazy storytelling that is par for the course with Grant Morrison, and if you’re anything like me, you will end up shouting things to yourself while reading and finish the book asking yourself “what did I just read?” but in the best way. Multiversity could very well end up doing that as well, I wont know for certain, until these last two issues are released, but I do absolutely intend to find out.