DCU Book Club Week 27: THE MULTIVERSITY (2014) The Just & Paz Americana

Hello DCU!

New Format! We are trying something new here at DCUBC. Instead of being spoiler free throughout the week, the spoiler discussion begins NOW and lasts all week.

This week we are continuing our trek through Grant Morrison’s The Multiversity.

:books:WHAT TO READ :books:

-THE MULTIVERSITY: THE JUST (2014-) #1

-THE MULTIVERSITY: PAX AMERICANA (2014-) #1

Again, spoiler discussion begins NOW and lasts until Sunday! So make sure you drop by throughout the week so you don’t miss out on any discussion!

Please refrain from spoiling any future issues in this series in the below discussion.

:eight_spoked_asterisk:QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK​:eight_spoked_asterisk:
Feel free to respond to any or all of the questions.

  1. Earth 16 sometimes refers to comic books as “Picto-Fics”. What other names can you think of for comic books?

  2. If you could participate in ANY DC battle reenactment, which battle would you choose and what character would you be?

  3. What did you think of The Question in Pax Americana?

  4. What was the most surprising twist on a character in these issues?

  5. Who was your favorite character?

  6. What was your favorite moment or panel?

Feel free to share your general thoughts, insights and reactions to the issues.

Want to catch up on our previous discussions? The DCUBC Archive can be found here: https://discord.gg/kfSNQP6

Questions, Comments, Concerns? Feel free to reach out to me, JLWWSM, on Discord: https://discord.gg/SUs87JP

COMING UP NEXT WEEK: DCUBC continues its journey through The Multiversity with
The Multiversity: Thunderworld Adventures (2014-), The Multiversity: Guidebook (2015-), and The Multiversity: Mastermen (2015-).

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Nice bite-sized nutritious literary nuggets!

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  1. “Funny Books”, “the Funny Books” or “the funnies” (the last one is traditionally reserved for humorous newspaper based comic strips but it has been applied to comic books too).

  2. That’s a tough one. Maybe the opening of Teen Titans Go to The Movies? It’s light and whimsical.

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  1. Artsies, Super-stories, Fun-pages (clearly, I don’t work in marketing :wink:
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Can someone please post the questions for me? The original comment to the thread is cutoff and when I try to access the Safari it just launches the app.

Gladly @Batmite267 =)

:eight_spoked_asterisk:QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK​:eight_spoked_asterisk:
Feel free to respond to any or all of the questions.

  1. Earth 16 sometimes refers to comic books as “Picto-Fics”. What other names can you think of for comic books?

  2. If you could participate in ANY DC battle reenactment, which battle would you choose and what character would you be?

  3. What did you think of The Question in Pax Americana?

  4. What was the most surprising twist on a character in these issues?

  5. Who was your favorite character?

  6. What was your favorite moment or panel?

Feel free to share your general thoughts, insights and reactions to the issues.

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Thanks @JLWWSM !

  1. Alt name for comic books? Drawperas (drawing/operas).
  2. Battle re-enactment? Batman during his fight with Superman in The Dark Knight Returns. Wearing that awesome costume and being able to stand toe to toe with Supes would be cool!

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@Batmite267 “Drawperas” is fun to say! It kinda just rolls out.

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  1. Wonder Woman vs. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) in Justice League 2011, issue 11. I would be the Flash, who watches the fight and says “This is crazy!” - but I’d have popcorn while watching.

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I’d like to be Aquaman when he rammed his trident into Darkseid in JL #5 (or was it 6?).

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  1. I was SHOCKED to Superboy in turning into Bizarro condition.

Hey sorry I’ve been so busy with the baby! Gonna try to read these gems over the next couple of days.

In case I don’t i want to reiterate how great I think Pax Americana is. The paneling in particular is just stellar. Frank Quitley is unbelievable in this. One of my all time favorite comics.

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@MattMcDonald - no worries :slight_smile:

In Pax Americana, The Question refers to himself as “card-carrying superhero” who doesn’t save bad guys. His interrogation methods were rough!
The panels were striking.

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@JLWWSM

The question is one of my favorite parts of this book. Very unnerving.

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Wrapping up The Just now. While it’s probably my least favorite of The Multiversity. I still think it’s great. I love the idea of superheroes being pseudo celebrities. And once again Grant Morrison breaks the 4th wall in such fun ways. I especially loved seeing him poke fun at his own writing styles.

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@MattMcDonald

I enjoyed the celebrity aspect as well. It was a fresh perspective of the characters.

The Multiversity: The Just

I tend to enjoy stories and series that contemplate what the next generation of DC heroes and villains will look like. The Kingdom, Dark Knight: Master Race and the 1,000,000 JLA saga are highly-entertaining because they both contemplate what being the offspring of DC superheroes could logically be like, but also end up mixing some sci-fi concepts in as well, since they take place in the future.

The Just is a fun study of this scenario. Concepts like Superman finally being done in by Lex Luthor but leaving behind an army of Superman robots to keep the peace “real good”, and the idea of the good guys finally winning so successfully that they are reduced to army reserve type monthly practice instead of being on active duty seem very possible.

Seeing the children of last generation’s villains now pals with the children of the heroes reminds me of the Amazon series "Man in the High Castle"that speculates on what would have happened in the decades to come if Nazi Germany and Imperialist Japan had won WWII and split the United States between themselves. The series shows how the next generation or two after Hitler would have eventually started dealing with the same equality human rights revelations and diversity respect that our real world evolved to morally, and would have deeply questioned the fanaticism of their parents. I see that same idea playing out here: with time, technology and reflection, the children of the villains make peace.

I really related to the scene between Green Arrow and his 17 year old daughter. My daughter is now 32, but it wasn’t long ago we had similar discussions about her wanting to be a big adult.

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The Multiversity: Pax Americana

This is a love letter to the Charlton Comics heroes of the 60’s created by Steve Ditko and others that DC later acquired, here referred to as Earth 4. Morrison also decided to mix in Watchmen concepts, I assume because Alan Moore had the Charlton heroes in mind when he came up with Watchmen (it is said anyway).

So we have Captain Atom of Charlton Comics mashed up with Dr. Manhattan, the Question mashed up with Rorschach, I am thinking the evil Vice President with Ozymandias (knowledge of the Algorithm), Blue Beetle with Nite Owl and Peacemaker with the Comedian.

The story plays with time, nodding it’s head to what reality perception would be like to someone who is master of time-space like Captain Atom / Dr. Manhattan. I felt overwhelmed in late January taking a hotel room on the 21st floor with my wife overlooking the Horseshoe falls dead on over on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls after watching the endless flow and energy of the falls for a few hours; imagine our minds being filled with past present future and all the energy of the local universe in one vision: recipe for madness, which is depicted here with both Captain Atom and the Vice President.

I’m a huge fan of whatever it is that Frank Quitely does with illustration. ’

The story itself however is not very satisfying, it feels more like a “sampler” of that world than a storyline that has any kind of conclusion: I realize that was Morrison’s deliberate intent, but it makes for a less than satisfying experience for the reader.

This week’s suggested questions for reflection:

  1. Other names for comic books: I admit, it’s painful that 'COMIC" books is the going term, nothing too funny about most of them. Sequential panel stories I believe is one way Scott McCloud maybe termed it; the way the eye and mind have to be trained to read this literary phenomenon was once a cultish talent until digital panel by panel came around to open this world up to the masses. In the mid '60s both Marvel and DC tried different terms; “Pop Art” being one of them ( a la Warhol).

  2. Battle reenacctment:like those Civil War folks who dress up once a year? Great idea! Probably the battle depicted in JLA One Million against the sentient Sun, combining the godling present day JLA with the Justice League of the 853rd Century (the year issue 1 million of JLA will be published).

  3. Thoughts on the Question in Pax Americana: he was over the top compared to the Question we know, but that’s because he was a combo mashup of the Question and the uber-violent Comedian.

  4. Most surprising twist on a character? Konel turning into a Bizarro.

  5. Favorite Character: I really thought Nightshade in Pax Americana had a great backstory and would have enjoyed her story playing out more.

  6. Favorite moment: As mentioned earlier, the scene with Green Arrow and his daughter was like a recent memory of my chats with my daughter in her late teens.

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Ratings: For the Just, a solid 9 of 10; I felt like the story had direction and conclusion as part of the larger story.

For Pax Americana: 7 of 10; while I loved the Quitely artwork and the world mashup of Charlton and Watchmen, the motivation of the VP to assassinate the President, the interjection of President Bush, the ponderous flipping of what decade we were in just didn’t feel worth the effort to figure out, no “reward” at the end.

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