Multiversity Explores The Multiversity #3: Earth-ME!

Hello and welcome back to Multiversity’s annotations of “The Multiversity,” our ongoing look at Morrison’s magnum opus/ode to the DCU. Just as we did last time, we’ll be going into the book pretty deep and seeing what we can find out. However, unlike last time, there will be a lot less theorizing; instead, we’ll be more trying to figure out where this issue fits into the bigger whole, and attempting to point out easter eggs and references. We’ll get back into the heavier stuff probably more towards the end, given the one-off nature of these releases.

So those of you who have their copies of “The Multiversity,” lets dig in. And, of course, spoilers are abundant not just for “The Multiversity” but for previous works of Morrison’s that “The Multiversity” references.

Previous annotations: #0, #1, #2

Part 1: The Earths We Knew

Just like we did with the first issue, we’re going to start by looking at all the Earths relevant to this issue. Of course, given that the first issue was a bookend it made a bit more sense to break it down and try and cipher information from it, but never the less we’ll keep it as a staple of this column to keep the Earths fresh in our mind as we begin our looks at the series.

Without further ado, here are is the Earth featured in this issue:

Part 2: Page by Page Analysis

Page 1

Kicking things off with some nice foreboding elements. We meet Sister Miracle aka Sasha Norman, daughter of Shilo Norman aka Mister Miracle and an unknown wife — perhaps Big Barda, who was married to the original Mister Miracle Scott Free? Not sure how that works out on this Earth, but it feels important to note that Shilo Norman was one of the main characters of Morrison’s “Seven Soldiers” as one of the eponymous Seven, so of course he’s brought back spiritually here.

We also meet Saffi Mason aka Megamorpho, assumedly the daughter of Metamorpho — though the use of the name Megamorpho is interesting here as it was previously associated with a villain. No idea on the mother. Saffi also looks a bit like the Metal Man Platinum, so I’m curious if there’s an intended connection there.

In this opening scene, we learn that Sasha is suffering from some kind of techno-virus she got from space that she can only combat by being sad and using her emotions to “flood (her) anygdala with hormones.” I’m going to have to assume “anygdala” is an innocent typo. As for the virus, I’m not sure; there’s a very famous Marvel-based techno-organic virus, but I don’t know what the DC counterpart could be or if she’s referring to anything specific here. I do like that the way for her to combat the virus (made up of technocytes according to the next page, which are apparently a thing from the Dark Sector videogame? Happy accident, I assume) is to be sad, though, because as we’ll learn throughout the issue, feelings are hard for these characters to really come by.

Either way, the Atom is in her bloodstream helping her out with that, so that’s nice. Although, to be fair, in DC history we don’t have a good record of the Atom (who is Ray Palmer on this Earth) being inside people.

There’s also a connection, albeit not a particularly strong one, that I picked up on between this and Morrison’s “Annihilator,” also currently being released via Legendary. It’s mostly the setting more than anything else — the decadent Californian lifestyle of celebrity and parties and excess, the young Hollywood elite. Just general hedonism, the kind Harmony Korine makes films about. It becomes more apparent later on, but I’ll admit that I assumed at first that the Atom being in someone’s bloodstream had to do with getting high, as opposed to relieving other issues.

Regardless, all we know here is Saffi is depressed and about to kill herself because they’re all doomed. We see by the end of the issue that this is true, but clearly Saffi knows something here. She’s also apparently the first hero to kill herself. That’s not so great.

Pages 2-3

Here we meet the Atom, aka Ray Palmer. He informs us that Sasha’s need for sadness has been achieved. That certainly says a lot in so few words.

Also of note is that Ray Palmer was once de-aged to a 16 year old, which could explain why he’s hanging out here with all the young folk. (Thanks to Brian Salvatore for that catch.)

This is our second Atom in the series, by the way, as last issue gave us the Al Pratt version of the Atom. Is Paul Hoben next, or do you think we’ll just skip right to Ryan Choi?

Page 4

So, in the main New 52 universe, Batman and Lex Luthor are teammates, and rivals. In this universe, Batman and Luthor are dating. Oh dear.

The Batman of this Earth is Damian Wayne, the closest thing Morrison has to a character that is “his” in the Batman world. Morrison brought the modern incarnation of Damian to life out of a previously obscure storyline, and Damian has been “his” ever since (though obviously that’s changed once Morrison killed him and DC/Tomasi and Gleason decided to bring him back). Batman here sort of echoes the post-apocalyptic future Batman we saw in “Batman” #666 (and beyond) of Damian in a trenchcoat, but obviously everything here is a lot less dire. Minus those apparent Invaders, but we’ll get to them in a bit.

The Lex Luthor of this Earth is Lex’s daughter Alexis. Still bald, still manipulative, Alexis carries a lot of similar traits to the classic Superman villain. Her relationship with Batman is certainly interesting, especially given certain questions that arise about Batman’s sexuality later, but it’s kind of funny to think that in an alternate world the son of Batman would find reasons to fall in love with the daughter of his dad’s best friend’s greatest foe, let alone his own best friend’s biggest annoyance.

And, while Damian getting involved with Lexi is problematic based on the Luthor legacy, it is perhaps worth noting that Damian’s father also had a predilection for supervillain ladies as well. Runs in the family, I suppose.

Alexis is also very obviously the stand-in for every critic of Morrison’s work ever, let alone Morrison acting as his own critic. This hole is Morrison poking fun at himself ostensibly, and “Is Batman gay?” seems like a direct nod to not only the inference that Batman has always been a homosexual (or at least bi)  but also Morrison’s own public comments in a Playboy interview when he said that “gayness is built into Batman.” Morrison is very much deconstructing himself here, let alone superheroes in general — one might even be able to say that he’s acting as his own form of the Gentry, writing superheroes in his own weird way based on the current more cynical track they’re on.

Once again, though, we get the value of comics being brought up. This has been present in every issue so far, in different ways; Nix discussed them in the first issue and they revealed a pivotal connection between universes later (“one world’s reality is another’s fiction”), and in the second we heard about how dangerous one particular comic book was from Doc Fate while the Atom espoused that it is strange someone wouldn’t read comics. That the book’s villains are the Gentry, who we’ve speculated are trying to destroy and homogenize comics, and that we spend frequent time now seeing the value of these books in every world is obviously the least subtle that Morrison has ever been. We’ve already speculated that “The Multiversity” is about the importance of comics, and it becomes all the more clear every issue; Morrison has often been quoted towards comics being magic, and here that doesn’t seem to have left the narrative in any way.

But if the first issue talked about comics as an important artifact and the second talked about it as a notable aspect of pop culture, here the conversation changes in an interesting way. Here, the question is: “are comic books art?” And that’s a great question. The comic itself makes a good compelling case for it with Ben Oliver’s lush and wonderful illustrations, but this does seem to thumb its nose on the culture of commentary that surrounds comic books. Alexis seems both incredibly engaged and generally flippant towards the purpose of comics, and the way she sort of wavers back and forth echo general sentiments that you find online.

Additionally, as we see, it’s always the same comic: “Ultra Comics,” the issue that will be illustrated by Doug Mahnke that presumably is the last in the series of one-shots before the second book-ending issue of “The Multiversity”. This is the “cursed” comic from the first two issues, but here nobody seems to really respect that curse given the amount of people that have read it. You have to wonder what (if any) impact this will have, though by the end of the issue there’s at least one pretty compelling idea.

The following page sees a fair deal of chaos brought upon Earth as Alexis notes that invaders from an alternate Earth have arrived, which is similar to the premise of last issue — but this time no one cares. While we don’t learn who is the invader, we can wonder if the invasion is happenstance, or is it perhaps because of the cursed comic? Again, this question will be repeated by the end of the issue.

Either way, I love that every issue of this comic book series seems to want to engage the conversation about the relevance and purpose of comics in general. That’s a nice touch, albeit — as I said — a very unsubtle one.

I think they’re art, certainly.

Page 5

“Real life is better than any comic.” Well, yeah, sure — when you’re in a comic. But also, Damian is lying.

The apathy present on this planet is noteworthy. It’s everywhere! Again, the opening of the book reminded me of the stereotypical decadent California trope, the character that has to go to extremes just to feel any kind of emotion, and that is something that will be a part of the book to a big extent later and is permeating throughout Morrison’s work in general. That that apathy is ingrained across the globe is noteworthy towards the idea of Earth-ME! where everyone is too self-obsessed to care about the bigger issues. That, or we’re being given “Final Crisis” flashbacks to when Darkseid turned everyone into mindless drones.

But, well, obviously there’s more to it than just that. As we see on the next page, in fact.

Page 6

Superman as Clark Kent/Kal-El is no longer on this world. In his place, we have Superman drones. And that’s problematic to say the least.

The idea of robotic Supermen to help protect the world isn’t a particularly new one, nor is it something that we can credit to Grant. For example, “Superman: Red Son” from former friend/current rival Mark Millar comes to mind, as President Superman created drones to police the planet for him.

But Morrison has certainly played with the idea of heroism leading to robotics, like in “All-Star Superman” where we leave the story with the promise of a new replacement Superman. It’s never stated to be a robot, but you can make assumptions. Not only that, but we got the other side of this in “Batman Inc,” when Batman created Bat-drones (which itself seemed like a play on the idea present in “Kingdom Come,” for what its worth). So we’ve seen the power that these robotic replacements can have.

Morrison also played with having a large group of Supermen a bit in “DC One Million” with a future team of Supermen from different eras. We’re mixing and matching here.

The reason I call this problematic is because I’m going to assume that Grant Morrison knows what the idea of these figures create in the modern era. Drones are a very prevalent part of our culture, something that causes fear and alarm overseas as these predators hover in the sky threatening to annihilate people at any moment (this is where I share the clip of John Oliver talking about them — and do watch that if you haven’t yet). Imagine if we had drones, but they were modeled after the insane and glorious and god-like power of the world’s most powerful superhero? Superman is our greatest idea, our biggest hero and savior, but imagine if you were on the wrong side of an army of them?

Compare that with the apathy people have towards the part they play in their life. Imagine being conditioned to just expect a robo-Superman to show up and save you. Imagine looking up in the sky and not caring if it’s a bird, or a plane, or whatever. The previous pages featured comics as potential art as a focal point, and it wasn’t subtle; neither is having an apathetic city towards Superman drones hovering in the sky waiting to come save us.

Batman’s frustration is, to say the least, understandable.

Obviously this comes back in a big way in the issue. It pretty much has to.

There are other things to discuss on this page too, decidedly less bothersome ones. We get a bit of the future’s culture/slang changes, which is fun, like “picto-fic” for comics, a gossip site called Trash Bat, the acknowledgement of clickbait articles; more importantly, “Ultra Comics” is referred to by name and referred to as a “predatory story” and a “haunted comic”, and next page will bring up the curse.

Alexis does give us a primary aspect that seems prevalent to “The Multiversity” as a whole, though, let alone one of Morrison’s central comments for us to pick apart, and that’s the idea of “a post-modern Pinocchio super-concept character who comes to life only when you read about him.” Given how reader-participant the first issue of this series is, I imagine she’s referring to Nix Uotan (thus making this his only real appearance in the book, as opposed to the last issue that featured an idol of him) and what we did to him by the end of the issue. In these one-shots we appear to be little more than onlookers, but the readers do matter as central figures in “The Multiversity,” and we can’t forget the role we play.

This issue, for what its worth, is pretty ingrained back towards the overall narrative of “The Multiversity.” Last issue featured aspects of it in the background, as well as a few pop-up elements in the story, but for the most part it was focused as a one-shot. This issue is decidedly less so, and we see more of that first issue hovering around the edges trying to break in.

Batman also acknowledges the plight of the artist here. Given this site’s moniker, think he’s been picking up what we put down?

Page 7

“What this world needs is an old-school super-villain like my mom or my gran’dad to liven it up,” which is Damian’s way of saying he misses Talia and Ra’s al Ghul.

Also, here’s the mention of the curse on the comic, though what that curse does isn’t specified. We’ll be able to make some theories by the end, though I wonder if it is different from Earth to Earth. I find it interesting that that is not something we’re exactly privy to, though, and also find it interesting that Alexis isn’t in any way nervous about the curse. Nix in issue #1 seemed to acknowledge it but was exploring that aspect, yet Doc Fate warned that it was too powerful to even possibly wrestle with. Both Alexis and Damian seem to not give much of a crap that there’s a curse on this comic, and I can’t tell if that’s because they’re inquisitive or because they’re apathetic — but given my diatribe about the previous page, I’d imagine it’s the latter. The end of the issue may prove me wrong.

Also also: Batman believes in curses. That strikes me as kind of funny, for someone known for realism.

Page 8

More commentary on comics. At this point I feel like Damian is the Regina George to Alexis’ Gretchen Wieners: “stop trying to make comics happen! It’s not going to happen!”

It’s easy to see where Morrison is going with this. Again, this comic isn’t subtle by any stretch of the imagination. “The Just” as a whole seems to reflect the Hollywood-ization of comics, both in general thematic elements and in terms of the role the characters play. With that in mind, on this page we can look at how Hollywood and films affect comics as they do today and see pretty clearly that Morrison’s working pretty heavy handed with a single riff: the more realism we put into comics, these stories and these characters, the less exciting they become. The role of the Gentry is to ruin these stories, and one could argue that on Earth-ME! the work was done for them; we get a more direct reference to the Gentry later, but superheroes and superpowers aren’t special, and no one is looking to the sky with wonder.

So of course Batman doesn’t think comic books are going to become a thing, because their version of real life reflects our version of going to the movies — and when all of that is big and grand and special, then none of it is. Superheroes aren’t exciting, and superheroes aren’t excited to be superheroes in the first place. Why should anyone care about anything?

Good lord. I’m depressing myself now.

In regards to what Alexis says, “This Be The Verse”, she is referring to a poem by Phillip Larkin that starts with “They fuck you up, your mum and dad.” It’s a very appropriate poem:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

This ties in with everything I just said; the previous generation gets all the exciting things while the modern generation is left to its own, bored devices. And, yeah, that translates to a lot of current cultural issues dealing with millenials and a whole generation of people who keep their noses in their phones (can’t say I don’t do that myself), but it ties into the bigger thematic elements of the story too.

The long story short is: we’re all bored, and we’re all doomed because of it. Great.

Either way, Alexis ends up tossing the comic book away in favor of some snuggles with Damian. This, friends, is an extended metaphor; I don’t think I have to go deep into it anymore. However, I will just note that everything we’ve seen of that issue (and will see) seems to imply that that issue will be interacting with us, and we are characters involved in “the Multiversity,” so this is us somewhat interacting with the page and being given that issue.

Page 9

Here Alexis mentions “zombie apocalypse movies.” It may seem like a throwaway remark, but keep in mind that Morrison made fun of zombies last issue when Doc Fate blew away a whole bunch of ’em and claimed he expected something more original. Again, the massive ennui that seems to hang over the characters in this story is once again illustrated by their celebration of the established mundane.

Batman calling her “psycho-autistic” is a bit weird, though. Not gonna lie; that comment comes out really awkward.

Though, I guess now is as good a time as any to point out the uneven dialogue of the issue, something that struck me as odd. Looking at the previous issue, it was clear that Morrison was trying to capture a specific era; something that was fairly classic and outdated, but perfect for the Golden Age vibes of the book. This one is wildly inconsistent, though — at times the book is goofy, but never quite sarcastic enough to be obviously sarcastic. Batman in particular very much walks a fine line between being the Dark Knight Detective and just being a weirdo. I find that a little bit suspect, or at least hard to pin down in terms of the reasoning. The best I could guess is this is Morrison’s impersonation of socialites and teenagers, but if that’s the case then it works about as well as when “Batgirl” used hashtags in dialogue as if that made sense.

So in terms of the inconsistencies in how they talk to one another, I’m not sure I can come up with a plausible reason for it, though I’ll keep trying. Never the less, it does stand out to me as just that: an inconsistency in an otherwise meticulously planned out narrative, with consistent recurring ticks and thematic nods. I feel like the reason for the dialogue has to have a purpose, but what it is I’m just not sure.

Page 10

Welcome this world’s version of Superman, Chris Kent. Chris Kent is a good pick; a nod towards the “Superman: Last Son” character who is the biological son of General Zod that Clark and Lois raise after he escapes the Phantom Zone. “Superman: Last Son” is also a story I really like, so this works out well for me in terms of little nods to past work that I can give the thumbs up to.

One of the undercurrents of the relationship between Chris and Damian, and something that becomes a lot more apparent later on, is that there is some homosexual tension between the two of them. They treat it as if they’re just friends, but they’re clearly friends that care deeply for one another and don’t know how to express those feelings for one another.  The way they do, though, is pretty fun; it’s very much a school yard aesthetic of being mean to the person you like just so you get their attention, and it’s something the book acknowledges. Heck, Batman uses a lead coat as we learn on the previous page, which is a nice touch and adds to the dynamic between the two of them.

It’s pretty much standard macho-bravado and homoeroticism that Morrison has picked on throughout his entire career of superhero comics, but the way Oliver illustrates the two of them here is a really nice touch in terms of the use of body language.

Chris needs Batman’s help to solve a super-murder mystery, though, and he adds in an interesting wrinkle: that Batman doesn’t care about being a superhero. This is interesting because, based on the previous pages, I would say that that’s all Batman is interested in. I guess this is just Damian’s way of putting up that tough Batman-patented stone-walled front where nothing gets through to him and he doesn’t care about anything.

Except fighting crime.

And Alexis.

And Chris.

Page 11

More of the same, though Chris and Damian do get into a tête-à-tête about Megamorpho’s identity, which ties into how Batman knows everything about everyone (though it does add a nice little touch to the idea that Superman cares too much about everyone and therefore doesn’t care enough about individuals). We also see Chris upset and sympathetic about how Clark left the world, with the robotic Supermen drones that put everybody out of work. They fuck you up, your mum and dad; they may not mean to, but they do.

We also get the first shot of Damian’s trophy room, which features an Azrael costume, a Robin costume, a Batman cowl and something akin to the Invaders we see earlier that are being taken out by the Superman drones. I’m still not sure what Earth they’re supposed to be from, but I will note that they sort of look like the technocytes from earlier, at least a little bit if you remove the hazard symbol, so perhaps Batman had some role to play in the earlier illness that infected Sasha (or at least knows about it) and this? Assuming that he didn’t just steal one for study, which is most likely. But he is bored, after all, and he’s dating a villain while wishing his evil mother and grandparents were still around. You never know.

Or maybe someone close to Batman has something to do with it. You don’t think L…? Naw.

Page 12

This page is pretty much the funniest one in the entire issue. Chris mentions a team-up with Sandman, and Damian’s retort is “Neil Gaiman’s Sandman?”

Of course, that it’s “Neil Gaiman’s Sandman” and not just “Sandman” or “Morpheus” or “Daniel Hall” is interesting. This would say to me that Sandman doesn’t exist in there world; at least, not as reality. Just fiction. We know that DC Comics exists as well as another publisher that gets mentioned later, so it’s safe to assume that “Sandman” was just a comic for them. But Morrison wrote Daniel Hall before in his run on “JLA,” so why doesn’t he exist in this world — especially if Superman can team up with him, in a dream of all places? Does this mean that Chris has an overactive imagination, or is his brain just connecting him with another place? Or is it someone else in his dream?

I also like that Damian apparently plays pranks on Chris, as he “punk’d” (the spelling of the former MTV show, not the actual spelling of the word) Chris with the help of some 5th dimensionals — characters that, by the way, featured prominently in two pivotal Morrison stories: “Batman RIP” with Bat-Mite, and the finale of his “Action Comics” run.

Also worth noting? Damian has guns. Lots of guns, in fact. That’s a very interesting little detail that tells you a lot about what kind of Batman Damian has become, given Batman’s one rule.

Page 13

“You know why Saffi committed suicide? Boredom.”

Nailed it.

Also, Superman does not care for Batman’s girlfriend. I know part of it is because she’s his worst enemy, and part of it is because her dad killed his dad, but come on, it’s also because he loves Damian. I know she was being itentionally rude or otherwise flippant earlier, but Alexis pretty much came right out with it earlier:

Page 14

Damian chooses to hang out with his best friend instead of his girlfriend, at least partially because nobody likes his girlfriend. So is Damian embarrassed about Lexi because everyone hates her, or is Damian embarrassed about Lexi because he doesn’t want Clark to get jealous? After all, he tries to hide Lexi in a coat closet under a lead-lined duster; I know there are stereotypes in storytelling (let alone real life) when it comes to how people express affection for one another or hide their relationships with certain people they care about, but Damian’s not exactly hiding from what Lexi says to him: “Why don’t you and Chris finally admit you love one another…?”

Page 15

Here’s where we start learning about Sasha’s big party. I love that she says that if he and Chris don’t come “it’ll be mass suicide.” Not only is it callous because her friend just died while talking to her, but it’s such a fun play on that old phrase, “Oh, I’ll just die if ___!” that is almost always used facetiously. The guest list to the party is also very important, but we’ll get more into that later. Also, the Atom wasn’t invited to the party. Oops.

We also learn that Sasha speaks through telebonding, which explains the speech bubbles.

Page 16

Finally, someone new to hang out with! Only, it’s not entirely new, since we know both of these characters.

Here we get to hang out with Kyle Rayner, Earth’s one and only Green Lantern (the rest are apparently dead), back in his old costume with a major focus on his life as an artist here as he critiques Doug Mahnke’s art. We also meet Offspring, Megamorpho’s boyfriend and the son of Plastic Man, primarily known for his role in “Kingdom Come.” While there was eventually an Offspring in the regular DCU, this one seems to be taken from that and turned into a big ol’ nerd.

Again, comics is the main point of conversation here as the two study and discuss the role of comics in their world. Of note is what we see here of Ultra Comics, which feature the Ultra Superman of that issue staring directly out at the reader. I imagine this is another interactive adventure between us and him, given Lexi’s earlier comments about the Pinocchio thing.

I won’t go into the discussion about the role of comics in this story more than I did earlier, but I will mention that the comics that they’re talking about are DC’s fake Marvel equivalent, Major Comics, which Kyle Rayner apparently wanted to work for instead of DC (and, a reminder: DC actually exists in this universe). But all these characters they mention, we’ve seen before back in “The Multiversity” #1 as actual characters: Bestial Behemoth (the Hulk), the Future Family, (Fantastic Four), the Bug (Spider-Man), the G-Men (X-Men) and the Rampaging Retaliators (Avengers) were all seen alive and in battle on Earth-8 where we last saw the Cosmic Neighborhood Watch before Vampire Nix Uotan showed up. Offspring also mentions the “Essential Retaliators,” who seem to be the Ultimate version of the not-Avengers and therefore the characters we saw on Earth-7 — so when Offspring says their world was destroyed in the “Essential Genocide” when “some kinda space demon” (ie the Gentry) killed everyone, we know it’s actually a lot bigger than he realizes.

This is pretty much the biggest example of one Earths’ reality being another Earth’s fiction, thus tying around a huge earlier element of “The Multiversity” into this issue. “Essential Genocide” is also really morbid, even if Essential is kind of playing on Marvel’s “Essential” collections of their comics.

Another thing that comes up in this issue is the revolving door of death. Offspring just assumes Megamorpho is going to come back, which Kyle chalks up to shock — but the discussion of death becomes bigger in the next few pages so we know that there’s some disconnect here between reality and loss, which definitely plays on how unceremoniously death is treated in comics.

I would imagine that the grafitti behind Offspring and Kyle in the second to last panel means something, but I have a hard time figuring out what. It seems to say “Speck”, maybe? But Morrison has used the grafitti angle as a tool in previous books, like Zur-En-Arrh in “Batman RIP” or Mageddon in “JLA” so it seems worth figuring out. I’m just not sure of any good references to go off of for “Speck,” I’m afraid. (Maybe Sidney Speck from “Hitman,” or Leonard Speck aka Rabid? Neither are quite Mageddon level.)

Last but not least, Kyle asking about The Bug being a movie reminds me of that Simpsons gag where Bart goes to see Comic Book Guy and asks “Did you know before Spider-Man was in movies, he was in comic books?” just to mess with him.

Page 17

Here we meet some of the new Justice League, aka the Just. We’ve met Chris and Kyle, but this page gives us Connor Hawke looking quite dapper; Connor was Oliver’s son who took on the Green Arrow mantle. It becomes more clear in the latter half of the issue, but the Just is all about the legacy heroes, and Connor was a big part of that in the previous iteration of the DCU pre-“Flashpoint.” It’s nice to see him back in action.

They’re not identified fully until later, but we do see Wally West as the Flash and Bloodwynd also appears here — and, keep in mind that Bloodwynd was seen back in the first issue of “The Multiversity” as part of the Cosmic Neighborhood Watch, so there’s importance to him being around. Bloodwynd also hasn’t really been a big part of DC Comics since “Day of Judgement,” so the fact that he’s here at all feels fairly important to keep in mind. I’m not hedging any bets on him, but it’s definitely notable that he’s prominent.

Connor Hawke also mentions “Planet Krypton,” a play on Planet Hollywood from “Kingdom Come.” That’s the third “Kingdom Come” reference we get here, though we know that there is another Earth that is defined as the Kingdom Come Earth. The bleed we get here is intriguing, though. And why is he going to Planet Krypton? For an evening with Lady Shiva, who was a villain in last month’s issue!

Page 18

This is where the issue starts getting tough. We’re back with Lexi and her pal that’s obviously the daughter of Joker and Harley Quinn, as well as Cissie King-Hawke aka Arrowette (daughter of Connor Hawke and the original Arrowette Bonnie King, with Cissie King-Hawke being a play on Cissie King-Jones, who was the second Arrowette who was part of “Young Justice”) making a brief appearance and looking similar to Artemis of Young Justice (remember that that show originally took place on Earth-16, which is our new Earth-ME!, thus combining Young Justice with “Young Justice” — oy vey!), but now the book starts filling up with background characters who all seem like direct references, and I can’t figure out them all. Max Mercury is pretty prominent on this page, as is someone similar to Livewire, but the rest are a bit hard to figure out. Feel free to speculate in the comments.

I gotta say, I love the idea of Superboy as a brooding artist, though, and that his anger and frustration is something he blames on tourette’s and K-Poisoning but is really him turning into a Bizarro because he’s a clone. Superboy had quite a run in comics where he was an angst-ridden boy during the Geoff Johns “Teen Titans” run, let alone the aforementioned Young Justice show where he was quite moody, so tying that into this as an aspect of his personality here is great — especially when the issue opens up by asking us to question whether something is art or not.

Page 19

Here we get Superboy’s painting, referred to as the Grey Lady who appeared to Superboy in a dream (as well as others). However, as we know, this is Dame Merciless of the Gentry, first seen back in the first issue of “The Multiversity.”

Earlier I speculated whether the Gentry really needed to do anything on this because everyone is already apathetic. However, if Dame Merciless came to Superboy in a dream, then perhaps that’s part of where the apathy was born. We’ve seen the Gentry march onto Earths to lay waste to them, but maybe it’s a different strategy per Earth.

That, and this also brings into question Chris’ reported team-up with Sandman in his dream. Was it actually Neil Gaiman’s Sandman? Or was it a member of the Gentry?

Last bit of curiosity here is the person who helps Connor get up after his attack. I’m not sure who that is. Lexi and Harley refer to “Green Arrow’s daughter,” but we met Arrowette earlier and this is clearly someone different, unless I’m misunderstanding who they’re talking about in general. But whoever talks to Connor is someone I am not recognizing.

Pages 20-25

Welcome to the Red-Amazo Crisis! This is what was being referred to a couple pages ago, but it appears that the Just now just re-enacts old battles for fun because they have nothing better to do and probably to keep in shape (gotta keep those muscles tight!). I’m going to combine the next few pages here and just break things down in the order that they come.

Kyle refers to “Doomsday Plus,” which is a reference to classic DC villain Doomsday. Red-Amazo is a mix of Red Tornado (android character that becomes a hero associated with the Justice League but has lots of Red elemental angry robo-brothers and sisters) and Amazo, a DC villain who duplicates the powers of metahumans. So in this instance, the android Red-Amazo is duplicating metahuman powers fused together by TO Morrow and is also a bastard.

(And, again, the use of language in this scene is weird. They flip from boredom to classic comic book-isms frequently, so I guess the best explanation for why they’re doing it is to recapture lost magic?)

Here we get confirmation that Wally West is the Flash, and Marcus Aelius is once again Alpha Centurion, a character originally from an alternate Earth from “Zero Hour” who came to regular DC later.  Natasha Irons, daughter of John Henry, has now taken over his role as Steel, while Nick Kovak has once again resumed his role as Argus (as in the character from the “Bloodlines” event, not the corporation — though I’m sure there’s an implied connection). Wonder Woman is now played by Artemis (of Bana-Mighdall, not to be confused with the Artemis I brought up earlier), and Aquaman is the totally-not-dead Garth, who is mostly known to us as Tempest. Bloodrayn is also hanging around.

Kyle Rayner also breaks down and has flashbacks to his girlfriend being fridged by Major Disaster, which is maybe the first actual acknowledgement of this event, trope and what it did in a mainstream comics since it happened during the original run? It’s been acknowledged, sure, and the fridge showed up in “Blackest Night,” but I can’t think of any other major instance where this event was brought up in such a way). But Kyle also implies that something took control of him, as he says something “crawled into (his) head,” which seems similar to Connor dreaming of Dame Merciless. The Gentry are in the dreams.

Meanwhile, Steel notes that something has tampered with the Red-Amazo droid, which is pretty heavy foreshadowing. Or, if you’ve been paying attention to the scenes between Damian and Lexi, it’s a bit more clear. That Steel mentions “higher dimensional” components does add an interesting wrinkle into the whole thing, though, as now we can start considering what role if any the Gentry is playing here, or the Invaders that arrived earlier.

Last but not least, Alpha Centurion once again brings up the question of if the world needs the Just, with the answer being no. They do these exercises to keep from being bored and/or to keep in shape, but otherwise the world doesn’t need them. Not so long as there are those Superman drones that are working and not in any way doing anything they’re not supposed to.

Page 26

We touched on this earlier when Offspring was talking to Kyle, but here again Offspring seems to not at all seem to acknowledge that death is a permanent condition that you can’t come back from. Thing is, Offspring also seems to realize she’s not coming back at the same time, so maybe this is tying to the idea of how we need to accept death as a permanent and destructive element in comics as it is in real life. This whole issue — nay, this whole series is commentary on the state of comics, and it’s interesting to see how much is boiled down to single pages that can be endlessly read and re-read (like I do, as I over-read into and overwrite about it).

Offspring is also playing a Young Justice game, which once again brings back the connection of this Earth-16 to the show’s version of Earth-16 and how they’re blurred together.

We also get the return of the comics and their curse, as apparently the cursed comic is what pushed Megamorpho over the edge, and Damian and Chris will go over how that could’ve happened soon. However, Megamorpho was apparently reading the “Society of Super-Heroes” issue that we read last time, and that certainly didn’t make me want to kill myself. I had a lot of fun reading it.

We’ll save the discussion of the indicia for a bit, but before you go look — no, none of the previous issues have anything special with theirs.

Page 27

Here we meet Holly Dayton as Menta, daughter of the character Mento, aka Steve Dayton, who was a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory but not Morrison’s “Seven Soldiers.” She’s friends with Arrowette, and the two of them are planning to put together a superhero team.

This is also the first point of the issue where the Gentry get name-checked. Apparently they were in Megamorpho’s mind, furthering the theory that the Gentry is present throughout this issue in the characters’ various forms of apathy; we can also assume that the “curse” of “Ultra Comics” is letting the Gentry into the world, as Batman will go into soon.

Page 28

And here we meet Pieter Cross, the third Doctor Midnite, as well as an appearance by Gypsy, though she won’t be name checked until later. Bloodwynd is finally named as well.

It’s odd that so many characters appear in the background, even with speaking roles, before actually being named by the book.

Pages 29-30

Here’s Connor awaiting Lady Shiva for his date at Planet Krypton. Of course, he’s not actually meeting Lady Shiva (making this the second time that a hero has lied about being intimate with a villain in this book for whatever reason) — he’s meeting his daughter Cissie, who we first saw at the art show earlier. She relates to us what we just saw happening with Menta as the two of them try and form a new team, and this is where we see the aforementioned Phillip Larkin poem in action: the past generation of heroes ruined it for our current generation, and the current generation are ruining it for the next generation.

Arrowette also brings back the spoiled kid trope that the book started with as well, and all her dialogue is pretty stereotypical for stuff like this. I was waiting for her to get upset that Connor didn’t buy her a pony or something, that’s how stereotypical this gets.

Page 30

Now we start getting into the meat of it all, as Batman breaks down what the cursed comic does. Here Batman brings up the cordyceps fungus, a parasytic endoparasitoid that mainly effects insects and which attacks a host and essentially turns it into a zombie. The videogame The Last Of Us used a freak strain of the fungus as the central element to its zombie outbreak, for example. The reason Batman brings it up is that the story acts the same way as the fungus, infecting people — and this in turn causes the curse, or what we can assume is the “scientific explanation” of the curse (because, really, I kind of expect that the curse is different from Earth to Earth). So interaction with this material creates deadly hypnotic inductions, and I would imagine that is this is where the Gentry comes in — and it’s all contained in comic books!

Of course, you should remember that the first issue of this series started with a slow zoom towards a type of parasite-creature on a fungus, so now we see how that comes into play.

Interestingly, the cordycep fungus on ants was also discussed on last week’s The Flash, which debuted the night before this issue came out. That’s some sweet synergy right there.

I think this page also gives us some kind of confirmation that this Earth does not have transmatter cube, as Chris seems to be dumbfounded by its alternate appearance in the “Society of Super-Heroes” story.

Page 31

Now we get into the indicia. As Damian points out, each one is different: pointing to the “Thunderworld” issue, Damian says that it’s from Whiz Media and published out of Fawcett City, whereas the actual Shazam first appeared in Whiz Comics and was published by Fawcett; Keystone is a reference to the Flash and not Shazam, but they’re both associated with lightning so it makes sense. We get Hub City, which is the birthplace of Victor Sage aka the Question, who appears in the next issue, “Pax Americana.” I’m not particularly sure about Cosmoville, Satellite City or New Hooverville (this seems affiliated with “Society of Super-Heroes”, I would guess), but obviously they’ll tie in somewhere with the series, though where and in what order I’m not sure.

Unfortunately, like I said, if you go to the older issues you won’t find anything fun in the indicia. Which is a shame, because that would’ve been a cool Easter Egg to reveal, but alas.

Either way, comics are bleeding between realities and this is the Gentry’s way to begin their infection and take down the Earth. Perhaps I was wrong to comment earlier that they just march in and lay waste, like we saw in Earth-7. Perhaps it is a slow, laborious process.

Pages 32-33

I don’t have a lot to add here because most of this is just confirmation of everything that’s going on; comic books as art but comic books as an infection. I just love that Bloodwynd is trying to argue his relevance here, especially when I called it into question early on in this endeavor. That seems rather appropriate.

Page 34

Batman and Superman, together again! The World’s Finest! Is their bro-mance in danger because of a girl?  Stay tuned!

The Superman drones are now in bodyguard mode as well. Because, y’know, earlier I said that there was no way a Superman drone would be a bad idea, and now it looks like it’s going to be a bad idea.

And, hey, remember earlier when Chris didn’t seem to know about the transmatter cube? Suddenly it just appears in the room, so that’s weird.

The one thing that we’ve barely discussed (until now) is “the guest list.” Everyone keeps bringing up Sasha’s party, and the guest list, and whether or not they’re on it because it matters, and if you go back throughout the issue you’ll see it brought up a lot. This is where it becomes important, though, because it appears that there’s been a trick to the whole guest list thing the entire time, as if someone was trying to get certain people together. Someone like…

Page 35

JAKEEM THUNDER! Jakeem is a former Morrison creation during his Flash run with Mark Millar; Jakeem gets control of the genie Thunderbolt from Johnny Thunder which gives him some pretty incredible power to say the least. Now Jakeem is back and shouting out “ZOKUL”, a referencce to when Jakeem merged the Fifth Dimensional being Lkz with Yz in the pre-“Flashpoint” universe, creating the new genie Ylzkz who is controlled by Jakeem shouting “so cool!”

And, hey, turns out Lexi was the villain all along! And look at all the formerly disparate pieces we can now put together: the Invaders that Lexi doesn’t care about,  the technocytes and why Damian had one in his trophy room, the Red-Amazo going berserk, and now the Superman drones being used for evil because of course Superman drones will be used for evil. Everything pretty much clicks into place, particularly that part in the beginning where Lexi says she’s going to get revenge on everyone and then she does.

The lesson I’ve learned is: remember to invite everyone to parties — especially super villains that are smart enough and capable enough to send an army of indestructible killer robots based on the world’s greatest hero to a party where every last remaining hero is at.

There’s one thing about Lexi that I’m unsure of, though, which brings us to the finale.

Pages 36-37

The party is under way! And Menta has texted Arrowette about what’s going down while her and Sasha (now in her Miss Miracle gear) don’t particularly seem to care.

Of course, Arrowette also seems to think that everything I’ve been crediting the Gentry for is something Lexi has done with control over Thunderbolt, and I’m not sure I agree with that. It’s a chicken and the egg situation; if Lexi set up everything from the beginning, then its probably fair to say that Lexi was infected by the Gentry first — but we can also believe that they are now using her as a vehicle for all the other stuff (which would explain why Damian is so shocked that she would do any of this horrible stuff, I suppose), because we know they infected other people like Superboy and Megamorpho.

So, which came first: the chicken, or the egg? Lexi the villain, or Lexi as the tool of the Gentry? I don’t suppose we’ll ever fully know.

The party is very well attended, though. Lots of heroes and villains hanging out together. A few that I spot are the obviously prominent Impulse and Miss Martian, as well as Blue Beetle, Livewire, Max Mercury, Lobo, Fire, Hawk, Inertia,Batgirl and the Creeper. There’s a lot of people here, though, so I’m sure there’s someone I’ve missed that you recognize; please comment away in the comment section.

The finale of it all wraps things up on a downer note. All the heroes and villains are in one place, perfectly set-up to die by the world’s greatest villain while the World’s Finest heroes struggle to take her down (Chris being out, Damian at this point obviously wrestling with his emotions). And yet, the response to this by the heroes at the party — who are aware of this disaster — is to ignore it. They have to party, after all! So Sister Miracle takes a duckface selfie and tweets about how neat it is that there are other versions of her out there while Superman drones run wild and kill innocent people…

…which brings everything full circle, as we began with Sasha and we end with Sasha. All the heroes upset that there’s nothing to do, that they’re bored, that the world is a utopia (even though Connor Hawke warns about utopias early in the issue), and now that something has gone wrong — now that there is something to do — everyone is too self-absorbed to care.

#earthme #metaphor #commentary #ohgrant

Page 38

One last time: Superman drones are a horrible idea.

That’s all for this month’s annotations. If there’s anything important that I missed, please do sound off in the comments below. Together, we can save the universe!