While we at Multiversity are host to a variety of reviews of different content, we do consistently feature Wednesday release reviews in both long-form and pint-sized reviews, with reviews going up on Thursday and Friday in order to give our staff time to enjoy and process the material they have chosen to review. Each review comes with a numeric score qualifier in addition to the written context, but we realize that without sharing the same context that the writers use it can potentially be difficult to discern what the numbers specifically mean.

As such, we have crafted the following comprehensive rubric for how Multiversity staff members score and rate the titles that we review. Multiversity’s staff members pride themselves on their informed but opinionated responses to the material that they are reviewing, going over every facet of the published material, and while reviews are by their nature subjective we hope that the written content will accurately express to you both the understanding of the sequential art craft and the eye to detail that our staff writers posses.

Here’s the full scale that we grade the books we review by:

10 — A “Book of the Year” contender. As close to perfect as we can imagine; otherwise flawless. A shining example of the potential of the medium.

9.9-9.0 — A “Book of the Month” contender. A book with a firm place in our pull list, something we would recommend to anyone and something that everyone should be reading.

8.9-8.0 — A “Book of the Week” contender. A strong issue if not the best we’ve seen, and a title worthy of being added to your pull list; something to follow along with or worth checking out.

7.9-7.0 — A well done book. Not the most outstanding endeavor, but still a quality comic worth recommending.

6.9-6.0 — A book with quite a few issues, but not offensively bad. Somewhat forgettable, but still a book with some innate value.

5.9-5.0 — A mediocre comic. A completely neutral experience; not good nor bad. An average, unmoving experience.

4.9-4.0 — A below average comic. There are elements about it that could be ostensibly good, but there are too many overwhelming problems with the book. Something we would not recommend.

3.9-3.0 – A poor comic. A book in which every aspect of the execution has failed, though in an overtly distasteful fashion.

2.9-2.0 — A decidedly bad comic. A book whose faults have taken over the entirety of the book, leaving nothing to be desired. There may be a slight glimmer of hope somewhere in it, but it is buried extremely deep under.

1.9-1.0 — A failure. Seemingly as low as we can go on the scale, though not entirely. Books that earn anything in the 1.0 range have nothing to offer, and are failures to the medium as a whole.

0.9-0.0 — Avoid at all cost.

In terms of how reviews operate at Multiversity, every week the writers are free to pick the titles that they want to review via a draft system. Pick of the Week is rotated amongst the review staff in order to keep things fair and impartial towards a larger site identity, and each review features that specific writer’s opinions and commentary with no editorial interference or oversight.

Generally speaking, the writers on this site will grade the books in separate, smaller scales for writing and art, combining their thoughts towards the total number. While our review scale is in place as a final, understandable decision on the review, each reviewer still utilizes their own subjective experience with the books in regards to where things fall on the scale.

In terms of the use of numeric scores in reviews, it feels worth mentioning that we held a poll on the site recently in which the overwhelming majority of readers noted that they prefer reviews with scores. While everyone holds different opinions and some reviews on our site will be done without the use of a numeric grading point, our weekly Wednesday write-ups will feature the grading based on the above scale.

Additionally, it should be noted that while Multiversity does on occasion do advance reviews per request from individuals and organizations, under absolutely no circumstances do those relationships influence our responses to the material. The review staff does not take any of this into consideration when reviewing the material, and each book is reviewed and graded on its own individual merits, far and away from any other form of relationship held elsewhere.

And yes, we do accept submissions for review. If you would like to submit your book for review, please review our submission policy — but also please be aware of the high volume of requests that we receive, and understand if we can not get to everything.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns towards our policy, please feel free to contact Editor in Chief Brian Salvatore at any time: brian@multiversitycomics.com.