The Multiversity: Ultra Comics #1

"The Multiversity: Ultra Comics" #1 is the oddest portion of "The Multiversity" to date, but it's also quite possibly the best. Is it a trap? Absolutely. When the book is over, loop back to the start and follow Ultra's path again. Each time through, you'll notice something different, something telling. Morrison, Mahnke and company should be proud of what they've created here; their "living comic book" does, indeed, have a great deal of life in its pages. Highly recommended. Read Full Review

This issue will keep you guessing throughout. You might even be tempted to put it down without finishing it - but it would take a stronger person that me to manage that. Read Full Review

As for Morrison's story, its a metafictional story, as are many of the stories he's told over the years. But what makes so much of the comic stand out is its examination of the relationship between the reader and the comic book. Without informing too much about the plot, Ultra is a comic book, the entire nature of the story is right there on the cover, the hero of the story is the comic book and the reader themselves. Morrison does a good job of integrating the thought process of the reader into how the comic is presented, and from there it's a blast. There's only one more issue of Multiversity left, and this one may well be one of the most important ones. On its own though, the issue is one of the best comics to have come out of DC this year, it's worth your time, and it is worth your money. Definitely a buy. Read Full Review

This issue was everything I could have hoped for and then some. I enjoyed the creepy themes that Morrison played with along with Doug Mahnke on pencils added to the atmosphere of this fear inducing comic. Read Full Review

Ultra Comics ties into The Multiversity in a way unlike any other of the stories. Yes Ultra Comics does tie into The Multiversity in a seamless way that will shock anyone reading it. Even in the mild spoilers I put into this review, there's still so much more to discover. The Multiversity has been Grant Morrison cutting loose with some of the finest artistic minds imaginable. Ultra Comics continues that strength, it's an amazing ride and I can only imagine what The Multiversity #2 has in store for us. Ultra Comics is a wild adventure that I won't sure forget, just like the entire Multiversity experience in itself. Read Full Review

Doug Mahnkes (Green Lantern, Superman/Wonder Woman) pencils are spot on. But, this is book is definitely an example of how the art highlights the writing and not vice versa. Everything about this book bows down to Morrison, that prick, and his ideas. Read Full Review

Morrison and Co. went above and beyond with this story. The Multiversity has been one brilliant issue after another, but this truly takes everything to the next level. It's a visionary's masterpiece, distilled into a mere 40 pages. With such a clarity of vision, it's almost impossible not to read this with the same enthusiasm with which one imagines it was written. If you haven't been following The Multiversity, or even if you haven't been following comics period, you need to read Ultra Comics #1, as it is quite possibly the best, most original single issue story Grant Morrison has ever produced. Read Full Review

Morrison has managed to combine the notions of Innocence and Experience in the comic. In a very real way, it is a statement on the development of comics in their 80 plus year history. Ultra has an innocent approach to a world that is the very definition of experience as he himself utters when he realizes that evil has won. Is that a pessimistic view? Or is it a meta-texual commentary on comics. Morrison wont tell you outright, youve got to read or not read Ultra Comics to figure it out. Read Full Review

The Ultra is Grant Morrison at his best, questioning the structures of fiction and comics as a whole without forgetting to take the reader on a ride they'll enjoy as he does it. It's about as perfect as DC comics get these days. Read Full Review

Truthfully, that's something that might throw off a number of readers. If you've ever thought Morrison was an overrated crazy hack then you're going to hate this issue. It's every post-“ Read Full Review

Grant Morrison delivers yet again with the latest installment of Multiversity. The art and writing are exquisite and the issue includes the reader with its crazy story. A must read! Read Full Review

How Ultra Comics fits into the streaming narrative of Multiversity with its presence as a haunted comic permeating so many worlds weve already seen will likely be a subject of debate and discussion for some time. In the meantime, Morrison and Mahnke are delivering a unique experience: a comic that is more self-aware than its reader. And that should scare the pants off of you. It did me. Read Full Review

Only one book left now. I wonder how the whole Multiversity issue is going to end. Read Full Review

Ultimately, the conclusion of Ultra Comics is the most interesting part of the book, partially for its ambiguity and partially because of the thoughts it provokes after. Are comics a self-contained, self-sustaining system, a process which breaks down and digests evil systems? Or is the very idea of the Gentry something that cannot be contained simply in the pages of a book, but almost a memetic virus that's passed along simply by thinking - or writing - about it? Read Full Review

I have never read a story like this before in my life and this book's ability to actually draw you into this world was a bit nerve wracking and at more than one point I actually felt like the book was talking to me personally.......... That's a hell of a feat.  So if you're ready to have your mind turned sideways by a fourth wall breaking, meta, meta story that puts you directly into the action..... STOP NOW!  Nah, you should totally read it and become like one of us. Read Full Review

Grant Morrison crafts the Gordian knots of modern comics. With his dense plotting and layered references, finding a way into one of his stories is extremely easy, but finding a way out again can prove all but impossible. Like Alexander of old, it's probably best just to cut through the tangle at the cost of whatever subtleties may be destroyed and whatever delicate stranded of meaning may be severed. So, at the risk of seeming a simplistic Philistine, I will say thatThe Multiversity: Ultra Comics #1is a story about evil and about circles. Read Full Review

I love and appreciate the writing and art put into this issue, but must cast a word of caution to anyone on the fence about this particular issue. If you're not into Morrison's brand of weird, don't bother. But if you're into that; this issue welcomes you with open arms. Read Full Review

As Morrison finishes up the victory lap that is Multiversity, his grand comic ultimately remains about good guys fighting bad guys. It's all manufactured and produced from the same place. Ultra Comics and the Gentry are each their own constructions in the comic and they're the constructions of the very real Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke. The creators push and pull you down the paths that they want you to go and we follow, looking for meaning in every panel and line of dialogue. Even as in the end, Ultra Comics returns to the beginning, so to does Morrison in his career as Multiversity: Ultra Comics #1 echoes his Animal Man and Flex Mentallo stories. If there is any infestation going on with these comics, we should be investigating how these ideas have lodged in Morrison's mind and how he can't escape them. Read Full Review

But with all this frantic, reality-bending insanity running about, one has to ask: Is Grant Morrison simply fucking with us at this point? Or did all of those DMT sessions really unlock a higher consciousness within him that few others can comprehend? Is Grant Morrison really the shaman of superhero comics, or has his schtick finally grown way too old? Ultra Comics #1 has answers. But don't forget: While the book gives you the illusion of control, it's really Grant Morrison who is pulling your strings. Read Full Review

Even so, this is an excellent way of approaching a climatic finale. Many "second-to-the-last" issues either deliver the necessary steps of grabbing the readers to their throats to read the ultimate chapter or fail to sustain the momentum by making it predictable and a frustrating read. The Multiversity: Ultra Comics #1 does the first criteria and Grant Morrison et al certainly hooks us towards the climatic exclamation mark in the ending next month. Read Full Review

But this reads more like philosophy than like satire. And maybe it is meant to be a philosophical trick, like Wittgenstein's, who wrote philosophy in order to dissolve philosophical problems and make philosophy finally go away. But what makes for good philosophy can make for a bad comic book. And, all things considered, this is a bad comicbook. Read Full Review

Big Brother

Mar 25, 2015

Incredible comic book. Can (and should) be read on multiple levels, many times. Multiversity on the whole has been a rare treat, and this might have be the best issue.

Synthozoid

Mar 29, 2015

Reminds me of Morrison's classic run on Animal Man. Highly recommended!

mrDovydas

Apr 08, 2015

Even though it's the best comic book of the week, don't read this issue.

Gizmo

Mar 30, 2015

Very creative and complex, but I wouldn't call it a complete success, the end left me wanting, but I suppose it's all in how you read it?

Full Spread

Feb 13, 2019

$1 BINVENTURES: I own the entire Multiversity in TP, but getting this individually is rewarding in and of itself. Just as I remembered, it's oh-so meta one minute then head-scratching the next. Who could ask for anything more?

GreyMouser

Apr 07, 2015

Pretty weak, especially for all the build up. This was promised to be the last issue (#8), but i guess they lied and need one more try. good luck to those of us who believed in the project and have been spending too much for it. Its been downhill since "Mastermen", even just in poor writing and amateur mistakes.

Ryan

May 14, 2020

I thought Pax Americana would be the hardest to understand and then this...

AndrewAnson

Mar 29, 2015

Woah! Come on, let's calm down a bit folks. I don't what everyone else is smoking but all I see here is a failed attempt a surrealism and a tedious exercise in post-modernist comic writing.