The Multiversity: Pax Americana - "In Which We Burn"

[laughing_tree]

'On a narrower wavelength, it might also cast a jaded eye on how lessons learned from the leftist, deconstructionist “realistic” superhero stories of the 1980s were assimilated and re-tooled to create post-9/11 Marvel Studios-style “realistic” super-soldiers and champions of the Military/Industrial complex.

'Otherwise, it tells the Twilight Zone-ish story of a man’s life in a series of backward jumps through time—from his assassination as U.S. President on the first page to the traumatic boyhood event on the last page that explains everything we’ve just read in the 38 pages in between.' -- Grant Morrison



















Peacemaker and Nora discussing President Harley, then still Governor Harley:









Harley making plans with Captain Atom:

Comments

[captainbellman]

It seems whomever touches and reads Ultra Comics is doomed to be cast out of their own reality - and the eye of that...thing from Multiversity #1 is always watching.

Also, notice the emphasis on bright reds, yellows and blues - the colours of Ultra.

[captainbellman]

It's interesting that this came out a month or so before Interstellar, which also tried to visually explore the idea that ascending to a higher dimension means that you're able to perceive and interact with it in multiple rather than linear levels.

There, an astronaut cast into the fourth was able to access multiple points in the past and future of a particular room; here, Atom notices that to us, his very world appears flat, and years can be traversed at the turn of a page.

[icon_uk]

That's not exactly new though, 1884's Flatland had the concept of how a three dimensional visitor to a two dimensional world interacted with it, and postulated on how much further it could go up the chain of dimensions.

Morrison has had four dimensional characters as far back as Zenith's Lloigor, which were based on Lovecraft's multidimensional beings of the same name.

Moore has used the same idea I'm sure, but can't recall where, something about what characters perceived as solid objects were the three-dimensional sections of four dimensional-beings.

[captainbellman]

Oh, of course, and thank you for bringing those up. To clarify, I wasn't saying this is groundbreaking stuff (personally, I sat through Interstellar murmuring "Yes, yes, we all wish we could be Stan Kubrick sometimes"), just noticing the interesting symmetry.

Another example would be the strangely similar waterfall posters for post-apocalyptic flicks "Oblivion" and "After Earth" a few years ago, or the way "Foxcatcher" and "Whiplash" have been released within a month of each other given that they both focus on an abusive teacher/student relationship.

[captainbellman]

Oh, and I think most recently Moore has explored that in Neonomicon and LoEG: Century, Part 3. In the former, a man escapes custody by becoming part of a painting; in the latter, the antichrist is transmuted into a chalk drawing then washed away.

[icon_uk]

The walking down the stairs as a non-standard narrative flow would work a little better if it didn't just make me think of Clark visiting Luthor in "All Star Superman"

[filthysize]

It's probably deliberate, but I think this one trumps it, though, because of the way the dialogue also mirrors the movement.

[leoboiko]

There's a lot of subtlety going on. This blog dissects the comic in interesting ways.

[shadowpsykie]

i love the way he uses and twists Moore's use of the standard 8 panel and meta in comics.