Best of the Decade: 2014 // Best of the Year
In a year filled with remarkable works of comic book mastery, it is the sequel five years in the making following 2009’s Final Crisis that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the 2014 comic book landscape. Legendary writer Grant Morrison takes readers across all 52 universes alongside an army of artistic forces. Layered with deep cut callbacks to beloved and long-forgotten corners of the DC mythology alike, coupled with medium bending high concept material, this epic tale delivers a master class level of meta-narrative and commentary, unlike any other superhero comic before it. Continuing to weave together the threads between JLA Rock of Ages and the aforementioned Crisis, Morrison’s long-standing vision finally comes to fruition within this series. Bookended by the first and second chapters of the main title, these stand-alone issues each act as one-shots delivering their own distinct peeks into the varying universes. While allowing windows into these numerous worlds, the series also establishes the perfect starting point for other future creatives to build upon these ideas even further.
Having since been banished to Earth as a mortal following Final Crisis, Nix Uotan, the last of the Monitors— once a race of god-like creatures with powers unimaginable — is called upon by the Multiverse yet again. Imbued with his powers one last time, Uotan travels to the aid of a dying planet. Arriving at the graveyard once known as Earth 7, Uotan stands witness to the cosmic horrors plaguing the Multiverse at large. In an attempt to bargain for the life of The Thunderer, an aborigines Thor pastiche, Nix Uotan trades himself in place of the stranger in a last act of desperation. While evil begins to takeover across the Multiverse, a diverse team of superheroes must come together to save the last Monitor.
At the very core, this series is a simple tale about heroes joining together to save the world(s) from the forces of evil. It is the brilliant meta-commentary, the self-referential material, and delivery in which only a comic can provide that sets this book apart from any form of contemporaries. This series completely takes the medium to a level that’s rarely ever accomplished within the superhero landscape. Breaking the fourth wall is mere child’s play when characters are forcing the reader to step back and analyze the ways they process not only the medium but language and life as a whole. Each of the issues can completely stand apart, all with their own merits, or be read all together, but the issues Pax Americana and Ultra Comics that truly stand a bit higher than the rest.
Pax Americana is Morrison’s take on The Watchmen while using the Charlton characters originally intended by Alan Moore. In what can be read as a stand-alone, within the whole series, or even backward, this murder mystery completely displays the power of the medium and what it can accomplish like no other. The artistic mastery of Frank Quitely (All-Star Superman), only elevates the story further while adding another genius collaboration between Morrison and himself under his belt.
Across the Multiverse a cursed comic book makes its way throughout each universe spreading disease like wildfire in its wake. Ultra Comics melds fiction and reality, as the reader is taken through a Lazarus cycle, an infinite loop, where once the issue ends it can be picked up to begin again. Witness as Ultra, the titular hero attempts to stop the reader from going further and unleashing the ultimate evil upon themselves and their world. Finally faced with what the other universes had fallen to already, this hellish fever dream comes to the forefront as Ultra himself remains locked within the comic only to live and die endlessly, forever.
A Crisis event like no other, although introducing concepts such as the map to the DC Multiverse or even breaking each of the various worlds down, it is what is accomplished within the medium that truly makes this series stands the test of time. This mind-bending epic much like many other Morrison works will have readers walking away with their own interpretations and favorite moments and issues. With a vast array of choices, it’s hard to pick one. Again, much like other Morrison works, each reread becomes even more rewarding, and eye-opening, than the last.
Honorable Mentions:
Deadly Class
New Avengers
Southern Bastards
East of West
Sex Criminals
