Teased for years and finally launched in 2014, The Multiversity is a universe-jumping series of DC Comics one-shots tracking the cosmic monitor Nix Uotan and an assemblage of star-crossed heroes as they attempt to save 52 universes and beyond from a trippy cosmic existential threat that, like much of Morrison’s best work, represents something far more mundane and relatable. Tying back into the very first Multiverse story in DC’s history, the heroes of these universes become aware of this threat by reading about it in comic books… comic books that, it turns out, take place in neighboring universes. Indeed, writer Grant Morrison continues his streak of highly metatextual DC cosmic epics with this eight-issue mega-series (plus one Tolkienesque guidebook).

Described by Morrison as “the ultimate statement of what DC is”, The Multiversity naturally offers the reader much beyond the surface level adventure, and that means annotations. Rather than merely filling out checklists of references, my hope with this feature is to slowly unearth and extrapolate a narrative model for Morrison and his collaborators’ work on The Multiversity; an interconnecting web of themes and cause and effect that works both on literal and symbolic levels.

The seventh issue of the series, Mastermen, chronicles the story of Earth-10 (the pre-Crisis Earth-X), a world where the Nazis conquered America and won World War II and the Endless Reich is ruled by Overman, who's built a utopia on Hitler's massacres and doesn't feel very good about that fact.

We first met this version of the character in Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, when he was one of the Supermen on the Ultima Thule who traveled with Superman, Ultraman, Earth-5's Captain Marvel and the rest of the gang to try to stop Mandrakk/Dax Novu from destroying the multiverse, and all of the Monitors.

This issue is drawn by DC co-publisher Jim Lee, with inks by Scott Williams (and an assisting crew), and colors by Alex Sinclair (with assistance from Jeromy Cox).