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Just to give an introduction, since the cosmology split for DC comics got accepted I decided to make a control thread focusing specifically on Morrison’s cosmology. Morrison’s cosmology tends to be a mix of cosmological and philosophical theories and to make things easier I summarized all the important aspects of each theory that was being incorporated and how it was being incorporated into the cosmology. The 5 dominant themes within Morrison’s cosmology are M-theory, Platonism, Bohm Theory, Manichaeism and some stuff from Buddhism. Note, that not all aspects of these theories are true for Morrison’s cosmology and within this thread I’ve only analyzed the theories from how Morrison seems to treat and represent them.
Local Multiverse
It comprises the 52 known worlds/universes.
- The Monitors compiled all the data of the 52 known worlds of the local multiverse. (Multiversity Guidebook)
Space between universes that encompasses multiple multiverses. It’s also a higher dimensional bulk.
- Bleed contains multiple multiverses.(Final Crisis Secret files)
- Bleed rotates through the fifth dimension.(Multiversity)
The Quintessence are a group of beings who occupy a timeless and eternal vigil over all that is. It includes Highfather, Phantom Stranger, Ganthet, and The Wizard.
Layers of the Orrery
Dimensions in this context is not referring to parallel universes as Metrons whole goal is to unravel the secrets of reality by using his Mobius chair to explore realities' limits.
- Three dimensional beings are of less substance than shadows on the wall to fifth dimensional beings. And a fifth dimensional being can penetrate a lower dimensional reality at any level and control it.(JLA #30)
- Fifth dimensional imps call the lower dimensions flat land and state their power is beyond infinite.(JLA #29)
- The Monitor watch station in the Orrery contains a pan dimensional room with a view.(Multiversity #1)
- Allen Adam sees an 8-D Mobius loop and compares how our universe appears from a higher dimensional perspective to how we see a comic book. Such as how the universe appears flat and how moving through time is similar to flipping through pages in a story.(Multiversity Pax Americana)
The Orrery is essentially the structure that appeared on the Overvoid. It contains the local Multiverse and the bleed along with the Speed Force serving as its edge and Wonderworld sitting on its outercurve.
Speed Force Wall
The speed force wall is the edge of the Orrery of Worlds and is what contains the higher dimensional energy field known as the speed force.(The Flash #131) To the denizens of the Orrery it is known as the speed of light and is only a limit to matter.
Wonderworld
Wonder World is a realm created by the Gods that sits at the top of the Orrery. It is defined as the most extreme limit of time and space.
- Wonderworld is at the highest perimeter of space and time.(JLA #12)
- Wonderworld traverses the entire spacetime frontier at beyond temporal speeds unimaginable to even the Flash.(JLA #12)
- There are worlds beyond Wonderworld.(JLA #12)
Warlogog
The Warlogog is essentially one of the most powerful weapons in existence. It is a mirror of the universe and a toy from New Genesis.
- Its power is theoretically limitless.(JLA #11)
- It’s a map of all time and space and reveals within itself a fraction of the Source.(JLA #15)
Transcending the material plane is the Godsphere which is a realm housing archetypal and platonic-like worlds. Home to the mythical realms like New Genesis, Apokolips, The Dreaming, The Silver City, etc. This reality operates off ManifhaeismPlato’s theory of forms.
- The entire reality is outside the Orrery and also encompasses it.(Multiversity Map)
- The beings in the Godsphere are archetypal powers and intelligence.(Multiversity Map)
- The New Gods are described as living ideas from a “kind of platonic, archetypal worlds.”(Batman #702) In other words, the Godsphere essentially represents the fundamental reality of forms.
- The gods of New Genesis were described as absolute meaning and ultimate being.(Seven Soldiers Mister Miracle #1) Going back to Plato, the archetypes of New Genesis representing ultimate being and absolute meaning is most likely a reference to the Form of the Good. The Form of the Good sits at the top of Plato's hierarchy within the fundamental reality of forms, functioning as the ultimate form that transcends the ideas which define reality.
- During Final Crisis, Mister Miracle would indirectly refer to Apokolips and New Genesis as higher worlds of Manichaean purity.(Seven Soldiers Mister Miracle #1)
- While falling from the Godsphere, Darkseid was said to be casting a shadow across the Multiverse that was falling over everything.(DC Universe #0) Making the Multiverse equivalent in size to an emanation casted by the archetypes.
- The Silver City is a higher order of reality and has more of everything.(JLA #6)
The interconnection is something that was introduced to us by the Writer who lives in Comic Book Limbo. It is the idea of the cosmos being a recursive structure. This structure and Limbo take inspiration from Bohm theory.
- The universe is vast and interconnected where every part contains the whole. Where the universe is a mirror reflecting itself.(Animal Man #14)
- Even the Writer wonders who dreams who in the interconnection.(Animal Man #14)
The Universe being a mirror reflecting itself where every part contains the whole, is a reference to the “infinity mirror” which is essentially an example of an infinite recursion where a mirror reflects itself creating a seemingly infinite series of smaller reflections.
The idea of infinite recursion is something Grant Morrison has dabbled on in not just Animal Man but also in Doom Patrol with stuff like “the painting that ate Paris” and with Larry’s Russian dolls.
- The painting which Mr Nobody used to devour all of Paris was described as an infinite recursive structure.(Doom Patrol #28)
- Larry keeps Russian dolls with each doll being an isomorphic mapping of every other doll.(Doom Patrol #27)
- And while Larry was on the moon, there would be a reference to these dolls again. “A Russian doll containing countless smaller dolls.”(Doom Patrol #54)
Existing as a middle ground between the Implicate Order and reality and functioning as the background which the interconnection of reality exists in is the Great Light.
- A door into the impossible. The Light represents a middle ground between the Implicate Order and reality.(Animal Man #24)
- It is a manifestation of the vast absence that lies behind reality. From it unfolds the continuous process of creation and destruction.(Animal Man #12)
- The Great Light is the outside of the comic book panels.(Animal Man #24) And from outside the comic book panels, reality is just drawings on a page.(Animal Man #24)
Comic Book Limbo is a higher world that essentially functions as a place for characters who’ve been removed from the continuity. It exists outside the story of DC comics and also transcends it.
- It is the higher world out of which reality unfolds.(Animal Man #24)
- The implicate Order is the vast sea of potential and higher state that reality is unfolded out of. It’s the primal reality, and all our dreams of ideal worlds are just attempts to describe its infinite possibility. (Animal Man #19)
- The faces staring down on the Great Light are reading it like a story for entertainment.(Animal Man #24)
- From the Implicate Order, the Writer who writes what goes on in the lives of Animal Man, Doom Patrol and other stories would be described as “playing dice with the cosmos.”(Animal Man #8)
- Limbo is immense beyond understanding.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #2)
- The apparent disorder of the Universe is simply a higher order, an Implicate Order beyond our comprehension.(Batman Arkham Asylum)
- One of the conditions of existence in the Implicate Order is that there are no stories.(Animal Man #25).
- There is no material to be destroyed in limbo because limbo is living memory.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #2)
- Limbo is considered off the charts to the rest of the multiverse and is located nowhere.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #1)
- There is no such thing as time to waste in Limbo.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #1)
A fundamental world of primal forms and hyperstory’s beyond Limbo. It is a reality that formed around the Thought Robot while it was standing in the Overvoid. With the Monitors and their history coming into being from the Overvoids questions and speculations of the mysterious Thought Robot.
- Limbo is perceived as a flat disk in Nil.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #2)
- Nil is a fundamental world of primal forms.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #2)
- In Nil form and meaning surrender to the Overvoid.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #2)
- While Limbo is “the forgotten,” the Nil is the “yet to be.”(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #2)
- While in Nil, the Thought Robot states he’s inside a self assembling hyperstory trying to destroy him.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #2)
- Ships the size of cities in Limbo are infinitesimal to the Monitor Sphere.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #1)
The limit to even thought. The Source Wall is a barrier separating the entire Multiverse from the Overvoid, the Source, and the unknowable.
- Beyond it lies the infinite.(JLA #15)
The Source is essentially the being the New Gods worship. It exists outside The Source Wall which encircles the Monitor Sphere. It created the Old Gods, New Gods and their world.
- The Source of creation.(Superman and the authority #4)
- It is an ultimate concept containing within itself all dualities.(Final Crisis Essentials Edition)
- Is shown on the map to exist beyond Nil and the Source Wall.(Map of the Multiverse)
Monitor-Mind the Overvoid is the highest level in Morrison’s DC cosmology. It is a sentient void of perfection functioning as the canvas for all stories and as a state of pure oneness, absence, and awareness without limits or definition.
- It’s described as an immense awareness without limits or definition.(Final Crisis #1)
- Is unimaginably vast and abstract(Final Crisis essentials edition)
- Is eternal(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #2)
- Is infinite.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #1)
- Mandrakk is the part of Monitor Mind that felt contaminated by the Multiverse.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #2) Making Mandrakk and the Overvoid essentially the same being. Mandrakk is just the Overvoids side or part that didn’t want the flaw on it.
- The concept of story exists inside the Overvoid.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #1)
- The Thought Robot is the remains of The Overvoid/Mandrakks first contact with the Multiverse.(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #1)
- The Thought Robot is perceived by the Monitors as something that “has always been, and will always be.”(Final Crisis Superman Beyond #1)
In Mr Nobody’s origin story we would be exposed to something called the white room. Which is an all white space that appears endless in size. After being put in this white room all by himself for multiple days, Mr Nobody would become convinced of his own “serene divinity.” Claiming he was “Like the ascended Buddha, I was beyond Maya, beyond the veil of illusion. I knew the purity of infinite absence.”(Doom Patrol #26) However one day a dot, a speck, appeared in the white void. Mr Nobody would become infatuated with this dot, and begin generating entire cosmologies around it. (Doom Patrol #26) The reason this part of Mr Nobody’s origin sounds familiar is because it’s exactly identical to the Overvoid’s origin. Similar to what we see in Mr Nobody’s origin, the Overvoid was a sentient infinite pure and perfect white space until one day an infinitesimal flaw appeared within itself that haunted the Overvoid and caused it to generate a cage to contain it so it could grow.
Another example of Buddhism being referenced is when Cliff was trapped in a computer and was deleted. While Cliff was within a computer he would be confronted with something called “The Abyss” that if he entered would break him down and disintegrate him. However Cliff would enter anyway and be exposed to what was described as “The noise, the silence, a blizzard of nothing at all blowing through all thought, scouring consciousness.”(Doom Patrol #62) After miraculously surviving, Cliff would be told that the state of being he entered must have been similar to what Buddhist call Samadhi.(Doom Patrol #62) Samadhi is considered in Buddhism to be the final stage in which one obtains direct experience with truth or absolute consciousness or the ultimate reality, where union with the divine is reached.
Debunking 11-D DC Multiverse.
The interpretation of the DC Multiverse being 11-D stems from the argument that Morrison used Superstring theory and M theory, and therefore it’s 11-D. However, I believe this interpretation comes from a lack of information and understanding of Morrison’s cosmology.
- There is never a mention of there being specifically 11 dimensions in Morrison’s comics. There is only a reference to 8-D mazes, an 8-D Mobius loop, and 28 dimensions that Metron journeyed through which completely contradicts there being an 11-D cosmology.
- The interconnection would suggest an even greater amount of levels.
- The part of superstring theory Morrison took and mashed up with the DC multiverse idea was the notion of our universe with its three dimensions of space and time spread across the surface of a flat membrane. And each brane resides in a hyperdimensional medium(the bleed). That’s it. Referencing and incorporating certain parts of a theory into the cosmology doesn’t mean every part of that theory is true for the cosmology. If we were to accept the logic being used to say the DC Multiverse is 11-D then there’d also be an infinite amount of dimensions due to Bohm theory which was also referenced and mashed up into Morrison’s cosmology.
- The Presence does not scale to the entirety of existence. The statement that there is no land/reality beyond the vengeance of God is not the same as saying the Presence has control over the entirety of existence up to the Source Wall. Additionally, even in the very same story this is mentioned the Spectre who is the vengeance of God got his ass beat by the Djinn who are 5D imps.(JLA #30) And Final Crisis the Spectre got his ass beat again by a depowered Monitor.(Final Crisis #7) Furthermore, I honestly don’t even understand why anyone would think the Presence holds any position of relevance in Morrison’s cosmology as the Presence is barely mentioned in any of Morrison’s material.
- The Source and the Overvoid are not the same being. Not only does the actual official version of the Multiversity map list them as separate things but even the very characteristics of each entity is different. For example, the Source took part in making creation, the New Gods, and understands what creation is. The Overvoid is depicted in Final Crisis and Multiversity to have not taken part in making creation and to not understand what it is. Also it’s possible to come from beyond the Source like with Maggedon(JLA #37) which would be impossible if the Source = Overvoid.
Orrery: 1-B. There are 28 dimensions, with beings of lower reality being of less substance than shadows on the wall to higher reality beings. Higher reality beings also have power that is beyond infinite and can penetrate the lower reality at any level and control it.
Godsphere/New Gods: 1-B. Is the true archetypal realm of forms to the entire 1-B Orrery, with the Gods/forms representing “absolute meaning and ultimate being” and the Form of Good. Essentially the Gods are the cause and basis of understanding and defining of the Orrery. To add on, the entire Godsphere exists outside of and independent to the entire Orrery with the shadows emanating from the forms being equivalent in size to the entire Orrery.
The interconnection: High 1-B. Infinite recursion of an already 1-B structure with the beings in the interconnection dreaming one another.
The Great Light: 1-A. A manifestation of the vast absence that lies behind reality, and a depiction of the background or page in which reality exists inside of as drawings.
Limbo: 1-A. Represents the vast sea of potential and higher state which reality is unfolded from. Also looks down on the Great Light from the outside as a story that can be written and read for entertainment.
Nil: 1-A. Is a fundamental world of primal forms and hyper stories beyond Limbo, perceiving it as an infinitesimal flat disk.
The Source: 1-A. Exists beyond the 1-A realms functioning as an ultimate concept which contains all dual concepts.
Overvoid/Mandrakk and CAS: High 1-A. The canvas in which all levels of story and hyperstory exist. Functioning as an ultimate reality and unimaginably abstract ascended state of infinite and eternal oneness without limits that stands beyond definition and beyond the very concept of story which has generated even 1-A realms.
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