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DC: Identity Crisis

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02:18 / 10.06.04

This was actually really quite good. I teared up and started to cry TWICE, and I can't remember the last time I cried at a comic. Brad Meltzer clearly loves the DCU, and puts a lot of thought and grace into this very intelligent comic book. The art is fab, although I would guess Rags' Morales' style might not be to everyone's taste.

Meltzer asks the questions and comes up with the ideas that no one's thought of before. And he genuinely moves us without button-pushing manipulation here. The death matters and we see why. He's very clever and packs a lot of story into this first issue. I have a few DCU history/continuity questions after reading this issue, which I'll ask later. But this book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:38 / 10.06.04

What's it about?

09:18 / 10.06.04

Go to Newsarama's article and read the comments underneath for all the spoiler fun.

Doesn't seem like a "huge event" to me yet. I'm inclined to agree that the "killed" isn't a particularly big enough character to warrant the hype but everyone seems to be raving about the writing in general so it may be worth having a gander.

I'm all with the killing of DCU characters... they're so gratifying.
Marvel just feels hollow. Pfff.

12:48 / 10.06.04

I would say forget thinking of it as a "big event" and just look at it as a good story

It's really worth it. I mean, it's not the second coming of Alan Moore, but it's very good and very smartly written.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

12:57 / 10.06.04

Yeah. The hype is a bit misplaced. As just another story it's quite a good one. Had a very nice Death In The Family vibe.

But yeah, it's fun watching the fanboy's disdain at the lack of importance of the victim. That being said, it's quite an effective bait and switch that I totally fell for.

Is that a spoiler?

ONLY NICE THINGS

13:13 / 10.06.04

Enough with the kvetching that you wanted a bigger name death. So you think that "Identity Crisis" is not a major event in the DCU because ******** is not a marquee character? Can we assume that you also think that 9/11 was not a major event in U.S. history because the victims did not include the President, a member of Congress, or an A-list Hollywood actor?

Gosh. It's the fan that taste forgot.

13:31 / 10.06.04

Meh.

I don't see how it's good. The cover is embarassing, Superman's tear looks like what Chuck Norris' pokerfaced tears would look like after someone would tell him "Your mum's dead Walker."

The writing is cheap and desperate.

Meltzer tells us why the characters are wearing costumes at a funeral and to be honest, it looks no less awful.

15:33 / 10.06.04

For my money, the admittedly cheesy cover (Michael Turner just isn't very good) is in no way related to the writing inside. I rather liked the writing myself..."cheap and desperate" are words I'd never use to describe it. But hey, to each his own.

17:06 / 10.06.04

I found this intelligent rebuttal for this book on The Fourth Rail (www.thefourthrail.com):

>> Mind you, while the decision seems like a cheat in that it won't have any real effect (really, how many Elongated Man stories have you read in the past five years?), the reason I disliked it so much was because Elongated Man and his wife were an unusual thing in superhero comics: a happy couple. They represented that superheroes could get away from the drama of possessed love ones, murderous supervillains, the stress of the secret identity, all that crap and maybe find happiness. Now, what is Elongated Man? He's yet another superhero who lost a loved one to a supervillain. And that's not the worst part, actually. No, not only is Sue Dibny murdered in this issue, but it is revealed that she was pregnant with their child. Why? Because that makes the death more tragic. This is a cheap hack trick, the kind of thing we expect to see in schlocky Hollywood blockbusters by guys like Renny Harlin. It's just so exploitative, such a cheap emotional trick, and there is simply no way that the consequences of this can ever fully be explored. More to the point, while all superheroes don't have to be fun and games, there's an escapist element to superhero fiction, especially the same superhero universe that contains Batman, Superman and other icons, that is completely shattered if the villains can get away with things like this. His newly pregnant wife was murdered, Elongated Man is now a completely different (and less interesting) character and the DC Universe has lost some of its innocence, some of its fun. Should tragedy enter a hero's life? Of course it should, it makes for good drama... but if you take it too far, it becomes too much, to oppressive, and the victories can't really be enjoyed as anything other than pyrrhic. That's without even exploring the notion of how many female love interests get this sort of treatment in comics, and whether this is another example of a disturbing trend in comics that was so well documented by the "Women in Refrigerators" website.

----------

he makes some good points, but I still like the story.

Spyder Todd 2008

17:06 / 10.06.04

**********SPOILER ALERT***********

Two things I didn't get.

1: Since when is Firehawk (or whatever her name is) a newbie? She's been around since the early eighties.

2: Why does no one else think of Dr. Light? He used to be a fairly powerful C-List villain. And considering the Z-listers that the assembled DC heroes were off to go bash, I'd think that between Ray Palmer, Bats, The Question, or any other the other geniuses would have thought of him.
Plus, wouldn't J'onn J'onzz have picked up on the B- list Leaguers plan, what with his telepathy and all?

17:45 / 10.06.04

I read it and was pretty-much dissapointed. It became obvious to me that she would be killed about a 3rd into the story. Why else would the writter place so much emphasis on their "love." I agree that the added pregnant factor was lame... tacked on to make it that much more "tragic."

while it was novel to see the collected 70's JLA it seemed a bit forced. As did the plots loops needed to justify why Batman or Martian Manhunter amongst others did not notcie that there was something going on.

I did like some of the Villian POV stuff... but it wasn't really enough to completely interest me.

the art was enjoyable and the tip of the hats to various deaths was OKay. But it's gonna need some MAJOR twists like the death being a set-up of some sort to flush out some secret villian or something to get past the another death in the family I'm getting from it. Plus it was a bit pricey...

17:51 / 10.06.04

I think he calls Firehawk a newbie because even though she's been around for a bit, DC readers haven't seen her do much of anything in the past few years, and new readers won't even recognize her. And it's not like she ever saw mainstream action anyway with the big guns. So they're treating her as a relative newcomer to the superhero game, as she's pretty inexperienced.

Your point about J'Onn maybe being able to read their minds about their secret mission & meeting is a good one, but I suppose it could be argued that he's too distraught to feel like he needs to read the minds of his colleagues at this time. I think he prefers not to invade his friends' minds, esp. at a time like this.

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:05 / 10.06.04

Well, I thought it was...OK. Bear in mind that this fellow is a *genre* writer; that is, his setups are going to be generic, and his methods also generic - so, the bit where it turns out superheroes have an investigative structure set up is a nice lift from procedural thrillers, but it's just that - a lift.

(Interestingly enough, the same week sees Marvel release a comic in which old-school *villains* are brought together, called "Identity Disc", and written by another genre writer (the genre in this case being light gay comedy), Robert Rodi)

It was kind of nice to see a character killed in a reasonably non-Boba Fett way (if it turns out to be a set-up, that will utterly suck, esp. with the internal monologues), but this is just a crossover event to maybe weed out the odd unused D-lister (Legacy Virus, anyone?), and to launch a new ongoing Comic Book (Zero Hour and Damage/Impulse, anyone?). The art I think was generally competent, but the funeral scene really sucked...

22:35 / 10.06.04

Well after doing a bit of my own... ahem, detective work

it's apparent that the killer is . . .

spoiler?

Deathstroke: the terminator

now the real mystery is who hired him and how'd he do it?

09:04 / 11.06.04

I agree completley with the fourth rail posting. It's a shor-term decision that has taken away from the D.C.U. more than it's given.

Plus on a selfish note it's meant that the new J.L.I. miniseries has had to be delayed til 2005 because of the characters that are in common between the books. I was really looking forwards to that as it was going to restore the last great character that was killed in a short term decision that spoiled a lot of character dynamics. That's kind of tarnished the lustre of that return now.

12:45 / 11.06.04

You know, I was wondering about the new Formerly Known As The Justice League mini and how it would be affected by this... damn. They could just release the second Formerly JL mini and say at the beginning "This story takes place before the events in IDENTITY CRISIS." They've done that kind of thing before, both at Marvel and at DC.

The more I think about Identity Crisis, the more the bloom is a little off the rose for me. I am disturbed by the "killing the wife/girlfriend" trend in comics, although part of me feels like it might come out of the 'gangster/cop' "we'll go after the cop's loved ones" mentality from old movies and such. But there is something weird there.

And I do agree, upon thinking about it further, that Elongated Man is one of the few non-dark, angst-free happy go-lucky comic characters who is truly FUN. And now that is gone. Plastic Man is similar in attitude and powers, but Plas is a little more 2-dimensional as a character than Ralph (though not by much, since both are not very developed). And it sucks that now we have to see a Dark, driven, tortured Elongated Man, of all things.

That said, I still think the storytelling is decent, even very sharp at times, and I'm curious to see the coming issues. But I kind of wish that if they were going to someone related to the JLA, they should have killed Snapper Carr. He'd be a male and not just someone's wife/girlfriend, and aside from Tom Peyer's terrific work on Snapper in his wonderful HOURMAN series, who does anything with him, and who cares anyway? Snapper was there at the beginning and his death would also have a real impact for the big guns.

12:53 / 11.06.04

Yeah, my thinking exactly. Snapper Carr could have been easily replaced Sue. Or Oberon for that matter. Shame that it looks like the easy going Ralph is gone for good.

Mind you, it's achieved it's job of upsetting the status quo but it's just a real shame.

12:56 / 11.06.04

I loved it. Brad did a great job in Green Arrow and I think he did a great job here. I really dig his take on the whole "bringing more realism into comics" especially since it doesn't sacrifice any of the gee-whiz-wow factor.

I got a little teary too, Wolf. I've always liked Ralph and Sue, but even if I hadn't, I would have been choked up.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:27 / 11.06.04

Have you seen Women in refrigerators?

14:37 / 11.06.04

Wonder if they're all in the Gwen Stacy Memorial Cemetery?

16:51 / 11.06.04

Yeah, I've seen "Women in Refrigerators" - thanks for the link, Haus - it's an intelligent, thought-provoking essay.

I did like the idea that the formerly-cheesy villian The Calculator becomes a sort of anti-Oracle - Oracle for the bad guys. And he makes them pay through the nose for information, question by question.

16:52 / 11.06.04

I vote to take the words "It's good!" out of my title abstract for this post - don't want to dictate the value of the story to people. Plus, as I've said, I like the story a little less now that I've thought about it some more, although I still think it's pretty good...

Matthew Fluxington

17:47 / 11.06.04

Motherfucker. I don't really care about many characters in mainstream DC continuity, but they managed to kill a character that I actually liked a lot.

So lame! I don't understand why DC insists on abusing all of the old Giffen Justice League characters.

17:52 / 11.06.04

>> I never read it myself, but apparently way back when there was a story called "The Great Identity Crisis" where Dr. Light found out the JLA's secret identities. The issue ends with the League erasing Dr. Light's memory. So it's not TOTALY a retcon adventure.

Interesting...saw this on another message board.

I also liked the way Meltzer characterized their romance...simple but effective and touching. The bit about "this girl could have been checking out the Flash or Superman, but she chose me" and the 'butter pecan' stuff was nice.

Matthew Fluxington

17:54 / 11.06.04

I don't know. This really bothers me. Elongated Man and Sue Dibny were such joycore characters, it's extremely depressing to see them wiped out in such an incredibly borecore way. DC just doesn't get it, do they? Comics need to be more joycore and less borecore if they want normal people to read them. The Giffen Justice League was a step in the right direction, and by a billion miles the best thing about post-Crisis mainstream DC. Nothing else has come even remotely close!

17:59 / 11.06.04

From this point on, I should probably say I hate Meltzer and all that. I mean, I've tried to read his novels, but I've only managed to get through one of them, as the rest bored me to tears with their sloppy prose and lame characters.

And then I hear this. Grr. Elongated Man is my favorite character in comics, oddly enough. (And I don't advocate "liking" characters or any of that...I'm more creators-over-characters, but still) And Sue is a major reason. Their dynamic reinforces both of them and brings out their personalities. They were comics' happiest couple, and now Meltzer's shot it to hell. The bastard.

No, I didn't buy the book, or read it. I just got back from a computer-less vacation and I've discovered this. Now I'm sulking. But no worries, I plan to retcon it whenever I get the chance. And now I hope I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League ignores it completely.

18:01 / 11.06.04

Oh, and the cover didn't really need to have "PERSONAL HELLS! DEADLY SECRETS!!" on it, ya know?

18:23 / 11.06.04

I did like the idea that the formerly-cheesy villian The Calculator becomes a sort of anti-Oracle - Oracle for the bad guys. And he makes them pay through the nose for information, question by question.

I especially liked how he had the standard array of high-tech, super computers all around him, but that cheesey, little, ordinary inkjet printer behind him. That was briliant.

19:15 / 11.06.04

Just read the thing, and overall it was a pretty good example of the genre (DCU crossover epics). Not really standout, though, at least not so far. And maybe I'm just dim, since no one else has mentioned this yet, but... What the hell was going on when Bolt was shot? Were we supposed to think that whatever was in the box (Luthor's armor?) suppressed his ability to teleport away again? Or was he so shocked that a couple of criminals would pull guns on him when he implied he was stealing their merchandise that he just stood there and let them shoot him? Either way, the storytelling was way less than clear.

19:21 / 11.06.04

Yeah, instead of paying $1800 to Calculator for info, he should have just hired some thugs of his own. I thought that was bit odd too.

19:37 / 11.06.04

True - I got the sense that he was shocked and it all just happened in a few seconds. But you're right, not so clear considering he's a teleporter.

20:02 / 11.06.04

Exactly my point. What did he think was going to happen when he popped into existence in front of the sellers and basically told them he was there to steal their merchandise? A congenial chat? I reread the sequence like five times thinking I'd missed something. I kind of suspect some important piece of the script failed to make it into the art there...

22:44 / 11.06.04

I think Bolt's comments were more of an ego thing. I don't really know the character, but I got the impression that it was along the lines of "I am a costumed guy, with powers! How dare you shoot me! You don't just shoot me!" Or something like that.

As for the identity of the victim, well I never read the Griffin JLA, but I did have a person explain some of it to me. I don't particularly care about the character myself, but it does annoy me that this follows the Women in Refrigerators trend, and basically kills a joycore character.

As for Identity Crisis as a whole, I thought there were some good points, and some terrible points (the funeral scene, where for the life of me John Stewart looked like Hal Jordan in Green Lantern gear). And perhaps I am too much of a Batfan, but Batman doesn't need anyone else to investigate, save maybe as a consultant.

I enjoyed Meltzer's last book (Zero Game), though he did manage to mangle his colloquialisms in a fantastic fashion. I also enjoyed his Archer's Quest arc on Green Arrow. I would hold up Archer's Quest up as an example to write a good arc that changes a character in a big way (as well as the audience's perception of that character) without killing or crippling someone. Sure the arc was so thick with continuity that it took a knife to cut through, but it also had some moments of joycore humor (Monseiur Mallah popping out of a portal and grabbing Catman with absolutely no explanation).

12:26 / 13.06.04

but Batman doesn't need anyone else to investigate, save maybe as a consultant.

Well, Batman didn't think so either. Meltzer was quite clear that the other superheroes were investigating against Batman's orders to stay out of the way and let him do his thing.

13:18 / 13.06.04

The thing that struck me about this particular story is , wheres the writer going to go with the "retribution" of the antagonist. Basicly his shot a pregenant woman with a shotgun then barbicued her remains !

Even if his a catspaw and its a delivish plot to idnuce the heros to perform an "execution" and there by get the public to question if these vigilanties are really the right people to protect society (yada yada !!!), its going to be damn hard not to justify it.

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