This was my first time reading this event and I loved it. I loved the murder mystery aspect, showing the dangers of the job, the reason for secret identities, and the debate on crossing the line as a superhero. I was really impressed with this run. The art is also as good as the storytelling.
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Are there any of his books specifically you can recommend? I’m sure I’m not the only one here interested in reading more from him. I agree with you about the art by the way. I though it fit the book like a glove.
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I remember reading Identity Crisis when they first released it in Trades and thinking that this was going to be a hard read. Mainly because of the assault on Sue by Dr. Light and then her subsequent death by another individual (so as not to spoil things for persons who have not read the whole arc.) It is by far one of the most emotional grabbing story arc done. You grieved with Ralph and you understand that these acts drove the JL to cross a line in order to protect the ones they love.
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I also agree that the Deathstroke fight was brilliant. Another highlight was Batman and Robin racing to save Robin’s dad. I was on the edge of my seat.
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I read and collected this as it came out, but I had only recently gotten deeply into comics at that time. My appreciation of it was much greater in re-reading it now, since I understand more of the characters and history.
One of the things that fascinates me about this is how it resonates with so much DC history, harkening back to the Silver Age, yet with a very modern sense of storytelling.
It made a lot of waves (and some fans, I think, still dislike it) for darkening that history considerably. I’ve heard fans, particularly, express anger for what it did to Sue Dibney–and I can certainly appreciate that–but it also made me love Ralph and Sue, who were characters of whom I had very little previous knowledge.
The story certainly had repercussions, both direct and indirect.
Even now, knowing the outcome, I found it to be a gripping read, for the depth of characterization alone.
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I really enjoyed how small the story was in terms of scale for an event series. It was very personal. Not the big, epic crazy stuff that is normally seen (space invasions, alternate dimension battles, etc.). And by having the murder mystery aspect to it made it really hard to put down. I had to know how this one ended while I read it.
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One of Brad’s many series is the Culper ring with the guy named Beecher , the first one is I believe called the Inner Circle.
Another area I thought really makes you think is this concept of people going insane crossing over from being unstable to being all the way on the other side of insanity, and how often are the repercussions of what they’re dealing with are felt by the closest to them. It happens more than we like to think about, but the thoughtful twist that Brad Metzler gives to this is, okay what if your garden-variety family member going insane has access to wild supertech that allows them to shrink or use other types of super weapons? You may recall headlines the past two years about small poor countries that have access to nuclear weapons that honestly are not exactly normal stable nations. It’s one thing when they just have garden-variety missile launchers, it’s quite another when they had the ability to obliterate millions of people.
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That’s a good point and something I didn’t consider. If someone else’s significant other would have committed the crime, how different would our story be? An arrow through the heart? A batarang in the neck? It’s crazy how much different the story would be.
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I bought the series as it came out, but it was great to re-read it in one sitting. Emotionally impactful. Particularly the Tim Drake subplot. This is probably one of my favorite “event” series, and mainly because it was character-driven. Plus, I love a good mystery.
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I still have 2 issues to go but I didn’t want to ever put it down. OMG DC really nailed it (so far). I’ll have a lot more when I finish
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The way everyone had to figure out a way to keep going forward in spite of there never being a perfect way to handle these things as Heroes facing evil and somehow be happy being alive again reminds me of what happens with our everyday Heroes, firefighters , workers in the emergency rooms …you don’t save everybody and you’re always going to have regrets and second thoughts and gee how could I have done this better. I thought this story really showed what the forever impact is on people that have walk through these situations where they are just trying to help other people and they end up with a mess because of human being and not all-knowing.
Wow! So this was my first time reading Identity Crisis and it was a wild ride and not in the way that Superhero comics usually are. My favorite issue had to be that last issue where we figure out who has been causing this tragedy this throughout the past few issues. I love how the second to last issue ends by making the reader question The Atom but then it turns out that Jean is completely bonkers. Completely unexpected for me! As far as my favorite page, it is hard to choose but I will say that the death pages really intrigued me because they did not hold back at all. The content of these pages is something that I would expect from a different publisher’s mature rated comic…not from a DC book. The page that depicted Jean hanging where the panels show her legs swinging and then in the next panel they are completely still, that was absolutely haunting but was also a fantastic choice on the creative teams part. Now, of course she lives and she turns out to be the killer and did it to herself but oh my god that just shocked me when I first saw it on the page. I usually would not expect something like that from DC, but it completely worked in this story. Overall, I loved this arc…it was all about the characters and the risks that they take not just for themselves but for the ones they love. This story definitely holds up today there was nothing old or dated about it…if anything it was probably ahead of its time. Every DC and JL fan definitely needs to read this book.
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I agree about the deaths. They were brutal. No help punches in that regard.
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Who’s next?
I first read this when it came out. I actually have a copy signed by Michael Turner. Anywho, when I read it back then I thought it was good but felt like I was missing a lot of background. I was just getting into superheroes after being a vertigo junkie for some time. Reading it now I definitely appreciate it more. Funny thing is I forgot in that time who the killer was. Thought it was Dr light. Then I looked up cap atoms ex wife to get some history and see if I could read some background to get a stronger connection. So yep not far into it I read her Wikipedia only to spoil the story for myself. Doh! I love Supergirl in this too
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There are a lot of things I like about this story, and there’s a few things I completely despise.
The art in this is stellar. I don’t know if I’ve read all of Rags Morales’ books, but from what I’ve seen, this is him at his absolute best. It also helps sell the equally as strong characterization, especially with the “League within the League.”
(By the way,if you liked this book, is recommend checking out the book Melzer did before this, the arc he did in Green Arrow called “The Archer’s Quest.” Not on the app, sadly, but it’s worth looking for.)
The thing I hated, was when you get right down to it, the treatment of the important women characters in the book; specifically the rape of Sue and the twist of Jean being a psychopath killer. Now, I’m not the kind of person who thinks something like rape should never happen in comics, but if you’re going to do it, you need tip do it right. It’s not something that can be just thrown in with almost no mention or closure, otherwise it just feels like a lazy way of making things gritty.
As for Jean, not only does her reasoning to do things make no sense, it honestly feels kind of misogynistic. I mean, “I want to get back with my ex-husband, so instead of just approaching him like a normal person, I’m going to use his old equipment to mug one of my friends.” WHAT? It’s just beyond stupid.
A smaller nag that I’m surprised people are liking is the Deathstroke fight. Like, I get him being able to fight most of those characters, but guys like Flash and Green Lantern? That made no sense and felt like jobbing to make the character stronger than he actually is.
All of that said, there’s still a lot of stuff to like here, not only as its own story, but how it inspired so many more, like Infinite Crisis and 52.
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@jay.kay
I see your point about the Deathstroke fight, but have to ask if it were Batman fighting instead of Deathstroke then would you still have an issue?
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So I have a question. I’m new to DC. Are there any long term consequences for Tim Drake?
His just becomes Red Robin
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