Reviewing The Classics: Identity Crisis

It's time to once again to sit down and take in some classic comic books. This time we're checking out Identity Crisis from DC Comics. It's written by Brad Miller, inked by Michael Blair, pencilled by Rags Morales with coloring by Alex Sinclair. Identity Crisis centers around the death of Sue Dibny and the serious of events that spin out of it leaving a trail of bodies and broken relationships in its wake.

The story begins with some of the Justice League members getting ready for a surprise party that Sue throws for her husband Ralph, better known as Elongated Man and one of the best detectives in DC. However Sue is murdered and the league ruses over and attempt to discover what happened and how the person slipped past all of the security in their home. At the funeral Ralph struggles to hold himself together, both figuratively and literally.

When the funerals conclude the heroes split into teams and go after villains they believe could have perpetrated the crimes. With the Justice League B reserves staying behind. They head to the back where they meet with Ralph and pledge to go after Dr. Light. Wally West and Kyle Rayner sneak into the meeting and ask why they weren't chasing after anyone and continue to pry until it reaches the point where Green Arrow and Elongated Man tell them why they're going after Dr. Light despite Wally thinking Light is an idiot.

Well, Dr. Light is an idiot, but he wasn't always that way. It's revealed that Dr. Light once broke into the Justice League satellite while Sue Dibny was star gazing and raped her as she attempted to call to heroes through her communicator. When they arrived they beat Dr. Light into submission. At this time the B team featuring Green Arrow, Black Canary, Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Zatana, Hawkman and The Atom took a vote to erase Dr. Light's mind and change his personality. Green Arrow subtly mentions this was the first time they changed a personality but not erased memories.

We transition to the villains hideout where we learn, they're not even fond of Dr. Light and he's never been invited because they view him as scum, hinting that they may know he's always been a rapist. Dr. Light burst into their begging for help with almost everyone turning a blind eye to him. We next see Dr. Light preparing for battle with the Justice League reserves and it's seen that Deathstroke accepted an incredible sum of money for the protection no questions asked.The team is almost beaten before Green Arrow stabs Deathstroke in the eye with an Arrow and gives them an opening. Dr. Light causes a diversion and he fleas with Deathstroke as Superman arrives.

Wally pulls Oliver to the side and asks more about that night. Green Arrow explains the big heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman were always there for the fight, but never the clean up. The seven of them had been erasing memories for a long time. Wally wants to know why they never told the league and Oliver points out that they had to know something was happening but never asked. He pointed that they all had their own theories on what it was, but in Superman's case he hears what he wants to. We get this cool moment where Wally is disgusted but we get a clear shot of Superman's ear as he listens then turns away, hinting that he always knew but allowed it to continue.

Days go by and no new clues surface. The Atom Ray Palmer's wife is attacked but she's saved by Ray who traveled through the phones to save her. Afterwards we get some moments where Oliver meets with Hal Jordan, who is currently dead and serving as The Spectre, Tim Drake promises his dad he'll be safe as well as Captain Boomerang begging The Calculator for work as he reconnects with his son.

Tim Drake's father is attacked but manages to kill his attacker revealed to be Captain Boomerang. They league considers it done, but Batman tracks The Calculator who reveals over the phone that he was not the one who planned this or even knew the heroes identities. Then we get the scene where Wally is asking Oliver more about the mind wipes and Oliver explains that Dr. Light was only the first vote they took that night and the second was unanimous. After the fight was done most of the big heroes don't come back for clean up. However, Batman came back that night while they were wiping Dr. Light's mind. Batman attempted to stop him but the seven easily over powered him and took a vote erase Batman's memory. When Wally asks if he knows and Oliver only responds that "he's a detective."

Batman starts looking for other clues but it's not him who solves the mystery. Justice Society members Dr. Midnight and Mr. Terrific are performing the autopsy and discover footprints on Sue's brain. They come to the conclusion that it's The Atom's-ex wife. However Atom has already pieced this together and has turned his wife into Arkham and abandoned his communicator.

So there's a lot going on in Identity Crisis that I still didn't touch on. The death of Firestorm, retirement of several heroes, the question of who can you really trust with your identity and public life as a hero. How far is too far to protect your family? Does your family accept the danger when you become a hero? There's a lot of things resting beneath the surface of identity crisis.

One thing I really want to look at is the incredible dialogue through ought the book. It just seems like Miller had a grasp on which characters he really understood and made them the focus so the dialogue shined. There's one scene where the team is fighting Deathstroke and being decimated. Then  Olvier stabs him in the eye with a broke arrow while thinking:

Like I always say, the Justice Society may teach you how to be a hero... and the Titans may teach you how to be a family... but the League -- sure, it teaches you how to protect, but from the very start -- the League teaches you how to fight

Everyone knows I'm not a huge Batman fan but he states:

People think it's an obsession. A compulsion. As if there were an irresistible impulse to act. It's never been like that. I chose this life. I know what I'm doing. And on any given day, I could stop doing it. Today, however, isn't that day. And tomorrow won't be either.

For some reason those are what I think are two quotes show exactly who Batman and Green Arrow are. Green Arrow isn't always going to be the biggest dog in the fight, and he's not going always be the dog that wins, but he's going to be in the fight and he's going to find a way to make a difference. Just look at that page as an example, Deathstroke took out everyone there with powers and Oliver just stabs him with a broken arrow because that's all he could do and then while he was beaten the team got an opening to attack. As for Batman, he knows what he's doing and he does it by choice. It's not as if he couldn't quit, he's stopped when he needed to. When Bane broke his back, even after healing he was not going to go back until Azrael went crazy and Tim begged him.

I've seen the book criticized for having heroes act out of character and in turn I ask, what was out of character about any of it? Oliver has always gone against the grain, Batman has always been a loner, Superman has always turned a blind eye to certain things. The big heroes are always busy fighting their own villains to supervise everything. It's a magnificently weaved tale.

The artwork isn't bad either. There's only two real negatives. The action scenes aren't the greatest, which is understandable. There's more talking that fighting and it's certainly more soap opera than wrestling so it's forgivable. The one thing that always drives me crazy, duplicated panels to create tension. It's just not necessary for 3 panels in a row to be the exact same. It drives me crazy and I'm probably just nitpicking.

Identity Crisis is one of those comics stories that people write about being horrible all the time. I only picked it up because it was less than $20 and all I heard was bad stuff. I expected a train wreck but what I got was a stunning trip. It just goes to show that you can't always trust what critics say.

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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