Identity Crisis

Have you read Identity Crisis?

Yes.	53.3%	[ 16 ]
No.	33.3%	[ 10 ]
Planning to...	6.7%	[ 2 ]
Not interested...	6.7%	[ 2 ]
Total Votes:			[ 30 ]

[Mickey Mouse Is Mexican]

I just finished reading Identity Crisis for the first time today and it blew my mind, it was tough to put down, I personally think it is one of the best stories I have ever read. It is also the least confusing of the Crisis's that I've read (Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis).

I was a little reluctant to buy this book because it didn't sound to appealing at first, but when I was reading it felt so right to read, the pain and anger and deceit.

if you read it then post your thoughts about the book and also let me in on some other stories that lead up to Identity Crisis I don't know the history that far back, I started reading and collecting about 2 -2 1/2 years ago

[Transatlanticsm]

I loved them too. check out Justice

[GLJordan]

DC raping my childhood

[Transatlanticsm]

They can be confusing

[Devonix]

Identity Crisis...

[Max Mercury]

Identity Crisis was horrible dreck. It was marketed HEAVILY and sold well on that basis.

Those who like it have never read any GOOD stories to compare it to, and think that
"OMG deathrapeangst" equals a successful story. There are enough people like that buying
comics so DC & Marvel will never have to resort to good stories instead.

We begin with a death milked full of pathos. A wife died and on top of that, she just happened to be
pregnant NOW when she was about to die. We follow a false lead to one villain because he
raped her once (and this is the first time anyone's ever heard of this.) This was a secret because
the JLA's been magically removing the memories of some villains and reforming others
(and this is the first time anyone's ever heard of this.)

We have Deathstroke facing the Justice League. Possibly 2 of the JLA'ers present would have no
chance to beat him (Green Arrow and Hawkman.) All the others have ways to completely foil each
attempt of his to defeat them, yet they flounder like amateurs who don't know how to use their
powers. Atom forgets he can control his mass and density, and something with nearly no energy
at all shoves him., Despite being a scientist, and knowing that he can increase his mass, his volume,
or both instantly and falling to the ground still at a tiny size, he turns completely to full adult size
while somehow still flying (violating physics,.) Black Canary's sonic attack travels slower than the
speed of sound, because Deathstroke hears her attack about to begin, and he is able to move and
disable her despite moving slower than sound himself (he doesn't produce sonic booms when he
moves.) Zatanna, able to speak and say "Pots!" and freeze him in place with one syllable
(like she freezes Batman in the same miniseries), and instead speaks 3 useless syllables to
Deathstroke before collapsing. (She should have frozen him and then collapsed.) Green Lantern
Kyle Rayner struggles to keep Deathstroke from controlling the power ring. This is strange, since
years before, the ring had been altered so that nobody else COULD use it. Kyle demonstrated it
by throwing it out a window and calling it back to himself. Kyle was taken prisoner and someone
wore the ring. While prisoner, Kyle used the ring to show himself what was going on, then break
himself out of jail while the person was WEARING IT. So he should have been able to ignore
Deathstroke's attempt. Also, Kyle has also made manga-style battle armor for himself for when
he needed to fight close-up- which would have made him invincible to Deathstroke's attacks.
Instead, he just stands there and lets DS approach him. Deathstroke is fast but THOUGHT is
FASTER.

Hawkman is somehow temporarily out of the fight because he fell a few feet by surprise. Hawkman
is an incredibly focused fighter. He's fought in freefall for hundreds of feet so he could FINISH THE
FIGHT and THEN stop his fall- which was the correct order. He obviously would have fallen here-
and hit Deathstroke with his mace on the way down! But his was a lesser egregious handling.
Only Green Arrow should have been stopped by DS.

I saved the first fighter for last because it was so completely ridiculous. Deathstroke fought the
FASTEST MAN THAT EVER LIVED. Let me explain how fast Wally was and is. When Wally was
LESS fast than this fight, he was caught in an explosion. His reflexes kicked in. He was able to
eat something, find the other people caught in the explosion, and get them to safety before the
actual explosive force hit them, The entire time, he's perceiving the world as if it's all in virtually
a freeze-frame. THAT'S how fast Wally was, and is now faster than THAT as of this story.
He also vibrates through solid objects- walls, bullets, swords, explosions.,,,

So, here's the fight. Flash moved. DS saw him move. DS hit a button to set off explosions that
funneled Flash's path so that DS's moved sword (it was in a different position before Flash began
moving) went through Flash's chest.

Let's slow this down and look at it from Wally's POV. Wally begins moving- and hits Deathstroke
and disarms him before DS can react. DS does not have time to press a button,
(When Wally was much slower, he disassembled the engine block of a getaway car in drive.)
So, DS can't press the button (let's pretend he had his thumb on the button and his hand on the
device, even though he did not.) The button he can't press would set off a signal moving as fast
as Flash, which means Flash would move fast enough that the signal would set things off
BEHIND HIM.. So, that's 2 reasons Wally's too fast for DS in this fight.
OK, the signal was never sent out. If it had been, and Wally decided to stop for lunch and didn't
outrace the signal, the explosives would go off. Wally's fast enough that he could hop across
the tops of the concussive waves of the explosions like skipping stones. But he probably would
JUST VIBRATE THROUGH THEM.
Ok, so the explosions that never come don't stop Wally, and he neither skips over them nor
vibrates through them. Then he reaches Deathstroke. DS somehow has moved several times
faster than sound to put his sword in place. Wally has lots of time to see it move and respond.
(Remember the explosion? Wally's faster now...)
Even if Wally decided to look away, Wally's reflexes are superhumanly fast. If he saw himself
about to be impaled, he'd have lots of time to move or just VIBRATE THROUGH THEM.
He's done that when surprised by GUNSHOTS.

The only possibility here is that Wally CONSENTED to having a sword in his chest,


After a fight that was written so poorly, the writer should have hung himself. He did not. He had
the JLA DOGPILE DS, and Green Arrow claims the JLA really teaches you how to fight,
The writer has a lot of damn gall to have that line come 1 page after that travesty of a fight.

[Max Mercury]

I wanted to separate some complaints from others. The fight deserved special time. I also want to
point out the INVESTIGATION. The note from Batman said the crime scene had been investigated-
and THEN Green Arrow has people go in to look things over. They should have found signs of the
investigators- but the carpet hasn't even been STEPPED ON. (Not even by the killer after killing,
which was later shown to be untrue.) Oddly, they didn't have problems distinguishing Ralph's
presence, either. And the investigators included Gold of the Metal Men, who had been permanently
destroyed and replaced by a Dr Magnus robot as the team leader.

The later investigation, supposedly, was superior- by virtue of having Superman (replacing ALL the
other investigators) examine a rope and make an observation about the knot that any Eagle Scout
could have made,


Worst of all for me is the killer and MO. At the end of issue 3, someone on Gaia correctly guessed
the villain, and his logic was that it made the least sense. Just before the last issue was released,
I examined the previous issues, and accounted for all the evidence and all the suspects,
I came up with a full answer that left no clues unanswered- which the official explanation failed to do
and it took another writer years later to fill in a blank.

When the final issue came out, I went up to lots of people who had never read the story. I posited
the motive for the killer. I asked, if the person was faced with that situation and that goal, what would
be the MOST LIKELY way to accomplish that goal? Different people, different ages, from different
US states, all voluneered approximately the same answer- which was far, FAR different from the one in the book.


Ok, you can say Brad Meltzer failed majorly on all the character mistakes all through the story
because he's not a comic book writer, he's a mystery writer. However, the one thing he should
have managed was the MYSTERY- the motive, the killer, the method. These all failed MAJORLY.
I'm now convinced the man is an incompetent as a mystery writer and is purely the result of lots
of good press and a fraud,


I've also seen the press convince people that this pile of steaming turds known as Identity Crisis
was a good story. Good enough press can convince people of the most transparent lies if it is
thorough enough. You can fool some of the people all of the time.

[Max Mercury]

BTW,
Final Crisis was difficult to read because it was DEEP and written on many levels. It should be
read SLOWLY and SAVORED.
Infinite Crisis was difficult to read because it was POORLY WRITTEN and confused BODY COUNTS,
deaths, mutilations and angst for good storytelling. By the end of it, I was completely convinced
(Identity Crisis began my thinking on this) that I would no longer trust DC to put out quality events
on their say-so. They'd produced many in the past but were incapable of equaling many of the
greats of the past.

If you read "Crisis on Infinite Earths", you'll see what Infinite Crisis WANTED TO BE but ended up
being a cruel mockery of. As a fan of the original, I was truly INSULTED and AFFRONTED by
this Bizarro Crisis.

If you read, say, Invasion!, you'll see that a planet-wide crossover event can be very busy and still
make lots of sense. Also, compare Infinite Crisis with the JLA story "World War 3" by Grant
Morrison. That was so good that I don't see the need to ever read JLA again- it's hard to equal how
good that was- and that was the entire planet facing Armageddon.

Just for fun, compare "JLA/Avengers" to Infinite Crisis. JLA/Avengers is MUCH busier, with MORE
characters and more going on. It's still a much clearer story and a superior read.

If your idea of a good read is "Identity Crisis", for God's sake, find a GOOD story to compare it to!
You've just read some MEDIA events that don't deserve to be mentioned alongside some great
stories.

[NeferiouslyNotoriousWolfy]

Holy smokes Max Mercury, I love you for both your name and for pointing out everything that was terrible with Identity Crisis.

Also, what the actual ******** with screw the Dibny's over???

I can't believe that with everything that's been thrown out in the DCnU, IC get's to stay.

[Conlan Nalnoc]

Brovo Max Mercury! I agree with almost everything that you have said, yet I still place Identity Crisis on my guilty pleasure list. There was a great premise for the story "Someone is targeting those close to the superheroes instead of the the heroes themselves." Hopefully some better writer will try to remake the premise.

Marvel already stole the DC Eleseworld's premise of "everyone loses their powers" (JLA: Act of God) to make a vastly superior What If story (What If: The Scarlet Witch said "No More Powers" instead of "No More Mutants" wink .

[Max Mercury]

Conlan Nalnoc

Brovo Max Mercury! I agree with almost everything that you have said, yet I still place Identity Crisis on my guilty pleasure list. There was a great premise for the story "Someone is targeting those close to the superheroes instead of the the heroes themselves." Hopefully some better writer will try to remake the premise.

Marvel already stole the DC Eleseworld's premise of "everyone loses their powers" (JLA: Act of God) to make a vastly superior What If story (What If: The Scarlet Witch said "No More Powers" instead of "No More Mutants" wink .

Oh, the PREMISE is great.

I will also add it explained why Doctor Light was once a villain to keep the entire JLA busy, but
later was beaten repeatedly by the New Teen Titans and lost his nerve, blowing his cool when
fighting kids.

I also liked the :"What do you know" scene- where every hero got out there and beat the CRAP out
of every fire-using villain to find some answers.

The good points, however, were surrounded by some story elements that were so horrible, they
overshadowed the stories.

[Mickey Mouse Is Mexican]

Wow those are some strong feelings about the book, I can agree with some of your points like how Dr. Light was pretty much just thrown in to be the villian and then it turned out to the Atoms Ex, but I did like it, I never said it was the BEST GN I ever read, but I did personally like it. I think the Best GN I ever read was "The Long Halloween" it had a crazy plot twist, and was one of Jeph Loebs Master Pieces, and Tim Sale's art work was absolutely amazing, that is Batman at his best

[Conlan Nalnoc]

I really enjoyed the following Teen Titans story where Dr. Light takes on all current and past Titans at once and fights them to a stalemate.

[GLJordan]

Max please consider you three posts tipped

[mrskippy69]

Max Mercury = The hero of this board.

It's even more in-depth than Linkara's rant on Atop the 4th Wall.

The DS fight is especially insulting. He got beat by the Teen Titans repeatedly, and I think (not sure, could be wrong, but I think) by d**k Grayson alone at one point. How, exactly, is a collection of S-rank heroes in the DCU supposed to get schooled by him?