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Rating:  -
Personally, if you have not read a comic book in a while, this isn't the one to start. It feels more like this book is trying to compete with the fact that "mature themed" books sell better. To me, it was an ok read, but it further drags characters we've grown up with into awkward situations and further abandons their true spirit. I understand the use of questioning the long established themes of superheroes, ie What happens when it gets personal, when villians attack your loved ones? or ie Does the ends justify the means? These questions are great themes, but I don't believe they are executed as well as they could be. This isn't even in an elseworlds story.
*LIGHT SPOILER ALERT*
This story really treats Batman and Superman like parent figures of these "lesser" JLA heroes. Not since Kingdom Come did we elevate Batman and Superman into such monarchy. But unlike Kingdom Come, I dreaded every scene with either Batman or Superman. It was so obvious that this story was not about them, they are not allowed to "solve" this one so easily. Furthermore, Dr.Light raping the wife of Elongated Man, it was just so awkward. It served no purpose but to jab us where it hurts, the topic of rape, its heavy no matter where it is found in media, and to use it in a comic book, you better know what you are doing and where you are taking it. But here, it goes really no where. Its just like the use of gore in movies, it unsettles you, but does little for the actually plot. Some may argue it is to illustrate the extreme instance that pushes the heroes to "alter" Dr.Lights personality. I don't buy that, personally, that is weak a plot device.
Also, there are many loose ends, one of favorite being like why Batman never found out what his own teammates did to him. It is unbelieavable to me that Batman figures out everything, but he never figures out why the room goes quiet everytime JLA talks about mindwashing.
Rating:  -
Excellent story, a psychological angle to comics. Who benefits? The reader does. The best villain for super-heroes isnt a big strong monster from another planet, its life.
I also love how the big 3 seem larger than life in this book.
Rating: -
A short time ago, the powers at be at DC Comics decided to create a major storyline. Meltzer was the one who did it. And he reached inside and pulled out a major moral issue. What do you do when a supervillian knows your secrets and you don't kill. The Justice League (or a few members of it) decided that the best nonlethal action would be to have the villians mindwiped, oh, and as an afterthought, mindwiped about ten minutes from Batman. And chaos ensues when the villians start to remember. This is a great story and kicks off the Infinite Crisis storyline. Very important to any fan of any DC character. I think they all are involved at some point (or some book) or another.
Rating:  -
It started with such hope, and some powerful emotion. The "secret" some of the characters hold was interesting from a story point of view, but the actual facts in evidence are rather cheesy. As for the murderer being revealed along with the method? Well, that came close to ruining the story for me. Still, a great read with some great moments.
Rating: -
"Identity Crisis", as outstanding a reading experience as it was, was an event that couldn't fully be judged at the time (and hence I put off doing a write-up for a long time). In short, it was a riveting, awesome series whose ending didn't really make sense, and left me unsure as to whether I was disappointed with the final chapter for that reason, or satisfied with how truly unexpected the finale was. I remember thinking that DC was going to have to address the things that didn't add up, and that if that was done right, "Identity Crisis"'s claim to being one of the greatest crossover events of all time would be cemented. A couple months after Crisis concluded, elements started appearing in a number of books (the reprecussions of Identity Crisis were, obviously, felt all through the DC Universe) that implied ways in which the parts that didn't add up could actually be plausible. Day Of Vengeance # 1 immediately springs to mind. And while it's still debateable whether everything got squared away tightly enough, it's close enough in my mind that those seeming inconsistencies in IC # 7 are no longer a hinderance. "Identity Crisis" indeed stands as one of comicdom's shining moments.
This collection reprints all seven issues of "Identity Crisis"; other issues of other titles were also part of the overall event but do not appear here (more on that later). The premise of the event is simple but bold: someone knows the secret identities of some of - perhaps all of - DC's most prominent superheroes, and has begun killing off their loved ones. No one - spouses, parents, friends, etc. - seems to be safe, and despite a relentless effort by such investigation-capable characters as Batman, the Martian Manhunter, and Mr. Miracle (who brings in New Genesis technology), the killer seems to be leaving no clues or evidence.
The first victim is Sue Dibny, wife of Ralph Dibny aka the Elongated Man, and what begins as a crusade by the DCU's superheroes to track down the perpetrator of a lone crime becomes even more urgent when further incidents occur, leaving the world's most powerful champions playing defensive against a ruthless, unidentified foe who strikes at them through their families. With every villain a potential suspect, a spotlight is shone on the bad guys of the DC Universe that, from a reader's perspective, is extremely illuminating. In trying to ferret out the guilty party at the same time as the book's characters do, the reader can see a host of the supervillains through a fresh lens, almost as if you're looking at them for the first time. The collective rogues gallery of the DC Universe is anything but a uniform bunch, ranging from the most irredeemable psychopaths - tortue-minded rapists, mass murderers - to characters who genuinely feel themselves to be in the right, to villains who know they're the 'bad guys' of the world but have made peace with it, and who attempt to hold onto some modicum of honor and decency even as they carry out their nefarious endeavors. Within this last type, one group even annoymously sends flowers and a condolence card to a victim's surviving family, troubled that someone among their general peerage is taking the game to such a personal level. The funeral for Sue is disturbingly realistic and moving, and immediately following it, the heroes set out on the hunt. And immediately following it, at the end of # 1, drops a major surprise bombshell, one of many that turn up in a twist-packed, genuinely shocking tale. The art, writing, and characterization is excellent all through. Deserving of special mention is the way characters who'd been relatively ignored in the few years prior to Identity Crisis (Elongated Man, Deathstroke, Captain Boomerang, etc.) surprisingly got elevated to such large roles in DC's pole release of 2004. It was a welcome move, and what that set a precedent as a number of other semi-forgotten characters would rise up to play pivotal roles in a host of DC events following IC.
This volume can be read by itself, but to get the most out of it, I'd recommend that you read as many of the other chapters as possible. These are The Flash #s 214-217, JSA # 67, Firestorm (2004 series) # 6, and Manhunter (2004 series) # 5. The Flash issues are reprinted in The Flash Vol. 6: The Secret of Barry Allen, which also reprints Flash # 207-211 and 213; JSA # 67 is reprinted in JSA: Lost (Book 9) along with #s 59-66; Manhunter # 5 is in Manhunter: Street Justice (Book 1) which also contains #s 1-4 of that series; Firestorm # 6 hasn't been reprinted but the original issue usually isn't too hard to find (it may even be on Amazon through one of the marketplace sellers). You may want to just get the individual tie-in issues anyway, instead of the whole collection they appear in. Obviously not everybody is going to want to (or be able to afford to) shell out for all these issues all at once; I myself read the first couple of chapters, then held off until I tracked down a good bunch of the rest before reading on. If you can only get some of the tie-ins I'd recommend Flash 214-217 the most; you get A Lot of additional facets to Identity Crisis here.
If you're going to read more than just the 7 issues collected in this volume, I'd suggest reading in the following order (figuring out what order to read crossover issues can get pretty confusing at times, admittedly; perhaps a guide on the inside covers would be something publishers might want to consider): Identity Crisis # 1, IC # 2, IC # 3, The Flash # 214, IC # 4, Flash # 215, IC # 5, Firestorm # 6, Manhunter # 5, JSA # 67, IC # 6, Flash # 216, IC # 7, Flash 217. Identity Crisis # 7 and Flash # 217 are pretty much concurrent, but the revelations pack more wallop in IC 7, that's why I'd recommend reading that one first.
I don't mean to suggest that you can't enjoy an excellent story just with the "Identity Crisis" Hardcover (or Trade) itself, because you can. The experience is just enhanced with the other issues. It's unfortunate there's not a complete collection out, but nonetheless you can't really go wrong, either with just this volume or with some or all of the others. Identity Crisis is a must-read, one way or the other.
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