Title:
Identity Crisis
Writer:
Brad Meltzer
Artists:
Rags Morales and Michael Bair
Publisher:
DC Comics
Boy, have comic books gotten real mature since I
was a kid. I must confess, I haven’t
read many comics in my life. I mean as a
kid I did like to buy them as much as any other kid, and in high school I only
read a few here and there. But I never
stayed with the scene. The problem for
me always was that I didn’t like the dreaded ‘to be continued’ at the end of a
comic. I felt almost cheated knowing
that what I paid for didn’t have an ending.
Of course all of this changed when a comic book store worker recommend
that I should read graphic novels, after I told him my “to be continued” issue. He told me that graphic novels basically are
a collection of comic books that do have an ending. Ever since then I have loved to read graphic
novels. However what I didn’t expect to
find in these novels was issues dealing with adult subjects. The graphic novel, Identity Crisis is a
perfectly good example of what I’m talking about. It starts off with Elongated Man and Firehawk
doing some surveillance on some would-be criminals. Firehawk then starts asking Elongated Man how
he met his wife. He tells her the story
of how they met, and why he loves her so much.
Suddenly the would-be
criminals start to move and as Elongated Man expands to see, he hears the voice
of his wife calling for help. He then
rushes home to her, but by the time he gets there it is too late because
someone has killed her. At her funeral
almost every superhero shows up to the service.
After the funeral they all decide to split into groups and investigate
the murder. However Elongated Man and a
few more superheroes stay behind because they want to go after the man they
think is the real murderer, Dr. Light.
The Flash who is there then asks why they think it is him. What follows is the story of when Dr. Light
raped Elongated Man’s wife, and as a result the superheroes chose to punish him
by erasing some of his mind.
The Flash becomes
angry with the group because they did this, but the Green Arrow defends their
actions. Eventually the mystery of who
killed Elongated Man’s wife is solved, but more importantly the Green Arrows
explains his reasoning behind the decision to erase some of Dr. Lights
mind. According to him, guys like
Superman and Batman get to be the big-shots when the villains are caught and
they get to leave. However for guys like
the Green Arrow they have to stay behind and deal with the clean up. In a previous story a captured villain knew
their real identities, and so the “clean-up” heroes had no choice but to prevent
him from ever sharing that information with other villains by erasing his
memory. According to the Green Arrow
this was because it would have placed their loved ones in jeopardy.
Because of moral
issues such as this one and other issues that come up during this novel, I
really liked this book. They demonstrate
how comics are no longer simple stories of good vs. evil, but can really
intrigue the reader and make them question a lot of things. While issues dealing with murder and rape can
be troublesome to read, it does bring a little bit off reality into comics
which keeps you focused on the story.
Although the story is sad to read, I did like the ending because it was
emotionally sweet and I would recommend
it to anyone that wants to read a good graphic novel.
Wikipedia
link:
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Identity-Crisis-Comics-Brad-Meltzer/dp/1401204589
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