On Atop The Fourth Wall this week, Linkara tackles the controversial Identity Crisis miniseries that changed the tone of the DC Universe. While I haven’t read the series (mostly because of all the things I’ve heard about it that is NOT what I look for in a DC book), just knowing about these things bothers me. I have heard that the series has its fans and that’s fine. However, as Linkara notes in the intro, there’s a certain tone that you expect from a DC comic, where heroes are the standard for us to achieve. Marvel, on the other hand, seems to hate their heroes (and by that I hope I mean the denizens of the Marvel Universe, not the people at the comic company, although there are times I wonder) to the point of being stupid in their analysis, thus making them the standard of stupidity I use in my reviews and discussions. I mean, supposedly after “Secret Invasion” they still don’t believe in aliens. You have to work hard to be that naive.
Cover of Identity Crisis
DC’s heroes until recently were strong, noble, and the ideal to which mankind should attempt to achieve; a sort of fantasy where good can overcome evil and everything can be right with the world. Starting in Identity Crisis, however, things change. As Linkara points out (and please go watch the videos, he has a long version and two short versions for those on slower connections, which is why I went with a link) characters were made darker for no real reason, characters were killed and yet they still had story potential beyond making a character angst-ridden, and it is another example of how rape is poorly used in comics. He says it better than I can because he read it, and we chose DC for the same reasons (although my gateway was actually Superfriends and two comics I was given in 1979 versus the one Marvel that wasn’t as interesting), so go check out his review now. While he will point out a few things the miniseries did right, there is so much Brad Meltzer did wrong.
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