I've been getting back into comics in a big way recently, but don't fancy swamping this blog with reviews of each and every Flash and JSA collection that I'm reading. Having said that, I do want to single out one collection in particular for praise: Brad Meltzer's Identity crisis.
This was DC Comics' big cross-over event of 2004, which means that it stars Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin, and a host of other super-heroes you may or may not have heard of, depending on your level of geekery. Traditionally these cross-overs set up some galactic threat or other and play out like a big-screen blockbuster, with lots of explosions and moustache-twirling. Here though, Meltzer decides to go down a different route.
The threat in Identity Crisis is not to the galaxy or even the Earth, it is to the heroes themselves, and in particular, their families. Superman's greatest weakness is not Kryptonite, it is his love for his wife and his parents; there is no defense against grief. The book opens with the death of the wife of a very minor super-hero, and it's a huge testament to Meltzer's writing that within the space of just a few pages, the marriage of this third-tier character can seem so precious, and that the brutal murder ending it can be so devastating.
What follows is a murder mystery that gathers urgency as more and more of the heroes' loved ones are targeted for assassination. More importantly, the investigation sheds light on a secret that some of the big name characters have been hiding for years; morally questionable acts that may shatter the tight-nit community of caped crusaders for good. The artwork is excellent, and haunting in places, but it is the perceptiveness of the writing that sets this apart from the majority of super-hero comics on the shelves. (9/10)
0 comments:
Post a Comment