Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.50973
EAN: 9781401204587
ISBN: 1401204589
Label: DC Comics
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: DC Comics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2006-08-16
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: 2006-08-16
Studio: DC Comics

The most talked-about and successful DC Comics miniseries of 2004 is now available in a stunning hardcover volume!New York Times best-selling author Brad Meltzer delivers an all-too-human look into the lives of super-heroes and the terrible price they pay for doing good.

Customer Rating:
Summary: So, what happens when you take a best-selling author of thrillers and have him work with a great comics team?
Comment: You get a strong story, great art and some of the cherished ideas of comics are re-worked.

To quote the introduction by Joss Whedon, "it's unlikely that Elongated Man is your favorite-ever character. But halfway into issue one he was certainly mine. Brad and Rags paint a portait of a man - and a marriage - that is so unassumingly lovely, it's unbearable to think anything bad might happen to either. And inevitable that it will."

****Spoiler alert****

Thank novelist Brad Meltzer for making you care and thank artist Rags Morales for making you feel the pain of Elongated Man's loss on page 31 (even now, I just glanced at THE page and I felt it all over again).

Meltzer re-works some of the bad guys and makes them truly awful. Why shouldn't they be. Regular villains stalk, kill, rape, maim and torture. Shouldn't super villains do even more of that? To combat that, the super heroes are not morally upright in all of their actions. They are after all, human (except for a few of them). They are scared for their families, friends and loved ones that cannot defend themselves against freaks with a funny suit and a good search engine. The scene in which Batman and Robin (Tim Drake) rush to save Robin's father (p. 170) illustrates this fear and is great only because of the art - the art tells the story better than paragraphs of text would. But, the text does add something - Batman says only two words: "Not again..." as he mashes the Batmobile's pedal to the floor. We all know what the orphaned Caped Crusader's motivations are. On page 182 the art is equally compelling. You can see the horror in Robin's eyes with Batman assuming an unusual compassionate role - cradling Robin and saying, "...I've got you..." The accompanying narration notes "Batman and Robin. Orphans."

I give it 4 stars out of 5 simply because I did not like the Whodunit of the whole mystery. It seemed odd and random, but then again lots of life is odd and random so maybe I'm overly critical.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: DC COMICS IDENTITY CRISIS
Comment: Identity Crisis (DC Comics)
this comic makes you fundementally change the way you view the characters and their lives.
it shows their complete flaws and humanity in a disturbingly real light.
what people do for love and to protect those they love.
and the 'true' villian of this story will shock you.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Perfect, But Recommended Reading
Comment: I rather enjoyed this, in spite of an ending which I found to be a little weak. This particular focuses mainly on some of the JLA's secondary characters. Though I knew who they were I had never really read any stores that had focused on them, and enjoyed this one (I particularly enjoyed the Green Arrow who I never really cared about before). Though this is hardly the deconstruction of the superhero mythos on the level of something like Watchmen, but it does (in my opinion) show some of the DC characters in a different light than you've seen them in in the past. This isn't for everyone though some people might find it too dark or violent. But then again some people are wusses. A highlight for me was the fight against Deathstroke. I also really liked the art work

There were two things I didn't like, be warned they are spoilers. The first one is Dr. Light. I mean really? Dr. Light? He's lame and we all know it. Reconning and saying the tried to change his personality and that is why he is `stupid' now? I'm sorry that just isn't good enough for me. You can do better guys. Secondly, and more seriously the real villain of the story (Jean Loring) is kind of lame. On the one hand it is a surprise and certainly is nice to have it be someone unexpected. But the reasoning behind it was, well stupid. To be fair people who are insane don't always do things that make sense. However, it's reviled she did all this to get back with her ex-husband Ray Palmer, except that she is the one of left him. So I'm not really sure why she went to all this trouble. This doesn't even account for how she was able to navigate through the human body to get to a spot to cut off blood flow to the brain, or how she could breathe in the blood stream. But other wise I found this very enjoyable.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Should not have been a comic book...
Comment: My problem with Identity Crisis is that Brad Meltzer doesn't have much experience with comics, and it shows. While the story is commendable, the execution wasn't. The strength of Identity Crisis is the writing, with the art having to make major adjustments.

To me, comics is about the balance between text and image. If the writing is the star, why have a comic book in the first place? Sure, it's about DC's properties, but superhero stories aren't limited to comics.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: A great detective story... also has super-heroes!
Comment: I'm not hugely into comic books. Oh, I read them from time-to-time, but usually only in collections like this one, Kingdom Come and similar. So when I do read them, I have pretty high expectations which, thankfully, this book lives up to.

The story centers around various members of the Justice League being very worried someone knows their secret identities. This someone has already killed the wife of Elongated Man, and several other family members may be targeted.

There's some surprising depth to this story, and a very satisfactory resolution. I had no idea who the killer was going to be and was quite surprised to find out. I was also very impressed by the ethical discussions that went on centering around events up on the Justice League space station.

The art and writting were both top-notch. I gave it four stars overrall cause parts did feel a little rushed and there were some side characters that were really just distractions. That said, it's a great book, and I really enjoyed reading it!

---