Broken Frontier

The most talked-about comic of the year comes to an end with a revelation that will shock even the most jaded reader.

One member of the Justice League comes face-to-face with the killer responsible for the deaths of Sue Dibny and Jack Drake. The hero not only learns how the killer did it, but much more importantly, why. The motivations are as twisted as they are basic to human nature, so much so that insanity can be the only explanation for the killer’s actions. Afterwards, heroes, each in his or her own way, begin putting their lives back together and moving on.

Much more a Previews man, as well as one who prefers his comic news piping hot off of the Internet, Wizard magazine hasn’t been on my radar for months. Therefore, I hadn’t noticed that Brad Meltzer has been chosen as Wizard’s Writer of the Year. That Meltzer wasn’t even among my top five contenders in that category indicates to me that there’s been so much hype around this "event" that it’s difficult to separate what’s real from what’s spin and over-reaction.

No doubt, Identity Crisis got off to a great start, the first two or three issues near brilliant, and Meltzer brought a depth and maturity to comic writing that one typically only finds in his primary medium—novels. Of particular note was his uncanny ear for character voice and how deftly he played different characters’ perspectives off one another. If nothing else, Identity Crisis will stand as a veritable symphony of interior monologue and first person narration.

However, for all his strengths character-wise, Meltzer’s IC scripts show just as many weaknesses plot-wise; and as the red herrings, incongruities and blind alleys began to pile up while the bodies didn’t, the series slipped a notch from great to good for me.

So does Identity Crisis #7 work? For me, no, for several reasons. First, the killer is portrayed as hopelessly insane after the revelation, and yet is shown with no hint of it before. Because of this, buying the killer’s insanity is difficult because it seems out of the blue. Second, it seems to me the killer didn’t have to have two people killed to get what (s)he wanted. Actually, (s)he could’ve just snapped his/her fingers. Third, for all the detective work from several characters—particularly Batman and the Green Arrow—the way the killer is revealed undercuts all the sleuthing as if it weren’t necessary.

Michael Turner’s cover is haunting and has a visual poetry about it that makes it one of the best of 2004. There’s no better metaphor for how these heroes are just people beneath the capes. The interior art is just as captivating. Although my opinion of Meltzer as a comic writer has changed for the worse, my opinion of Rags Morales as an artist hasn’t changed at all. He’s just as good in Identity Crisis #7 as he was in issue #1. Frankly, for the talk of how Brad Meltzer humanizes DC heroes, this should really be said of Morales. No artist this year has brought more humanity to characters than he. It’s in the eyes, really, in his realistic rendering of human form and emotion, and how his sense of perspective puts the reader right in there with the action. I knew little about Morales’ work before, but am a definite fan now, one who would give a title a shot simply because he’s drawing it.

So, after all the theories and expectations, for me there’s disappointment, as the plot aspects of Identity Crisis do not live up to the character work. If you’ve ever read one of Brad Meltzer’s novels, Identity Crisis #7 may not come as a shock at all—first because a Brad Meltzer novel is great on set up but not on follow through, and second because the end to Identity Crisis is very much like an Agatha Christie mystery. The killer was right before our eyes all the while. In other words, Identity Crisis is a cozy with capes. Hardly shocking, hardly earth shaking, and hardly worth all the hype.

-Dexter K. Flowers