Is Identity Crisis worth Buying?

[Kaijudo]

Identity Crisis is, frankly, garbage. It's all shock value and grimdark nonsense, a snuff film in comic book format. Worst thing DC has ever put out.

[jb681131]

NO NO NO, don't take into acount all those haters.
It is worth reading and interresting.
A good introduction to the DC Univers and heroes.

(Meanwhile Scott Snyder's and Tom King's runs are praised by many and so so bad in quality, well King is readable).

[Assam]

NO NO NO, don't take into acount all those haters.
It is worth reading and interresting.
A good introduction to the DC Univers and heroes.

(Meanwhile Scott Snyder's and Tom King's runs are praised by many and so so bad in quality, well King is readable).

Scott Snyder (Average) > Tom King (Batman is awful, Vision is amazing but still flawed, haven't read anything else and don't intend to) > Identity Crisis (One of the worst comics DC's ever published and the reasons why have already been discussed at length in this thread and many others.)

[Denirac]

Scott Snyder (Average) > Tom King (Batman is awful, Vision is amazing but still flawed, haven't read anything else and don't intend to) > Identity Crisis (One of the worst comics DC's ever published and the reasons why have already been discussed at length in this thread and many others.)

Welcome Back Assam

[Assam]

Welcome Back Assam

Thanks dude.

[Daniel22]

I'll go against the grain here, because I loved that story. And I know several people who became comic fans because of it, for what that's worth.

It's not a Crisis in your typical "the whole of reality is ending!" sort of way. Its a murder mystery that plays around with a lot of C-list characters that everyone had stopped caring about....right up until this story brought them back. It's a personal story about loss and desperation and how those things affect the individual and their community. It's not about a big bad villain trying to eat the world.

Easiest way I can think to sum it up is; this is as close to Game of Thrones as DC has ever gotten. As far as character dynamics are concerned, I mean. No one is fighting over a throne here.

Meltzer toys around with the innate silliness of the Silver Age, and puts some of those ridiculous elements into a modern context with some pretty twisted stuff. If you have a great amount of nostalgia for the Silver Age, you'll hate seeing certain events in this new light. If you're open to more layers being unveiled, you may enjoy it. But just to forewarn you; it does not treat all the heroes like flawless paragons of righteousness; in fact some of the things you'll see are quite cruel and unusual. But in a lot of ways, all it's doing is looking at hairline cracks that were always there, and pulling them open to find out why they existed in the first place.

And of course, some of the characters don't make it out intact. Some of them don't make it out at all, and several leave with some pretty horrible scars, both literally and figuratively. You'll walk away from the story feeling a little queasy and violated.....and that's the point. That's the emotional gut punch reaction you're meant to have. Some will say it's not a story that should have been told. I respectfully disagree, and it made me far more interested in certain characters than I had ever been beforehand.

If you like murder mysteries where the line between good and evil is blurred, where good people do bad things for both good and for selfish reasons, and evil people are sometimes the victims, you'll enjoy Identity Crisis. If you prefer your superheroes with a more binary, clean-cut morality where heroes always act heroically and villains are always in the wrong, or you cannot stand to see Silver Age characters make major mistakes that'll come back to haunt them and their loved ones, it's best if you ignore it.

There's also a few things in the writing that're just plain questionable (a thing with Deathstroke chief among them) but I don't think those are any worse than what you see in any comic.

I was going to write my own response but you nailed it perfectly. I agree with everything you said. It was maybe the riskiest and gutsy comic DC has ever put out in their main universe. If they took more chances and were this willing to surprise and challenge its readers more often I would like a lot more DC books.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

I was going to write my own response but you nailed it perfectly. I agree with everything you said. It was maybe the riskiest and gutsy comic DC has ever put out in their main universe. If they took more chances and were this willing to surprise and challenge its readers more often I would like a lot more DC books.

I despise Identity Crisis but you're not wrong here in a more general sense.

As a rule, though, riskier comics have a much harder time selling themselves than the old tried and trusted.

[Daniel22]

I despise Identity Crisis but you're not wrong here in a more general sense.

As a rule, though, riskier comics have a much harder time selling themselves than the old tried and trusted.

Aint that the truth. The status quo guys have had their time though, we're moving (slowly and sometimes painfully) into a market where new characters and ideas can flourish along with the old standards. Or sometimes in place of them.

[jpmst17]

I really liked it and own the single issues as well as the trade. the art is gorgeous and i liked the story.

[Assam]

Putting this here just because it's the most recent Identity Crisis thread. This thread really explains a lot about how Identity Crisis became the mess it was and the awful mindset that was fueling DC's line:

https://twitter.com/StuffValWrites/s...96323905413121

[Jekyll]

Putting this here just because it's the most recent Identity Crisis thread. This thread really explains a lot about how Identity Crisis became the mess it was and the awful mindset that was fueling DC's line:

https://twitter.com/StuffValWrites/s...96323905413121

WOW! How disgusting! So glad I recently got rid of that book. Had I known all that, I wouldn’t even have purchased it.

[Skedatz]

Putting this here just because it's the most recent Identity Crisis thread. This thread really explains a lot about how Identity Crisis became the mess it was and the awful mindset that was fueling DC's line:

https://twitter.com/StuffValWrites/s...96323905413121

Great Scott. Wow.

Also, it's oddly and unintentionally commenting on how their movies work.

[millernumber1]

Putting this here just because it's the most recent Identity Crisis thread. This thread really explains a lot about how Identity Crisis became the mess it was and the awful mindset that was fueling DC's line:

https://twitter.com/StuffValWrites/s...96323905413121

It always perplexes me that so many fans that I respect love this book. I will freely admit I have not read it, but a simple description of what happens pretty much confirms to me that there is no way any amount of execution would make me enjoy it or respect it. I'm glad to hear that editorial was responsible, since that helps nail down the editorial culture of the other projects at the same time or just afterwards - War Games and Evil Cass. The obsession with "darkness" seems to always involve destroying the things people loved about a franchise or character.

[Anthony Shaw]

Putting this here just because it's the most recent Identity Crisis thread. This thread really explains a lot about how Identity Crisis became the mess it was and the awful mindset that was fueling DC's line:

https://twitter.com/StuffValWrites/s...96323905413121

Oh....damn.

Thanks for posting the link.

[BatmanJones]

Interesting and troubling comments from that tweet. They don't change my feelings about the series though. It remains my favorite JLA story ever and I don't love anything more than JLA. I use it to convert non-comic fans and it works every single time. There is no DC story I've enjoyed more or read more times. It's probably my favorite comic book series of all time. I've heard all the complaints and I understand them; I just don't share them.

To answer OP's question (probably for the second time or more) it's absolutely worth buying if only to form your own opinion. Fans tend to LOVE or HATE this series. There's not a consensus one way or the other. I recommend finding out how OP responds to the series itself and not only comments about it which are incendiary from both directions. To me that's the definition of "worth buying." No one should form an opinion of any piece of art in any medium based on what they read about it. If you're wondering if it's worth buying and you're hearing such strong reactions on both sides, well, that's incredibly rare. And whenever I encounter responses to art that are so strong from both sides I almost HAVE to read it myself to find out how I respond to it myself. I don't know if OP would love or hate this (or something in between though that seems a very rare reaction to ID Crisis) but I do know that they can't know that based on responses when the responses are so divisive. The only way to know is to read it themselves.