Is Identity Crisis worth Buying?

[Denirac]

I just ordered Crisis on Infinite Earths while owning all the other Crisis events aside from Identity Crisis, which I know is divisive to say the least.... Is it worth buying, even if just to have a copy of each 'Crisis'?

[PyroTwilight]

That'll depend on what you want them for.

I think it's a decent story overall but it's hardly a Crisis in the same way as the others are.

I do think it's something of a good lead up to the next REAL Crisis the Infinite Crisis.

But on it's own? I dunno. The only bit I ever loved originally from it involved Firestorm, Shadow Thief and Shining Knight and that was only a page or two.

If you're a completest, sure. But I'd say to pick it up from the library and give it a read through first.

[jb681131]

I just ordered Crisis on Infinite Earths while owning all the other Crisis events aside from Identity Crisis, which I know is divisive to say the least.... Is it worth buying, even if just to have a copy of each 'Crisis'?

Identity Crisis is a prequel do Infinite Crisis.
To me is is one of the best JL stories. It involves everyone and well presents all the DC characters.

And what do you concider a "Crisis" ? is it only a story with Crisis in its name ?
Because if you don't limit yourself to that there are more than 4 Crisis:

1. Flash of Two Worlds
2. Crisis on Multiple Earths
3. Crisis on Infinite Earths
4. Zero Hour
5. DC One Million
6. Crisis Times Five
7. Identity Crisis
8. Infinite Crisis
9 (52)
10. (Countdown to Final Crisis)
11. Infinite Crisis
12. Blackest Night
13. Brightest Day
14. Flashpoint
15. (Trinity War)
16. Forever Evil
17. (Blight)
18. Futures End
19. World's End
20. Convergence
21. The Multiversity
22. DC Rebirth
23. (Batman/The Flash: The Button)
24. Doomsday Clock

[Denirac]

I was really focusing on the ones with Wally West in Crucial Roles- So from Crisis on Infinte Earths- Blackest Night and Rebirth onwards. I do have Forever Evil and Futures End though.

[Carabas]

I just ordered Crisis on Infinite Earths while owning all the other Crisis events aside from Identity Crisis, which I know is divisive to say the least.... Is it worth buying, even if just to have a copy of each 'Crisis'?

It's not worth reading for free.

But if you just want a pile of books with "Crisis" in the title... well, I suppose it fulfils that need just fine.

I was really focusing on the ones with Wally West in Crucial Roles- So from Crisis on Infinte Earths- Blackest Night and Rebirth onwards. I do have Forever Evil and Futures End though.

I think the only thing Wally does of note is having a huge sword shoved through his chest by Deathstroke for really stupid reasons.

[jb681131]

I was really focusing on the ones with Wally West in Crucial Roles- So from Crisis on Infinte Earths- Blackest Night and Rebirth onwards. I do have Forever Evil and Futures End though.

Then do read Flash of Two Worlds, Rebirth, The Button, and Doomsday Clock.

[Astroman]

Horrible mini. Don't waste your time.

[Skedatz]

I can't say it was a great investment on my part.

[Mike]

One of the worse stories I ever had the misfortune of reading.

[Scott Taylor]

If you like Batman being paranoid even for him and dream of Deathstroke being able to beat down the entire Justice League, then yes.

Its a bit rapey, though.

[JackDaw]

Then do read Flash of Two Worlds, Rebirth, The Button, and Doomsday Clock.

It’s an excellent story, but the two Flashes in Flash of Two Worlds are Barry and Jay, rather than Wally.

[Thor2014]

I just ordered Crisis on Infinite Earths while owning all the other Crisis events aside from Identity Crisis, which I know is divisive to say the least.... Is it worth buying, even if just to have a copy of each 'Crisis'?

I browsed through it at B&N, that was enough for me. It doesn't have the scale of the other Crisis events. It's a more of a character-based detective mystery, not really my cup of tea but to each their own. However I will say that I've always been a fan of paranoid Batman and I love the particular thing that was revealed to have happened to him. Superboy Prime would've hated it.

[MajorHoy]

If you really like Ralph & Sue Dibny . . . you might be better off avoiding it like the plague.

If you like rapes; murdered pregnant women; and adding more dead parents for superheroes, then go for it.

[Ascended]

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.

[Denirac]

Then do read Flash of Two Worlds, Rebirth, The Button, and Doomsday Clock.

I've literally read everything since Rebirth, I read almost DC's entire line. Havent read the Flash of Two Workds though.