Why is there all this hate for Identity Crisis?

[Hol]

I took a long break from comics. From about 2013 on. Occasionally popping back in to try something and mostly lurking on these boards to see if anything new might interest me at DC. Anyway, I have seen a lot of people hate on IDC but never giving reasons why. Just wondering....why the hate? I love it. Read it many times and I remember back in 04 it was received mostly very well on the Comic Bloc and DC Boards.

So what are some of the reasons you don't like IDC?

[Tzigone]

So what are some of the reasons you don't like IDC?

Partially the same reasons people hate Heroes in Crisis - it character-assassinated some characters. Jean Loring, most prominently. Her actions made no sense in light of the prior events of her previous appearances (handwaved away with "she's crazy") Though, of course, a lot of people don't care when it's a small, unimportant character that gets twisted up that way. But also quite a few of the JL, by making them consent to all those mindwipes. Made them villains. It's an even bitterer pill to swallow for me that's it is another instance where other characters (particularly other heroes) are made less moral to make Batman look superior. And with the indication, if I recall, that it was largely done for their own reputations.

It also tainted the past by rewriting. So many of the heroes were monsters for what they did, and continued to do to multiple villains. And erased years or decades of growth from some of those villains that had changed their ways.

And, of course, using rape for shock value. And not even of a minor character or a character designed for that purpose. A character that, in all the stories set after that event, never reacted to it having happened (because, of course, it was written so much later), leaving the door open to her being mindwiped, too. And we never get to see her deal with it later, either, because she's dead now.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

1. The mystery made a lot of the characters seem incompetent.

2. The resolution wasn’t that inspired, Jean had an actual awful justification and went completely insane for that story explicitly, and she’s not an interesting enough character to be the lynchpin.

3. Because they mind wiped Batman, some very popular characters became unlikeable and were just flat out wrong in their justification after that. It went from a tough decision to a betrayal

4. There was no reason Sue Dibny needed to be raped and it really didn’t add anything. Like you can tell the same story without it. So you just took a long established character and violated her for the sake of shock.

5. Fan servicey moments like the Deathstroke fight.

6. It just ended on a downer. It was a depressing story that had no triumph or hope in the end. One established character got raped and murdered. Another got murdered. The Justice League betrayed Batman and kinda lost all sympathy points. Tim’s dad died. And it ended with another long established character becoming insane and the Atom being depressed and leaving this reality in his grief.

[caj]

Tzigone and Knight of the Lake said it perfectly IMO. ^^^^^

If you're going to tell a story of this magnitude (or at least the way it was advertised to be), you need to think about the aftermath. As a writer, Meltzer decided to rewrite the history of the Satellite JLA. He managed to ruin Zatanna and several other characters by making them act completely out of character. He killed off several good characters who still had plenty of story left to tell. And as Knight of the Lake stated, the story was depressing.

I loved "The Archer's Quest" that Meltzer wrote in Green Arrow, so I was excited to read this story. Especially because it was flashing back to the JLA Satellite years. But this was just majorly disappointing IMO.

[edpower]

Is there a lot of hate for it? If so, I'm kind of relieved. I thought my disdain for it put me in the minority.

When it first came out, and I hated it, it definitely seemed like thinking it was anything less than genius was blasphemy.

[Hol]

Thanks for the responses. I don't agree but it is good to hear others side to this story.

[achilles]

Is there a lot of hate for it? If so, I'm kind of relieved. I thought my disdain for it put me in the minority.

When it first came out, and I hated it, it definitely seemed like thinking it was anything less than genius was blasphemy.

No, you aren't. It's been my experience that most fans hated it with a passion. Largely because it was terrible in every way. It's one of those things like Amazons Attack that everyone prefers to forget. DC just has done some really horrible stories, along with the good and great ones. But IC wasn't one of those, instead it was one of the worst DC has to offer.

[Hol]

No, you aren't. It's been my experience that most fans hated it with a passion. Largely because it was terrible in every way. It's one of those things like Amazons Attack that everyone prefers to forget. DC just has done some really horrible stories, along with the good and great ones. But IC wasn't one of those, instead it was one of the worst DC has to offer.

It is so funny because until I started frequenting the CBR boards I thought it was universally loved. I had heard a few complaints when it came out but that was the minority.

[Adekis]

You know what, I honestly don't think I've ever heard someone say something positive about Identity Crisis before.

Huh.

I've never actually read it, but based on years worth of hearing plot descriptions and negative criticism, I've also never really felt the urge to read it? And now I'm wondering whether that's fair or not.

I tend to be against mind-wipes in general, hrm...

[TheCape]

I think that Identity Crisis was like, the gateway drug for DC Comics to certain fans, so there is a part of the fandom that might look at it with some fondness, at least, based in some of the stuff i heard online anyway.

As for a positive thing about the story....well, the artwork was cool, it is a nice looking book most of the time.

[lalalei2001]

From what I remember it was reasonably well-liked around the time it came out, but over time the negative aspects and criticism came to the forefront, especially as the entire DC universe became darker as a result of that story.

[Frontier]

You know what, I honestly don't think I've ever heard someone say something positive about Identity Crisis before.

Huh.

I've never actually read it, but based on years worth of hearing plot descriptions and negative criticism, I've also never really felt the urge to read it? And now I'm wondering whether that's fair or not.

I tend to be against mind-wipes in general, hrm...

This is about my take on it.

[Restingvoice]

It is so funny because until I started frequenting the CBR boards I thought it was universally loved. I had heard a few complaints when it came out but that was the minority.

That might be because Identity Crisis... as far as I remember... for a time... is featured as this bestseller, game-changing, something... in comics recommendation sites, so people getting into comics pick it up and whoa! This is dark!
Kinda like The Killing Joke.
As far as I remember too, though, it didn't stay long in the recommendation.
I may be wrong about this, coz I based it on memory...

More importantly, kinda like Infinite Crisis, Identity Crisis won't have a problem among people who has no knowledge of the Pre-Crisis, because that's the big thing about both stories. They make Pre-Crisis heroes darker, you view them in a different light. In Identity Crisis they made the Pre-Crisis League and Dr. Light committed something unethical and horrible acts, in Infinite Crisis, they straight up made Pre-Crisis heroes the villains.

All of those won't matter if the Pre-Crisis don't matter to the reader.

Like that's pretty much my journey. Comics first attracted me in a long time during the Identity-Infinite Crisis era, and all I can think of was wow cool, a detective story and an event involving every characters imaginable. Over the years once I found out about Pre-Crisis though, my opinion turned to Well This is Horrible

[DrNewGod]

In addition to the other criticisms leveled here, IDC's principle goal was to tee up the cascading series of events that followed. What's more, everybody knew the consequences were going to have to be rolled back eventually because there's no way DC's leaving Batman on the outs with the JL forever, so any power in the story was diluted from the get go. Honestly, the place for something like that is in an Elseworlds, like Kingdom Come did, where you can give the story a concluding third act. It doesn't work for an ongoing.

Building a bit on Tzigone's comments, the event not only distorted established characters, it tried to remake some in ways that (IMO) did not fit them. I'm thinking most prominently of Elongated Man. This is not a character intended to be broken and mopey, and he really doesn't work that way. But that's what the writers thought they needed, so...

[achilles]

From what I remember it was reasonably well-liked around the time it came out, but over time the negative aspects and criticism came to the forefront, especially as the entire DC universe became darker as a result of that story.

Funny, as I remember it, the buzz was hugely negative even at the time. Different perceptions I guess.