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• August 28, 2013 - Batman / Superman #3
• August 21, 2013 - Wonder Woman #23
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• August 7, 2013 - Quantum and Woody #2
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Story by Brad Meltzer
Art by Rags Morales
Inks by Michael Bair
Colors by Alex Sinclair
Letters by Kenny Lopez

Published by DC Comics | $3.95

First, a little history.

I’ve bought and read comic books for as long as I can remember. I can still remember the big gray box that I had that I threw all my comic books into when I was in kindergarten. It wasn’t until junior high school — around 1991 — that I became a full-on “collector”; that’s when I started going to the store every week and when I had my first pull list (or as it was called at the store: a mail box). I look back on that time fondly and it’s no surprise that the books and stories from that time period hold a special sway over me. And there was nothing bigger at that time than the summer-long storyline that ran through all the DC Annuals (remember when they did that?) called Armageddon 2001.

Armageddon 2001 was the tale of a hero gone bad. Waverider came back in time from ten years in the future (from 2001 to 1991) to stop one of DC’s greatest heroes from turning into the evil despot named Monarch and ruling the world. This was possibly the most exciting thing that a boy could read. Who was it going to be? Why did they turn evil? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Ironically enough, in the time before internet scoops and spoilers, the original identity of Monarch leaked out (Captian Atom) and DC had to scramble to rewrite on the fly to change Monarch into Hawk, of Hawk and Dove. As a result, the big reveal was a bit disappointing (“Really? Hawk?”), but that didn’t matter. It was all about the mystery, the rush every week to read the next chapter to find more clues (plus the kick ass glimpses into the future). I’ve been looking for that great big comic book mystery story ever since.

When I first read about Identity Crisis I thought that I had finally found it. Brad Meltzer is a skilled mystery/suspense novelist so I was really looking forward to a captivating whodunit. But Wednesday morning I was reading the paper and I came across this story on Identity Crisis and the following quote from Meltzer:

“What ‘Identity Crisis’ is about is not a murder mystery; what ‘Identity Crisis’ is about is the cost of being a superhero.”

I scratched my head because this went against what I thought I knew about the story. Admittedly, that was very little beyond the initial solicitations because I kept away from any articles and interviews associated with Identity Crisis too keep spoiler free. Still, I scratched my head.

Whattya know? Meltzer was right. Identity Crisis does not appear to be a murder mystery (at least so far), it seems to be more a story about the consequences of slipping on the tights and fighting evil. The person that does get killed (in particularly grisly fashion I might add) is a bit of a surprise considering the names that were speculated on (okay, so I wasn’t completely 100% spoiler free), but I can understand that anyone who isn’t a big DC geek is going to probably feel ripped off. It seems that the mystery that Meltzer is setting up is not in the who but in the why. There seems to be some mysterious, possibly even nefarious, incident in the JLA’s past that brought this killing on, and that is very intriguing.

My favorite scene in this entire issue is probably the crime scene analysis. Meltzer finds some very imaginative ways to apply some DC characters’ super powers to crime scene investigation. It’s very inventive.

Was Identity Crisis exactly what I was looking for? No. Was it Armageddon 2001 Part 2? No. What it was was very entertaining. The only things that could make it better would be if there were weekly tie-in issues and perhaps a different artist (Rags Morales’ eyes freak me out).

Meltzer has crafted a fine opening issue here, I look forward to the next one.

Did you read Identity Crisis #1? Add a comment and tell everyone what you think about this week’s comics!