Summary: New York Times best-selling novelist Brad Meltzer (The Inner Circle, The Book of Fate) unleashed a murder mystery featuring some of the biggest pop icons in the world: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League. The most talked-about and successful miniseries of 2004, IDENTITY CRISIS is a graphic novel written by Meltzer with art by Rags Morales and Michael Bair. The book delivers murder, betrayal, intrigue and an inventive look at the world of superheroes, fantastic powers and secret identities.
When the spouse of a JLA member is brutally murdered, the entire superhero community searches for the killer, fearing their own loved ones may be the next targets. Before the mystery is solved, a number of long-buried secrets will threaten to divide the heroes before they can bring the mysterious killer to justice. IDENTITY CRISIS is an all-too-human look into the lives of superheroes, and the terrible price they pay for doing good.
Publishers Weekly
This seven-issue miniseries by bestselling author Meltzer (The Zero Game) was both wildly popular and reviled, and the collection shows that both views have merit. It does knock the rust off scores of DC characters while opening avenues to explore post-9/11 morality. On the other hand, it trashes the roles of characters whom readers have come to consider old friends and tampers outrageously with years' worth of continuity. The story begins shockingly when the wife of the minor super hero Elongated Man is brutally murdered. Things get increasingly serious as other members of the Justice League of America find that their loved ones are targets. The super villains are a lot nastier than they used to be; the heroes, meanwhile, are forced to admit that they could have been responsible for some of what's gone wrong when they started tampering with the minds of villains who deserved it or even fellow heroes who merely disapproved of the idea. This makes familiar heroes more morally ambiguous;more human;and the old, easy trust is lost, with long-term consequences still to be revealed in future DC story lines. In the meantime, Meltzer's script and Bair's inking of Morales's penciled art serves the realistic aspect of the characters very well, making this book a genuine comics landmark. (Sept.)
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