Very often, writers forget that there’s meant to be a story at the heart of these sorts of things, and Meltzer is shrewd enough that he treats his event like a story – there’s a beginning, middle and end there’s internally consistent logic there’s character arcs. In this era of “event” comics and the inevitable “build-up” and “aftermath”, it often feels like a crossover storyline is a collection of plotpoints and disjointed scenes jumbled together in the hope that the sheer scale of the action will focus the reader’s attention. Meltzer also manages to do a better job with the structure of a seven-issue mega-crossover than most seasoned comic book veterans. It’s sad that this sort of care and craft merits this level of praise, but it’s so rare that I feel it’s worth pointing out.
In an era where comic books are increasingly insular, there’s a sense that Meltzer’s Identity Crisis is highly accessible, despite pulling from years of continuity (to the point where several panels are literally copied from past works). So, while he uses obscure characters like Bolt, he tries to provide a meaningful context, often giving a panel to introduce two characters and (very briefly) explain their relationship. He’s very clearly a comic book fan, rather than a blow-in, and he obviously knows his geeky trivia and nerdy minutiea, but he’s also careful to explain everything as he goes along. However, it’s always fascinating, even if it is grimly so.īefore we dig too deeply into the book itself, it’s worth noting that Brad Meltzer is a really good comic writer, from a technical standpoint.
It’s controversial – as any similar reimagining would be – and, to be frank, it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
Written by best-selling novelist Brad Meltzer, Identity Crisis is an attempt to explore the rather fundamental changes that occurred in superhero comics during the nineties, often as a direct response to The Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen, giving us a more cynical depiction of the concepts and characters that we take for granted. I’ve argued that Marvel went through a similar period of introspection from House of M through to Siege, but DC seemed to engage with the concept on a more direct level. Identity Crisis is the first in the trilogy of stories that built off the original Crisis on Infinite Earths to offer a fairly significant reevaluation of the modern DC universe, examining where the characters and the fictional landscape was as compared to where it had been decades before. This January, I’m going to take a look at some of DC’s biggest “events.” This week I’ll be taking a look at Brad Meltzer’s impact on the DC universe.
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