Identity Crisis

I've just finished reading DC Comics' Identity Crisis, a 264 page hardcover collection of last year's hit comic mini-series. Although at times, the dialogue boxes are a little hard to follow, on the whole, the art & the story are pretty good. I've always been a sucker for good art. Though this isn't on the level of George Perez or Michael Turner (two of my more favourite artists), Rag Morales and Michael Blair did a pretty good job in showing some gritty realism in the world of superheroes. It's the first time I've seen a rape scene in a mainstream comic book, but honestly, it wasn't graphic coz there wasn't anything visual. It was more implied but equally repulsive. The emotions of the various superheroes and characters are captured superbly and very often, you can feel their loss/panic/frustration.

As for the story, Brad Meltzer crafts a pretty tight tale of how fear can change the mightiest of superheroes. It's heartwrenching to see the difficult decisions made by some of the superheroes, especially when the lives of their 'all-too-human-non-super-powered' loved ones are concerned. The deep dark secret harboured by some of these heroes almost make them as bad as some of the villains they try to fight. The story basically starts with someone dying and how this affects each superhero. It keeps you on the edge as you try to figure out who's the murderer as well as who's the next one to die. Each scene is really emotionally alive and you can't help but feel the pain that each characer goes through. The ending, I must admit was a surprise. Of course, there are a few threads left hanging, so I'm looking forward to future repurcussions.

I love comic collections cause I can read them as a whole without having to wait month by month for each issue to come out. Identity Crisis is one of the best I've read recently. Highly recommended to all DC comic fans out there.