I know, I'm really, really late coming to the party, but I finally read Identity Crisis. With all of the controversy in the reviews and the screaming fanboys on message boards, I couldn't bring myself to read it until after it all settled down. It took a while, but I finally felt comfortable to sit down, invest some time, and read all the way through Identity Crisis. After getting done with it, the first thought that came to mind was, "Why is everyone freaking out over this?"
So there was the killing of a woman, her rape, and the attempted murder of another woman. Whoop-dee-do. It's like people who read comics think that rape, murder, and violence never happen. There was also the death of three, count them, THREE male characters, so all the whining and bitching about how women got a bad rap in this series is totally unfounded.
There were also many complaints about the writing. Message boards clamored that it wasn't nearly as good as the hype and that the ending was a huge cop-out and that it would have been better written by. Frankly, I found IC to be thoroughly enjoyable and engaging... well, up until the end at least. I will agree with most people that the ending was not the big, clever reveal that we all hoped it would be, but that's usually the problem with 90% of the mysteries that are written in any format--too much focus on the setup and red herrings that the ending can't be nearly as good as what led up to it.
Barring the conclusion of the story, which was still passable for me, I was drawn into the engaging plot that Meltzer had created. He crafted a story that involved so many different characters, some only in the story for small moments, doing so many different things for the plot, yet he never let readers feel lost. I also liked his characterizations of the heroes and villains. They didn't feel off or forced and they also didn't feel too similar to each other, which sometimes happens with a large cast.
Other than the ending, there is one other drawback to this series--Morales' art. For the most part it was good, but I really don't like how he draws faces. If it was his goal to make every panel that focused on a character's face look ugly, then he succeeded. His action scenes and some of the splashes he did were great, but much like Liefeld needs to work on feet, Morales needs to work on faces.
In the end, this is one of the better mini's I've read in a while from DC. Really, when you come down to it, reading this is better than reading many of the pointless, cliched mini's that come out every year from the big two. IC was not a letdown, like many people make it out to be, it just wasn't the masterpiece that everyone hoped it would be. It's a good miniseries and I'll leave it at that.
So there was the killing of a woman, her rape, and the attempted murder of another woman. Whoop-dee-do. It's like people who read comics think that rape, murder, and violence never happen. There was also the death of three, count them, THREE male characters, so all the whining and bitching about how women got a bad rap in this series is totally unfounded.
There were also many complaints about the writing. Message boards clamored that it wasn't nearly as good as the hype and that the ending was a huge cop-out and that it would have been better written by
Barring the conclusion of the story, which was still passable for me, I was drawn into the engaging plot that Meltzer had created. He crafted a story that involved so many different characters, some only in the story for small moments, doing so many different things for the plot, yet he never let readers feel lost. I also liked his characterizations of the heroes and villains. They didn't feel off or forced and they also didn't feel too similar to each other, which sometimes happens with a large cast.
Other than the ending, there is one other drawback to this series--Morales' art. For the most part it was good, but I really don't like how he draws faces. If it was his goal to make every panel that focused on a character's face look ugly, then he succeeded. His action scenes and some of the splashes he did were great, but much like Liefeld needs to work on feet, Morales needs to work on faces.
In the end, this is one of the better mini's I've read in a while from DC. Really, when you come down to it, reading this is better than reading many of the pointless, cliched mini's that come out every year from the big two. IC was not a letdown, like many people make it out to be, it just wasn't the masterpiece that everyone hoped it would be. It's a good miniseries and I'll leave it at that.
Ratings
Art: 3
Story: 4
Overall: 3.75
Art: 3
Story: 4
Overall: 3.75
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