Identity Crisis

Well since this is one multi-layered mystery I’m going to be vague after the first issue to save the fun.

Identity Crisis was a Justice League story written by Brad Meltzer.  It starts off (and stays) a murder mystery but it also veers off into other territory. It starts off with the murder of Sue Dibny, the wife of The Elongated Man. Besides be super powered E.M. is also a world class detective who has the respect of Batman.  The first issue juxtaposes E.M. explaining his love for Sue with her murder to great effect.  It also covers the funeral and all the heroes grouping up and going after anyone who might have had anything to do with the murder.

 

All the heroes except a handful of core Justice League members, including E.M. who were involved in something odd and also seem to know exactly who committed the murder.  Soon the family of other heroes start getting attacked and some get threatening notes with little tells to show whoever is sending them knows exactly which hero they are connected to. For instance Lois Lane gets a note where the S is Superman’s emblem.

 

Without giving too much away the secret the core Leaguers starts to come out and literally blows up in their faces.  It starts to show a darker side to the League and has repercussions far beyond this mini-series. It revolves around that simple question “Can you keep the bad guys from ever finding out your secret identity?” and how do the heroes deal with it if it does happen?

 

Meltzer tells an amazing story that rocks the DC universe to the core but also ends up hitting several heroes as personally as is possible. He does a great job and because of this story I started picking up his novels as well. Rags Morales has some stunning art in this series, there are panels that grab hold of you and won’t let go. 

 

So I was more vague than normal on this one and the images only come from the first issue because I didn’t to screw up and post an image that spoiled something. This series  hits across the board as a mystery, super hero and personal tale. The characters are well written and the story is powerful. Honestly if the Justice League movie does as good as The Avengers then this story should be on DCs radar for several films down in the line.