Book review: Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer
I’ve been on a major graphic novels kick thanks to my local library. It’s so easy to walk to the section and just start pulling things down from the shelves.
There have been some very interesting self-contained works, such as Persepolis and The Three Paradoxes
It turns out, the comic book ones haven’t really been worth singling out … until this one.
Identity Crisis
I’ve never really taken the idea of secret identities seriously until this book. I’ve never really thought much about the families and friends of these masked crime fighters either.
I think this is because the world of DC and Marvel superheroes are fictional. I suspend my belief about many things when I go to play in those worlds.
But Identity Crisis makes their world real. These costumed men and women still have to go get the milk, buy anniversary presents, and make sure super villains don’t get into their houses and kill everyone inside.
And that’s the question asked.
What do these individuals, with all their power and might, do when they can’t protect those closest to them?
This may sound really hokey in print, but trust me—the people who put this book together did an outstanding job in making everything very immediate and tangible. This universe is well defined and breathing.
Once we get into the main story a bit, another revelation comes around that once again changed how I think about comic book characters. I won’t ruin the reveal, but the issue brought up makes such perfect sense to me that I’m surprised that it surprised me so much.
I obviously am not giving the ethics and philosophies inherent in the comic book genre enough consideration. Perhaps I shouldn’t be reading through these so quickly.
You don’t have to know the DC line up of characters to appreciate this book. This is a story that could take place in any universe and, now that I stop to consider it, probably does.