Identity Crisis
#7
writer: Brad Meltzer
artists: Rags Morales and Michael Bair
Let it be on
record that Brian's Books owner Andy Mead was right about
the identity of the killer, but for the wrong reasons. To
be fair, he was led astray by a simple coloring error. And
on such mistakes conspiracies are built.
So the series
ends months of speculation. Conspiracies stand revealed,
at least to a select few. Seeds have been planted that will
germinate through the next couple of years, bouncing around
regular books and major events such as the upcoming Countdown
and Crisis 2. As Brad Meltzer intended, a sense of
risk has been "restored" to the DC Universe. Strangely,
and still no doubt Meltzer's intent, a sense of community
has been restored, too.
This final issue
actually feels anti-climatic. After a tremendous cliffhanger
in #6 (and scurry back to read Batman's actual dialogue,
not what we think he said), Meltzer wraps up the mystery
within the first few pages. The bulk of the story really
deals with the aftermath, the mourning that heretofore had
been better developed elsewhere, and that sense of community.
If you want
sizzling revelations, instead you'll get elegiac reflections.
In their wake, perhaps, the heroes (and a few villains)
have been better defined for the twenty-first century. Some
have complained that this arc was too dark for the DC Universe,
but Meltzer actually made the light of its heroes stand
out even more against the darkness. Certainly, he's never
lost sight of the essential decency of the members of the
Justice League, even if they did a morally questionable
thing in the name of the greater good.
But back to
that central mystery. Identity Crisis is a series
that will reward careful re-reading, and paying attention
to the artwork by Morales and Bair (who just re-upped his
exclusive contract with DC). The clues are there in panels,
and with the smoothness of the art it's easy to forget that,
true to any good mystery, we're dealing with some unreliable
narrators. Hopefully that one coloring mistake will be corrected
in the collected edition tentatively scheduled for the Fall
of 2005.
The emotion
that Morales and Bair pour into each panel carries the elegy
along. Morales based the characters on public figures, with
some alterations, but he himself is the true actor here.
Pain and sorrow are the obvious expressions, but Morales
also allows his drawings to convey the slightest glimmers
of hope. And one shot of Tim Drake sharing a happy moment
with his father subtly drives home the tragedy of this whole
thing.
There's still
more to digest, and yes, I've got to re-read the whole thing
now that it's complete. Even then, I can't wait to see what
happens next.
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