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Post by majestic on May 11, 2021 11:47:59 GMT -5
I read Identity Crisis in tpb format a while after the fact, and free of the conversations and reactions surrounding it. It was incredibly well written, but it also felt like sensationalist shock value crap. totally agree. Excellent summary of the story.
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Post by badwolf on May 11, 2021 13:31:53 GMT -5
I read it later in a collected edition as well.
I did not care for Meltzer's run on the restarted JLA, which felt (like a lot of comics at the time) like an arc dragged out too long to anticlimax. Though I was impressed by his deep knowledge of DC characters and continuity.
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Post by majestic on May 11, 2021 15:45:32 GMT -5
A good novelist isn't always a good comic book writer and vice versa.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 11, 2021 16:46:35 GMT -5
Identity Crisis
A love letter to the Silver Age for people who don’t know what a love letter is or when the Silver Age was.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 11, 2021 17:07:53 GMT -5
I could have done without the Hulk, to be honest and even Doctor Strange, who, though a favourite character, I always preferred in his own "universe", away from the superhero world. But really it was more the concept and especially the writers that made The Defenders a special book through much of the 70s: Englehart, then Gerber, and finally Kraft. So I could probably be pretty flexible about which characters were on the team at any given time as long as the writing was to my taste. I kind of wish Kraft had kept Moon Knight on as a member or perhaps just as a recurring guest-member: even though not really cut out to be a team character, Kraft did a good job with him, especially in conjunction with the Giffen/Royer artwork. OTOH, he totally wasted a good character in Red Guardian, of whom better use should have been made after Gerber did such a good job with her. Which is of course a long-standing problem with ongoing superhero comics: I can say my favourite Defenders characters are such and such but what's the point of wishing they were on the team if the writer doesn't "get" them (i.e. see them exactly the same way I do!)? Red Guardian is a good example - Gerber brought her in and made her interesting and a strong addition to the book, but Kraft obviously didn't know what to do with her and promptly wrote her out of the series.That's the thing. When someone asks who my favorite character is, I have to say "it depends on who's writing him". This is why I pretty much refuse to acknowledge a "favorite character" any more. Because unless it's a character that has solely (or predominantly) been handled by one set of creators that character can have multiple iterations. My answer, once upon a time, was Batman. But honestly there have been dozens of different Batmans many of which I have zero interest in at all. So Tulip O'Hare would be a reasonable answer. Diane Belmont would be a somewhat less easy call, but still defendable. But most characters that have been kicking around for 50-90 years just aren't feasible.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 11, 2021 17:11:28 GMT -5
On a different note, there are times that I'm flabbergasted by some characters that have gotten comics series'. That the Great Gazoo got his own comic is weird. That it lasted twenty issues from 1973-77 is really bizarre to me.
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Post by Duragizer on May 11, 2021 17:37:40 GMT -5
Identity Crisis A love letter to the Silver Age for people who don’t know what a love letter is or when the Silver Age was.
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Post by Icctrombone on May 11, 2021 17:55:10 GMT -5
On a different note, there are times that I'm flabbergasted by some characters that have gotten comics series'. That the Great Gazoo got his own comic is weird. That it lasted twenty issues from 1973-77 is really bizarre to me. Now I want to read this series.
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Post by impulse on May 11, 2021 18:05:40 GMT -5
(like a lot of comics at the time) like an arc dragged out too long to anticlimax. This is almost verbatim how I would describe Daniel Way's Wolverine Origins series. Not the six issue mini, but the 50 or so issue maxi series. Or at least, that is how I would describe the first 3 issues as that is all I could get through at $3 (or was it $4 by then?) a pop with NOTHING happening. Seriously, almost no movement, just standing around and posturing for three issues. Also, much as I enjoy Steve Dillon's art at times, he was NOT a fit for this book. Plus the simple fact that nothing anyone could have written would be better than the mystery of Wolverine's origin remaining mysterious, and the whole book should have never been given the light of day. Also, neither should the six issue mini series before it. Also, not being 10 years old anymore, Wolverine just isn't all that interesting. But I digress.
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Post by badwolf on May 11, 2021 18:23:14 GMT -5
(like a lot of comics at the time) like an arc dragged out too long to anticlimax. This is almost verbatim how I would describe Daniel Way's Wolverine Origins series. Not the six issue mini, but the 50 or so issue maxi series. Or at least, that is how I would describe the first 3 issues as that is all I could get through at $3 (or was it $4 by then?) a pop with NOTHING happening. Seriously, almost no movement, just standing around and posturing for three issues. Also, much as I enjoy Steve Dillon's art at times, he was NOT a fit for this book. Plus the simple fact that nothing anyone could have written would be better than the mystery of Wolverine's origin remaining mysterious, and the whole book should have never been given the light of day. Also, neither should the six issue mini series before it. Also, not being 10 years old anymore, Wolverine just isn't all that interesting. But I digress. Brian Michael Bendis' stuff is at the top of the pile of this for me, especially Alias. A supposed mystery goes on for five issues and then nothing, the daughter wasn't really kidnapped she just went off on her own for a bit, Rick Jones isn't really any relation to Jessica it was all a misunderstanding, etc.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2021 19:32:00 GMT -5
"One of these days I'll reread it" is something I've been saying about Identity Crisis for years.
I enjoyed it at the time reading it as it came out each month but never read it as one story.
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Post by impulse on May 11, 2021 21:02:39 GMT -5
I remember the buzz about Identity Crisis and how excited everyone was about it. It's about the most interested and pulled into DC I ever got. I kinda missed that one got got sucked into the aftermath and Infinite Crisis and 52 and all that. It fizzled not too long after.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 11, 2021 22:09:21 GMT -5
I read Identity Crisis in tpb format a while after the fact, and free of the conversations and reactions surrounding it. It was incredibly well written, but it also felt like sensationalist shock value crap. Pretty much my reaction, except probably a bit more anger and disgust. The mindwiping thing I felt was taken to an extreme and the Dr Light stuff just sickened me, especially the retroactive rape of Sue Dibny. Murder was bad enough, but adding that on top of things felt salacious. I pretty much had similar reactions to Natural Born Killers, in the theater. Some friends wanted to go and I went and the more I saw, the more disgusted I was with things, to the point that the satire hit like a lead bar. I just felt unclean watching things unfold and hearing people laugh at some cringe-worthy stuff just made it worse. I felt like that in several parts of the story, in Identity Crisis. The ending with Jean Loring just felt like a bad soap opera plot. I also questioned the logic of some scenes, like Deathstroke taking down the Justice League, including Black Canary by throwing a bag over her head and pulling it closed. That doesn't stop her from making sound and emitting her sonic cry, just muffle things a bit. If something were obstructing her mouth or throat, it would have made more sense. It was obvious that Meltzer was well versed in the Bronze Age; but, at the same time, had spent too much time writing sensationalistic thrillers. I don't think you can shoehorn something like Justice League into that kind of structure and those tropes. It also was a pretty crappy mystery. Seems like a lot of modern writers can't seem to structure a mystery well, at least in comics (and Hollywood, for that matter).
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Post by codystarbuck on May 11, 2021 22:11:37 GMT -5
On a different note, there are times that I'm flabbergasted by some characters that have gotten comics series'. That the Great Gazoo got his own comic is weird. That it lasted twenty issues from 1973-77 is really bizarre to me. I read one or two of them; it wasn't bad, for what it was. Charlton had some decent people on their cartoon license comics. They were certainly as good as Gold Key/Dell Western, in that regard (except maybe Dan Spiegle, at Western, who was in a class by himself, with Scooby Doo).
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Post by berkley on May 12, 2021 0:15:37 GMT -5
I read Identity Crisis in tpb format a while after the fact, and free of the conversations and reactions surrounding it. It was incredibly well written, but it also felt like sensationalist shock value crap. It also was a pretty crappy mystery. Seems like a lot of modern writers can't seem to structure a mystery well, at least in comics (and Hollywood, for that matter).
I haven't read Identity Crisis but I think structuring superhero series or "events" around a murder mytery is sometimes a sign that the writer is floundering around for ideas. Examples include Starlin's Death of the New Gods and Gillen's Eternals. Or maybe they think it's cool because Moore did it so well in Watchmen.
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