IDENTITY CRISIS: 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Hardcover Overview | Tragedy Strikes DC's Heroes!

Today I do an overview of the series that launched the Infinite Crisis era of DC: Identity Crisis: 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Hardcover from DC Comics. Let me know if you read this series.

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[IanSmith]

The buzz when this was coming out monthly was amazing. I’ve never thought the murderer reveal worked, but the story is fun to read and the artwork is great.

[gqd]

DC needs to do a Justice league omnibus by Brad Meltzer and include this story in it.

[projektvyking]

I'm currently reading back in the 1970s and it's wild to see how comics evolved.

As a crime story, this book is a grim masterpiec;, raw, and real.

[Grimlock]

One day I walked into a comic book shop and asked the guy what would he recommend. He showed me this book. It was in a hardcover. When I started to read it I couldn’t put it down. Great artwork and and an amazing story.

[JennySparkz]

This story REALLY Hit hard. Just Omar's initial overview made me have to make sure no one was cutting onions in the room. Have never understood the people that thought this was "edgy" This was an incredible moment in comics history as it was so, so moving.

[change]

It’s kind of hard to remember but outside a little Batman and a little Spider-man this might have been the first comic event I read from start to finish. I loved it then, and love it now

[RogerDCraft]

Loved the story because I grew up with the satellite years JLA and seeing them again was really nostalgic. Really dark but cool and story and art were both amazing. Brad did borrow a lot from Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme story with the memory wipe stuff and other things.

[rodtough]

Still got the comics. Still read them now and again. Love the story. One of those ideas that was so obvious but no one ever did it before. I didn't like what happened with Ray Palmer's wife being a crazy killer but I don't think I was supposed to. It shook things up!

[dbsasuke]

This was my first comic. I love this story so much

[QuintMarvel]

Man, I wish I had known about the alternate cover. I loved the shattered picture.

[xposhboyx]

I totally get the controversy here and I do think that almost definitely we don't need storylines revolving around superhero r*pe in main line DC comics.

Basically it's just a massive can of worms. If you open it once, they're all going to come wriggling out. Why wouldn't this r*pe concern feature in nearly every comic book? Next thing you know DC Comics is going to read like The Boys. We can't have that.

All that being said (besides the overall conception of this story being questionable, and the sexual politics being questionable) I think it was actually *written well* in terms of the fact that it's exciting, the dialogue is sharp, the action is good, and you want to know what's going to happen next. Most of the art is great.

[jjtiffany]

Great book. This got me back into DC comics. Like reading Watchman or the boys. This book has a lot of emotion and great art. Set the stage for infinite crisis. A book that really moved dc comics focuses for the adult reader.

[Sehlat]

Thank you for the great overview, Omar, especially being fair about it although other videos gave me the distinct impression that this is one of your least favorite DC events. I haven't read the story yet, but from what I've heard from all kinds of sources, including you now, this is a really good preparation for Infinite Crisis, which I haven't read yet either, although the omnibus sits on my shelf ready to rumble.
So yes, I've pre-ordered this Deluxe Edition, and I'm looking forward to receiving it this month.

[shengcer]

This is de facto DC’s civil war. It definitely aged very well than many other stories.

[johnnywhite]

This was the first series where I discovered how dangerous Deathstroke is.

[briangrindrod]

Identity Crisis is one of the greatest series by DC. That panel depicting Elongated Man melting when he sees his dead wife is a tear jerker.

[omniframe]

I could be wrong but alot of the backlash for IC seems new. I remember the book being well received when it dropped. The 2000s era of DC comics was really trying to counteract alot of the bad comics they produced in the 90s it seems. IC along with the Countdown to Crisis and other DC main line books seemed to injecting a lot of subtext about the dangers of surveillance and personal privacy which were hot button topics around the time thanks to the Bush administration. I think the surveillance and personal privacy aspects of the story have been downplayed and many people have started to fixate on the rape part of the story.

[toeknee]

I never heard of this event. I want to buy this one. Thank Omar for your overview!

[evangelion]

If it was an out of continuity Elseworlds story, i would mind it less. Oh sure, even in isolation, this story has some major issues but it would be less damaging if it outside of the main continuity.

[keithbrown]

The JLA and Flash follow-ups lifted this event in my mind