Identity Crisis #1

June 9, 2004

Quick Rating: Great
Title: Coffin

A hero dies… and the quest to find a killer begins.

Writer: Brad Meltzer
Pencils: Rags Morales
Inks: Michael Bair
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letters: Kenny Lopez
Editor: Mike Carlin
Cover Art: Michael Turner & Aspen Studios
Publisher: DC Comics

It’s been a few years now since DC comics has tried a real “event” crossover storyline like this, and considering what a disaster some of the last few were, that’s not a bad thing. But with the first chapter of his second-ever comic book story arc, Brad Meltzer has already outdone nearly every crossover in DC history.

A hero dies in this issue. I’m not about to spoil it, not going to give the first hint as to who it is, but it’s someone whose death understandably shatters the rest of the champions of the DC universe. Following the death is the investigation, and one hero makes a very apt comparison – it’s like if a police officer dies. One of their own. The rest go out of their way to track down the killer.

The death, admittedly, is choreographed fairly early. By the third page it should be quite clear who’s going to die, but Melzter throws in just a minor twist that magnifies the death a hundredfold. The murder itself and the ensuing scenes of the funeral cut through me like a knife and brought me to the verge of tears. This was someone I cared about, and someone whose presence in the DCU will be horribly missed.

Meltzer also uses this miniseries to update some old villains,, putting a particularly ingenious twist on the Calculator that promises to make him a major player in the DC underworld in the future – assuming he survives this miniseries. I get a feeling there is still some blood to be shed.

The editing needs to be a little tighter – there is a scene with Tim Drake that simply doesn’t fit in current continuity – his father knows he is Robin but Tim hasn’t quit. It doesn’t mesh, and that one blip is the only downside to the writing in this issue..

Rags Morales and Michael Bair contribute the artwork for this issue. Following up a great run on Hawkman, it’s said that this is the series that will make Morales a comic book superstar. I can believe it. He gets to draw a vast array of heroes in this issue, including all of the big guns and a lot of the B-listers as well, and he handles them all very well.

This is a powerful comic book and a heck of a mystery. (A suspect is named at the very end, but if there’s anything I’ve learned from years of reading and watching mysteries, it’s that the first suspect is never the real culprit unless he is exonerated very quickly.) The frustrating part about this book is that I’ll be stuck reading it over and over again until issue two comes out looking for clues and trying to find out who really did it.

That is, once the mourning is done.

Rating: 9/10