Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Identity Crisis 7 issue mini series by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales ::
by William the Bloody
Sue Dibny, publicly known as super hero Elongated Man's wife, has just been murdered in her own home. After one too many deaths of their own, the Justice League now has a full system in place for thorough investigation beyond anyone else's capabilities. They are still dumbfounded. They cannot positively determine the source of the perpetrator's entry, nor her cause of death. Every hero you can imagine gets involved in the interrogation, the threatening of snitches, or follow up of possible leads. Our core group, however, is a tightly knit cluster of Leaguers; Elongated Man, Green Arrow, Zatanna, the Atom, Hawk Man, and Black Canary, with Green Lantern and the Flash along for help. It seems this group has been nursing many secrets over the years and they fear that one of them has finally crept up at bit them on their collective asses. Alliances and trusts are forged and broken, many lives are lost, and in the end, the answer of "who benefits" shakes many of the League right down to their cores.
The Good: When I say "many lives are lost" I'm not just talking about second stringers either. For, me that is partially what made my jaw drop in surprise and elation while reading this. This is no dream, or magic spell, it's the DC universe so it isn't a Mysterio trick, nor is this an "Elseworlds" type alternate time line. This stuff all really happened in THIS universe and these characters, some we really care about, are dead. I couldn't believe they had the nuts to do it, but they did. Shocking deaths aside, this was a great bit of writing to boot. I, myself, had not read Justice League in the late 80s, and so was unfamiliar with Sue Dibny, but she died, and I CARED! That is good writing right there, when you can make somebody care about a character they hardly even knew to begin with. There was also stacks of stuff going on "in the background" that was greatly interesting, such as the "package" Elongated Man was staking out at the beginning of the story and what turned out to be inside....! There is also this awesome scene with Deathstroke, which is definitely not to be missed. Wow, just wow. The art work is also quite good. There were quite a lot of characters to be dealing with, and many panels with group shots, and Morales did an excellent job. The covers by Michael Turner were just plain gravy.
The Bad: Perhaps the cast was a bit too wide. If you look at this project a little too closely, you kind of get the sense that it was intended as a spring board for people to buy spin off books to get the resolution to the background stuff that didn't get wrapped up with a neat bow. Remember when Marvel comics did Secret Wars in the 80s? This is a bit like that in that respect. Yes Identity Crisis is good but aren't you wondering what happened to that thing in the package? Go read The Titans to find out!
Overall, this was one great mini series that kept me guessing from start to finish, with so many twists and turns, and yet when it cycled down to the end, there it was, right there and it made perfect sense! The writing was phenomenal, and every issue left me begging for the next. If you are a fan of the League, or just a fan of DC, then this mini series is a must for you.
A+
