Sarah pointed me at the CNN/AP article titled The DC comics universe as tragedy. It talks about the current DC comics miniseries Identity Crisis and the controversy around it. It probably helps that its a best seller too.

Anyway, I’ve been reading Identity Crisis and I like it so far. It has however had a few things that shocked me that I’m still not sure exactly how I feel about them. However, I’m reserving some judgment until we see the end of the story.

Identity Crisis spoilers below….Also, I ramble a bit…

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I was really shocked by the rape scene in the second issue. It caused me to pause and reread a page or two to make sure I was reading what I was reading.

A villain who wants to destroy the world is one thing — but “Identity Crisis” writer Brad Meltzer said a single realistic death, in all its brutality, could have more resonance in his story as the consequences unfold in front of the reader.

More so than the death, Dr. Light’s rape of Sue Dibny shocked me. Its a more personal and emotional level of violence than you generally get in comics. In accordance with the quote above, it was also realistically and brutally portrayed. I’m starting to think it works really well in the story, but was a very daring move for story tellers in this medium.

The other thing that gave me a pause was the revelation that when our heroes aren’t “on camera” they will sometimes do unheroic actions to protect themselves and their loved ones. The big one is what they did to (the old) Dr. Light.

With the rape came the (rather self-evident) knowledge that he could hurt the heroes by going after their loved ones. The JLA members present voted and decided that a simple garden variety “Forget Clark Kent” type spell by Zantanna wouldn’t be enough this time, they had to go in and alter his personality. We find that this act is why he always seemed like a joke in books like Teen Titans.

For me, this really had our heroes crossing the line. In return for the rape of Sue Dibny, they turn around and perform what I consider a mind rape. This is harder to grasp and show in art, which is not good for a comic book, but the concept is enough if you think about it.

Now, in the comic, they did this with magic, but one day we may have the technology to do it in real life. So this brings to us a near-future moral dilemma. Was what the JLA did in “handing out justice” (or would it be “handing out revenge”) moral? Would it be moral for us a society when we have the technology? Is the modern day equivalent castration for repeat sexual offenders? And is that castration the start of a slippery slope? I really don’t know the answer to these, but these are the questions I’ve asked myself in response to this revelation in Identity Crisis

People want to make superhero comic books out to be light hearted affairs with lots of black and white, but there a higher level of story that can be had if you toss that away and focus on the gray areas. Identity Crisis has certainly passed into that for me.

I think I need to go back and reread the first three issues before I read the fourth, as the AP article makes me want to do some more critical reading on it. I know I didn’t believe the death after the first issue, I was thinking it was an adventure Sue was setting up for Ralph. However, with the passing of the hanging ex-Mrs. Palmer in the last issue, it seems that, as the AP article says, no civilian loved one is safe.