Small Moments, Really Big Heroes

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on February 28, 2006 Sign up now!

by Laurel Maury, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 2/28/2006

In a spotlight panel on novelist-turned-comics writer Brad Meltzer, he and DC's Dan Didio discussed how Meltzer's miniseries Identity Crisis deviated from the norm in both concept and marketing. Didio originally gave Meltzer the choice to kill J'onn J'onz or the Atom for Identity Crisis—that's how serious DC was about doing something new. On the marketing side, the series was sold without spoilers or leaks to message boards.

Instead, DC Comics offered comic book stores the opportunity to return unsold pamphlets—if they ordered as many copies of Identity Crisis as they had of Hush, the popular Batman storyline. The idea was that, without spoilers to sell the product, stores needed some other assurance that they wouldn't lose their money. The model of offering returns was successful. Stores bought with the faith that they wouldn't be left with unsold material. DC plans to use this business model with future series, notably the upcoming weekly 52.

DC is using Identity Crisis to tie together the DC universe. Didio believes that what happens in one series needs to be reflected in the others. For instance, the Batman mind-wipe in Identity Crisis is being used as a major plot point in Infinite Crisis. Didio wants this continuity to become part of how the DC universe works. Didio's vision fits well with what Meltzer, and apparently many fans, find compelling about the Justice League of America: the connections among the superheroes. "I like the idea of a group of friends who are always there for each other," Meltzer said. "That's why I write for team series."

For Meltzer, superhero comics are about relationships. "Identity Crisis didn't have a fight scene until many pages into the story," he noted. But emotional space presents a problem that fight scenes don't: the drama is harder to earn. Friendships are built on small moments between people, and superhero comics have a hard time with small moments. Meltzer may need to work in the occasional small-scale adventure. Saving the universe, or the multi-verse, may not always do the trick.

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