15 DC Comics Graphic Novels You Must Read Before You Die

Now this might not be one of DC's best stories, but it certainly is one of their most important.

Identity Crisis was one of the first comics written by novelist Brad Meltzer and follows the attempts of the superhero community to uncover the truth behind the murder of Elongated Man's wife Sue Dibny. During the investigation, several dark secrets are uncovered, including that D-list joke of a villain Dr. Light was actually a sadistic monster who raped Sue years ago and had his mind erased by the Justice League.

It's a stark departure from the stories that came before it, painting a much darker vision of the DC universe and filling it with damaged and morally ambiguous heroes. Identity Crisis was praised for proving that mainstream comics can have complex characters and intricate plots but also garnered a huge amount of controversy for causing seemingly irreparable damage to beloved characters.

The book was also very influential on future comics from both DC and Marvel, including Civil War. Whether or not this shift to more grounded and serious stories was inherently a good or a bad thing is still debated today, but a definitive downside though was the sheer amount of comics that tried to jump on the bandwagon, leading to a tidal wave of angry cynical books starring mopey jerks.

Identity Crisis could very well be the most divisive comic ever written. However, it is absolutely essential reading to form your own opinions on it and to see how it influenced the entire comics industry.