Shellhead
11-07-2005, 09:11 AM
I criticized Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis as loudly as anybody. The final fate of Sue Dibny was disgusting, as was her retcon rape, serving no greater purpose than gratuitous shock value in an over-sensationalized piece of hype.
So when I saw an actual Brad Meltzer novel in my apartment building's library, I was reluctant to even touch the book. But I had heard good things about Meltzer during the hype leading up to Identity Crisis #1, so I am giving First Counsel a try. So far, I'm about halfway through this 500+ page book.
First Counsel is actually pretty good, as a minor variation on that very modern sub-genre, the attorney conspiracy story. Unlike the usual Scott Turow books, this one takes place in and around the White House. As is typical for the genre, the whole plot hinges on a very unlikely sequence of events involving an otherwise level-headed main character. But suspending disbelief is easy for this comic book fan, and by the third chapter, I was utterly hooked. If this story has a better ending than Identity Crisis, I will be pretty happy.
Even though this was Meltzer's third novel, there was a surprisingly long list of acknowledgments at the beginning of the book, several pages worth. One name he mentioned was Judd Winick. In the actual story, there is a high-ranking bureaucrat named Wesley Dodds, and another character who could be called J. Garrick. Other than that, no comic book references that I could spot.
So when I saw an actual Brad Meltzer novel in my apartment building's library, I was reluctant to even touch the book. But I had heard good things about Meltzer during the hype leading up to Identity Crisis #1, so I am giving First Counsel a try. So far, I'm about halfway through this 500+ page book.
First Counsel is actually pretty good, as a minor variation on that very modern sub-genre, the attorney conspiracy story. Unlike the usual Scott Turow books, this one takes place in and around the White House. As is typical for the genre, the whole plot hinges on a very unlikely sequence of events involving an otherwise level-headed main character. But suspending disbelief is easy for this comic book fan, and by the third chapter, I was utterly hooked. If this story has a better ending than Identity Crisis, I will be pretty happy.
Even though this was Meltzer's third novel, there was a surprisingly long list of acknowledgments at the beginning of the book, several pages worth. One name he mentioned was Judd Winick. In the actual story, there is a high-ranking bureaucrat named Wesley Dodds, and another character who could be called J. Garrick. Other than that, no comic book references that I could spot.