Marvel Comics and DC Comics jumped to the top of the superhero game, starting a competition for sales that lasts to this day. As with most things where there are two sides, fans have often chose one of them over the other. While most comic fans like both, they all have a favorite. DC has overtaken Marvel in the sales charts for the first time in years and their long-standing contest has changed completely. Marvel had always been the more active in antagonizing their distinguished competition, kind of like the younger brother who actually messes with their older sibling, and was pretty successful. It was all part of the mystique of the Marvel Bullpen of the day; while the <a href="https://comicvibe.com/youtube-unveils-game-changing-features-for-creators-and-viewers/” title=”YouTube Unveils Game-Changing Features for Creators and Viewers”>creators were all friends, readers would often bring the feud into the real world.
Videos by ComicBook.com
As the years went by, their grudge has ebbed and flowed, but the ’00s would see a whole new chapter of the rivalry born. Joe Quesada was made editor in chief of Marvel and he decided that the publisher was going to go all in on making the two companies’ contest a focus again. He started taking shots at DC, as did other editors and creators. 2004 saw Marvel and DC go head to head, each releasing Secret War and Identity Crisis at the same time, but the House of Ideas decided to play dirty. They knew DC’s big event had the word “identity” in the title, so they decided to muddy the waters a bit. They trolled their distinguished competition in way that will always be funny with a story that’s honestly pretty good even if it is completely forgotten.
Identity Disc Was Marvel’s Answer to Identity Crisis
One of the things you have to realize about the comic industry is that these people are all friends. They all talk to each other and often help each other. A great example of this is Swamp Thing and Man-Thing. The two characters were created around the same time (no one really knows who was made first). However, their creators were friends and talked to each other, inspiring each other in a variety of ways. My point with that is that there are times in comic history when it looks like the Big Two are copying each other and that’s not the case, it’s just creators talking to each other and getting ideas.
Identity Disc is not one of those cases. Identity Crisis had been announced and Marvel knew about the basic synopsis at least – someone is killing the family members of heroes, meaning that their identities were known to the killer. Marvel took this idea – heroes’ identities being revealed – and decided to a story that would deal with a similar thing. They titled it Identity Disc, a title meant to echo that of Identity Crisis. It felt like the whole point of the book was to get readers to pick it up mistakenly and honestly, that was entirely it.
Identity Disc was a five-issue miniseries by Robert Rodi and John Higgins. It starred six villains – Deadpool, Sabretooth, Vulture, Juggernaut, Sandman, and Bullseye – and revolved around the titular disc. The group of them are recruited by crimelord Tristram Silver, a major underworld figure, who wanted them find a disc that supposedly has the identity of every superhero on the planet, with Sandman killed immediately to show they meant business. The group of them fought their way through AIM goons in order to get it, but it’s stolen from them and they’re taken into SHIELD custody. There’s a few interesting turns – Silver’s agent is Vulture’s daughter and Sandman’s death wasn’t real – but it’s a pretty basic book.
Marvel didn’t really make any secret of the point of this book back in the day. Everyone knew that it was a troll job; it was obvious and Marvel used that knowledge as part of the ad campaign for the book. While Identity Crisis is maligned today, it wasn’t as hated back then and fans felt that Identity Disc was a cheap copy of it. Readers rebelled against the book, with most dropping the book as nothing important happened or just didn’t buy it all. Calling the book hated or maligned isn’t exactly right; fans just didn’t care about it.
That part of what makes it so funny. Marvel expected to make a splash with the book and drive attention to it. However, everyone could tell exactly what Marvel was up to and no one paid attention to the book at all. I ended up buying every issue, but I didn’t really know anyone else who did. The whole thing made Marvel look petty and childish, basically trying to trick readers into the buying book. They trolled themselves.
As far as it goes, the story itself is pretty good. It’s not anything special, nothing groundbreaking. It’s honestly not even something you need to go back and read; Marvel never came back to this idea, further showing that this was all about the troll job. However, it was fun to get a group of villains squabbling with each other to complete a mission. Getting to see Deadpool, Sabretooth, and Bullseye together was a lot of fun and it did a great job with the Vulture, who is one of the focuses of the story. It’s one of those books that if you can find it anywhere, it’s worth your time, but it’s not really anything you should hunt down, unless you want to own that time Marvel tried to troll DC and ended up trolling themselves.
’00s Marvel Was All About the Troll Life
Marvel has changed a lot since the ’00s, to the extent that in a lot of ways it’s a completely different company. Marvel and DC’s rivalry had been a part of the industry for decades, but it was heated up again by Quesada and Bill Jemas. Marvel during this time was all about being the “coolest”, giving readers edgier stories, pushing the bounds of good taste, and basically acting like a person who has just become an adult and wants to do all the “bad” stuff they can to show the other adults who grown up they were. This approach honestly worked pretty well and speaking as someone who was around back then, the whole situation was honestly kind of entertaining.
However, as everyone who’s trolled hard knows, sometimes it backfires on you and that’s exactly what happened to Marvel with Identity Disc. It wasn’t that surprising of a move by the company – they had a rather childish vibe at the time and this little joke proved it. I’ve always found the fact that it backfired completely to be the best part of the joke personally. Identity Disc is a good comic that could have been somewhat successful, but the House of Ideas trolled to close to the sun.
Do you remember Identity Disc? What about Marvel’s various trolls of DC in the ’00s? Sound off in the comment section below.
5 Marvel Superheroes Who Have Defeated Thanos
More Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics Comics
1 day agoMarvel and WEBTOON Announce New Comic-Streaming App (and What It Means for Marvel Unlimited Subscribers)
-
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics Comics
1 day agoInstead of Ruining Jean, Marvel Should Be Shipping Wolverine With His Real Greatest Love
-
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics Comics
1 day agoAmazing Spider-Man #1000 Forgot What Makes a Milestone Comic Matter
-
Comics
1 day agoIt’s a Crossover Battle With Giant Swords in Lost Fantasy #13 Preview (EXCLUSIVE)
-
Image Courtesy of DC Comics Comics
1 day agoThe Death of Batman Is DC Canon and It Proves the DC Universe Can Survive Without the Caped Crusader
