Spider-Man: Identity Crisis
| "Identity Crisis" | |||
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Spider-Man: Identity Crisis TPB 2012 edition
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| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||
| Publication date | May – June 1998 | ||
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| Main character(s) |
Spider-Man Ricochet Dusk Hornet Prodigy |
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| Identity Crisis | ISBN | ||
"Identity Crisis" is an eight-part storyline printed in Marvel Comics' Spider-Man family of books in 1998.
During Identity Crisis, Spider-Man was framed by Norman Osborn and the Trapster for the murder of a small-time crook named Joey Z using "web fluid" to fill his lungs. Osborn also provoked Spider-Man into attacking him on tape, leaving Spider-Man with a five-million-dollar reward posted for his capture and unable to even go out on patrols without the police or even normal people attempting to shoot him. Instead of his normal costumed identity, Peter Parker adopted four other costumes with different crime-fighting personae in order to stay under the radar, reasoning that the emergence of one new superhero with spider-like powers immediately after Spider-Man's disappearance would be too suspicious, but that the appearance of a few different superheroes would allow him fallback options if any one of the identities was exposed. With two identities—the Hornet and Prodigy—posing as heroes while the other two—Dusk and Ricochet—pretended to be criminals, Peter was not only able to do good, but also gain a unique chance at getting in with the criminal underworld of the time.
The Dusk identity was able to provide evidence that Spider-Man hadn't killed the criminal by befriending the Trapster and convincing him to confess as a means of getting back at Osborn. Parker used the Prodigy identity to produce fake evidence to suggest that it was a fake Spider-Man (most likely Jack O'Lantern or Conundrum, whose latest plot Prodigy had recently thwarted) who attacked Osborn. The Ricochet identity was used to discover further information about new foe the Black Tarantula, while the Hornet was exposed as Spider-Man during a battle with the Vulture. With the bounty removed, Peter returned to his life as Spider-Man, acknowledging that, no matter how popular his other identities were, Spider-Man was who he really was. This arc planted the seeds for a short-lived spin-off book titled Slingers, following the adventures of four teenagers who had been inspired by Spider-Man's new costumes and code names.
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