Killing them softly: Canada's Exclaim! takes a curious look at Brian Michael Bendis' Avengers and Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis:

"Killing off important characters isn’t easy, even for Bendis. In doing so, he has paved the way for new stories, a new mansion and new characters that could easily succumb themselves to the whim of Bendis. He knows precisely how to pace a story, how to hook readers and most importantly when to deliver the goods. Especially when something needs to die."

"Killing off popular characters is difficult, but doing it properly takes skill and a devotion to the medium. There are so many characters in the DC universe that Meltzer could have chosen, but by selecting the wives of the heroes he’s accomplished something else entirely, throwing readers into a whole different emotional realm. Not since the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline has so much been at stake. The super heroes are facing their greatest challenge and by killing off those closest to them they are learning a valuable lesson. Through them, the readers are also learning that no one is innocent and no one is infallible."