Identity Crisis #1-7

Identity Crisis #1-7

Originally released in 2004

Written by Brad Meltzer

Art by Rags Morales

From what I've read, this series is a divisive one.  For some people, it served as a gateway to DC for them and helped to make the DC brand feel more mature and serious, while for others, it's a dark and edgy storyline that tainted a brighter era of the DC universe.  I'm not familiar with the Satellite era of the Justice League that this is harkening back to, though I am familiar with the characters involved here.

While the Elongated Man is out on a patrol to give his wife, Sue Dibny, time to prepare for his birthday, Sue is murdered in her own home.  This devastates Ralph (the Elongated Man) and sends shockwaves through the superhero community - every one of them has someone close to them who could be a potential target.

The portrayal of Sue's relationship with Ralph, and their love for each other, makes the reveal of what happened to her even more of a gut punch.  I knew what was coming, and my main familiarity with Sue comes from Justice League International/Europe, but it was still tough to read.

Compounding on the tragedy is the reveal that she was pregnant at the time, which was something that even Elongated Man, with all of his detective skills, likely couldn't have predicted.  It seems like a bit of a cliche, an easy way to make the audience feel bad about a character's death, but combining that with the news reports about how they'd been married for twenty years and had no children, it makes you feel that much worse.

The shattering of Ralph and Sue's domestic bliss is contrasted with the Atom (Ray Palmer) and Jean Loring, his ex-wife. They had gotten divorced years ago, with Jean being the one who chose to leave Ray, and Ray has seemingly given up on finding love again as a result. There are a few narrative parallels throughout this book, and I assume they're intentional; at the same time that Sue was murdered, a hero posing as a villain (Blue Devil) was gunned down in an alleyway over an attempt at buying one of Lex Luthor's old armours that went wrong. In Blue Devil's case, the killers were just low-level criminals in over their heads (one of them had been arrested for stealing shopping carts), which could indicate that a supervillain might not have been involved in Sue's murder, as implausible as that might be. (Since they'd have to get in without opening any doors or windows - it's a classic locked room mystery)

After the funeral, most of the superhero community teams up to look for fire users or teleporters, though a handful of Justice League members stay behind.  Zatanna, Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Atom, Hawkman, and Elongated Man have a different suspect in mind, for reasons that they can't tell anyone else about: Doctor Light. (The original one, not the JLA member)

Over the years, Arthur Light went from being someone who could take on the original seven Justice League members to someone who got beaten by the Teen Titans on a regular basis, and he became viewed as a joke as a result.  This series attempts to bring him back to being a serious villain by establishing that, years ago, Dr. Light got onto the Justice League's satellite base while the whole team was off fighting a supervillain and he raped Sue Dibny.

I've got no problem with trying to take a goofy villain and turn them into a serious threat - it worked for Calendar Man, and there are plenty of villains whose powers could have horrifying applications.  There are a times where it goes a step too far, though - sometimes, it can come across as parody, such as Tom King's Wonder Woman run trying to establish that Angle Man is basically the only person that the main villain of that series fears, but here, it seems way too dark of a change (ironically enough), like if some comic tried to make the Ten-Eyed Man a serious villain by establishing that he was a cannibal and having him eat a major supporting character of one of the heroes.

The other two who knew about this, Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, are dead at this point, but their successors Wally West and Kyle Rayner overhear the group of heroes talking about how Doctor Light's a suspect and they want to know why. As Doctor Light made it clear that he'd do it again and he'd go after the loved ones of other superheroes, the assembled group agrees to have Zatanna wipe his mind. However, even that's not enough - with his memory of the event erased, there's nothing to stop him from doing it again, so the group is divided on whether to tinker further and change his personality.

Before reading this, I thought the conflict in this part was about whether or not to erase Doctor Light's memories, with his personality change being an unintended side effect.  Now I learn that it was intentional on the part of the heroes, with Barry being the deciding vote on following through with it (Iris had died shortly before this flashback). It seems like a difficult moral choice, and I could see fans of the characters having issues with what choice those characters made no matter which side they lean on. (Hawkman was the one who brought up changing his personality in the first place)

Desperate to save himself, Doctor Light hires Deathstroke as the Justice League members who knew about his crime bear down on him. As the League fights Deathstroke, an autopsy on Sue Dibny reveals that she was already dead before she was burned, so Doctor Light isn't responsible and his involvement here (and the whole rape subplot) is a red herring.

Issue 3 starts with Deathstroke beating the assembled heroes with surprising ease.  It feels like they're trying too hard to make him seem like some kind of ultimate badass at the expense of seven established heroes (Elongated Man is already down for the count) - Wally (who has the most experience with fighting Slade, and who vastly outmatches him in every way) gets beaten by running into Slade's sword, while Zatanna seemingly forgets how her powers work. (Slade makes it so she can't talk by hitting her in the liver, but writing also works)

Deathstroke and Doctor Light get away, though seeing the heroes gang up on Deathstroke restores Doctor Light's memory of what happened.  Before the fight, Green Arrow hinted that this wasn't the only time that they had wiped the memories of villains - during various body-swapping shenanigans, they needed to do that to protect the heroes' secret identities. (Though Superman presumably wouldn't have that issue due to his lack of a mask, and it reminds me of a great bit from Justice League Unlimited) They describe all of this within earshot of Superman (though I guess everywhere on Earth is within earshot of Superman, but he's literally a few feet away), which seems like a dumb move since he wasn't aware of any of this. (Though it's hinted that he knew about the mind wipes, at least, but chose to ignore them)

As a sense of fear spreads and the question of who could have done this, and why, is on everyone's mind, Jean Loring is attacked, with the killer trying to make it look like a suicide, though Ray saves her.  Meanwhile, Tim Drake (the current Robin) revealed his identity to his father at a spectacularly bad time, as these attacks make him more and more nervous about Tim's superhero lifestyle.

With someone trying to kill Jean by hanging, Slipknot, the man who can climb anything, becomes a suspect (unlike in the Suicide Squad movie, the bomb blew off his arm instead of his head), though the premise seems like a flawed one - he can't teleport (though I suppose someone could supply him with the technology), and he doesn't seem like he'd be able to kill Sue Dibny without touching her. (Since any signs of an attack with ropes would have came up in the autopsy - his entire skillset consists of using ropes) The attacks on Sue and Jean could be unconnected or part of a bigger conspiracy, but it seems like there's only one murderer.

Both Doctor Light and Slipknot were members of the Suicide Squad, which does narrow down the possibilities, albeit not that much, and it feels like another red herring.  Another major member of the Suicide Squad, Captain Boomerang, has a subplot here where he's trying to meet his son (who he allegedly had with Golden Glider), though he's portrayed in such a pathetic manner (and, unlike his enemy, he doesn't have super speed, so he can't get across the country to attack Jean Loring and still be waiting in his car to work up the courage to meet his son) that his involvement seems unlikely.

Batman immediately rules out the Suicide Squad angle, figuring that whoever's behind these attacks would have to be someone who would benefit from them in some way.  Lois Lane receives a threatening letter hinting that she'll be next - Sue and Jean's marriage to superheroes were public knowledge, but as far as I know, Clark's identity is still a secret and people only know that Lois is married to Clark, so it has to be someone who knows that Clark is Superman, and possibly someone who knows the heroes personally. (Though whoever it is, knowingly making Superman's wife your target and telling her about it has to be the dumbest move possible)

The aftermath of these events is a mixed one - Ray Palmer and Jean Loring reconcile and begin their relationship again, but while desperately trying to catch villains and figure out who's behind this so they can stop these attacks, Firestorm is stabbed in the chest, flying as high as he can into the air before he explodes.

The threatening notes continue to be sent, as Tim Drake's dad, Jack, gets a package that contains a gun and a note that says "protect yourself" which has the same handwriting as Lois's note. Shortly afterwards, someone tries to break into their house, so Jack uses Tim's communicator to contact Oracle as he prepares to use that gun to defend himself.

As it turns out, Captain Boomerang broke into the house to do something that would put his name back on the map and make his son proud of him.  It's unclear whether he knew this was the house of one of the Robins or if it was an unfortunate coincidence and he just happened to pick that house, but the end result is one of the darkest uses of a title reveal that I can think of.

As the superhero community mourns its dead, the general assumption seems to be that Captain Boomerang was the one responsible for the attacks on the heroes' loved ones. (Though how they came to that conclusion, I have no idea) When Doctor Light's memories were restored, he created a flash, a brief image, of what happened that night, and it didn't quite match up with what he was told - Batman was also present in the aftermath of Sue's attack.

The finale of issue 6 has the autopsy turn up details that point to who the murderer is, and like what Batman said earlier, they have a clear benefit from everything that has happened (well, maybe not everything, but from the attacks on superheroes' loved ones, at least), only for issue 7 to swerve in a completely different direction.  I'm not sure if someone at DC editorial, or the writer, got cold feet between the second-to-last and last issues, or if it was intended as a misdirect and the murderer was always intended to be who it was revealed to be, but the actual reveal makes much less sense for a variety of reasons.

I might have mentioned the killer at some point when writing out these blog entries, but I won't mention who it is here.  The benefit makes sense for them as well, but the motive seems questionable given what we know or learned about them, and it makes no sense why they brought a flamethrower to Sue Dibny's house, among many other decisions that led to this point (since they were responsible for the attempted killing of Jean Loring and the deaths of Sue Dibny, Jack Drake, and Captain Boomerang).  The build-up surrounding the mystery was effective, but the big reveal fell flat for me, and I honestly would have preferred the ending that was set up at the end of issue 6.

The writing and art did a great job with making the emotional parts hit hard, and I was engaged with trying to figure out how all of the pieces of the puzzle would come together. I can see both the good and the bad of this comic; I had problems with the final reveal, and it felt like the writer was a huge Deathstroke fanboy who let that take over most of an issue, but I'd say that I liked more about it than I disliked, and I'd say it's worth looking into.