Assorted Problems with DC's Identity Crisis:Batgirl III wrote: ↑Sun Jun 03, 2018 4:34 pm Likewise, Identity Crisis was an intriguing murder myster (something we don’t see enough of in comics these days) which had something interesting to say on the whole “how do superheroes punish the bad guys” question. It helped bring a needed popularity boost to C- and D-List characters and shake-up the status quo in how all the A-List heroes worked together.
In a sane world, Identity Crisis would have been resolved as it was. But the follow-up would have been 53, a new JLA roster, and a few new solo books featuring the newly re-popularized C- and D-List heroes or the diversity legacies: Jamie Reyes, Kate Kane, etc.
But, once again, we see it get pushed too far. The whole Brother Eye / Omac / Bat-Dick storyline that grew from the seeds planted here. It didn’t bear fruit, it was just the Rot.
1) The "shocking death" at the beginning was anything but. DC publicized "someone close to the classic League was going to be murdered." Which meant there were exactly two candidates: Sue Dibny and Snapper Carr. And no one would care if Snapper died, ergo, it was going to be Sue. I told my comics dealer this months in advance, and he cursed me for being so right.
2) Jean's motives were nuts. There are ways for ex-spouses to get back together. As an attorney, she probably encountered a few.
3) The totally f--ked up back story about Doctor Light and Sue Dibny. I'm not a prude. I can deal with adult crimes in comics. That said, the sequence made zero sense. The whole notion of Sue regularly hanging out on the Justice League Satellite was a retcon. Between Justice League of America #78 (vol. 1), and Justice League of America Annual #3 it didn't happen. Not as published. The Justice League DID have a standing order that a League member be on Monitor Duty at all times. They may have let it slide on occasion and left no one there. But they certainly didn't leave a civilian alone on the satellite. (Note, when they left Snapper on Monitor Duty in #200, it was with the understanding that they still recognised his honorary member status.) So, this makes the Light raped Sue subplot one that should have had far MORE ramifications than the ones we saw in story.
4) Deathstroke the Mary Sue vs the Justice League of America. That fight is so, so, so awful. It ignored every bit of development of powers that Wally had gone through in his own book. It ignored how Hawkman's powers work. It failed to keep the comic book science consistent between panels during the Atom fight. The part with bagging Black Canary made no sense. And, most egregiously it had Kyle Rainer, who had by then spent YEARS battling bad guys with giant green energy constructs, decide to move into melee range with someone with Aquaman level strength and Batman level martial skill.
5) It rather blatantly ignored that in the post-Crisis continuity Superman and Batman hadn't shared the civilian identities with the Justice League until JLA (the late '90s-2000s series) #50.
6) The key discovery was revealed in a different title.
7) There was no resolution, other than Atom quietly having his ex-wife committed (without a court order or a trial) to the WORST asylum in the country.
8) Firestorm's really, really stupid death.
9) It smacked of "Dan Didio has a hit-list, and this story is meant to get rid of them."