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roxcollector 's review for:
Identity Crisis
by Brad Meltzer
*trigger warning for rape
Synopsis: I'm going to keep this short. Sue Dibny, wife of the Elongated Man (Ralph), is murdered. Sue is the only significant other who is an honorary member of the JL, so everyone in the JL begins investigating. There are two stories going on here: the investigation and the cover-up of the rape of Sue Dibny by Dr. Light. Basically, at some point in the past Dr. Light raped Sue and several JL members arrived on scene during and had a vote to have Zatanna alter Light's personality. Batman wasn't present for this vote but comes back while Zatanna is doing the mind altering to Light. So, they mind wipe the last 10 minutes from Batman's memories to hide this. In the present, Tim Drake's father and Captain Boomerang are set up to kill each other and Firestorm dies randomly. Apparently, Sue was murdered by Jean Loring, Ray Palmer's (the Atom) ex-wife, in hopes it would get them back together.
Review: I knew there was controversy around this book going in and I understand why. It should have been called Crisis: Hot Mess, because that's what it is, a hot mess. I honestly don't even know where to start. I guess, let's start with the rape because that is what this book is most known for.
The problem with the rape of Sue Dibny is that it was basically used to give us a red herring in her death: Dr. Light. Dr. Light could have done any number of other things to warrant them being suspicious of him, but no Brad Meltzer went for rape. And here's the thing about using rape in a story, if you're going to use it, then the book should be about that. But we don't even see how this event affected Sue - we see how it affected the other heroes that were involved with the mind wipe. What the hell? I don't care about how HER TRAUMA affected everyone else, I care about how it affected her and Ralph to a certain extent. It feels like padding to the story and that is fucking wrong.
That's the other thing, Ralph's wife was murdered and yet, he is not in this book a whole lot. If my partner was murdered and I was a superhero, you bet your ass I would be there for every step of the investigation, but instead Ralph is pushed off to the side and every time we see him he's just a rubbery mess.
The investigation is mostly where the hot mess is. Sue's body is badly buried so they assume it was a heat-related villain, but they have an autopsy performed anyway. Here's the thing, though, it takes them to almost the very end of the story to find that there are microscopic footprints on Sue's brain? The Atom was fucking there when they first started investigating, why didn't they look there? Why didn't anyone think to look there?
Oh, the subplots in this book. There are many and not many I care about. The stuff with Captain Boomerang and his son could have been nice...in another book. I don't give a shit about Captain Boomerang or his son, especially when the other person outside of Boomerang that died was Tim Drake's dad. I'm going to care about Tim's dad more. Sorry, not sorry. Also, Captain Boomerang is just kind of a gross dude and none of the villains even seem to like him in this, so are we really supposed to be saddened by his death?
Jean Loring as the reveal of being the murderer is surprising and then...we get her motivations. Oh, my fucking god her motivation. It is unbelievably stupid. She claims she didn't mean to kill Sue, but also brought weapons with her when she went to knock Sue out or whatever the hell the plan was? And on top of that, I'm supposed to believe that she just kept rolling with this fear all the superheroes had for their loved ones, sending notes and hits out on people, which eventually results in the death of Tim Drake's father? Come on. She says she isn't crazy, but damn honey, everything you did was batshit.
I wanted fucking closure on the Batman mindwipe thing, too. I don't know if that's covered in a later story, but it sure as hell isn't covered here. It's hard to believe that they would agree to mindwipe Batman in the first place. Seriously, Batman? Like he isn't going to find out at some point and y'all will have hell to pay.
So, after I finished, I asked myself the same question Batman asks the whole book "who benefits?" Who benefits from reading this? Who benefits from this being written? And I don't have the answers to those questions. I know that this story took DC down a road of darker stories, but was it fucking worth it? I don't know. I'm giving it two stars only because I did feel something other than frustration while reading it: depression. It's a frustratingly, depressing story that I don't know DC comics readers needed. Sue and Ralph Dibny sure didn't.
Synopsis: I'm going to keep this short. Sue Dibny, wife of the Elongated Man (Ralph), is murdered. Sue is the only significant other who is an honorary member of the JL, so everyone in the JL begins investigating. There are two stories going on here: the investigation and the cover-up of the rape of Sue Dibny by Dr. Light. Basically, at some point in the past Dr. Light raped Sue and several JL members arrived on scene during and had a vote to have Zatanna alter Light's personality. Batman wasn't present for this vote but comes back while Zatanna is doing the mind altering to Light. So, they mind wipe the last 10 minutes from Batman's memories to hide this. In the present, Tim Drake's father and Captain Boomerang are set up to kill each other and Firestorm dies randomly. Apparently, Sue was murdered by Jean Loring, Ray Palmer's (the Atom) ex-wife, in hopes it would get them back together.
Review: I knew there was controversy around this book going in and I understand why. It should have been called Crisis: Hot Mess, because that's what it is, a hot mess. I honestly don't even know where to start. I guess, let's start with the rape because that is what this book is most known for.
The problem with the rape of Sue Dibny is that it was basically used to give us a red herring in her death: Dr. Light. Dr. Light could have done any number of other things to warrant them being suspicious of him, but no Brad Meltzer went for rape. And here's the thing about using rape in a story, if you're going to use it, then the book should be about that. But we don't even see how this event affected Sue - we see how it affected the other heroes that were involved with the mind wipe. What the hell? I don't care about how HER TRAUMA affected everyone else, I care about how it affected her and Ralph to a certain extent. It feels like padding to the story and that is fucking wrong.
That's the other thing, Ralph's wife was murdered and yet, he is not in this book a whole lot. If my partner was murdered and I was a superhero, you bet your ass I would be there for every step of the investigation, but instead Ralph is pushed off to the side and every time we see him he's just a rubbery mess.
The investigation is mostly where the hot mess is. Sue's body is badly buried so they assume it was a heat-related villain, but they have an autopsy performed anyway. Here's the thing, though, it takes them to almost the very end of the story to find that there are microscopic footprints on Sue's brain? The Atom was fucking there when they first started investigating, why didn't they look there? Why didn't anyone think to look there?
Oh, the subplots in this book. There are many and not many I care about. The stuff with Captain Boomerang and his son could have been nice...in another book. I don't give a shit about Captain Boomerang or his son, especially when the other person outside of Boomerang that died was Tim Drake's dad. I'm going to care about Tim's dad more. Sorry, not sorry. Also, Captain Boomerang is just kind of a gross dude and none of the villains even seem to like him in this, so are we really supposed to be saddened by his death?
Jean Loring as the reveal of being the murderer is surprising and then...we get her motivations. Oh, my fucking god her motivation. It is unbelievably stupid. She claims she didn't mean to kill Sue, but also brought weapons with her when she went to knock Sue out or whatever the hell the plan was? And on top of that, I'm supposed to believe that she just kept rolling with this fear all the superheroes had for their loved ones, sending notes and hits out on people, which eventually results in the death of Tim Drake's father? Come on. She says she isn't crazy, but damn honey, everything you did was batshit.
I wanted fucking closure on the Batman mindwipe thing, too. I don't know if that's covered in a later story, but it sure as hell isn't covered here. It's hard to believe that they would agree to mindwipe Batman in the first place. Seriously, Batman? Like he isn't going to find out at some point and y'all will have hell to pay.
So, after I finished, I asked myself the same question Batman asks the whole book "who benefits?" Who benefits from reading this? Who benefits from this being written? And I don't have the answers to those questions. I know that this story took DC down a road of darker stories, but was it fucking worth it? I don't know. I'm giving it two stars only because I did feel something other than frustration while reading it: depression. It's a frustratingly, depressing story that I don't know DC comics readers needed. Sue and Ralph Dibny sure didn't.