The mystery deepens, but only slightly.
Identity Crisis # 2
W: Brad Meltzer
P: Rags Morales
I: Michael Bair
C: Alex Sinclair
What Has Gone Before:
While aiding another hero’s efforts to foil an illegal arms sale,
Elongated Man Ralph Dinby’s wife Sue is brutally murdered. The
death rocks the superhero community, who, after the funeral, split up
to hunt the perpetrator down. All except Ralph, Hawkman, Green
Arrow, Black Canary, Atom and Zatanna, who all seem to know who did it:
Doctor Light! [See my review of issue # 1 here.]
What Happens Now:
Flash and Green Lantern crash the group going after Light, forcing them
to tell the story of Light happening upon Sue in the old JLA satellite,
where he raped her. The group got there in time to capture Light
but not prevent the rape. Zatanna performed a “magical lobotomy,”
agreed to by only just over half of the heroes present. Light
finds out that he’s being hunted and flees to the old Injustice Gang
satellite for back up. Backup is found in the form of
Deathstroke, who commences battle with the heroes at Light’s
hide-out. Meanwhile, Dr. Midnight is performing a secret autopsy
of Sue Dinby, where he discovers that she was dead well in advance of
Light’s attack!
Interesting, but…
The mystery deepens here, but I remain none too impressed. It’s a
functional story and well executed for what it is, not to mention
better than the average DC book. But the difference between what
the hype promised and what’s been delivered so far still has me raising
the shoulders and saying, “Okay…so?” The most intriguing point
brought up is the almost tossed-off line that the magic lobotomy of
Light to prevent him from attacking Sue again (fat lot of good that
seems to have done!) wasn’t the only such act of serious vigilante
justice in which our heroes have been involved. Still, it’s a lot
of hints and allegations and little actually occurring that justifies
the big stink still being made over this title. Still, since my
pay check in part depends on healthy sales, who am I to disagree?
This series may well pay off in the end, but so far, you might want to
wait for the trade.
Recommendation: Borrow It.