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Identity Crisis...some spoilers!
Submitted by Herodotus Frost on Mon, 07/19/2004 - 1:30am.
I just finished readying the first two issues of this story, but I am going to talk about it early because I think this is already going to be a "must have" kind of series.
Basically, it's a bit of a take off of Watchmen, or at least it has the potential to be. Can't tell for sure yet because only two issues have been published. Anyways, on with some plot hooks to entice all the kiddies out there.
The book starts out with the Elongated Man on a stakeout, watching two guys as the wait to sell some high tech item(s) that are in a big crate. While waiting for the buyer, we find out that it is also going to be his birthday soon.
Since EM is a great detective, his wife Sue tries to throw him off by planning his yearly surprise party in advance of the actual day. While she is getting the evening ready and his friends are preparing for his party, Elongated Man is telling a rookie he is mentoring, exactly how things are happening (which he is 100% accurate on). As a nice bit of character development, he also tells his partner how he met his wife.
Anyways, just as things are about ready, someone enters the house as Sue is wrapping up EM's present and adding something in that he actually didn't know about and proceeds to kill her!
Although she tries to use a JLA communication device to call for help, it all comes too late. Sue is dead, and you find out that her big surprise was that she was pregnant with their first child. That's prety much how the first issue ends.
During the second issue, we see the funeral and the proceedings and then the plot picks up rather quickly. I don't want to ruin too much, but a large group of heroes split up to try and track down the possible suspects of Sue's murder. Everyone is sent in opposite directions in small teams for the 5 or so suspects.
It is at this point that we learn that there is a secret group within the JLA that not even Batman was aware of. This group shares a few dark secrets about the past. Central to this past is the Elongated Man and his wife, and a dark tragedy from their past. The result of this is that this group believes that they know who is responsible for Sue's death and stake out after the person secretly from the rest of the JLA.
While they are about to confront their suspect, several things have been happening. First, there is a small discovery of their secret group by two members. Second, their suspect anticipates that they are coming for justice and seeks to hire protection, and third, a secret autopsy is being performed on Sue to correctly identify the cause of death.
Comics being what they are, things are never simple. As the secret group prepares to confront their suspect, the autopsy proves that they have the wrong person targeted. The Doctor performing the autopsy can't reach the group to stop the confrontation.
Meanwhile, the group begins to argue with the two new members about their actions from the past and they fail to notice Elongated Man's frustration and impatience to find his wife's killer. EM goes off alone and stretches under the door to apprehend the suspect, only to have the reader see all hell breaking loose behind the door.
The secret group turns to find their suspect on the steps to his house, standing over the unconscious body of Elongated Man and his hired protection, Deathstroke the Terminator! End of issue two!
All in all, a pretty sweet series so far that is really looking to shake things up in the DC universe and in the story itself. The whole secret group within the JLA and the events of the past are marvelous in my opinion. The series is setting itself up to be a major story that could have some serious rammifications throughout the entire DC Universe. It's definitely worth the read.
And, since it is a current miniseries, I will wait until it is finishes before giving a more thorough review. But take my advice and pick it up where ever you can. It's great!
Frosty
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Herodotus Frost-- Magic/Blaster; Electric/Cold
Creon-- Natural/Scrapper; Darkness/Super Reflexes
Green Succubus--Magic/Defender; Storm/Radiation
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A few things. First about th
A few things. First about the villains. The Injustice Gang which is mentioned and made fun of in issue #2 appeared in the cartoon last year, and was one of the highest ranked storylines they had all year. I actually think that in mocking it, they may also be thinking of revising it as much fun as they made of it. Most of the villains shown are enemies shown in the satellite of Batman, Flash, Atom, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, or the (Teen) Titans.
The phone records help prove the case but I doubt they would have pointed anyone to Jean. In fact, consider that a party was going on that night, Jean and Sue were friends, and that from the looks of it she was going to have been at the party anyway. And while it happened around the time of death, it would have more than likely just appeared to be any other call Jean made to Sue.
Also, someone had tried to tell me Sue was on the phone with Ralph, no. Sue was an honorary MEMBER of Justice League Europe and had her OWN JL communicator, which is what she appears to be using to call him.
I suspect you'll see Flash quitting the league. As much as Wally worships Barry, its just not his style to put up with that kind of BS. So just don't be surprised if that happens.
Also I suspect Kyle will be going away one way or the other, including leaving the league as we know that Hal is coming back.
Also understand that most of the modern day Atom lore was written just before Crisis and continued after Crisis meaning it wasn't changed.
And like I said regarding Ollie, its time for him to loose that arm isn't it?
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Circeus, Friendly/Neighborhood/Site/Admin
Starmaster, Mutant/Blaster/Energy/Fire
Mighty Quinn, Magic/Tanker/Invuln/Stone
Maddest Cow, Science/Scrapper/MA/Reflexes
I'll have to talk to my DC ex
I'll have to talk to my DC expert friend tomorrow at work, but yea, quite a few holes. I know a lot of the history changed with Crisis, even origins.
My biggest one was the phone records. I knew that it was a atom type person, just by all the phones being around.
She knew that Ray would jump through the phone to save her when she tried to hang herself.
Sue was on the phone when Jean jumped through meaning that Jean called Sue, why didn't Batman just check the phone records?
I still say something is going on with Flash too. Sue was in Flash's chair when Light jumped her, all the Flash villans, the new Boomerang with uncertain parentage.
Why Calcualtor sent Boomerang, there were a lot of washed up villians there.
And the whole thing with Merlin and company. Red Herrings? or was something else going on with the Sucide Squad?
And yep, something is up with Ollie. And I think it has more to do with Barry Allen. Did you catch him playing with the costume ring that Barry gave him?
More tomorrow...
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Ms Mystic - Kinetics / Psychic Defender
Shrike - Energy / Energy Blaster
Red Razorback - Spines / Regeneration Scrapper
American Dreams - Martial Arts / Invuln Scrapper
Okay while I saw which way th
Okay while I saw which way the plot was leaning, and her motive was sound, no way it would/could have played out like it did. Here are my problems:
1) Light and fire burn flesh differently -- its the difference between scorching (fire) and baking (light). The weapon Jean used on Sue to "cover her tracks" (heh couldn't resist that one) was a fire based weapon. Dr. Light's gun is a light based weapon. How the group of them determined it was Dr. Light when it was fairly evident the body had been scorched, something Green Arrow would have known since he was one of the core crime scene investigators.
2) Lets talk about that weapon for a second. Its a huge item, glossed over by the writer completely. What the heck was it? She said she had shrunken down some weapons in case there was a problem. This was a hand held tube that shot fire. Despite her ties to superhero-dom what weapon is that? Closest thing I know was Heat Wave's gun (another Flash Rogue's Gallery guy).
Here's the funny part of that. Now Heat Wave had been killed and then resurrected by a Demon and went to work for Project Cadmus. This actually would have been a much stronger tie to Capt. Boomerang, because Boomer was the person last known to be in posession of Heat Wave's gun after his demise. And interestingly enough Amanda Waller basically controls Project Cadmus from behind the scenes, and also happens to control Suicide Squad -- which Boomer had been a central character of, and was where Heat Wave died. Heck Atom himself was a member of the Suicide Squad at the behest of Amanda Waller herself.
Now sure, Jean could have shrunk down a flame thrower, and that could have been a miniturized nozzle or some such, but keep in mind that she operated that bare handed holding the tube, which is something that you can't do with a flamethrower in RL, and despite wearing a costume of the Atom's she is still just a plain fleshy human and couldn't have operated a flamethrower bare handed.
Could it have been a simple butane/propane blowtorch? Maybe, buy they don't tend to kick out the type of flame that burns a body, but rather the type that you can weld with or melt the sugar on top of creme brulet. It takes a certain kind of flame to char flesh that way. And it would have taken a damn long time with this type of weapon, not the seconds that it did.
3) How the hell did Jean know who Jack Drake even was? She didn't know Robin, and this isn't exactly the kind of stuff Batman goes touting around to others. And few people even knew that Tim was Robin (Oracle, Batman, and maybe a few others). Jean probably has some detective skills, but there's no clean way she got this information. Her knowing this is a stretch. The JL satellite she used to have access to doesn't even exist anymore they're 1 or 2 satellites past it. And I doubt she has a JL Login where she can just surf their secret ID database. (now there is a good chance she knew about Lois and Superman being married -- that one I could buy)
4) Atom Lore. Pretty clear the writer doesn't know it well. There are just huge problems with the murder as it played out, how she set herself up to be hung, etc.
a) Other objects when shrunken explode. This is a key part of his origin story from way back in Showcase comics. Basically atom finds white dwarf chunk. Brings it back to lab. Makes a lens. Uses a combination of lens and UV light to shrink things. Things go boom. Ray, in an attempt to save Jean and their spelunking group, shrinks himself (he apparently carries the lens everywhere he goes), and doesn't explode. He eventaully determines its something in his own body that prevents this. His costume is similarly made from White Dwarf material so that it shrinks and grows with him and is invisble at full size.
b) It is possible for others to use the belt. I didn't think this was possible, but Paul Hoben (the guy Jean left Ray for) was given the belt by the Atom when he left after the Sword of the Atom special. Paul would later don the belt in an attempt to kill Ray, but they shrink so small only Ray knows how to get back and Paul gives Ray the belt back. Ray (as Adam Cray) in the Suicide Squad also looses a belt to Blacksnake which he recovers. Note that Paul was using Ray's old belt, Blacksnake his new belt. It is unlikely there was a third belt for Jean to have access to though. Atom used the first piece of white dwarf matter he found to fashion the lens which was eventually incorporated into his first belt. His second belt was made from the second piece of white dwarf matter he acquired during the Sword of the Atom stuff. Since he had in his posession the first and second belts, and its the belts that control the shrinking not the costume, even if Jean had a costume, she could not have had a belt and if she did, I want to know where it came from.
c) There's something in the Sword of the Atom about Ray being able to detect and being drawn to white dwarf matter. Its how he ends up finding the second piece. So then if Sue is wearing a shrinking belt and costume made from and containing white dwarf matter how does he not detect it when he released her from shrinking? Heck when she gets admitted to the hospital for the hanging (not shown but likely) and they go to remove her clothes how did they get them off, the costume was in the way.
5) Having Chronos play a role even minor was nice because he is the classic Atom villain. "See I told you we'd win."
6) Motherboxes can detect and manipulate on the subatomic level, how did it not detect a shrunken person (motherbox tech was incorporated into the security system).
7) The security system could also pick up air dispersion from someone teleporting, but not from someone growing in microseconds to full height from a subatomic level?
And on and on...
Well we know this isn't over. It sets up too much. And like I said to Frosty, I think Green Arrow knows more then he's letting on. In fact, I'm wondering if we really saw what we saw. Think about it we're dealing with mind manipulation and control... well what if none of this really happened the way it was presented. Just a thought, something to consider.
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Circeus, Friendly/Neighborhood/Site/Admin
Starmaster, Mutant/Blaster/Energy/Fire
Mighty Quinn, Magic/Tanker/Invuln/Stone
Maddest Cow, Science/Scrapper/MA/Reflexes
By all means, talk about it n
By all means, talk about it now, it's been 14 days now since it came out, that's more than enough time.
By the way, I did some research on The Atom on the net and I couldn't find one source that said that Jean was previously insane. Can you narrow down when this happened?
Frosty
_____________________________________________________________________
Herodotus Frost-- Magic/Blaster; Electric/Cold
Creon-- Natural/Scrapper; Darkness/Super Reflexes
Or Batman...
Way sooner...
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Ms Mystic - Kinetics / Psychic Defender
Shrike - Energy / Energy Blaster
Red Razorback - Spines / Regeneration Scrapper
American Dreams - Martial Arts / Invuln Scrapper
it wasn't. In fact the kille
it wasn't. In fact the killer was labeled as certifiably insane ages ago in comics... then got sane again. But now of course it throws into question if the killer was ever truly sane after being insane to begin with or if it was an act all along (ala the Joker concept of so Insane he's Super-Sane).
I'm convinced that 90% of the reason the entire story existed was to give Wally a new Captain Boomerang to fight. Despite all the BS Boomerang went though since he became the lead character in the Suicide Squad he was one of the core Rogues Gallery members of Barry Allen. And Wally really doesn't have enemies quite like Barry had the Rogues Gallery.
When we're ready I'll talk all about the killer, and the killer's husband, and why what happened is not possible, and how there's no way in hell Mister Miracle wouldn't have caught it.
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Circeus, Friendly/Neighborhood/Site/Admin
Starmaster, Mutant/Blaster/Energy/Fire
Mighty Quinn, Magic/Tanker/Invuln/Stone
Maddest Cow, Science/Scrapper/MA/Reflexes
Finally picked up #7 (*POTENTIAL SPOILERS AGAIN*)
So I picked up #7 today, and I stand by my original assertion, that I don't recall specifically where the killer's past was referenced. Outside of users on the numerous message boards pointing it out, I don't recall where this critical plot element was made available to the reader of this mini-series.
Can you point me to the issue where this was mentioned, if only in passing?
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<span style="color:green"><b>The Green Funk</b></span>: Rad/Rad Defender
<b>Medium Rare</b>: Invul/Battle Axe Tanker
<b>Dairy Queen</b>: Ice/Empathy Controller
If anyone needs an issue 7 we
If anyone needs an issue 7 we've got em..
Cheryl
Read. The ending was... eh
Read.
The ending was... eh. Sorry, the first few issues were really good, but they got kinda wishy washy at the end... and were mostly there to fill the story I think, not to better the story.
This is pretty much the same kind of shakeup they had with Legends, that's the only real point to the series.
I have other issues with the story as a whole as the writer made a few glaring errors... which I'll get to when we're ready to discuss.
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Circeus, Friendly/Neighborhood/Site/Admin
Starmaster, Mutant/Blaster/Energy/Fire
Mighty Quinn, Magic/Tanker/Invuln/Stone
Maddest Cow, Science/Scrapper/MA/Reflexes
I'll give it about two weeks.
I figure two weeks is a good enough amount of time to let everyone get a hold of the last issue and then I will talk all about what we saw!!
Frosty
_____________________________________________________________________
Herodotus Frost-- Magic/Blaster; Electric/Cold
Creon-- Natural/Scrapper; Darkness/Super Reflexes
Hmmm... I'll have to dig out
Hmmm... I'll have to dig out the first six issues and re-read them again. I don't recall that was ever mentioned in the comic...
Plus, the spoilers could always be leaving out a piece that I haven't read yet!
====================================================
<span style="color:green"><b>The Green Funk</b></span>: Rad/Rad Defender
<b>Medium Rare</b>: Invul/Battle Axe Tanker
<b>Dairy Queen</b>: Ice/Empathy Controller
You must not know who the killer is...
I thought the killer's past was well referenced.
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Ms Mystic - Kinetics / Psychic Defender
Shrike - Energy / Energy Blaster
Red Razorback - Spines / Regeneration Scrapper
American Dreams - Martial Arts / Invuln Scrapper
**POTENTIAL SPOILERS**
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LINES JUST TO BE SAFE
I haven't picked up #7 yet, but I've read the spoilers. Without giving too much away, for a writer who made a point in this mini-series of bringing up a lot of old stories from the past, it would have been nice if he had made a reference to the killer's past in the DC Universe. I don't think it was ever referenced once within the mini-series.
To me, it's like if you had a fictional murder mystery novel with John Wilkes Booth in it, post-1865. John Wilkes Booth is a character featured in the story along with many others, yet absolutely no reference is made to the fact that he shot Lincoln in 1865.
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<span style="color:green"><b>The Green Funk</b></span>: Rad/Rad Defender
<b>Medium Rare</b>: Invul/Battle Axe Tanker
<b>Dairy Queen</b>: Ice/Empathy Controller
Pretty sure I did too, once I
Pretty sure I did too, once I saw who the weapon was. I had who the weapon was figured out from the very first murder scene.
There are some heroes who are close to the answer.
NOTE: Only read 1-5 so far, most were really hard to get around here since Sci-Fi City seemed to never have any of them very long, so I had to order 2, 6, & 7 online.
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Circeus, Friendly/Neighborhood/Site/Admin
Starmaster, Mutant/Blaster/Energy/Fire
Mighty Quinn, Magic/Tanker/Invuln/Stone
Maddest Cow, Science/Scrapper/MA/Reflexes
I knew it...
I figured it out.
Not the entire motive, but who did it
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Ms Mystic - Kinetics / Psychic Defender
Shrike - Energy / Energy Blaster
Red Razorback - Spines / Regeneration Scrapper
American Dreams - Martial Arts / Invuln Scrapper
Yep
Yeah, I read issue three, but like I said in my origianl post, I am going to wait until the run is over to finish commenting on it!
So, I will hold my tongue until then!!
Frosty
_____________________________________________________________________
Herodotus Frost-- Magic/Blaster; Electric/Cold
Creon-- Natural/Scrapper; Darkness/Super Reflexes
Green Succubus--Magic/Defender; Storm/Radiation
Issue 3
Have you guys read issue 3?
What about Dr. Light remembering that Batman was in the fight?
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Ms Mystic - Kinetics / Psychic Defender
Shrike - Energy / Energy Blaster
Red Razorback - Spines / Regeneration Scrapper
American Dreams - Martial Arts / Invuln Scrapper
Let me second this recommenda
Let me second this recommendation. I picked this up last week, on the advice of a friend. The first two issues are excellent!