Identity Crisis (review and thoughts) Part 2 of 3

Warning: Spoilers about the plot.

The Attack/flashback

Sue Dibny was Elongated Man’s loving wife. Many in the Justice League considered her part of their extended family. Even after all those years, Sue loved her husband greatly and even waited for him up in the League’s Space Station. During one of these waiting periods, a Villain named Dr. Light came aboard the station. He discovered Sue and brutally raped her. Some of the members of JL returned to see Sue’s still alive, but broken body. Bloodied and tearful, she called out to her husband. The league discovered Dr. Light hiding on the station, as Elongated Man braced his wife. Dr. Light bragged about the entire evil act to the League members. Because Dr. Light could manipulate light, he showed the league the entire deed.

That was when League decided to do something about it. They let Zatanna magically wipe Dr. Light’s mind of the entire incident and changed his personality, making him weaker and less of a threat. Some of the members that watched this mind wiping happen, were Hawkman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Green Arrow.

This was a shocker indeed. I liked how this flashback story within the larger story revealed that our heroes don’t always follow their own strict codes when one of their loved ones is hurt. Without all the members of JL around, these ‘heroes’ decided to take the law a step further and do permanent damage to Dr. Light. This is what’s compelling about the storytelling in Identity Crisis. Part of me actually sides with these members, because Dr. Light went too far, and he was a danger to other members of the League. However, I can also see the other side of the issue. If they began to change villains into more harmless versions of themselves, our heroes were in danger of becoming the very thing they were fighting…villains.

Sometimes, no matter how big the threat, we have to stand up for of beliefs and not become something else down the line.

Of course, the writers threw in another shocking thing about this flashback that’s made me go, “WTF?”

Batman walked in on Zatanna wiping Dr. Light’s mind, and he wasn’t happy about it at all…

Part 3 soon.