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This controversial story explores the consequences of actions and the line between hero and villain.
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00:00So, Identity Crisis is a 2004 DC Comics miniseries. It's an eight-issue tale featuring
00:05the Justice League of America and its family members and close friends. The book is a murder
00:10mystery that explores the idea of the thin line between hero and villain, betrayal and death.
00:15The series has been controversial with some readers, thanks to the violent sexual assault
00:19and murder of popular character Sue Dibney, wife of Ralph Dibney, the elongated man. But also,
00:25the series is praised for its attention to comics history and for being an engaging murder mystery.
00:30So, what we thought we'd do today is try and break it down for you. So, if you've not read the arc,
00:34then maybe it'll motivate you to go and do so. And if you have, well, let's just celebrate the best
00:38and some of the worst aspects of this crazy storyline. So, with this in mind, I'm Jules,
00:42this is WhatCulture.com, and this is DC Comics' Identity Crisis, the full story.
00:489. The Players, the Premise, and the Stage
00:50Identity Crisis took place in the then-present and starred members of the Justice League of America.
00:56Members of the Justice Society play significant roles, and practically every hero team in the
01:00DC Universe is mentioned or depicted in some artwork. The story centres around the Justice
01:05League members that were active in the Satellite Era. They were The Atom, Black Canary, Elongated
01:10Man, Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Zatanna, plus the Carl Rayner Green Lantern and Wally West Flash.
01:16Minus Carl and Wally are hiding a secret from years ago that involves the violent sexual assault of
01:20Sue Didney by the villain Dr. Light. Light claims that this is just the beginning, as he knows all
01:25of their identities and every loved one that he can torture and murder. The team, along with
01:30Harold Jordan's Green Lantern and Barry Allen's Flash, elect to have Zatanna not only wipe Dr.
01:35Light's memories, but to make him less of a threat. The team hangs back after Sue's funeral,
01:39while all the other heroes start to search the world for clues because they suspect that the person
01:43behind the murder is none other than Light himself. When word that they are after him gets back to Light,
01:48he goes looking for protection. 8. The Murder of Sue Didney
01:52In Opal City, Ralph Didney was out on a stakeout with Firehawk to potentially thwart the sale of
01:57a Lex Luthor battlesuit. Across town, Sue Didney was preparing the annual mystery surprise for Ralph's
02:02birthday. She receives a call and begins to seize in pain. She manages to contact Ralph just as an
02:07unseen assailant burned her body horribly. Ralph got there and cradled her dead body as he melted in
02:13despair. His present then got knocked open, with it being revealed that Sue had been pregnant,
02:17meaning that Ralph would have been a father. In the captions from Green Arrow, we learn that
02:22since his and Superman's deaths, plans, contingencies, and an organizational structure
02:26has been put in place. Various heroes with certain specialties were called in to check the crime scene
02:31for clues and means of an entrance, and bypassed the extensive security that the house had.
02:36After the funeral, where Ralph is too distraught to speak, Captain Atom organizes all of the heroes
02:41into teams to go and check on villains who might have likely committed the crime, those with fire-based
02:45powers, teleporters, or those with personal grudges against the League or Elongated Man
02:50specifically. Ralph believed he knew who did it and asked his closest League teammates to help him
02:55find Dr. Light. 7. The League Within The League
02:58Six members of the League hung back after the heroes all take off to pursue various possible
03:03foes who may have killed Sue Didney. As the group discussed a plan of action, they realized that
03:07they were being watched by Kyle Rayner and Wally West, the current Green Lantern and Flash.
03:12They insisted the heroes tell them what's going on. Ralph recounted the horrible night where Sue was
03:16on the JLA satellite alone, looking at the stars, and Dr. Light got in. He attacked, beat, and brutally
03:23sexually assaulted Sue. The heroes returned to discover Light in the act and viciously beat him
03:28down. Zatana wiped his memory of the event so he couldn't brag about it, but Hawkman suggested that
03:33they do more. He suggested that they alter Light's mind to make him less of a threat. Zatana went through
03:38with this plan, making Light weaker and turning him into an absolute buffoon. Light appeared on the
03:42old secret society's satellite and begged for somebody to help him against the League. The heroes
03:47go to Light's home and are met with an explosion that immediately knocked Ralph out, as he was the
03:51closest to the building. They find that Light has succeeded to hire the best assassin on Earth,
03:56Deathstroke, the Terminator. 6. Dr. Light Remembers
04:00During his autopsy, Dr. Midnight had discovered that Dr. Light hadn't actually killed Sue Didney,
04:06but that information had not reached the League in time. Deathstroke was ready for their attack
04:10and systematically took down each leaguer in fairly rapid and ingenious ways. Slade paused
04:15to get into a battle of wits with Kyle while he was crushing his ring hand. Oliver takes the
04:19opportunity to jam an arrowhead into Wilson's blind eye, and Deathstroke changes from controlled
04:23to chaotic, and the newly freed League then dogpiles on Slade. Watching the fight triggers
04:28a memory and power return to Dr. Light. He uses a blinding flash to knock out the League
04:33and escape with Deathstroke. They awaken to find Superman standing over them. He tells
04:37them that Light is innocent. Flash interrogates Green Arrow further and reveals a time when
04:42five members of the secret society of super villains switch bodies with five members of
04:46the League. They mind-wiped them, and apparently it had happened again at least a dozen of times.
04:51It's also discovered that the Sue Didney murder was not an isolated incident. Jean Loring,
04:55lawyer and ex-wife to Ray Palmer, aka The Atom, is attacked in her own home. Loring is hung
05:01from a noose over the door, but she manages to place a call to Palmer before the noose
05:04tightens.
05:055. Who Benefits
05:07The Atom rushed through the phone line to save his ex-wife's life. They are soon joined by Arrow,
05:12Superman, and Mr. Miracle, who can't find any clues to how the League's security was breached
05:16again without leaving a trace. Superman did recognize the knot, and Oracle identified it
05:21as the trademark for the villain Slipknot. Wonder Woman interrogated him with her lasso of truth,
05:26but Slipknot didn't know anything. The only connection between the suspects so far is that
05:30they were both on the Suicide Squad. While this has been going on, Batman had been conducting his
05:34own investigation. He had already dismissed the Suicide Squad connection. For him, this mystery,
05:38truly any mystery, was solved by determining who benefits most from the outcome. Bruce noticed
05:43that it was the significant others of the heroes that were currently benefiting most,
05:47as the heroes were now hyper-focused on keeping those closest to them safe.
05:51Lois Lane was extremely concerned for her husband. Not his physical state, obviously,
05:55but Lois knew that Superman wasn't invulnerable of being afraid that he can't save everyone.
05:59As she considered that thought, she opened an anonymous piece of mail that said that they
06:03know Clark's secret, and that she would be the next target.
06:074. Death of a Father
06:09The superhero community then becomes much more aggressive in their pursuit of the killer after
06:13Lois' death threat. The villains were becoming scared and desperate. While attacking the Shadow
06:18Thief, Firestorm was killed when the thief grabbed the Shining Knight's sword and punctured Firestorm's
06:22body. The nuclear hero then flew into the sky and exploded. Meanwhile, Ray Palmer and Jean Loring
06:28had been spending all of their time together, and their romance began to rekindle. Tim Drake began
06:33spending more and more time with his father Jack, and less time as Robin, although he felt guilty and
06:37went out to help the Titans look for the killer. As Tim left, Jack found a box with a note and a gun
06:42inside. Flash villain Captain Boomerang had fallen on hard times and couldn't get work. He had been
06:47begging his friend the Calculator for any job and for help finding his son, Owen Mercer. Calculator came
06:53through with Owen first, and Digger showed his son how to throw his trick boomerangs. Calculator also
06:57came through with a job to kill Jack Drake. Captain Boomerang entered the house, and Jack called
07:02Tim. Batman and Robin rushed to the house, but they heard a shot. Jack had killed Digger, but not
07:07before a razor-sharp boomerang hit Jack in the chest. And it turned out that Digger had also left
07:12a message for Owen. 3. A Batman Betrayed
07:16Here, some people began to breathe a sigh of relief, because they believed that Boomerang was the killer
07:21that they were all looking for. Many of the heroes were spending time with their loved ones and
07:25staying close to home. The Suicide Squad was released from custody since there was no reason
07:29to halt them any longer. Owen Mercer took up his father's mantle of Captain Boomerang, but Batman,
07:33however, continued to investigate. Flash confronted Green Arrow, asking why he saw eight people in the
07:39memory flash that they all experienced when Dr. Light recovered his memories. Arrow explained that
07:43Batman had come up on the teleporter as they were mind-wiping Light, and he was going to stop them.
07:48So they had to also mind-wipe the caped crusader as well to make him forget those few minutes.
07:52They did, and Batman was none the wiser. Still performing his autopsy of Sue Dibney,
07:57Dr. Midnight, now assisted by Mr. Terrific, had found that Sue died from an infraction of the brain.
08:02Whilst doing a microscopic scan of Sue's brain, Peter was shot to find that the cause of the
08:06infraction were two tiny footprints on her brain. Somebody with the ability to change their size had
08:12stood on Sue's brain and then killed her. 2. The Murderer Revealed
08:17When news of Sue's brain scan was discovered, Gene Loring began asking Ray Palmer about evidence
08:22that she had no way of knowing unless she was actually directly involved. Gene admitted that
08:26she donned the atom suit and attacked Sue to scare her, not to kill her. When she saw what she did,
08:31she burned Sue's body to cover her tracks. Her intention was to get the heroes to rally around
08:35their loved ones, just as Batman had deduced. Gene recanted the details coldly and matter-of-factually,
08:41as if reading a recipe. Ray was screaming at her about how terrible everything she did,
08:46as she dismissed his feelings. Gene acted as if it was a good idea and that she was his wife and
08:50wouldn't do anything against her. Realising that she had gone way too far, Ray took her to Arkham
08:55Asylum. He then sank away out of sight in despair. Life for the heroes then returned to relative
09:01normality. Wally was unsure of how to talk to Batman, knowing what he knew now. Green Arrow mused
09:06about how the leak always endures, and lastly, Ralph was seen getting ready for bed as he was talking
09:10about his date as Sue, even though she was no longer there.
09:131. Ramifications
09:15There was definite fallout from the actions of this storyline. Batman did eventually remember
09:20the events of the night of Sue Dibney's attack, and the fact that his teammates and friends,
09:24especially Zatanna, would do this to him made him feel very distrustful and distant from the other
09:28heroes. It also caused Bruce to create the Brother Mark I satellite, which eventually became Brother I,
09:33and created the OMAX. Catwoman also suspected that her personality shift from villain to Batman's ally
09:39might have not been her own choice, and then confronted Zatanna. This entire situation caused
09:44the villain community to become organised in a way like never before. Rogues began to fear the
09:49possibility of being mind-wiped, and they began looking for ways to band together. This opened the
09:53door for Lex Luthor to create The Society, which organised nearly every villain into one large army,
09:58except for the Secret Six, who violently refused Luthor's offer. The distrust,
10:03anger, and hurt feelings ultimately caused the Justice League to fall apart, much to Green Arrow's
10:08anger. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman came together later to rebuild the league from the
10:12bottom up, but the new league came together with all the heroes who battled Solomon Grundy for the
10:17body of Red Tornado. And there we go, my friends. That was DC Comics' Identity Crisis,
10:21the full story. I hope that you enjoyed that, and let me know what you thought about it down
10:25in the comments section below. As always, I've been Jules. You can go follow me over on Twitter
10:28at RetroJ, but the O is a zero, and it'd be great to chat to you over there.
10:32But before I go, I just want to say one thing. Hope that you are treating yourself well with love
10:36and respect, my friend. You deserve all the best things in life, and don't let anything
10:40or anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? You are a massive ledge. Now go out there and
10:45absolutely smash your life goals today. Big love to you. As always, I've been Jules.
10:48You have been awesome. Never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
10:52Bye.
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