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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.
00:48Number 9. 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,
01:10Elongated Man, Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Zatanna, plus the Carl Rayner Green Lantern,
01:14and Wally West Flash. Minus Carl and Wally are hiding a secret from years ago that involves the
01:19violent sexual assault of Sue Dibney by the villain Dr. Light. Light claims that this is just the beginning,
01:24as he knows all of their identities and every loved one that he can torture and murder. The
01:29team, along with Hal Jordan's Green Lantern and Barry Allen's Flash, elect to have Zatanna not
01:34only wipe Dr. Light's memories, Dibney. In Opal City, Ralph Dibney was out on a stakeout with
01:39Firehawk to potentially thwart the sale of a Lex Luthor battle suit. Across town, Sue Dibney was
01:44preparing the annual mystery surprise for Ralph's birthday. She receives a call and begins to seize
01:48in pain. She manages to contact Ralph just as an unseen assailant burned her body horribly.
01:54Ralph got there and cradled her dead body as he melted in despair. His present then got knocked
01:59open, with it being revealed that Sue had been pregnant, meaning that Ralph would have been a
02:03father. In the captions from Green Arrow, we learn that since his and Superman's deaths,
02:07plans, contingencies, and an organizational structure has been put in place. Various heroes
02:12with certain specialties were called in to check the crime scene for clues and means of an entrance,
02:17and bypassed the extensive security that the house had. After the funeral, where Ralph is too
02:21distraught to speak, Captain Atom organizes all of the heroes into teams to go and check on villains
02:26who might have likely committed the crime, those with fire-based powers, teleporters, or those with
02:31personal grudges against the League or Elongated Man specifically. Ralph believed he knew who did it,
02:36and asked his closest League teammates to help him find Dr. Light.
02:407. The League Within The League
02:42Six members of the League hung back after the heroes all take off to pursue various possible
02:46foes who may have killed Sue Dibney. As the group discussed a plan of action,
02:51they realized that they were being watched by Carl Rayner and Wally West, the current Green Lantern
02:55and Flash. They insisted the heroes tell them what's going on. Ralph recounted the horrible night
03:00where Sue was on the JLA satellite alone, looking at the stars, and Dr. Light got in.
03:05He attacked, beat, and brutally sexually assaulted Sue. The heroes returned to discover Light in the
03:10act and viciously beat him down. Zatana wiped his memory of the event so he couldn't brag about it,
03:15but Hawkman suggested that they do more. He suggested that they alter Light's mind to
03:19make him less of a threat. Zatana went through with this plan, making Light weaker and turning
03:24him into an absolute buffoon. Light appeared on the old secret society's satellite and begged for
03:29somebody to help him against the League. The heroes go to Light's home and are met with an explosion
03:33that immediately knocked Ralph out, as he was the closest to the building. They find that Light has
03:37succeeded to hire the best assassin on Earth, Deathstroke, the Terminator.
03:416. Dr. Light Remembers
03:44During his autopsy, Dr. Midnight had discovered that Dr. Light hadn't actually killed Sue Dibney,
03:49but that information had not reached the League in time. Deathstroke was ready for their attack
03:54and systematically took down each leaguer in fairly rapid and ingenious ways. Slade paused to get into
03:59a battle of wits with Kyle while he was crushing his ring hand. Oliver takes the opportunity to jam an
04:04arrowhead into Wilson's blind eye, and Deathstroke changes from controlled to chaotic,
04:07and the newly freed League then dogpiles on Slade. Watching the fight triggers a memory and power
04:13return to Dr. Light. He uses a blinding Flash to knock out the League and escape with Deathstroke.
04:18They awaken to find Superman standing over them. He tells them that Light is innocent. Flash
04:23interrogates Green Arrow further and reveals a time when five members of the secret society of
04:28supervillains switch bodies with five members of the League. They mind-wiped them, and apparently it
04:32had happened again at least a dozen of times. It's also discovered that the Sue Dibney murder was not
04:37an isolated incident. Jean Loring, lawyer and ex-wife to Ray Palmer, aka The Atom, is attacked
04:42in her own home. Loring is hung from a noose over the door, but she manages to place a call to Palmer
04:47before the noose tightens. 5. Who Benefits
04:51The Atom rushed through the phone line to save his ex-wife's life. They are soon joined by Arrow,
04:56Superman, and Mr. Miracle, who can't find any clues to how the League's security was breached again
05:00without leaving a trace. Superman did recognize the knot, and Oracle identified it as the trademark
05:06for the villain Slipknot. Wonder Woman interrogated him with her lasso of truth, but Slipknot didn't
05:10know anything. The only connection between the suspects so far is that they were both on the
05:14Suicide Squad. While this has been going on, Batman had been conducting his own investigation.
05:19He had already dismissed the Suicide Squad connection. For him, this mystery, truly any mystery,
05:23was solved by determining who benefits most from the outcome. Bruce noticed that it was the
05:27significant others of the heroes that were currently benefiting most, as the heroes were
05:31now hyper-focused on keeping those closest to them safe. Lois Lane was extremely concerned for
05:36her husband. Not his physical state, obviously, but Lois knew that Superman wasn't invulnerable of
05:41being afraid that he can't save everyone. As she considered that thought, she opened an anonymous
05:45piece of mail that said that they know Clark's secret, and that she would be the next target.
05:514. Death Of A Father
05:52The superhero community then becomes much more aggressive in their pursuit of the killer after
05:57Lois's death threat. The villains were becoming scared and desperate. While attacking the Shadow
06:01Thief, Firestorm was killed when the thief grabbed the Shining Knight's sword and punctured Firestorm's
06:06body. The nuclear hero then flew into the sky and exploded. Meanwhile, Ray Palmer and Jean Loring
06:11had been spending all of their time together, and their romance began to rekindle. Tim Drake began
06:16spending more and more time with his father Jack, and less time as Robin, although he felt guilty and
06:21went out to help the Titans look for the killer. He had put a gun inside. Flash villain Captain
06:28Boomerang had fallen on hard times and couldn't get work. He had been begging his friend the
06:32Calculator for any job and for help finding his son, Owen Mercer. Calculator came through with Owen
06:37first, and Digger showed his son how to throw his trick boomerangs. Calculator also came through with a
06:42job to kill Jack Drake. Captain Boomerang entered the house, and Jack called Tim. Batman and Robin rushed to
06:48the house, but they heard a shot. Jack had killed Digger, but not before a razor-sharp boomerang hit
06:53Jack in the chest. And it turned out that Digger had also left a message for Owen.
06:573. A Batman Betrayed
07:00Now here, some people began to breathe a sigh of relief, because they believed that Boomerang was
07:04the killer that they were all looking for. Many of the heroes were spending time with their loved
07:08ones and staying close to them any longer. Owen Mercer took up his father's mantle of Captain Boomerang,
07:16but Batman, however, continued to investigate. Flash confronted Green Arrow, asking why he saw
07:21eight people in the memory flash that they all experienced when Dr. Light recovered his memories.
07:26Arrow explained that Batman had come up on the teleporter as they were mind-wiping Light,
07:30and he was going to stop them. So they had to also mind-wipe the Caped Crusader as well
07:34to make him forget those few minutes. They did, and Batman was none the wiser.
07:38Still performing his autopsy of Sue Dibney, Dr. Midnight, now assisted by Mr. Terrific,
07:43had found that Sue died from an infraction of the brain. Whilst doing a microscopic scan of Sue's
07:47brain, Peter was shot to find that the cause of the infraction were two tiny footprints on her brain.
07:53Somebody with the ability to change their size had stood on Sue's brain and then killed her.
07:582. The Murderer Revealed
08:00When news of Sue's brain scan was discovered,
08:03Jean Loring began asking Ray Palmer about evidence that she had no way of knowing unless
08:07she was actually directly involved. Jean admitted that she donned the atom suit and attacked Sue to
08:12scare her, not to kill her. When she saw what she did, she burned Sue's body to cover her tracks.
08:17Her intention was to get the heroes to rally around their loved ones, just as Batman had
08:21deduced. Jean recanted the details coldly and matter-of-factually, as if reading a recipe.
08:26Ray was screaming at her about how terrible everything she did, as she dismissed his feelings.
08:31Jean acted as if it was a good idea, and that she was his wife and wouldn't do anything against her.
08:36Realizing that she had gone way too far, Ray took her to Arkham Asylum. He then sank away,
08:40out of sight, in despair. Life for the heroes then returned to relative normality. Wally was unsure
08:46of how to talk to Batman, knowing what he knew now. Green Arrow mused about how the leak always
08:50endures, and lastly, Ralph was seen getting ready for bed as he was talking about his day to Sue,
08:55even though she was no longer there.
08:571. Ramifications
08:58There was definite fallout from the actions of this storyline. Batman did eventually remember
09:03the events of the night of Sue Dibney's attack, and the fact that his teammates and friends,
09:07especially Zatanna, would do this to him made him feel very distrustful and distant from the other
09:12heroes. It also caused Bruce to create the Brother Mark I satellite, which eventually became Brother
09:17I, and created the OMAX. Catwoman also suspected that her personality shift from villain to Batman's
09:22ally might have not been her own choice, and then confronted Zatanna. This entire situation caused
09:28the villain community to become organized in a way like never before. Rogues began to fear the
09:32possibility of being mind-wiped, and they began looking for ways to band together. This opened
09:37the door for Lex Luthor to create The Society, which organized nearly every villain into one
09:42large army, except for the Secret Six, who violently refused Luthor's offer. The distrust,
09:47anger, and hurt feelings ultimately caused the Justice League to fall apart, much to Green Arrow's
09:52anger. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman came together later to rebuild the League from the bottom up,
09:56but the new League came together with all the heroes who battled Solomon Grundy for the body of Red
10:01Tornado. And there we go, my friends. That was DC Comics' Identity Crisis, the full story. I hope
10:06that you enjoyed that, and let me know what you thought about it down in the comment section below.
10:10As always, I've been Jules. You can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJ, but the O is a zero,
10:15and it'd be great to chat to you over there. But before I go, I just want to say one thing.
10:18Hope that you are treating yourself well with love and respect, my friend. You deserve all the best
10:22things in life, and don't let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? You are a massive
10:27ledge. Now go out there and absolutely smash your life goals today. Big love to you. As always,
10:31I've been Jules. You have been awesome. Never forget that. I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
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