DC Comics' Identity Crisis: The Full Story
This controversial story explores the consequences of actions and the line between hero and villain.
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00:00 So, Identity Crisis is a 2004 DC Comics miniseries. It's an eight-issue tale featuring the Justice
00:05 League of America and its family members and close friends. The book is a murder mystery
00:10 that explores the idea of the thin line between hero and villain, betrayal and death.
00:16 The series has been controversial with some readers, thanks to the violent sexual assault
00:19 and murder of popular character Sue Dibny, wife of Ralph Dibny, the elongated man. But
00:24 also, the series is praised for its attention to comics history and for being an engaging
00:29 murder mystery. So, what we thought we'd do today is try and break it down for you.
00:32 So, if you've not read the arc, then maybe it'll motivate you to go and do so. And
00:36 if you have, well, let's just celebrate the best and some of the worst aspects of
00:40 this crazy storyline.
00:41 So, with this in mind, I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and this is DC Comics'
00:45 Identity Crisis, the full story.
00:48 Number 9. The Players, the Premise, and the Stage
00:51 Identity Crisis took place in the then-present and starred members of the Justice League
00:55 of America. Members of the Justice Society play significant roles, and practically every
00:59 hero team in the DC universe is mentioned or depicted in some artwork.
01:04 The story centres around the Justice League members that were active in the satellite
01:07 era. They were The Atom, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Zatanna, plus
01:13 the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern and Wally West Flash. Minus Kyle and Wally are hiding a secret
01:18 from years ago that involves the violent sexual assault of Sue Dibny by the villain Dr. Light.
01:23 Light claims that this is just the beginning, as he knows all of their identities and every
01:26 loved one that he can torture and murder. The team, along with Hal Jordan's Green
01:31 Lantern and Barry Allen's Flash, elect to have Zatanna not only wipe Dr. Light's memories,
01:35 but to make him less of a threat.
01:37 The team hangs back after Sue's funeral, while all the other heroes start to search
01:41 the world for clues because they suspect that the person behind the murder is none other
01:44 than Light himself. When word that they are after him gets back to Light, he goes looking
01:49 for protection.
01:50 Number 8. The Murder of Sue Dibny
01:52 In Opal City, Ralph Dibny was out on a stakeout with Firehawk to potentially thwart the sale
01:57 of a Lex Luthor battle suit. Across town, Sue Dibny was preparing the annual mystery
02:01 surprise for Ralph's birthday. She receives a call and begins to seize in pain. She manages
02:06 to contact Ralph, just as an unseen assailant burned her body horribly. Ralph got there
02:11 and cradled her dead body as he melted in despair. His present then got knocked open,
02:15 with it being revealed that Sue had been pregnant, meaning that Ralph would have been a father.
02:20 In the captions from Green Arrow, we learn that since his and Superman's deaths, plans,
02:24 contingencies, and an organisational structure has been put in place. Various heroes with
02:29 certain specialities were called in to check the crime scene for clues and means of an
02:32 entrance, and bypass the extensive security that the house had.
02:36 After the funeral, where Ralph is too distraught to speak, Captain Atom organises all of the
02:40 heroes into teams to go and check on villains who might have likely committed the crime.
02:45 Those with fire-based powers, teleporters, or those with personal grudges against the
02:48 League or Elongated Man specifically. Ralph believed he knew who did it, and asked his
02:53 closest League teammates to help him find Dr. Light.
02:56 7. The League Within The League
02:58 Six members of the League hung back after the heroes all take off to pursue various
03:02 possible foes who may have killed Sue Dibny. As the group discussed a plan of action, they
03:07 realised that they were being watched by Kyle Rayner and Wally West, the current Green Lantern
03:11 and Flash. They insisted the heroes tell them what's going on. Ralph recounted the horrible
03:16 night where Sue was on the JLA satellite alone, looking at the stars, and Dr. Light got in.
03:21 He attacked, beat, and brutally sexually assaulted Sue. The heroes returned to discover Light
03:26 in the act, and viciously beat him down. Zatanna wiped his memory of the event so he couldn't
03:30 brag about it, but Hawkman suggested that they do more. He suggested that they alter
03:35 Light's mind to make him less of a threat. Zatanna went through with this plan, making
03:39 Light weaker and turning him into an absolute buffoon.
03:42 Light appeared on the old secret society's satellite and begged for somebody to help
03:45 him against the League. The heroes go to Light's home and are met with an explosion that immediately
03:50 knocked Ralph out, as he was the closest to the building. They find that Light has succeeded
03:54 to hire the best assassin on Earth, Deathstroke, the Terminator.
03:58 6. Dr. Light Remembers
04:00 During his autopsy, Dr. Midnight had discovered that Dr. Light hadn't actually killed Sue
04:05 Dibny, but that information had not reached the League in time. Deathstroke was ready
04:09 for their attack, and systematically took down each Leaguer in fairly rapid and ingenious
04:14 ways. Slade paused to get into a battle of wits with Kyle while he was crushing his ring
04:18 hand. Oliver takes the opportunity to jam an arrowhead into Wilson's blind eye, and
04:22 Deathstroke changes from controlled to chaotic, and the newly freed League then dogpiles on
04:26 Slade. Watching the fight triggers a memory and power return to Dr. Light. He uses a blinding
04:32 flash to knock out the League and escape with Deathstroke. They awaken to find Superman
04:36 standing over them. He tells them that Light is innocent. Flash interrogates Green Arrow
04:41 further and reveals a time when five members of the secret society of supervillains switched
04:45 bodies with five members of the League. They mindwiped them, and apparently it had happened
04:49 again at least a dozen times.
04:51 It's also discovered that the Sue Dibny murder was not an isolated incident. Jean
04:55 Loring, lawyer and ex-wife to Ray Palmer, aka The Atom, is attacked in her own home.
05:00 Loring is hung from a noose over the door, but she manages to place a call to Palmer
05:04 before the noose tightens.
05:05 5. Who Benefits?
05:07 The Atom rushed through the phone line to save his ex-wife's life. They are soon joined
05:11 by Arrow, Superman, and Mr. Miracle, who can't find any clues to how the League's security
05:16 was breached again without leaving a trace. Superman did recognize the knot, and Oracle
05:20 identified it as the trademark for the villain Slipknot. Wonder Woman interrogated him with
05:25 her lasso of truth, but Slipknot didn't know anything. The only connection between
05:28 the suspects so far is that they were both on the Suicide Squad.
05:31 While this has been going on, Batman had been conducting his own investigation. He had already
05:35 dismissed the Suicide Squad connection. For him, this mystery - truly any mystery - was
05:40 solved by determining who benefits most from the outcome. Bruce noticed that it was the
05:44 significant others of the heroes that were currently benefiting most, as the heroes were
05:47 now hyper-focused on keeping those closest to them safe.
05:51 Lois Lane was extremely concerned for her husband. Not his physical state, obviously,
05:55 but Lois knew that Superman wasn't invulnerable of being afraid that he can't save everyone.
05:59 As she considered that thought, she opened an anonymous piece of mail that said that
06:03 they know Clark's secret, and that she would be the next target.
06:07 4. Death of a Father
06:09 The superhero community then becomes much more aggressive in their pursuit of the killer
06:13 after Lois' death threat. The villains were becoming scared and desperate. While attacking
06:17 the Shadow Thief, Firestorm was killed when the Thief grabbed the Shining Knight sword
06:21 and punctured Firestorm's body. The nuclear hero then flew into the sky and exploded.
06:26 Meanwhile, Ray Palmer and Jean Loring had been spending all of their time together,
06:30 and their romance began to rekindle. Tim Drake began spending more and more time with his
06:34 father Jack, and less time as Robin, although he felt guilty and went out to help the Titans
06:38 look for the killer. As Tim left, Jack found a box with a note and a gun inside.
06:43 Flash villain Captain Boomerang had fallen on hard times and couldn't get work. He
06:47 had been begging his friend the Calculator for any job and for help finding his son,
06:51 Owen Mercer. Calculator came through with Owen first, and Digger showed his son how
06:55 to throw his trick boomerangs. Calculator also came through with a job to kill Jack
06:59 Drake.
07:00 Captain Boomerang entered the house, and Jack called Tim. Batman and Robin rushed to the
07:04 house, but they heard a shot. Jack had killed Digger, but not before a razor-sharp boomerang
07:09 hit Jack in the chest. It turned out that Digger had also left a message for Owen.
07:14 3. A Batman Betrayed
07:16 Now here some people began to breathe a sigh of relief, because they believed that Boomerang
07:20 was the killer that they were all looking for. Many of the heroes were spending time
07:24 with their loved ones and staying close to home. The Suicide Squad was released from
07:27 custody since there was no reason to hold them any longer. Owen Mercer took up his father's
07:31 mantle of Captain Boomerang, but Batman, however, continued to investigate.
07:35 Flash confronted Green Arrow, asking why he saw eight people in the memory flash that
07:39 they all experienced when Dr. Light recovered his memories. Arrow explained that Batman
07:43 had come up on the teleporter as they were mind-wiping Light, and he was going to stop
07:48 them, so they had to also mind-wipe the Caped Crusader as well to make him forget those
07:51 few minutes. They did, and Batman was none the wiser.
07:55 Still performing his autopsy of Sue Dibney, Dr. Midnight, now assisted by Mr. Terrific,
07:59 had found that Sue died from an infraction of the brain. Whilst doing a microscopic scan
08:03 of Sue's brain, Peter was shot to find that the cause of the infraction were two tiny
08:08 footprints on her brain. Somebody with the ability to change their size had stood on
08:13 Sue's brain and then killed her.
08:15 2. The Murderer Revealed
08:17 When news of Sue's brain scan was discovered, Jean Loring began asking Ray Palmer about
08:21 evidence that she had no way of knowing unless she was actually directly involved. Jean admitted
08:25 that she donned the Atom suit and attacked Sue to scare her, not to kill her. When she
08:30 saw what she did, she burned Sue's body to cover her tracks. Her intention was to
08:34 get the heroes to rally around their loved ones, just as Batman had deduced. Jean recanted
08:39 the details coldly and matter-of-factually, as if reading a recipe. Ray was screaming
08:43 at her about how terrible everything she did, as she dismissed his feelings. Jean acted
08:48 as if it was a good idea and that she was his wife and wouldn't do anything against
08:52 her. Realising that she had gone way too far, Ray took her to Arkham Asylum. He then sank
08:56 away out of sight in despair.
08:59 Life for the heroes then returned to relative normality. Wally was unsure of how to talk
09:03 to Batman, knowing what he knew now. Green Arrow mused about how the League always endures,
09:07 and lastly Ralph was seen getting ready for bed as he was talking about his date as Sue,
09:11 even though she was no longer there.
09:14 1. Ramifications
09:15 There was definite fallout from the actions of this storyline. Batman did eventually remember
09:20 the events of the night of Sue Dibney's attack, and the fact that his teammates and
09:23 friends - especially Zatanna - would do this to him made him feel very distrustful and
09:27 distant from the other heroes. It also caused Bruce to create the Brother Mark I satellite,
09:32 which eventually became Brother I, and created the OMAX. Catwoman also suspected that her
09:36 personality shift from villain to Batman's ally might have not been her own choice, and
09:41 then confronted Zatanna. This entire situation caused the villain community to become organised
09:46 in a way like never before. Rogues began to fear the possibility of being mind wiped,
09:50 and they began looking for ways to band together. This opened the door for Lex Luthor to create
09:55 the Society, which organised nearly every villain into one large army, except for the
09:59 Secret Six, who violently refused Luthor's offer.
10:02 The distrust, anger, and hurt feelings ultimately caused the Justice League to fall apart, much
10:07 to Green Arrow's anger. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman came together later to rebuild
10:12 the League from the bottom up, but the new League came together with all the heroes who
10:15 battled Solomon Grundy for the body of Red Tornado.
10:18 And there we go my friends, that was DC Comics' Identity Crisis, the full story. I hope that
10:23 you enjoyed that, and let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section
10:26 below. As always I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter @RetroJay, but
10:30 the O is a zero, and it'd be great to chat to you over there. But before I go I just
10:33 want to say one thing, hope that you are treating yourself well with love and respect my friend.
10:38 You deserve all the best things in life and don't let anything or anyone else tell you
10:41 otherwise alright? You are a massive ledge. Now go out there and absolutely smash your
10:46 life goals today. Big love to ya. As always I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never
10:50 forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.