This controversial story explores the consequences of actions and the line between hero and villain.
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00:00Identity Crisis is a 2004 DC Comics miniseries. It's an eight-issue tale featuring the Justice
00:05League of America and its family members and close friends. The book is a murder mystery
00:10that 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 Dibny, wife of Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man. But also,
00:24the series is praised for its attention to comics history and for being an engaging murder
00:29mystery. So what we thought we'd do today is try and break it down for you. So if you've
00:33not read the arc, then maybe it'll motivate you to go and do so. And if you have, well,
00:36let's just celebrate the best and some of the worst aspects of this crazy storyline.
00:41So with this in mind, I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:43and this is DC Comics' Identity Crisis, the full story.
00:47Number 9. The Players, the Premise, and the Stage
00:51Identity Crisis took place in the then-president and starred members of the Justice League of
00:55America. Members of the Justice Society play significant roles, and practically every hero
01:00team in the DC universe is mentioned or depicted in some artwork. The story centers around the
01:05Justice League members that were active in the satellite era. They were the Atom, Black Canary,
01:09Elongated Man, Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Zatanna, plus the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern and Wally West
01:15Flash. Minus Kyle and Wally are hiding a secret from years ago that involves the violent sexual
01:20assault of Sue Dibny 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.
01:29The team, along with Harold Jordan's Green Lantern and Barry Allen's Flash,
01:32elect to have Zatanna not only wipe Dr. Light's memories, but to make him less of a threat.
01:37The team hangs back after Sue's funeral, while all the other heroes start to search the world
01:41for clues because they suspect that the person behind the murder is none other than Light
01:45himself. When word that they are after him gets back to Light, he goes looking for protection.
01:50Number 8. The Murder of Sue Dibny
01:52In Opal City, Ralph Dibny was out on a stakeout with Firehawk to potentially thwart the sale of
01:57a Lex Luthor battlesuit. Across town, Sue Dibny was preparing the annual mystery surprise for
02:02Ralph's birthday. She receives a call and begins to seize in pain. She manages to contact Ralph,
02:07just as an unseen assailant burned her body horribly. Ralph got there and cradled her dead
02:12body as he melted in despair. His present then got knocked open, with it being revealed that
02:16Sue had been pregnant, meaning that Ralph would have been a father. In the captions from Green
02:21Arrow, we learn that since his and Superman's deaths, plans, contingencies, and an organizational
02:26structure has been put in place. Various heroes with certain specialties were called in to check
02:31the crime scene for clues and means of an entrance, and bypass the extensive security
02:35that the house had. After the funeral, where Ralph is too distraught to speak, Captain Atom
02:39organizes all of the heroes into teams to go and check on villains who might have likely committed
02:44the crime. Those with fire-based powers, teleporters, or those with personal grudges
02:48against the League or Elongated Man specifically. Ralph believed he knew who did it, and asked his
02:53closest League teammates to help him find Dr. Light.
02:567. The League Within the League
02:58Six members of the League hung back after the heroes all take off to pursue various
03:02possible foes who may have killed Sue Dibny. As the group discussed a plan of action,
03:07they realized that they were being watched by Kyle Rayner and Wally West, the current
03:10Green Lantern and Flash. They insisted the heroes tell them what's going on. Ralph
03:15recounted the horrible night where Sue was on the JLA satellite alone, looking at the
03:19stars, and Dr. Light got in. He attacked, beat, and brutally sexually assaulted Sue.
03:24The heroes returned to discover Light in the act, and viciously beat him down. Zatanna
03:28wiped his memory of the event so he couldn't brag about it, but Hawkman suggested that
03:32they do more. He suggested that they alter Light's mind to make him less of a threat.
03:37Zatanna went through with this plan, making Light weaker and turning him into an absolute
03:41buffoon. Light appeared on the Old Secret Society satellite and begged for somebody
03:45to help him against the League. The heroes go to Light's home and are met with an explosion
03:49that immediately knocked Ralph out, as he was the closest to the building. They find
03:53that Light has succeeded to hire the best assassin on Earth, Deathstroke, the Terminator.
03:586. Dr. Light Remembers
04:00During his autopsy, Dr. Midnight had discovered that Dr. Light hadn't actually killed Sue Dibny,
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.
04:14Slade paused to get into a battle of wits with Kyle while he was crushing his ring hand.
04:18Oliver takes the opportunity to jam an arrowhead into Wilson's blind eye,
04:22and Deathstroke changes from controlled to chaotic, and the newly freed League then
04:25dogpiles on Slade. Watching the fight triggers a memory, and power returned to Dr. Light.
04:30He uses a blinding flash to knock out the League and escape with Deathstroke.
04:34They awaken to find Superman standing over them. He tells them that Light is innocent.
04:39Flash interrogates Green Arrow further, and reveals a time when five members of the
04:43secret society of supervillains switched bodies with five members of the League.
04:47They mindwiped them, and apparently it had happened again at least a dozen times.
04:51It's also discovered that the Sue Dibny murder was not an isolated incident.
04:55Jean Loring, lawyer and ex-wife to Ray Palmer, aka The Atom, is attacked in her own home. Loring
05:00is hung from a noose over the door, but she manages to place a call to Palmer before the noose tightens.
05:055. Who Benefits?
05:07The Atom rush through the phone line to save his ex-wife's life.
05:10They are soon joined by Arrow, Superman, and Mr. Miracle, who can't find any clues to how
05:15the League's security was breached again without leaving a trace. Superman did recognize the knot,
05:20and Oracle identified it as the trademark for the villain Slipknot. Wonder Woman interrogated him
05:24with her lasso of truth, but Slipknot didn't know anything. The only connection between the
05:28suspects so far is that they were both on the Suicide Squad. While this has been going on,
05:32Batman had been conducting his own investigation. He had already dismissed the Suicide Squad
05:37connection. For him, this mystery, truly any mystery, was solved by determining who benefits
05:41most from the outcome. Bruce noticed that it was the significant others of the heroes that
05:45were currently benefiting most, as the heroes were now hyper-focused on keeping those closest
05:50to them safe. Lois Lane was extremely concerned for her husband. Not his physical state, obviously,
05:54but 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 know
06:03Clark's secret, and that she would be the next target.
06:074. Death of a Father The superhero community then becomes
06:10much more aggressive in their pursuit of the killer after Lois' death threat. The villains
06:14were becoming scared and desperate. While attacking the Shadow Thief, Firestorm was
06:19killed when the Thief grabbed the Shining Knight's sword and punctured Firestorm's body.
06:23The nuclear hero then flew into the sky and exploded. Meanwhile, Ray Palmer and Gene
06:27Loring had been spending all of their time together, and their romance began to rekindle.
06:32Tim Drake began spending more and more time with his father Jack, and less time as Robin,
06:36although he felt guilty and went out to help the Titans look for the killer. As Tim left,
06:40Jack found a box with a note and a gun inside. Flash villain Captain Boomerang had fallen on
06:45hard times and couldn't get work. He had been begging his friend the Calculator for any job,
06:50and for help finding his son, Owen Mercer. Calculator came through with Owen first,
06:54and Digger showed his son how to throw his trick boomerangs. Calculator also came through with a
06:58job to kill Jack Drake. Captain Boomerang entered the house, and Jack called Tim. Batman and Robin
07:04rushed to the house, but they heard a shot. Jack had killed Digger, but not before a razor-sharp
07:08boomerang hit Jack in the chest. And it turned out that Digger had also left a message for Owen.
07:143. A Batman Betrayed
07:16Now here some people began to breathe a sigh of relief, because they believed that Boomerang was
07:20the killer that they were all looking for. Many of the heroes were spending time with their loved
07:24ones and staying close to home. The Suicide Squad was released from custody, since there was no
07:28reason to hold them any longer. Owen Mercer took up his father's mantle of Captain Boomerang,
07:32but Batman, however, continued to investigate. Flash confronted Green Arrow, asking why he saw
07:38eight people in the memory flash that they all experienced when Dr. Light recovered his memories.
07:42Arrow explained that Batman had come up on the teleporter as they were mind-wiping Light,
07:46and he was going to stop them. So they had to also mind-wipe the Caped Crusader as well
07:50to make him forget those few minutes. They did, and Batman was none the wiser.
07:55Still performing his autopsy of Sue Dibny, Dr. Midnight, now assisted by Mr. Terrific,
07:59had found that Sue died from an infraction of the brain. Whilst doing a microscopic scan of
08:03Sue's brain, Peter was shot to find that the cause of the infraction were two tiny footprints on her
08:09brain. Somebody with the ability to change their size had stood on Sue's brain and then killed her.
08:15The Murderer Revealed
08:17When news of Sue's brain scan was discovered, Jean Loring began asking Ray Palmer about evidence
08:22that she had no way of knowing unless she was actually directly involved. Jean 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
08:35around their loved ones, just as Batman had deduced. Jean recanted the details coldly and
08:40matter-of-factually, as if reading a recipe. Ray was screaming at her about how terrible everything
08:45she did as she dismissed his feelings. Jean acted as if it was a good idea and that she was his
08:50wife and wouldn't do anything against her. Realising that she had gone way too far,
08:54Ray took her to Arkham Asylum. He then sank away, out of sight, in despair.
08:58Life for the heroes then returned to relative normality. Wally was unsure of how to talk to
09:03Batman, knowing what he knew now. Green Arrow mused about how the League always endures,
09:07and lastly, Ralph was seen getting ready for bed as he was talking about his day to Sue,
09:11even 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 Dibny's attack, and the fact that his teammates and friends,
09:23especially Zatanna, would do this to him made him feel very distrustful and distant from the
09:28other heroes. It also caused Bruce to create the Brother Mark I satellite, which eventually became
09:33Brother I, and created the OMAX. Catwoman also suspected that her personality shift from villain
09:38to Batman's ally might have not been her own choice, and then confronted Zatanna.
09:42This entire situation caused the villain community to become organised in a way like never before.
09:47Rogues began to fear the possibility of being mind-wiped, and they began looking for ways to
09:52band together. This opened the door for Lex Luthor to create The Society, which organised nearly
09:57every villain into one large army, except for the Secret Six, who violently refused Luthor's offer.
10:02The distrust, anger, and hurt feelings ultimately caused the Justice League to fall apart,
10:07much to Green Arrow's anger. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman came together later to rebuild
10:11the League from the bottom up, but the new League came together with all the heroes who
10:15battled Solomon Grundy for the body of Red Tornado.
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 or anyone
10:41else tell you otherwise, alright? You are a massive ledge. Now go out there and absolutely
10:45smash your life goals today. Big love to ya. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome,
10:49never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.