I honestly thought I harped on about this more often here, but I really, really hate Identity Crisis. ("Both wildly popular and reviled," per its Wikipedia page, although I suspect that could apply to any DC event crossover since.) And despite some of its dodgier choices (like Deathstroke no-selling half the Justice League, or killing off Captain Boomerang for some reason) I was still excited to read the last issue! I remember reading the first six issues during lunch the day the final chapter was released, because I wanted to see if there were clues to Sue Dibny's killer; and I can not think of anything that has failed to stick the landing as badly as that last issue did. It was a murder mystery that completely forgot it was a murder mystery in the last mile. It was like a Sherlock Holmes story, where instead of the big reveal at the end, Holmes decides to go to America because Watson hid evidence to another, unrelated case, years before. Anyway, let's check out a crossover issue! I'm sure you're enthused for that now! From 2005, JLA #117, "Crisis of Conscience, part three" Written by Geoff Johns and Allan Heinberg, pencils by Chris Batista, inks by Mark Farmer.
Long-time JLA baddie Despero--who seems to have given up pants--confronts J'onn J'onzz on the team's hypocrisy, siting an earlier occasion where J'onn violated his mind. (Justice League America #39 or thereabouts, where J'onn pulls a power out of his Martian ass to trap Despero in a happy fantasy.) Despero says he had restored the memories mindwiped by Zatanna, to all her "victims." Dr. Light, the Secret Society of Super-Villains, even perhaps Batman. He thought the League would destroy itself, which frees him up to destroy J'onn. Meanwhile, Wally was trying to be everywhere at once, making sure everyone was safe, since the Secret Society knew their secret identities again. Visiting Zatanna, they don't have much time to delve into why she did what she did, before getting a mystic warning, of danger at the Daily Planet. Flash gets to Lois first, but the Society is there, intent on getting everyone the Justice Leaguers had ever loved.
Meanwhile, a recovering Catwoman checks on a noticeably crabbier than usual Batman, who had been repairing Red Tornado. Getting an alert on the Planet attack, a surprised Catwoman asks if he's going to contact the League? Hard. No. But Bats can't seem to reach Superman, either; although he's there in time to save Lois from the usual fall. The rest of the team arrive to help beat the Society but Superman notices they called him "Clark." Batman had told Supes about the mindwipes before he quit the JLA, and Superman wondered if he shouldn't quit. But since the Secret Society's memories had returned, what next. Hawkman, bluntly, suggests: "We vote."
The Secret Society had recovered a Star Sapphire--she wasn't Carol Ferris, and I thought the Society's version had been dead for years. This was a callback to a classic three-parter from Justice League of America #166-168, but the Society then had Blockbuster and Reverse-Flash; this issue they added Chronos, Felix Faust, and Matter Master. I think the bad guys were mindwiped just as a matter of course in that one: got to put that genie back in the bottle, one way or another.
Yeah I definitely hear you about IC. At the time I liked it...up until the final issue like you said, where everything fell apart. Jean Loring ultimately being the culprit (Even though later they'd claim well she DID have a history of mental turning bad during silver age issues of The Atom/Hawkman) and the whole rape thing just didn't sit well with me and whole lot of other fans.
ReplyDeleteThis storyline was a pretty decent epilogue for the whole IC, wrapping some things up, much like the Rogues War did for the Flash, but altogether, Jesus what a bad call by Dildo and friends to this even be published in hindsight. I'd say for me, this "event" is what really led to the darkening of the DCU for long time.