Identity Crisis #5 - comments and spoilers (cover revealed)

[deathlok]

I don't want to go on forever about this, but I just read issues 1-5 of this series. You guys are right. It RULES!!! And for any DC series that could make me do anything other than shake my head and think "Man, was that ever dumb!" that's saying something.

[Ares]

I don't want to go on forever about this, but I just read issues 1-5 of this series. You guys are right. It RULES!!! And for any DC series that could make me do anything other than shake my head and think "Man, was that ever dumb!" that's saying something.

 

Did you Ever Read Kingdom Come?

[deathlok]

I don't want to go on forever about this, but I just read issues 1-5 of this series. You guys are right. It RULES!!! And for any DC series that could make me do anything other than shake my head and think "Man, was that ever dumb!" that's saying something.

 

Did you Ever Read Kingdom Come?

 

Based on his reading schedule, he may read it in about 5 years.

[Gisgo-migration]

Just some thoughts from someone with too much time on his hands...

 

1. People have beaten the Luthor "Crisis/Reckoning" comment into the ground, but nobody (that I've seen, anyway) has made anything of the Elongated Man's "Identity Crisis" comment in Formerly Known as the Justice League. He accuses Plastic Man of having an identity crisis (it is bolded in the book, for emphasis). The issue in which it is said came out in April '04, I think. Now, it's probably nothing (in fact, I'm sure it's nothing; as a comic fan, though, it is my job to say the sky is falling at every available opportunity), but it is worth noting that Plastic Man has had it in for Ralph for a while. He seems to suspect that Ralph isn't living up to his full potential as a malleable entity. Is Plastic Man crazy enough to do stuff like this? Probably. Could he have managed to get past the League security systems? Probably. "Probably" is all I've got at the moment, and this month's IC doesn't do much to support this. Oh well.

 

2. What if Owen is the illegitimate child of the Flash and Black Canary? They were on the verge of "getting together" for quite a while. Whether the child was conceived while under mind control or not, I have no idea.

 

3. It seems more and more likely that, if Captain Boomerang IS the original killer, he may have been telling the truth about that "Miraclo" he was trying to sell.

 

Oh well. Can't wait 'til the 10th.

 

An aside:

 

All the talk of Amanda Waller jogged my memory about something. I checked some of the issues from the 'Funeral for a Friend' sequence in '93, and, in THAT run, Amanda Waller is thin, blonde, and white. What the hell happened?

[The Brain]

HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE BOARDS!!!!!

 

 

 

As for the rest

[FFB]

1. People have beaten the Luthor "Crisis/Reckoning" comment into the ground, but nobody (that I've seen, anyway) has made anything of the Elongated Man's "Identity Crisis" comment in Formerly Known as the Justice League. He accuses Plastic Man of having an identity crisis (it is bolded in the book, for emphasis). The issue in which it is said came out in April '04, I think. Now, it's probably nothing (in fact, I'm sure it's nothing; as a comic fan, though, it is my job to say the sky is falling at every available opportunity), but it is worth noting that Plastic Man has had it in for Ralph for a while. He seems to suspect that Ralph isn't living up to his full potential as a malleable entity. Is Plastic Man crazy enough to do stuff like this? Probably. Could he have managed to get past the League security systems? Probably. "Probably" is all I've got at the moment, and this month's IC doesn't do much to support this. Oh well.

 

Interesting. Wasn't it Frank Miller who had Superman or Batman say of Plastic Man that PM's power was such that he could kill them all if he wanted to? It seems thin and like kind of a lame motive, but it's still interesting.

[FFB]

I don't want to go on forever about this, but I just read issues 1-5 of this series. You guys are right. It RULES!!! And for any DC series that could make me do anything other than shake my head and think "Man, was that ever dumb!" that's saying something.

 

Did you Ever Read Kingdom Come?

 

That was Waid's book, right? With Ross' paintings? I think I have the TPB and just haven't read it.

 

Shut up, Rick.

[Kevin Boyd]

but nobody (that I've seen, anyway) has made anything of the Elongated Man's "Identity Crisis" comment in Formerly Known as the Justice League. He accuses Plastic Man of having an identity crisis (it is bolded in the book, for emphasis). The issue in which it is said came out in April '04, I think. Now, it's probably nothing (in fact, I'm sure it's nothing; as a comic fan, though, it is my job to say the sky is falling at every available opportunity), but it is worth noting that Plastic Man has had it in for Ralph for a while. He seems to suspect that Ralph isn't living up to his full potential as a malleable entity. Is Plastic Man crazy enough to do stuff like this? Probably. Could he have managed to get past the League security systems? Probably. "Probably" is all I've got at the moment, and this month's IC doesn't do much to support this. Oh well.

 

I know DeMatteis, Giffen, Maguire and Rubinstein were hard at work on "I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League" when they were told that Sue was going to die in IC1. The series had been written, most of the covers completed, along with the interiors to a couple of issues. The series was to feature Sue and Ralph (in that pink and white costume and with the mullet he had in FKATJL). Their story was pretty much invalidated by IC and they have been trying to decide what to do with it. (I believe the current intention is to publish it as an arc in JLA: CLASSIFIED, which is supposed to tell "untold tales" of the JLA.

 

As for Plastic Man:

- we haven't seen him yet

- he's still in JLA long after IC

- he's an "iconic" character, it would be like making Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel the killer.

 

What's your definition of a killer?

 

Calculator is hiring people to do the killings... or someone is making it look like he is. He definitely hired Captain Boomerang to kill Jack Drake, and I'm pretty sure we are supposed to think he attempted to kill Jean Loring (that shadow behind the door sure looks like him).

 

In my mind the real questions are... who killed Sue Dibny? Is she really dead? Read the next JSA to find that out.

 

Is the Calculator acting on his own? The heroes hit so far were the ones that defeated him during his debut.

 

Or has someone hired the Calculator to hire the killers needed for the job?

 

Is the person writing the notes helping or hurting the heroes?

 

Who are the real parents of Captain Boomerang's kid?

[Illiterati-migration]

who killed Sue Dibny? Is she really dead? Read the next JSA to find that out.

 

She'd damn well BETTER be dead. (Sorry, Sue.) But with all the various supervillain weaponry out there, why couldn't it have been Boomerang that gave her the big B-B-Q?

 

Or has someone hired the Calculator to hire the killers needed for the job?

 

I think this is the more likely of the two possibilities you presented... there simply isn't motive enough for Calculator to suddenly change his M.O. this dramatically.

 

Who are the real parents of Captain Boomerang's kid?

 

Wouldn't it be whoever Captain Boomerang "boomerbanged" while he was in possession of Barry Allen's body?

 

Isn't that why he considers this kid HIS son?

 

Isn't that why the kid has super speed?

 

 

 

Is the person writing the notes helping or hurting the heroes?

 

I haven't noticed anyone talking about Lois' note yet... didn't it say something like "You're next" or something like that?

 

She wasn't...

[Kevin Boyd]

Wouldn't it be whoever Captain Boomerang "boomerbanged" while he was in possession of Barry Allen's body?

 

Isn't that why he considers this kid HIS son?

 

Isn't that why the kid has super speed?

 

Captain Boomerang was never in possession of the Flash's body. So no.

[500]

She wasn't...

 

ahh, proof that Boomerang was not the original killer. Considering how much I know about the DC universe, (relatively little) Boomerang does not seem anywhere in the same league as Superman, he's way to low on the chart to know his identity and threaten his wife.

 

But who says the person leaving the notes is bad? Was Lois's note threatening or warning? Because Drake's note was helpful. Who could have slipped it in?

 

Hal Jordan/Spectre breaking the rules?

[Kevin Boyd]

Okay, I've been trying to find out more about this specific issue (#302).

 

It's part of a story arc involving the ghost of the villain the Top inhabiting Barry's father Harry Allen's body,

 

Hooking up with his former girlfriend the Golden Glider, they plot to kill the Flash and then have the Top would move on to the Flash's body. However, the Flash tricked him into attempting to possess him while he was still alive, and Henry Allen's spirit returned to his own body and the Top to the afterlife (#303).

 

But Barry is definitely under the GG's hypnotic control in #302.

 

Anybody have these issues to check against?

 

I'm on a roll. Check out Flash #215 - out today. SEMI-SPOILERS

 

 

Barry Allen's "secret" involves the TOP, the villain who returned from the dead in Flash 302-303 and inhabited the body of the Flash's father. When he was alive the Top went out with the woman who eventually became the Golden Glider.

 

Swipe the space below for spoilers:

 

After Flash #303 we learn that there is another untold tale of JLA, and specifically the Flash. Seems the Top's spirit went and inhabited another newly deceased person's body. Since he knew Barry's secret he was a threat that had to be dealt with... so Barry had Zatanna shift his personality to make him "good", without removing his memories or lobotomizing him. And for a while it worked... the Flash and the heroic Top "cleaned" up Central City and took out the Rogues. The new personality eventually started to affect him and he disappeared. Now Flash (Wally) and Zatanna have to find the Top and stop him.

 

Now, we still don't know who fathered Boomerang's "son", but, in a way, The Top was also a super-speedster and could be considered a candidate for being the kid's "dad".

[Kevin Boyd]

I was able to obtain copies of Flash 302 & 303 this afternoon. Aside from having the most atrocious Carmine Infantino artwork there are definitely two things that struck me about these issues:

 

1) It is possible that Flash and the Glider had an off-camera "quickie" in the first half of issue #302. GG was wearing a Magic Diamond on her forehead which made Barry believe that she was his (late but not really) wife Iris, and when she first uses it on him she has Barry carry her off to someplace "private". However, while he is in her control he is helpless to resist but he is aware of what is going on. I'm sure he would not forget an intimate encounter with her, unless, well maybe she lay there like a board and they were in an uncomfortable spot. I suppose he could have omitted it from his memoirs since he knew Iris would be reading them. In both issues GG makes remarks about his great athletic body and refers to him in #302 as her "Super-Speed Lover". She is extremely anxious to get it on with the Top in the Flash's body when she thinks Roscoe has taken control in issue #303.

 

2) The Top was not an interesting villain. And GG, while kind of hot, is equally lame.

[Darthdiesel]

In both issues GG makes remarks about his great athletic body and refers to him ... as her "Super-Speed Lover".

 

Don't know if Flash woould want this getting out amongst the female superchicks...

[chrisco37]

In both issues GG makes remarks about his great athletic body and refers to him ... as her "Super-Speed Lover".

 

Don't know if Flash woould want this getting out amongst the female superchicks...

 

Didn't stop you from getting hitched.