Just finished IC #6... <spoilers>

[Deathlok]

The more I think about the more it seems like Jean is the killer. She had access to the Atom's equipment, she could have faked her own death, and in IC#6 Batman says to find Ray. I don't think he meant that Ray was the killer, but the intended victim of Jean. Batman means to protect Ray from Jean. Is Jean using the whole Sue Dibny murder to throw off suspicion, who knows. Is someone in control of Jean, who knows.

[500]

This is supposedly the cover to IC#7 which shows the hero's costumes.

Costumes pictured are:

 

Batman

Flash

Wonder Woman

Superman

Atom

Green Arrow

Hawkman

Green Lantern

 

So which hero's costume is not pictured or represented, assuming a hero is involved?

 

 

I guess Zatanna is missing, would they show a hat hanging? In my opinion, she's certianly been more involved in this than Superman, Wonderwoman, and Green Lantern. Ralph's costume is missing, and so is Dinah's.

[chrisco37]

and in IC#6 Batman says to find Ray. I don't think he meant that Ray was the killer, but the intended victim of Jean. Batman means to protect Ray from Jean.

 

Wow! That's a nice take actually, DL! (What do they say about blind squirrels? )

 

The only problem I have with this is that (assuming Jean is working alone) we did partially see her attack. Did she throw herself at the table and wall? Why would she say "Please stop!"?.......

 

....unless she had already made the call to Ray and knew he would hear her.

 

Seems plausible. But, what's her motive?

[Deathlok]

and in IC#6 Batman says to find Ray. I don't think he meant that Ray was the killer, but the intended victim of Jean. Batman means to protect Ray from Jean.

 

Wow! That's a nice take actually, DL! (What do they say about blind squirrels? )

 

The only problem I have with this is that (assuming Jean is working alone) we did partially see her attack. Did she throw herself at the table and wall? Why would she say "Please stop!"?.......

 

....unless she had already made the call to Ray and knew he would hear her.

 

Seems plausible. But, what's her motive?

 

Well, I am not sure of her motive, but it would tie into Batman's phrase of "Who benefits?"

 

Sadly, I do not know much about Jean Loring and Ray Palmer to give enough of a reason why. I just started reading Green Arrow TPB's, so my DCU knowledge is not as good as my Marvel knowledge.

[500]

Ok. Atom and wireless phones. In theory his powers shouldn't work on cell phones at all. He's been shown as travelling along the electrical impules within the wires of the phone lines - in theory he could travel along to the transponder which broadcasts the frequency on which the call is broadcast, but he should be stopped there.

 

With handheld (or wireless) units the theory should be that Atom exits from the base unit (which is attached to a land line - where you put the handheld phone to recharge when you aren't using it). IMHO there is no reasonable explanation for how the Atom can go from the phone line/base unit and then cross thru the air to the handheld unit. He could physically jump to the handheld unit first, but he might as well just jump to whereever he needs to go.

 

I don't want to be a dead horse, but Atom does appear to come right out of the wireless phone on the floor near Jean in IC 4

[chrisco37]

Atom does appear to come right out of the wireless phone on the floor near Jean in IC 4

 

Yep.

[Illiterati-migration]

Gotta go pick KhaosGirl® up from the airport. Be sure to have this figured out by the time I get back. Thx.™

[Ares]

Ok. Atom and wireless phones. In theory his powers shouldn't work on cell phones at all. He's been shown as travelling along the electrical impules within the wires of the phone lines - in theory he could travel along to the transponder which broadcasts the frequency on which the call is broadcast, but he should be stopped there.

 

With handheld (or wireless) units the theory should be that Atom exits from the base unit (which is attached to a land line - where you put the handheld phone to recharge when you aren't using it). IMHO there is no reasonable explanation for how the Atom can go from the phone line/base unit and then cross thru the air to the handheld unit. He could physically jump to the handheld unit first, but he might as well just jump to whereever he needs to go.

 

I don't want to be a dead horse, but Atom does appear to come right out of the wireless phone on the floor near Jean in IC 4

 

And the fact when he was with Jean signing papers he jumps into a phone handset lying on table that wasnt dialed anywhere! Everyone says he has to dial location or be called from first!

Maybey Atom has more abilities than we know!

[Kevin Boyd]

The problem with Jean being the killer is how does she benefit?.

 

- She had the patents, and she signed them back to Ray, so she isn't in financial need.

- Ray is single and still attracted to her, so all she had to say was "I want to get back together Ray" if she wanted to resume their relationship, and there's no need to kill one of her friends from the old days to get Ray to think about what she means to him.

 

I'm not saying she can't be involved somehow, but Jean on her own as the killer doesn't make sense. One fellow at Meltzer's site posited that Jean was jealous of Sue and Ralph's stability, and that she set up Boomerang as the fall guy. (Why pick Jack Drake?). Seems a dumb reason to kill an old friend.

 

What's more likely is that Jean's former boyfriend was the Calculator (and he's not former), and the two of them are setting Atom up to take the fall as revenge for him defeating the Calculator back in the day, and for Ray getting it on with the yellow girl in the bikini he met in the grass in south america. She gave him back the patents so that she would look innocent. Setting up Captain Boomerang as the patsy doesn't really make sense in this scenario though. The Atom evidence would have had to surface almost right away in order to have Ray indicted. Pinning it on Boomerang keeps Atom safe, unless they also plan to kill him? Which also doesn't make sense if the evidence is solidly against Ray. They could kill him in prison.

[Fan4Fan]

Ok. Atom and wireless phones. In theory his powers shouldn't work on cell phones at all. He's been shown as travelling along the electrical impules within the wires of the phone lines - in theory he could travel along to the transponder which broadcasts the frequency on which the call is broadcast, but he should be stopped there.

 

With handheld (or wireless) units the theory should be that Atom exits from the base unit (which is attached to a land line - where you put the handheld phone to recharge when you aren't using it). IMHO there is no reasonable explanation for how the Atom can go from the phone line/base unit and then cross thru the air to the handheld unit. He could physically jump to the handheld unit first, but he might as well just jump to whereever he needs to go.

 

I don't want to be a dead horse, but Atom does appear to come right out of the wireless phone on the floor near Jean in IC 4

 

And the fact when he was with Jean signing papers he jumps into a phone handset lying on table that wasnt dialed anywhere! Everyone says he has to dial location or be called from first!

Maybey Atom has more abilities than we know!

 

Or maybe it is not Atom.

 

Time travellers wouldn't need to be connected to get to a different spot.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[Kevin Boyd]

I don't want to be a dead horse, but Atom does appear to come right out of the wireless phone on the floor near Jean in IC 4.

 

Beat that horse if you want. Unless Atom's powers have changed, it shouldn't work that way. So either that's not the Atom or the artist shouldn't have drawn wireless handsets....

 

As for him entering a phone without seeing him dial the number, how do you know he didn't hit the Ray speed dial on the phone? That would have been a tediuous panel to draw.

[Foolkiller]

Jean's somehow involved. I've floated the jealous of Sue and Ralph's relationship as a motive on the DC boards a while back.

 

I agree it's a flimsy motive. But I also think Meltzer might SUPPLY the motive in IC 7 with a yet unseen exchange somewhere. Perhaps Jean herself has been mindwiped (hence the reason in telling us Batman was mind wiped, because if he can be, then ANY hero, or hero's wife could be).

 

There has to be a reason for WHY mind wiping became an issue in this storyline. It is important, but there has to be a reason to show why it was done to Bats as well.

 

Personally, I recall some older issues where Jean had some bouts with not being completely mentally stable. I believe that either at Ray's request, Jean likely had her "personality shifted" and she remembers. This is her revenge. Perhaps she remembers Sue and Ralph being present and not stopping it. Perhaps Boomerang is the villian who put her in the position of needing to be mindwiped, hence why he was set up to get killed, and BOOMERANG, not Jack Drake, was the intended person to get killed.

[500]

Anyone put any thought into the lunch meeting in IC 1 between Black Lightning and Katanna. The only thing significant about the scene is Black Lightning using his powers to short out the guy's cell phone, but that scene leads right into Ray jumping out of a phone.

[Kevin Boyd]

Personally, I recall some older issues where Jean had some bouts with not being completely mentally stable. I believe that either at Ray's request, Jean likely had her "personality shifted" and she remembers. This is her revenge. Perhaps she remembers Sue and Ralph being present and not stopping it. Perhaps Boomerang is the villian who put her in the position of needing to be mindwiped, hence why he was set up to get killed, and BOOMERANG, not Jack Drake, was the intended person to get killed.

 

Yeah, but this gets back to another "untold tale of the DCU" being the motive for the killer. To show it in the last issue is a bit of a cop out. We should have all of the evidence before us to make a call without having a "here's why Jean is evil - it was because Atom asked Zatanna to give her a personality change after the 1995 Atom Special pencilled by Steve Dillon because she was threatening to sell his patents" flashback. The only flashback should be how the killer(s) did it. "I killed Sue because I hated her for having the perfect marriage, so I called the Calculator and offered him the Atom tech to do the job."

 

And it still comes down to "why Jack Drake?" when setting up Captain Boomerang. To say he was picked at random seems too coincidental.

[plitch]

I think that there is a possibility that the Top has been jumping between Jean & Ray to commit these crimes.

 

But I think all of these theories are awesome.

[Kevin Boyd]

I haven't had this much fun theorizing and trying to figure out the conclusion to a series since 1996's Kingdom Come.

[Fan4Fan]

I wish Marvel would have something like this since I am so totally out of my element in the DCU...

[Foolkiller]

The Top is an interesting theory as well, but he hasn't appeared, even by reference I don't think, in the mainstream IC series. Also, I believe Johns is going to wrap up the Top's storyline in Flash.

 

Kev, you're making a lot of sense... and Jack Drake is the whole problem with making Jean Loring the killer at all. But then the Calculator has little motive to mess with Jack Drake either. Heck what villian in the DCU who's been shown would want to mess with Robin?

 

I'm very curious as to how it will tie together, but I'm tellin ya, I'm betting Meltzer will give you the motive in a past scene flashback to fully explain it.

 

Somehow Jean and the Atom are involved... it's just a question of how. Damn I can't wait for this thing to come out.

[500]

Just to put this out there for a checklist of events-involving the eye color changes with Jean. She still has green eyes when Ray takes her down and removes the blind fold, its in issue 5 the next issue, when she looks at Ray her eyes are blue.

[scaffrey]

The end of issue 6 is weird. Notice the similarites between Ray's face and Dr. Light's as he's looking in the mirror at himself. Almost like it isn't him. Then one of the last things he does, is flick off the LIGHT switch.....