Just finished IC #6... <spoilers>

[chrisco37]

Im really asking, just how deeply should we be parsing EVERY PANEL as we have been doing???

 

It's our job as super-geeks to be doing this.

 

Seriously though....If we really want to solve this thing, then we have to. Remember 'Watchmen'? It's a mystery as well. I had no idea in that one until the reveal. But the clues are there. In seemingly insignificant panels or backgrounds. In imagery.

 

We have to break it all down. That's how you solve the mystery!

 

I think we're doing a good job of it! This is one of the best threads ever!

[Illiterati-migration]

This is interesting because it's like the old riddle about "George and Edna" being found in a room with no windows and the doors locked from the inside, yet they were both dead in a puddle of water. Only the cat was still living. How did it happen?

 

I dunno. If they were dumb enough to not unlock the door themselves, I'm sure they were stupid enough to slip in the puddle and crack their skulls. Cat drinks water to survive.

 

[WiseGuyX]

seems to me now that the "they" are Jean and Calculator, working together. Jean fakes her attack, leaving cluse that it was a "hulking guy in boots", setting up Boomerang. Calculator then chooses Boomerang to kill Drake, but in reality , by sending Drake the gun, its a plan to kill Boomerang thereby "solving the case" by killing the mystery attacker. The handwriting is always the same on th enotes, so If Calculator wrote the gun note, he also wrote the TV note to Batman., The "we're not all " means that hes not stupid like the mind-wiped villains,

 

I really agree with the rest about Jean but this Jean and Calculator theroy really apeals to me the most. The two killer deal does seem like an easy way out though but wait if jean is simply paying the bills for Calculator? Like paying him for information and to send out Boomerang to kill Drake. I really believe Batman knows who the killer(s) is also.

[Aman619]

Im really asking, just how deeply should we be parsing EVERY PANEL as we have been doing???

 

It's our job as super-geeks to be doing this.

 

Seriously though....If we really want to solve this thing, then we have to. Remember 'Watchmen'? It's a mystery as well. I had no idea in that one until the reveal. But the clues are there. In seemingly insignificant panels or backgrounds. In imagery.

 

We have to break it all down. That's how you solve the mystery!

 

I think we're doing a good job of it! This is one of the best threads ever!

 

I was thinking of Alan Moore when I wrote about Meltzer before. Moore is famous for his anal detail in plotting AND laying out his stories, with detailed notes to the penciller about panel placement AND content to the nth degree.... almost the exact opposite of the "Marvel method" as the artist merely has to draw good without "thinking" too much.

 

oh btw - - - "anal detail" probably wasnt the best way to get my point across... sorry for the mental image it conjures up!.

[Ares]

I wonder if Meltzer will write a novelization of this!

[chrisco37]

We bettin' or what?

 

How about this:

 

If I'm wrong, you get the signed IC Poster

 

If I'm right, you have Arch remove the "Dawg Pound".

[Ares]

We bettin' or what?

 

How about this:

 

If I'm wrong, you get the signed IC Poster

 

If I'm right, you have Arch remove the "Dawg Pound".

 

Id have to bet againt myself cause I also think Jean is killer!

Id defiently lose on this one!

[deathlok]

Okay, in thinking about the warning notes:

 

Is it possible a villain sent the notes? Probably not because how would a villain know who both Lois Lane and Jack Drake are without knowing who Superman and Robin were.

 

Is possible a superhero sent the notes? Maybe, but not likely. Why would a hero go to the trouble of leaving notes and not be more proactive in saving them.

 

The final possible answer I have, which I think is the most likely.

 

Spectre (Hal Jordan) left the warnings for Lois and Drake. He cannot directly involve himself by protecting them or warning others. Perhaps leaving the notes was all he is able to do.

 

It makes sense that he would be able to sneak the box with gun in the Drake house without them knowing. Perhaps Hal's interference in this is a reason he no longer will be the Spectre.

 

What do you think?

[500]

Okay, in thinking about the warning notes:

 

Is it possible a villain sent the notes? Probably not because how would a villain know who both Lois Lane and Jack Drake are without knowing who Superman and Robin were.

 

Is possible a superhero sent the notes? Maybe, but not likely. Why would a hero go to the trouble of leaving notes and not be more proactive in saving them.

 

The final possible answer I have, which I think is the most likely.

 

Spectre (Hal Jordan) left the warnings for Lois and Drake. He cannot directly involve himself by protecting them or warning others. Perhaps leaving the notes was all he is able to do.

 

It makes sense that he would be able to sneak the box with gun in the Drake house without them knowing. Perhaps Hal's interference in this is a reason he no longer will be the Spectre.

 

What do you think?

 

I like it, since we also have to figure if Hal's involvement was the reason Sue didn't get a note, as Hal hadn't been prompted to take action, does the Spectre see the future?

[Aman619]

I dunno... rather than Hal cease being Spectre because he got involved by leaving notes... It would make more sense if Hal had saved Sue, and in so doing violated the Spectre "oath of office" or whatever. I mean, as a hero, he would be more heroic preventing the death of a teammates wife rather than letting th efirst one happen and stepping in weakly (wiht notes) on the subsequent events.

[Zonker]

I'm thinking the Calculator sent those notes, just to keep things stirred up and therefore fuel increased demand for his services. From the impressive surveillance he has access to, he has learned things about the secret identities. In fact, from the public knowledge of the Dibny's and Jean Loring's id's, one could probably follow them around and make the jump to figuring out the identities of Barry Allen - Flash, Carter Hall - Hawkman, and from them, many of the others.

 

If so, I see a final (?) mind wipe in store for the Calculator in IC7.

[Ares]

If so, I see a final (?) mind wipe in store for the Calculator in IC7.

Totally possible and then each individual heroes title could have spin off story arcs from their actions in IC

[Illiterati-migration]

I'm thinking the Calculator sent those notes, just to keep things stirred up and therefore fuel increased demand for his services. From the impressive surveillance he has access to, he has learned things about the secret identities. In fact, from the public knowledge of the Dibny's and Jean Loring's id's, one could probably follow them around and make the jump to figuring out the identities of Barry Allen - Flash, Carter Hall - Hawkman, and from them, many of the others.

 

If so, I see a final (?) mind wipe in store for the Calculator in IC7.

 

That's who profits, eh? Not a bad theory at all.

 

So wait, can you sell me on your WHOLE idea in one felled swoop, Zonk?

[Zonker]

New question for the Board:

 

When and why did Jean Loring go public with the identity of the Atom? Was it before the events of IC1?

 

If no one here knows I'll try to Google it later this weekend.

 

EDIT: Found the answer. In the course of the Sword of the Atom series of the mid-1980s (Special #1 in particular) a book was written about Ray, Jean, and the Atom's exploits in the central American jungle. So it's by now very old news in the DC Universe.

[Zonker]

So wait, can you sell me on your WHOLE idea in one felled swoop, Zonk?

 

I wish I could, but I'm just working on pieces of this puzzle, one post to this thread at a time. I'm sold on the Calculator as behind the Drake/Boomerang piece (and therefore the Lois Lane threat/warning). I'm still at a loss for how Atom/Jean/Sue/Dr. Light fit in. Since the Who Killed Sue mystery is the central point of IC, still not having a guess at that is pretty maddening. The Bolt piece and the Boomerang Jr parentage piece also escape me, unless they are extraneous bits of business outside the core IC mystery.

[BradleyX2]

Something that occured to me today about the story while I was at work (yes, I think about comics at work, it passes the time ).

 

This isn't so much a sudden revelation thing as it is a nitpick thing...

 

Sue is murdered by an unknown assailant. The "League within the League" (LWL) immediatly assume it's Dr. Light because of his assault years ago on Sue. But wait, they erased Dr. Light's memories of that attack, right? So Light would have no reason to target Sue. Further, if the LWL immediately assumed it was Light, why wouldn't Batman, who also helped stop Light's assault on Sue? (It's stated in issue #6 that the LWL erased Batman's memories of the lobotomizing, but not Sue's assault.)

 

[Zonker]

Here's the outline of my IC theory. What I'm solid on will be in bold. When I'm just guessing or have no idea, I'll use plain text, and may well change my mind later. This whole thing will be edited and re-posted as I come up with other ideas.

 

Calculator is behind it all. We see that his price has gone up in the course of the series. We've also seen that business is booming for him. Calculator is the first one to bring the current Dr. Light into the story, sending him in IC2 to the Injustice Gang satellite and Deathstroke's protection.

 

Atom's shrinking technology was used to kill Sue. I now think the simultaneous shooting of Bolt in IC1 is just to throw the readers off: we see the bullets hit Bolt, in the next panel we see Sue collapse, and as we are reading for the first time we just assume she's also been shot, when in fact the autopsy later reveals the truth.

 

But I doubt the assassin entered through the phone lines-- how did he or she get that flamethrower to the Digbys? (Atom can't shrink things he's carrying, can he?) Pretty sure neither Atom nor Jean committed the murder-- they had a meeting scheduled with each other for the hour of Sue's death. Instead, it is another of the villains orchestrated by the Calculator (Calc himself was busy at the time.) Calculator got access to the shrinking technology through Jean, perhaps by posing as her boyfriend "Nathan the architect."

 

Who exactly killed Sue???

 

Jean's assault???

 

 

Calculator arranged for Captain Boomerang to find his son, planting the false tabloid story about Golden Glider. Boomerang was desperate to re-establish his reputation, and to make some money. Calculator told Boomerang to kill Jack Drake, probably telling Boomerang that since Drake was Robin's father, that meant Drake was the Batman. Calculator sent the gun to Drake, so that Boomerang would die and the son would be brought under Calculator's control (and perhaps become a lucrative client). The son is somehow related to the Barry Allen family, so Calculator turns one who should be on the hero team over to the other side.

 

Given that, the Calculator is no doubt also behind the note to Lois Lane, since the MO is so similar to the note left for Drake. Why? It just stirs the pot some more, and potentially prompts Superman and the others to make stupid mistakes (as Green Arrow notes). But of course Calculator wouldn't really have Lois killed-- you don't want Superman enraged, and as he himself notes, Calc's not a insufficiently_thoughtful_person. How did Calc know who Lois was? Well, he knows stuff, that's his job, and with all the sophisticated surveillance we've seen, even if he didn't discover the secret himself, he could well have overheard one of the villains who did discover the secret before being mind wiped. We see in one of the IC issues Felix Faust has used magic to discover Superman's ID, and then we see Zatanna do her number later on Faust.

 

Ray Palmer at the end of IC6 is really Dr. Light. The facial expressions superimposed on each other earlier in this thread give it away. Also, take a look at IC6 page 26 panel 1: As the Calculator has Dr. Light under surveillance, Light is beginning to conjur something up with his hands. Now maybe Light just wants to continue his string of assaults on the wives of the heroes, or maybe he figures Jean is involved in the Calculator's manipulations, and he wants to find out why. Though he is no doubt happy to get his memories back, he wants to find out what the Calculator's game is.

 

What makes Batman think Calculator is innocent???

Who exactly are the biological parents of Boomerang's son???

 

edited for the Lois Lane answer

[WiseGuyX]

Well I hope when it's all over, Batman kicks Zatanna's rear end for mind whiping him

[WiseGuyX]

Ray Palmer at the end of IC6 is really Dr. Light. The facial expressions superimposed on each other earlier in this thread give it away.

 

 

Dr.Light is still a mistery to me. I would like to think he's not envolved since he didn't get his memories back until after the JL came looking for him. But on the other hand how did he knew they was coming for him and to hire DeathStroke? If someone already mentioned this just ingnore me since I may have gotten lost in the last 27 pages

[Zonker]

Ray Palmer at the end of IC6 is really Dr. Light. The facial expressions superimposed on each other earlier in this thread give it away.

 

 

Dr.Light is still a mistery to me. I would like to think he's not envolved since he didn't get his memories back until after the JL came looking for him. But on the other hand how did he knew they was coming for him and to hire DeathStroke? If someone already mentioned this just ingnore me since I may have gotten lost in the last 27 pages

 

That's another reason to like the Calculator-- he sent Dr. Light looking for help. So Calc knew more than Light himself did at that point.