OFFICIAL IDENTITY CRISIS ISSUE 7 SPOILER THREAD----SPOILERS---

[Zonker]

All that is beyond my mental powers right now. I've been working for too long and my mind is mush

 

I'm just saying that taking anything the woman says at face value is probably not the way to go. She's loco.

 

Yeah, in my opinion that's the only way to read the resolution to the mystery that makes any sense at all-- Jean's simply gone bonkers again.

 

Here's the precedent from 1969 (that's Jean)

 

[drice6900]

All that is beyond my mental powers right now. I've been working for too long and my mind is mush

 

I'm just saying that taking anything the woman says at face value is probably not the way to go. She's loco.

 

Seeing as she is heavily medicated and locked up in Arkham Asylum, I would have to agree. She is

[Solar]

 

Atom and I are in similar relationships...

[chrisco37]

 

Atom and I are in similar relationships...

 

Are you saying you're in an S&M Love triangle with a feathered man and hot dominatrix?

[Zonker]

Since Identity Crisis speculation remains more fun that the actual denouement, here are a few more late hits:

 

1) So Jean chose Sue as her victim just at random among all the super-hero spouses she knew of? That means it's just a coincidence that her victim was also Dr. Light's victim? It's just a coincidence that the whole mind-wiping back-story gets brought to, eh, light?

 

2) So it's just a coincidence that the lame-o assassin chosen by the Calculator is Capt. Boomerang, the father (in some sense) of the super-powered Boomerang Jr.? Just a coincidence that a new more powerful super-villain is created as a result of his father's death?

 

3) In IC7 Chronos says something like "I told you we'd win" echoing his similar comment earlier in the series. We don't really think he's only talking about the Risk board game the villains are playing do we?

 

It ain't over guys, the conspiracy continues!

[Foolkiller]

There will be future ramifications from this series, and as DC moves to its next Crisis event, probably coming in 2005 or 2006, the DCU will be completely overhauled. I think a lot of it will come as a result of some of the events here.

[Illiterati-migration]

There will be future ramifications from this series, and as DC moves to its next Crisis event, probably coming in 2005 or 2006, the DCU will be completely overhauled. I think a lot of it will come as a result of some of the events here.

 

There's been a truly great arc occuring over the last few months in the new Teen Titans book that deals with the "future" Titans (when they're all grown up), and it involves a fair amount of foreshadowing regarding (apparently) the events to come...

[Solar]

EXACTLY!!!!

 

 

[Darthdiesel]

There will be future ramifications from this series, and as DC moves to its next Crisis event, probably coming in 2005 or 2006, the DCU will be completely overhauled. I think a lot of it will come as a result of some of the events here.

 

There's been a truly great arc occuring over the last few months in the new Teen Titans book that deals with the "future" Titans (when they're all grown up), and it involves a fair amount of foreshadowing regarding (apparently) the events to come...

 

It has made for some fun reading and I still am hopeful that the new LOSH project will be something worthwhile.

[Zanarkand]

I'm going with the (seemingly) minority opinion here - what a lame ending. This ending was every bit as unsatisfying as "and then the little boy woke up".

 

A decent murder mystery needs to set up means, motive, and opportunity. It needs to compile a suspect list and provide the reader with all the clues they need to potentially solve the mystery themselves.

 

This story did not. Think of the difference between The Sixth Sense and some copycat "twist ending" flick like The Others. Most of the fun of The Sixth Sense was (for me) not the big reveal, but the realization that it had been in front of me the whole time, if only I had correctly interpreted the clues.

 

Identity Crisis was more like The Others. There's no real mystery. It is simply a fun story. The big reveal at the end is not so much the reveal of the solution as it is the reveal of the key element the writer had been deliberately withholding so he could have a twist ending.

[chrisco37]

I respect your (and the other unsatisfied readers) opinion, but I have to disagree.

 

A decent murder mystery needs to set up means, motive, and opportunity. It needs to compile a suspect list and provide the reader with all the clues they need to potentially solve the mystery themselves.

 

 

Didn't the series cover all of these bases? Jean had means (the Atom suit), motive (she wanted Ray back - OK, maybe a little weak but she's crazy), opportunity (she had that didn't she?).

 

The clues were all there. As many of us pointed out, the first rule is "look to survivors as suspects". Atom said he had left "half his stuff" at Jean's house (so we know she potentially had access to the suit).

 

Suspects? The series had a ton of suspects based on the clues. Sure, there was alot of mis-direction, but what "mystery" doesn't have that?

 

I mean, based on what I had read in the issues and from what I was able to take from what various posters said, I figured the thing out. And, as much as I'd like to "bask in the glory" ( ), I'm really not all that clever.

[Illiterati-migration]

I respect your (and the other unsatisfied readers) opinion, but I have to disagree.

 

A decent murder mystery needs to set up means, motive, and opportunity. It needs to compile a suspect list and provide the reader with all the clues they need to potentially solve the mystery themselves.

 

 

Didn't the series cover all of these bases? Jean had means (the Atom suit), motive (she wanted Ray back - OK, maybe a little weak but she's crazy), opportunity (she had that didn't she?).

 

The clues were all there. As many of us pointed out, the first rule is "look to survivors as suspects". Atom said he had left "half his stuff" at Jean's house (so we know she potentially had access to the suit).

 

Suspects? The series had a ton of suspects based on the clues. Sure, there was alot of mis-direction, but what "mystery" doesn't have that?

 

I mean, based on what I had read in the issues and from what I was able to take from what various posters said, I figured the thing out. And, as much as I'd like to "bask in the glory" ( ), I'm really not all that clever.

 

There has to be a REAL REASON behind the motive. A reason that the reader could, in reality, figure out. A reason that follows logic and reason, and the "she's INSANE!" rationale does not.

 

It's a cheap "out" for a writer.

 

 

 

Actually, how about this:

 

"Identity Crisis" isn't a "mystery", it's a "suspense."

 

In "suspense", the characters and readers/audience are on the same "page", as it were. They have the same information, and as the characters discover new things, so does the reader/audience.

 

(Unfortunately, obviously that doesn't work because we were watching Batman stumble blindly along through the whole thing until the very end...)

 

Yeah, you know what, this book just sucked. It was truly awful. The "red herrings" provided were a disaster, Meltzer doesn't know the difference between an "Open" and a "Closed" mystery, much less how to meld the two into even a passably cohesive mish-mash, and he doesn't understand "motive."

 

Sorry, I tried to put a positive spin on it for a second there.

 

[Darthdiesel]

 

 

[shrunkenhead]

Would have to agree with MK that the insanity please is a cheap way out. It's what fiction writers call a "paper dragon," that is to say, a cheap device used when a writer wants to end with a surprise but there's no logical, workable conclusion that leads up to that surprise. Form without substance, baby.

 

Hey, my first post in modernia, woo hoo!

[Illiterati-migration]

Would have to agree with MK that the insanity please is a cheap way out. It's what fiction writers call a "paper dragon," that is to say, a cheap device used when a writer wants to end with a surprise but there's no logical, workable conclusion that leads up to that surprise. Form without substance, baby.

 

Hey, my first post in modernia, woo hoo!

 

And he's a bona fide literature person, Chrisco! Who's your daddy now?!? Huh??

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously, who's your daddy? Your mom's been pestering me for child support, but I'm pretty sure I was living in Astonia around the time of your conception. If you can't tell me here, please email my legal representation at the offices of F, F, & B. Thx.™

[shrunkenhead]

 

And he's a bona fide literature person, Chrisco! Who's your daddy now?!? Huh??

 

 

 

[chrisco37]

Would have to agree with MK that the insanity please is a cheap way out. It's what fiction writers call a "paper dragon," that is to say, a cheap device used when a writer wants to end with a surprise but there's no logical, workable conclusion that leads up to that surprise. Form without substance, baby.

 

Hey, my first post in modernia, woo hoo!

 

And he's a bona fide literature person, Chrisco! Who's your daddy now?!? Huh??

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously, who's your daddy? Your mom's been pestering me for child support, but I'm pretty sure I was living in Astonia around the time of your conception. If you can't tell me here, please email my legal representation at the offices of F, F, & B. Thx.™

 

 

Holy [#@$%!!!]! Thank gawd I got off the computer when I did on Friday. Boards avoided a "Yo mamma...." flame-fest of epic proportions.

 

And, don't get mad just 'cause some of us were "smart enough to figure it out".

 

Finally, in keeping w/ the Monty Pythin reference theme......Do you really think you could outwit us french-folk with your silly, knees-bent, advancing behaviour?

[Lantern]

 

Finally, in keeping w/ the Monty Pythin reference theme......Do you really think you could outwit us french-folk with your silly, knees-bent, advancing behaviour?

 

 

It's Python...you empty-headed animal food trough wiper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ares]

 

Finally, in keeping w/ the Monty Pythin reference theme......Do you really think you could outwit us french-folk with your silly, knees-bent, advancing behaviour?

 

 

It's Python...you empty-headed animal food trough wiper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You forgot to one more time-a unclog your nose in his direction, the son of a window-dresser! Then wave your private parts at his aunties, because he is a heaving lot of second hand electric donkey bottom biter.

[chrisco37]

 

Finally, in keeping w/ the Monty Pythin reference theme......Do you really think you could outwit us french-folk with your silly, knees-bent, advancing behaviour?

 

 

It's Python...you empty-headed animal food trough wiper

 

 

 

*See Khaos Sig Line for my excuse.

 

**You'll shoot your eye out!