There were signs, but no one was paying attention

[mrosa]

Jean Loring's insanity during Identity Crisis came as a surprise to many; some would even argue it was out of character. What many people don't know is that the seeds were planted all the way back in the Silver Age:

Her madness tended to strike when she least expected:





And when it happened, she became violent, and could only be calmed down by Ray Palmer:



Unfortunately Ray was not always around to administer a therapeutic slap! So relapses were frequent. Sometimes she even slipped into another identity:



Sadly Ray's very best wasn't very good because Jean's sanity continued to deteriorate further and further until the tragic events of Identity Crisis. As you can see, it all went according to a decades-long plan.

Comments

[icon_uk]

Well not quite, Jean's sanity was perfectly fine for the entirety of the Sword of the Atom series (and their divorce), and also for her appearances when Ray was de-aged and spent some time with the Risk/Argent/Prysm Teen Titans that no one really cares to remember.

[theflames]

I think *these* scenes - for any writer looking through the vault per say, would be fair game for them to say that Jean had a history of instability.

Hell 'Queen Jean' could've turned costumed supervillain and all..

[mrstatham]

Depends. COIE would've wiped the board clean for the most part, and her standard characterisation would've been that of the late eighties and onward. So Identity Crisis is still out of left field, frankly, and the story still makes more sense to me with Ray as the killer - horrifically so when we later see him willing to use the exact same method with which Sue died to torture a villain.

[mrosa]

Are you guys actually debating this seriously? This was posted tongue-in-cheek, I didn't really mean to say Jean Loring was insane in the Silver Age.

[mrstatham]

Sorry. Given the nonsense justification Winnick tried to give Dr Light in that other set of posts, my humour-head's not quite attached right today.

[theflames]

Oops, my bad >.<. I'd blame it on my humour radar, but for the most part this post comes off as pretty matter-of-factly.

[theflames]

Oh I get that COIE would've wiped this clean from continuity, I'm just suggesting that a writer would pull a Grant Morrison - see this Silver Age issue, and use it to influence how the modern version of the character would behave etc.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Ah yes, the ol' pimp slap. Is there any mental ailment that it cannot?

Truly, the Silver Age was a positive, shining time for female and minority characters. I can easily see why DC is so dedicated to bringing back every element, knowingly or otherwise, from that era.

*cough*

[auggie18]

It seems to help out with possession and brain-washing, as show by Mr Fantastic and Wolverine.


I will admit to enjoying the scene where Wolverine breaks Phoenix!Jean out of brainwashing by hitting her due to the fact that she psionically slaps him back HARD and right before she does, there's a panel in which she starts going all Phoenix-y and the "oh crap" expression on Wolverine's face is priceless.

[starwolf_oakley]

An ATOM SPECIAL drawn by Steve Dillion had Ray Palmer going crazy in a similar fashion. It turned out Chronus was gaslighting him.

[skjam]

There was also a storyline in Super-Team Family that had Jean being driven insane (in this case to assume the throne of an alien world that had some strange ideas about rulership qualifications.)

That was the one I flashed back on when the reveal happened at the end of IC. Mind, I'd already figured out Jean was the murderer at the end of Issue One, I just didn't know what her motive was supposed to be.