Identity Crisis #4 and #5

[history79]

Trigger Warning for Violence


Identity Crisis #4

5 pages from 30










Identity Crisis #5

9 pages of 30

Comments

[jaybee3]

All so they could make Tim Drake an orphan. Literally that's why they did it. Even his stepmom was soon written out (even though she was alive). Because all Bat-people must have Batman-like origins.

And the biggest plothole out of a number of them - how did Jean Loring know Tim Drake was Robin? She had divorced Ray before he became Robin and his secret identity was so secret that not even his YJ teammates or his super-hero girlfriend (Spoiler) knew. But Jean knew? Meltzer and Co. never even bothered to explain it.

Because Tim needed to be an orphan.

[espanolbot]

Blargh, this entire era of DC Comics just raised far more questions than it answered. Like the whole flamethrower thing. Or the fact that it was Jean who dumped Ray, not the other way around, and if she'd just asked he might have just taken her back.

Though really, what can you expect from a storyline where the phrase "We need a rape!" was involved in the planning process.

[sagrada]

All the Sons of Batman are orphans, even orphaned after adoption or recruitment by Bruce's "death" to be on the safe side. It's probably part of the contract or something, that he'll disown any Batson who fails to become an orphan like him.

[espanolbot]

And Ray wouldn't even let her go to trial for this... she's responsible for the deaths of at least three people in this storyline, and he didn't feel the need to have her actually medically evaluated or judged mentally competant. Argh.

Thing is? She claims that Sue's death was an accident, but if that was the case, a) what the heck did she think would happen when she decided to stomp about on the poor woman's brain, and b) if she wasn't intending to kill her, WHY THE HECK DID SHE BRING A FLAMETHROWER WITH HER TO DESTROY THE EVIDENCE???

[jaybee3]

And just like with the "how did she know Tim was Robin?" plothole the flamethrower thing was never addressed or explained. Except she was "crazy" which is lazy writing to the extreme.

[starwolf_oakley]

Some have said the flamethrower could have been "Jean knows from Ray the dangers she can face is something goes wrong."

[reveen]

Couldn't Oracle just, y'know, call someone else? Does she let people who call in specify what superhero they want to help them? Because Batman can easily be too slow to help the guy. So she calls Flash or Superman and it's like "Zip, oh hi Jack Drake guy who's son I don't know in any capacity, what's the pro- oh hi fat Captain Boomerang! *pawnch*"

I mean, sure maybe they're busy. But if some dude is in danger isn't it kind of fucked to put saving his life on the shoulders of his son?

[lyricalswagger]

She did call Flash (Wally), but he didn't answer his phone.

[drtechnobabel]

This might sounds kind of sick, but I couldn't help but laugh when I got to the bottom of the final scan. Mostly because I instinctively read the chapter title in an overly cheery 'Happy Father's Day!' tone.

[q99]

Ah yes, so many red-herring events that ended up really not having much to do with the main mystery.

[alicemacher]

What is Batman's expression, in the panel after Tim says, "Bruce, please...please help him," supposed to mean exactly?

A. "I'll do my best, Tim, but I can't promise I'll save him in time";
B. "Don't ask that of me. I...I can't";
C. "Impudent brat! Don't tell me what to do";
D. "Fuck, am I constipated."

[lyricalswagger]

"I'm the goddamn Batman."

[icon_uk]

"Oh shit, you mean Jack Drake's your FATHER!?! I never made that connection before now!"

[reveen]

"B-but, we were going to get gyros! Ugh, fine."

[bradygirl_12]

Ugh. Just ugh. >:(

[silicondream]

I'm mildly confused as to Mr. Drake's death scene there. The boomerang made blood spurt out from his chest when it hit, and it doesn't look like it buried itself deep enough to actually poke out his back...yet he seems to be bleeding out from the back, and the front side of his shirt is unstained when he's shown on the ground.

Should I assume that Digger has a special boomerang that impales you and then fires a bullet through your body just for added style points? Like, a gunbladearang? That would probably be in character for him.

[icon_uk]

A nasty suggestion would be that it embeds and then the embedded blade extends in length via some sort of spring mechanism, driving itself further into the wound, or in some cases right out the other side, and if it has barbs too, making it much harder to pull out.

[night4345]

Like, a gunbladearang?
Now, I'm waiting for some JRPG to make a gunbladarang. Make it happen Final Fantasy!

[crinos]

And tonight the role of Captain Boomerang will be played by Jack Black.

Because all Silver Age villains either have to become pathetic losers or murderous psycho rapists. Because the Silver Age was so stupid and we're all edgy and dark like Frank Miller and GRRRRRR!

[lego_joker]

Someone who read the Flash during this period remind me: WHY is Captain Boomerang overweight?

[espanolbot]

Hilariously, the creators of this story described it as a "love letter" to the Silver Age.... Yeah.

[an_idol_mind]

The brief narration about religion and science irritates me because of the clichés it uses.

I'm not a fan of when fiction assumes that scientists are men of reason who don't understand religion, because it's not very consistent with reality. A ton of brilliant scientists - I would daresay even a majority - are religious people, with some of them being extremely devout.

I'm also not a fan of stories where you've got an atheist who suddenly starts praying in a tense situation. It doesn't usually ratchet up the drama as much as the writer wants, and the old adage, "There are no atheists in foxholes" is simply incorrect.

[captainbellman]

Case in point, the man reputed for discovering Natural Selection was a devout Christian, and held out on publishing for two decades for fear of becoming stigmatised as the man who murdered God.

[captainbellman]

Jean's reaction seems oddly reminiscent of John Watson in that "versus evil Chinese stereotypes" episode from Series 1 of Sherlock - where after his girlfriend-of-the-week is nearly brutally decapitated on the first date he smiles and says "don't worry, the next one will be better".

My point being that both scenes demonstrate very clearly that the writer has never been in a traumatic situation like that and is very poor at imagining what it'd be like.

[sagrada]

"Sherlock Holmes and the Cringe-Inducing Orientalism"
"Sherlock Holmes and the I Know a Fact About Ancient Chinese Culture, You Guys!"
"Sherlock Holmes and the Inscrutable, Savage Foreigners (and Token Good Hot Foreigner)"
"Sherlock Holmes and the Not From Around These Parts"
Sherlock Holmes and the UKIP Propaganda"
"Sherlock Holmes and the Tropes vs. Asians"
"Sherlock Holmes and the No, It's Racism"

[shirubie]

So, I might be nitpicking here, but when Ray finds Jean hanged, his first instinct is to jump on the rope and break it fiber by fiber? Wouldn't it be faster to just grow to full size, lift her up and open the door, since it appears the rope is only stuck in the doorframe (unless it's tied to something behind the door we're not seeing)?

I'm trying to apply common sense again. I should stop doing that, at least in stories like this one.

[sadoeuphemist]

I think he's enlarging inside it and ripping it apart with his mass, although I don't know why that requires a dozen panels of the rope, like, pulsating.

Also how could it bear her weight if it was just wedged in the doorframe.