History Main / IdentityCrisis

* ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis1998''
* ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis2004''

* ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis''

[[redirect:ComicBook/IdentityCrisis]]

[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/identity_crisis_artwork_9156.jpg]]

->''"Anyone who puts on a costume paints a bulls-eye on his family's chest."''
-->-- '''Ralph Dibny, The Elongated Man'''

When [[TheDCU DC]] first announced their newest limited series, ''Identity Crisis'', fans thought of two things: ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' and ''Zero Hour: Crisis In Time''. These two series were massive crossovers and usually resulted in some form of RetCon for at least one character involved. ''Crisis'' was the big one, merging [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Earth-2]] and [[TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Earth-1]] together, bringing us into the newly established PostCrisis era. ''Zero Hour''... made Hal Jordan, the most popular GreenLantern, into a supervillain and mucked up continuity. What ''Identity Crisis'' brought was similar, but definitely NOT what readers were expecting.

As the story begins, the ''[[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]'' attend the funeral of Sue Dibny, the wife of the superhero, the ComicBook/ElongatedMan. The League investigates the scene of the murder, the Dibny household, and are bewildered in the lack of evidence to be found. While sending out most of the League and the ComicBook/TeenTitans to look for fire and/or teleport based villains, the core members of the League secretly turn their attention to small-time villain, Dr. Light (the male one, not to be confused with the woman superhero who debuted in [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths the Crisis]]). But before they can confront them, [[TheFlash Wally West]] and [[GreenLantern Kyle Rayner]] overhear the League's plans and demand to know why they are confronting Light.

The story goes that Dr. Light managed to teleport to the League's satellite and discovered Sue alone and [[RapeAsBackstory proceeded]] [[RapeAsDrama to rape her]]. Light is stopped quickly, but uncontrollable, swearing he will do it again. The League then decides to wipe his memory and change his personality so the threat is defused. As we later see, the Green Arrow, who is explaining, left out the part where [[spoiler:Franchise/{{Batman}}]]'s mind was wiped of the moment when he tried to stop the mindwipe.

Dr. Light discovers he's a target and hires Deathstroke, but in the tail end of the fight, Light regains his memories and escapes, revealing the truth in an optic construct only the Flash is fast enough to see. Sue's autopsied and it is revealed she didn't actually burn to death. Jean Loring (ex-wife of Ray Palmer, aka The Atom) is nearly lynched by an unknown assailant and [[{{Superman}} Lois Lane]] is threatened by someone who knows she married {{Superman}}. Tim Drake goes through a parental struggle with his father, who knows Tim is Robin and wishes for his safety. [[TheFlash Captain Boomerang]] reconnects with his bastard son and discovered [[spoiler:he is a speedster]]. While the divorced Atom and Jean reconnect, Jack Drake, Tim's father is sent a gun with a warning and attacked. Jack uses the gun to kill his attacker, Captain Boomerang, but is killed by one of Boomerang's weapons.

Robin and Boomerang Jr. both lose their fathers and the mystery is apparently solved... Until the autopsy of Sue reveals [[spoiler:tiny footprints in her brain, which really killed her. Batman learns of this and deduces also that the Atom didn't kill Sue, and we learn that Jean discovered one of Atom's spare suits. In an attempt to reconnect with Ray, her ex-husband, Jean tried to organize an illusion of a threat to superhero families, but accidentally killed Sue and hired the wrong assassin for Jack Drake. Ray commits Jean to Arkham Asylum and shrinks to a microscopic size and disappears completely.]]

In the end, the League is shaken up, it is implied that Batman [[spoiler:might know he was mind-wiped]], Dr. Light regains his old personality, Boomerang's son becomes the new Captain Boomerang, and Ralph Dibny is now a widower.

So in the end, where [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths the Crisis]] and Zero Hour were large crossovers that involved retconning and large gigantic battles, ''Identity Crisis'' was much more low key, being a quieter crossover that was instead a murder mystery. However, that is why fans would point to this book if a new reader ever asked for a good starting point to get into TheDCU. The retcons were smaller, but a little obvious. Especially with the ''[[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]''.

It is important to know that the point of this story (at least now) isn't that it's supposed to be an "awesome story", but rather it is something that one isn't ''supposed'' to like , since it is a means to remove the [[NostalgiaFilter rose colored glasses]] from the readers about the past and the present DCU.

However, fan response to this comic was still [[BrokenBase highly split]]. It is worth pointing out Creator/JossWhedon liked it enough to write the foreword for the trade paper back.

''Identity Crisis'' was directly followed by ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', which followed the typical format much more closely.
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!! Tropes used in or associated with ''Identity Crisis'':

* AdaptationalBadass: Deathstroke the Terminator goes from a CrazyPrepared, highly-trained and ''slightly'' augmented {{Badass}} to a superhuman with reflexes that can allow him to "surprise" the {{Flash}} with a sword thrust behind Slade's back. That would be the Wally West Flash who once had time slow to a standstill when a sniper's bullet touched his neck.
* AnyoneCanDie
* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: A nuclear-powered character ([[spoiler:Firestorm]]) is skewered by a sword. He has to fly off to prevent himself from killing his allies, as "They all know what happens when you puncture a nuclear reactor", and he is shown exploding. Except, as [[http://www.whiterose.org/howlingcurmudgeons/archives/006974.html Greg Morrow notes]], not much actually happens if you puncture a nuclear reactor. (Further flavoring the inaccuracy stew is that the character's powers were never shown to work that way previously; he had nuclear abilities, but was not a "nuclear reactor".)
* [[VillainsOutShopping Assassins Playing Risk]]
--> '''Chronos''': He rolls double sixes. Mirror Master captures France.
* [[spoiler:BaitAndSwitch]]: [[spoiler: The penultimate issue had Dr. Mid-Nite discovering a pair of tiny footprints in Sue's brain, suggesting it was the Atom who killed Sue. The issue closes with Ray Palmer and Jean Loring together, Ray wearing a [[SlasherSmile very sinister-looking smile]] on his face. The next issue reveals that it was Jean, not Ray, who was the culprit.]]
* CoyGirlishFlirtPose
* DarkerAndEdgier: With the DCU already being darker and edgier in most places, one might say that Identity Crisis is far more realistic. The heroes and villains are weaker than usual and the fight scenes don't last for too long.
* DeathBySecretIdentity: We learn that during TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks and TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, villains learned superheroes' secret identities all the time. Heroes toed the line of the MoralEventHorizon by using Zatanna to make them forget, and neglecting to tell the more principled heroes; such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman; who are also implied to have an inkling that something fishy is going on, but refuse to investigate why villains mysteriously keep forgetting their identities.
* DeconstructiveParody: Tim O'Neill's remix of the third issue. "I make stabby."
* DownerEnding: Even catching the villain doesn't make the ending any brighter.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Firestorm]]'s death really comes out of nowhere, has no bearing on the plot, and seems only to exist so that a superhero dies in the book to give it more dramatic weight. Then it never gets mentioned again in the book after the one page scene. The event was later followed up on in ''[[{{Comicbook/Manhunter}} Manhunter]]'', where the League tracks down his killer, but most people didn't know about that tie-in.
* ExternalRetcon: Retcons much of the goofiness of TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, particularly in the form of Doctor Light.
* FreakOut: [[spoiler: You can pinpoint the moment when Jean snaps completely in the flashback after she accidentally kills Sue (originally wanting only to attack but not seriously injure her), in a single facial expression hyperventilating and sobbing while [[LaughingMad grinning maniacally]], preparing to burn Sue in order to cover it up. Her resulting complete insanity results in two more deaths.]]
* IdiotBall: A superhuman search for evidence lead by "[[Franchise/{{Batman}} The World's Greatest Detective]]" [[spoiler:doesn't check the phone records. Of course, no one would have seriously suspected Jean at the time, and she could easily have explained it, considering they knew each other, but no mention of her call is made]].
* ImprovisedWeapon: Deathstroke takes out the Atom with a laser pointer.
* ItGetsEasier: [[spoiler: Jean clearly has a FreakOut after she accidentally kills Sue Dibny, but after that she has little problem setting up Jack Drake to kill Captain Boomerang, and when that results in Drake's death as well she doesn't seem all too bothered in TheReveal.]]
* LightIsNotGood: To the point of ''rape''.
** And like with [[Manga/DeathNote Light Yagami]], this is literally (given Dr. Light's powers and that his real name is Arthur Light) as well as figuratively.
* LoveMakesYouCrazy and LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler: Jean]], though it's implied it was the result of a nervous breakdown that [[FreakOut got a]] [[FromBadToWorse lot worse]].
* MindRape: The League pull this on Dr. Light and [[spoiler: Batman]].
* [[spoiler:MutualKill: Jack Drake and Captain Boomerang.]]
* MyEyesAreUpHere: Subverted and {{Lampshaded}} with Slipknot. Green Arrow notes he's smart enough that his eyes are not on Wonder Woman's "famous rack", but on her hip - where her Magic Lasso is.
* MythologyGag: If you look closely at Sue's funeral, you can see [[ComicBook/{{Starman}} Jack Knight]] standing next to Stargirl. This is actually Jack's last known appearance after retiring at the end of his series; as the Dibnys were key characters in ''Starman'', it's fitting to have him here. He's pointedly not in his old uniform.
* PaintingTheFourthWall: Dr. Light staring at the viewer as if to say, "I'm back."
* PietaPlagiarism: Ralph Dibny holding Sue's body in the comic's opening scene.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Dr. Light's rape of Sue is enough for a circle of JLA members to lobotomize him, something they never did to any villain beforehand. Unfortunately, this series led to other comics to include rape as a source of drama often with little need to and little tact.
** This pretty much upended Dr. Light's return to form, as subsequent writers tended to make him a serial rapist.
* [[spoiler:RedHerring]]: This turns out to have been what the entire rape subplot was, [[spoiler:since it had nothing to do with who murdered Sue]].
* {{Retcon}}: The reason behind the years of infighting between Green Arrow and Hawkman, thought to be because of their political views, is revealed to actually be over [[spoiler: the decision to mind-wipe Dr. Light/Batman.]]
* TheReveal
* StartOfDarkness: Arguably for the entire present-day DCU
** [[spoiler:And this was the last straw for Alex Luthor, Superboy-Prime, and Kal-L.]]
* TheStoolPigeon: Wally West averts the Whistleblower Wilson (heroic) option.
* StuffedInTheFridge: Sue. Mind you, it is a ''murder mystery'', presumably someone had to get killed off to motivate the story, someone close to a superhero. ''However'', that someone just ''had'' to be a superhero's wife. Also Jack Drake.
* SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome: [[spoiler:Jean Loring goes completely off her rocker to try and win back the affection of her ex-husband, Ray Palmer.]]
* TomatoSurprise: [[spoiler:Batman's role in the Dr. Light incident and the subsequent mind-wipe when he objected.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: This series revamped the Calculator into Oracle's EvilCounterpart.
** The series also returned Dr. Light to a credible threat.
* TwistEnding
* WeirdnessCensor: When Wally West and Kyle Rayner ask how the inner circle managed to keep their memory-wiping exploits a secret from everyone else (especially Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, who would probably kick them out of the league if they knew) Green Arrow says that the others "only hear what they want to hear."
* WhatTheHellHero: A few, but the biggest being TheFlash when he learns [[spoiler: they wiped ''Batman's'' memory.]] And then the Flash lied to Superman about why the group was chasing Dr. Light. And then after finding out the whole story, he ''still'' doesn't tell anyone out of respect for Barry; who was implied to have been motivated by Iris' death) and Hal.
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler: Jean Loring, for Ray Palmer.]]

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<<|ComicBooks|>>

When [[TheDCU DC]] first announced their newest limited series, ''Identity Crisis'', fans thought of two things: ''CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' and ''Zero Hour: Crisis In Time''. These two series were massive crossovers and usually resulted in some form of RetCon for at least one character involved. ''Crisis'' was the big one, merging [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Earth-2]] and [[TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Earth-1]] together, bringing us into the newly established PostCrisis era. ''Zero Hour''... made Hal Jordan, the most popular GreenLantern, into a supervillain and mucked up continuity. What ''Identity Crisis'' brought was similar, but definitely NOT what readers were expecting.

As the story begins, the ''[[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]'' attend the funeral of Sue Dibny, the wife of the superhero, the ElongatedMan. The League investigates the scene of the murder, the Dibny household, and are bewildered in the lack of evidence to be found. While sending out most of the League and the ComicBook/TeenTitans to look for fire and/or teleport based villains, the core members of the League secretly turn their attention to small-time villain, Dr. Light (the male one, not to be confused with the woman superhero who debuted in [[CrisisOnInfiniteEarths the Crisis]]). But before they can confront them, [[TheFlash Wally West]] and [[GreenLantern Kyle Rayner]] overhear the League's plans and demand to know why they are confronting Light.

So in the end, where [[CrisisOnInfiniteEarths the Crisis]] and Zero Hour were large crossovers that involved retconning and large gigantic battles, ''Identity Crisis'' was much more low key, being a quieter crossover that was instead a murder mystery. However, that is why fans would point to this book if a new reader ever asked for a good starting point to get into TheDCU. The retcons were smaller, but a little obvious. Especially with the ''[[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]''.

However, fan response to this comic was still [[BrokenBase highly split]]. It is worth pointing out JossWhedon liked it enough to write the foreword for the trade paper back.

''Identity Crisis'' was directly followed by ''InfiniteCrisis'', which followed the typical format much more closely.

* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: A nuclear-powered character ([[spoiler:Firestorm]]) is skewered by a sword. He has to fly off to prevent himself from killing his allies, as "they ... know what happens when you puncture a nuclear reactor", and he is shown exploding. Except, as [[http://www.whiterose.org/howlingcurmudgeons/archives/006974.html Greg Morrow notes]], not much actually happens if you puncture a nuclear reactor. (Further flavoring the inaccuracy stew is that the character's powers were never shown to work that way previously; he had nuclear abilities, but was not a "nuclear reactor".)

* {{Retcon}}: The reason behind the years of infighting between Green Arrow and Hawkman, thought to be because of their politic views, is revealed to actually be over [[spoiler: the decision to mind-wipe Dr. Light.]]

* LeftHanging: Lois Lane getting a threat note doesn't go anywhere. She's not attacked or even targeted for the rest of the story.
** Maybe [[spoiler:Jean]] just knew [[spoiler:she]] wouldn't be crazy enough to risk Superman's wrath?
** [[spoiler:Jean never intended for anyone to die. It was all about scare tactics, frightening the heroes and their loved one's into each other's arms.]]

* ItGetsEasier: [[spoiler: Jean clearly has a FreakOut after she accidentally kills Sue Dibny, but after that she has little problem setting up Jack Drake to kill Captain Boomerang, and when that results in Drake's death as well she doesn't seem all too bothered in TheReveal]]

* SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome: Jean Loring goes completely off her rocker to try and win back the affection of her ex-husband, Ray Palmer.

* IdiotBall: A superhuman search for evidence lead by "[[Franchise/{{Batman}} The World's Greatest Detective]]" [[spoiler:doesn't check the phone records]].

* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: A nuclear-powered character ([[spoiler: Firestorm]]) is skewered by a sword. He has to fly off to prevent himself from killing his allies, as "they ... know what happens when you puncture a nuclear reactor", and he is shown exploding. Except, as [[http://www.whiterose.org/howlingcurmudgeons/archives/006974.html Greg Morrow notes]], not much actually happens if you puncture a nuclear reactor. (Further flavoring the inaccuracy stew is that the character's powers were never shown to work that way previously; he had nuclear abilities, but was not a "nuclear reactor".)

The story goes that Dr. Light managed to teleport to the League's satellite and discovered Sue alone and [[RapeAsBackstory proceeded]] [[RapeAsDrama to rape her]]. Light is stopped quickly, but uncontrollable, swearing he will do it again. The League then decides to wipe his memory and change his personality so the threat is diffused. As we later see, the Green Arrow, who is explaining, left out the part where [[spoiler:Franchise/{{Batman}}]]'s mind was wiped of the moment when he tried to stop the mindwipe.

* [[spoiler:BaitAndSwitch]]: [[spoiler: The penultimate issue had Dr. Mid-Nite discovering a pair of tiny footprints in Sue's brain, suggesting it was the Atom who killed Sue. The issue closes with Ray Palmer and Jean Loring together, Ray wearing a [[SlasherSmile very sinister-looking smile]] on his face. The next issue reveals that it was not Jean, not Ray, who was the culprit.]]

The story goes that Dr. Light managed to teleport to the League's satellite and discovered Sue alone and [[RapeAsBackstory proceeded]] [[RapeAsDrama to rape her]]. Light is stopped quickly, but uncontrollable, swearing he will do it again. The League then decides to wipe his memory and change his personality so the threat is diffused. As we later see, the Green Arrow, who is explaining, left out the part where [[spoiler:{{Batman}}]]'s mind was wiped of the moment when he tried to stop the mindwipe.

* IdiotBall: A superhuman search for evidence lead by "[[{{Batman}} The World's Greatest Detective]]" [[spoiler:doesn't check the phone records]].