∇

troperville

∇

tools

∇

toys

• Author's Saving Throw: Dr. Light used to be a serious threat capable of taking on the Justice League, but somewhere along the line became a comical punching bag of the Teen Titans. This mini explains why that change took place and restores him to his original characterization.
• Broken Base: The Deathstroke vs. Justice League fight. For all that is holy, never bring it up in any Versus Discussion, less you want the thread to be completely derailed.
  • The book itself is a major Base Breaker.
    • Notably, the book occupies many extremes simultaneously. Jean Loring claims not to have wanted Sue's death, but brought along a flamethrower anyway, perhaps as a baby shower present. On the other hand, Dr. Light's return to form, the upgrade to Calculator, and the rarity of a Crisis Crossover focused more on a personal level than on an apocalypse, were all critically lauded elements.
• Complete Monster: Dr. Arthur Light was retconned into a Complete Monster in the Identity Crisis crossover. He was Hand Waved from a goofy Harmless Villain into a serial rapist who violently raped the completely innocent Sue Dibny, just because he was a petty asshole who wanted to torment the heroes by brutalizing their loved ones. Just before he received his very Karmic Death at the hands of The Spectre, he was in the process of raping a group of teenage girls who he had dressed up as the Teen Titans.
• Memetic Mutation: The series inspired a fad on the Something Awful forums of user avatars showing their Wild Mass Guesses about the identity of Sue Dibny's murderer. The response to the series played a role in the formation of the "Batman's Shameful Secret" forum for comic book discussion on the site.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Crossed when they used Zatanna to alter Dr. Light's personality - which led to them using Zatanna to wipe Batman's memory.
  • Not to mention Dr. Light and the whole, y'know, raping Sue Dibny thing.
• One-Scene Wonder: Deathstroke, and HOW.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The deaths of Sue Dibny and Jack Drake, especially with the aftermath that follows.
  "Batman and Robin. Orphans."
  • Watching Ralph fall apart at Sue's funeral is heartbreaking, especially since you've been reading several pages of how much he loves her before the murder.
  • Batman's scene at his parents' grave
    Mom, Dad. Watch over Jack Drake... and Sue.
  • Atom shrinking down to nothingness out of grief.
    I never felt so small in my whole— *
• Villain Sue: Many felt Deathstroke was this during the series, in which he solos the Justice League, including displaying faster reflexes than Wally West.
  • He didn't have faster reflexes. He just calculated where Flash would be and had him impale himself.
• The Woobie: Several, particularly Elongated Man and Robin.