"A love letter to the silver age?" yeah, no. Batman: The Brave and the Bold was a love letter to the silver age. This is just awful.

I think most people can agree the real love-letter to the silver-age of DC is titled "Batman: The Brave and the Bold." Batman's wearing his silver-age outfit, they give the show a sort of retro feel, there's a lot of silver-age characters spotlighted in it, etc.

“Love letter to the silver age” that’s a funny way of spelling out “We wanted to be just like Watchmen.”

Worst of all is that everything Jean Loring did could be easily explained by later comic book events. She's supposed to become the third Eclipso (Spectre's enemy, an evil angel that can manipulate people into doing horrible things out of wrath and take them as hosts) so it could all be explained by just saying that Eclipso manipulated her into doing this whole plan without leaving a trace, and then take her as a new host.

"A wizard did it." "I WANT AN APB ON THE WIZARD SHAZAM!"

"Marvel's doing dark comics? Do dark DC comics!" "Marvel's doing light movies? Do dark DC movies!"

Batman: “ OH NO, they’re making me love rock n roll! NOOO!!!”

When I first read this, I was convinced Jean Loring's confession was a red herring. Because it's literally conflicting with so much evidence from the earlier parts, and a huge plot point was about people having their memories altered, I thought that Dr Light had was somehow gonna be revealed to have secretly recovered his memories before Sue's death, found a way to mess with Jean's mind, and set this whole thing in motion to cause pain for the heroes' loved ones: Tim's dad died, Sue died, Jean was left insane, Lois Lane was threatened. In the flash back, he even threatens to hurt the League's loved ones. It all feels like it was set up to have the bad guy win, Light gets away with it because everyone accepts Jean as the murderer. But they didn't? So, in the end, it's just real unsatisfying.

The Deathstroke Lantern Ring thing could have been cool. If it showed that he and Kyle wills 'briefly' struggling for dominance over the thing with the Ring letting out a blast knocking them both back. Kyle still has it on and makes a comment along the lines of. "So that's the security lock." before getting up and back into the fight. There could even be a narration box saying. "Slade Wilson did have a strong will. But the Ring didn't choose him." Both look cool and Deathstroke doesn't appear overpowered.

Wait...Batman has photogenic memories, meaning his mind is able to rememeber almost everything he's ever seen or done in his life. Wiping 10 minutes of Batman's mind would cause him to question things, since he would find it wierd that he rememebers going into the JLA Watchtower, then being in a completly diffrent place at a diffrent time, making himself ask what happened

I can add two more things that are bad with Identity Crisis. 1) It was what lead to ruining Zatanna as a character by staring her down the road as being the Justice League’s go to girl whenever they need to do some mind crime to someone. Including what happened to Cat woman. 2) Green Arrow’s argument falls apart. At the end of Identity Crisis we have Green Arrow making some speech to The Flash about why this incident is why they need to wear the mask and protect there identity. Not just to protect themselves but there loved ones too. But at the end of the day it wasn’t some supervillain like Dr Light, Deathstroke, Shadow thief, or Captain Boomerang that was the culprit for everything. It was the Ex-wife of one of the hero’s. There was no contingency for someone that was already associated with one of there own going rouge and going after the loved ones of other members. Except maybe never getting married and living lives of solitude forever.

My experience with Dr. Light before this video was the Teen Titans show, where Raven was going evil and dragged him into her cloak where he left curled up, beaten and bruise, and again later where Raven acted like she was going to do it again before he turned himself in. Needless to say, this was quite a whiplash for me.

Firestorm blowing up at all is a huge problem. He's called "The Nuclear Man" because he can re-arrange atoms, not because he's a nuclear reactor. The guy who blows up if you stab him is Captain Atom, not Firestorm!

The part where you talk about rape in this video was very important for my formation back in the day. I remember when it came out, it was the first time I've seen it being adressed this way. After your explanation here, I started seeing rape in media with other eyes and got to despise people who use it lazyly as a plot device like that. And actually give it the importance and weight it needs to have, not only in media, but in my life, in discussions. Yeah, you helped a dumb teenager understand some really important thing years ago. Again, you're awesome.

So with brainwashing Dr Light, why not make him heroic instead of an incompetent? Don't get me wrong, they're both morally outrageous but the former is also productive

21:32 - I agree with Linkara's point but goddamn. That art though. It's Robin being embraced by the comforting darkness that is Batman. It couldn't have looked better than it did in that artwork, holy shit.

An event comic with a rape scene is apparently a "tribute" to the Silver Age? Whoever said that must be suffering from a really bad hangover.

I hate the whole idea that, darker makes something more mature. It's shallow, and is obviously the result of someone trying to act mature, but in reality has no idea what real maturity is. A story can be light, or have comedy, and still tackle complex issues. Avatar the last Airbender is the pinnacle of this. It's why I'm not a fan of DC's coming movie universe. Because it look like like it's going full steam with that idea. Making everything 90's level dark and gritty to try and pass it off as mature.

I like how Blackest Night makes fun of Jean's motivation. With her Black Lantern form taunting Ray, saying obviously it was premeditated. In a book that was pretty grim (though I still loved it) that made me burst out laughing.

"A love letter to the Silver Age.’ Brad Meltzer must keep a minimum of 60 yards away from the Silver Age.

1:30 DC has actually done this for a really long time. I saw a Stan Lee interview where he talked about how (around the silver age I believe), many Marvel and DC authors/writers/etc knew each other and saw themselves as friends or colleagues. Apparently the DC/Marvel relationship was more of a friendly rivalry than a hatred as it's generally seen. DC was thinking that their sales lagged behind Marvel because their covers were more eye-catching. They thought "Marvel uses a lot of red on the covers, let's try that" or "Marvel's covers use dialogue, let's put dialogue on all of ours". Marvel, in response, would then do the opposite, like using as little red as possible or having no speech bubbles and still outsold them. Proving that Marvel knew how to write interesting characters and good plots instead of having to rely on marketing tactics.

Elongated man in blackest with the atom about that: Atom: It was an accident black lantern elongated man: She brought a flame-thrower "just in case"......tdfw

I actually did wait till I read Identity Crisis to watch this video (just bought and read it today actually), and... Jesus H. Christ! This thing was dark, and it did not let up. There were many points where reading through this book was a bit of a strain with how twisted it got. But what really drove it home for me were two things in the book; the super heroes (particularly Green Arrow) and the stuff with Sue Dibny. There are no repercussions for all the mind wiping the superheroes did, and the fact they did it to Batman, a big namer and their friend/teammate, really pissed me off. My only solace was that stories after Identity Crisis rightfully call them out for this. And as for Sue... Good God. Her death alone would have been sad and tragic, but to show her be RAPED by Dr. Light felt despicable, and as for her death scene... When they showed the pregnancy test... And it was positive... I was speechless. I almost put the book down right then and there. That moment alone, combined with the recent info released by one of the creators, just showed me that all they wanted for this story was be as dark as they could get. And I wasn’t proven wrong. As such, nice video Linkara. While there were a couple points I would disagree with you on, overall, I think you covered what was wrong with this book very well.

Honestly I think that it is the rape of Sue side plot line that makes me not want to read this. I live by the philosophy that unless it is 100% needed and a major part of the story, rape should be avoided in the story you are telling. Also when it is in your story it should be done in a respectful manner, not something to make your story edgy. Like give a lot of attention to the victim going through the trauma they will have because rape is a horrifying experience, don’t ignore what the victim will go through in the aftermath of the rape. It is pretty obvious that this is only used to be edgy and shocking for the sake of being edgy and shocking.

Darwyn Cookes New Frontier is a REAL love letter to the Silver Age.

One of my favorite moments in JLA Vol. 3 was that bit in the Injustice Gang storyline where a blond guy with a giant, bushy beard shows up to yell at the heroes about collateral damage and the importance of the little people. The best part? He's not Green Arrow (who was dead at the time). Not only does it make for a pretty good throwaway moment in-story, but the creators flat-out said that they wanted to imply that the reason no one could figure out GA's secret identity was that there were several loud-mouthed leftist crusaders with blond Robin Hood beards wandering around Seattle. (See, DC? Comedy can be interesting and clever, too.)

One of the best uses of rape in a story I've read was in issue #118 of Invincible. Not only was it a man who was raped instead of a woman, but the story it took time to explore the psychology of the experience. Invincible was acting weird whenever his wife tried to make sexual contact with him and eventually he revealed that he was raped. He then said that the most traumatizing thing about it was that he could have done something yet didn't, which left him wondering whether he was subconsciously enjoying it.

At less Batman: The Brave and the Bold was a better love letter to the Silver Age rather than this.

I let out an actual sigh of relief when he mentioned Jack Drake. His murder, unless I'm terribly mistaken, was totally unnecessary to the greater murder and investigation plot. Edit: OK, maybe it was tangentially related, but he still didn't have to die.

If I wrote a love letter to the silver age it'd have shit like the Joker literally pulling a giant mech out of his ass to terrorize Gotham, Dinosaur riding space pirates, and Green Arrow firing arrows loaded with jars of chili as their heads

If I was to be honest, I think it's a really compelling story. I'm just can't help but to hate it for how they treated Sue Dibny. She was reduced into a prop.

Pretty much every defense of the Jean Loring reveal I've seen pretty much just ends up being "well she's crazy, so OF COURSE what she's doing doesn't make any sense". Did she go to the Doctor Doom school of convoluted plans? What made her think that just because Sue was attacked/killed that Ray would immediately get back with her? I don't know if this was the intention beforehand, but it really just seemed like a super lackluster way to get Jean into a position where she could become Eclipso.

A wizard killing Sue Dibny makes more sense than Jean Lorring. There are several evil wizards in the DC Universe that would gladly kill a hero’s wife.

"For a crazy person, she seemed pretty functional in her actions" and the Arkham thing: Law & The Multiverse has pointed out multiple times that there is a major difference between MEDICAL insanity and LEGAL insanity. One that most people and DC obviously do NOT get. Take the Joker, DC's textbook example of "not guilty by means of insanity". There is absolutely no question that the Joker is loco in the coco. However, the definition of legal insanity, I.e. admissible as a plea, requires that the defendant NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THE ACTIONS WERE WRONG, or WHY they were wrong. The Joker obviously does. Loring seems to me to straddle the line. She knows she murdered Sue-she knows the THAT-IS-WRONG part-but doesn't seem to grasp the WHY-IS-WRONG part, since a part of her plan that Linkara skips is "make them appreciate what they have". The murders force the heroes to draw closer to their loved ones, so she doesn't get why that's bad.

Fun Fact, you can't be declared legally insane, even if you have a mental disorder of some kind, if you can be shown to be able to think rationally and still be able to recognize what the law is. The definition of legal insanity is super specific. The fact that her plan has a certain amount of logic to it - even if it is poorly planned - and that she knew she was breaking the law and made a willful choice to disregard it means she's not legally insane. This is especially true if they imply that she was capable of manipulating the murder scene to cover up her crime.

In all honesty it surprises me when ever a company that KNOWS how to do serious materiel, doesn't end up doing it properly. There's no reason to kill off characters "just cuz" Hell, sometimes you don't even need to kill anyone! A character death only means something if it has a lasting affect, and felt like it meant something. Some of them dying meant nothing, and the affects it did have weren't satisfying. Plus not every super hero needs SOMEONE TO DIE in their family! Tim drake's dad could've been around, but nope they killed him. Why? Just cause the other robin's lost their birth parents. That's it.

Why has Arkham Asylum not been permanently shut down and replaced by a far better institution with top security advancements and trustworthy and competent staff that aren't easily tricked? Oh yea, gotta have an excuse for Batman's villains constantly escaping.

Any story that uses a minor character's rape as a prop for an unrelated character to mine drama out of is a story that is poorly written. I'm sorry but if you're going to do something as disgusting as retcon Sue as the victim of a brutal rape in the same story she's killed off in just to give Batman trust issues, you are a fucking terrible writer. The aftermath of what Sue and Ralph felt after that is not explored it can never be explored because Sue was killed and because it's a retcon. I try to forget this story exists because it is a story trying way too hard to be edgy and failing at even providing entertainment.

*Spoilers for Secret Six below!!!* Ralph and Sue Dibny are alive in the New 52, and as far as I can tell, Sue was never raped in the new universe by Doctor Light. Doesn't make up for this, mind you, just happy these two are able to be happy in the new universe.

I kinda have to wonder... why didn't they just say Sue Dibny was cooking when Jean attacked her? That way you could have Jean running away in a panic as she realizes what she's done, whatever was cooking starts burning after a while, and the apartment goes up in smoke. Or if you MUST have Jean burning Sue's corpse, have her deliberately cause the food to burn, in order to make it seem like it was all an accident. Makes more sense than her literally packing heat, in this case a flamethrower...

Am I the only one who thinks the writer who killed firestorm thought he had the same weakness as Captain Atom?

The comic is dark just to be "edgy", not to actually talk about dark themes with maturity.

One of the things that annoyed me about this and what followed is how Green Arrow so vigorously defended the mind wipes. First, he voted against it. I can MAYBE see him agreeing to go along with the majority, but there's no way he'd really ever approve of it. He'd more likely have quit the League in the immediate aftermath, while still keep silent out of obligation to his friends. It might even explain his time in Seattle.

I HATE what they did to Dr. Light. Rape is WAY out of character for him.

Meltzer meant a "love letter to the Silver Age" by way of "showing that those so called innocent stories were darker than we thought." And this is true because mind-wiping a villain was so casual, it was commonplace. Batman and Superman would hypnotize themselves after time travel stories. But this is no justification for the rape scene which would never have happened.

I find it ironic now that both heroes in crisis and identity Crisis have the same problems because they both involved murder mysteries stories that make no sense what’s so ever and have good artwork but none of the clues are lining up but that’s just my opinion.

Some people might say it's hypocritical that Linkara is against dark retcons when he did one regarding the Magic Gun... but personally I think it's actually kind of heartwarming. Throughout this whole show, Linkara has always had Margaret on his side.

The OG Firestorm's death pisses me off for the same reasons as Ryan Choi's death mostly because it was a shock death that was insulting and served no real purpose.

As a fan of forensics, yeah, the "mystery" falls apart really quickly. A woman is found burned in her apartment. Burning makes it hard to tell an accurate time of death. Which means phone records and internet records are the first thing that would be looked at, since a dead person can't check their emails or chat with friends (unless there is a Ouija board attached to a phone or something). Given that Jean Loring was the last person on the phone with the victim, it would not have even gone to casing offenders or people with motive. Even if Loring torched the place for evidence, the torching itself leaves evidence, as many gasoline-based propellents have chemical tracers to allow for police to track gasoline back to its delivery truck. They would identify what gas stations were distributing the specific gasoline used for the flamethrower, and a detective would take photos of primary suspects to the cashiers and attendants. As soon as one of them recognized Loring, or Loring showed up on tape, she'd have a detail on her 24/7. No hits, no faked suicide. A search warrant would be issued for her house and if there was evidence of gasoline on any clothes, or even in the shower drain, or evidence of clothes being burned, Loring would get the full investigative treatment. That's just how badass we mere mortals are. No fancy superpowers, just an investigation policy that has been refined over the thousands of years of people murdering each other.

I can somewhat understand Jean not directly going to Atom to reconcile because most people who regret breaking up don’t want to “crawl back.” But her method of getting Atom’s attention is so dumb and “she’s crazy” is such a lazy excuse

This comic suffers from an identity crisis.

Another issue with Firestorm's death, not much actually happens when you puncture a nuclear reactor. A fission reactor is a big pile of solid matter, like uranium or plutonium pellets, graphite bricks, movable cadmium control rods or similar neutron-absorbing material to moderate the reactor's speed. You can't really puncture a fission reactor. You can only puncture a container, like a balloon, or a gas tank. The effect is nothing more than to let out what is contained. A punctured object is simply no longer useful as a container. Commercial fission reactors are immersed in a heat transfer medium. Puncturing the cooling vessel could produce a rapid loss of cooling medium. This could lead to a meltdown if the reactor's dampening mechanisms also broke at the same time. An implosion-type fusion reactor also cannot be punctured for the same reason as a fission reactor, it's a solid-state apparatus. You can, however, puncture a plasma fusion reactor. The result is a rapid quenching of the reaction. There might be mechanical effects, too, because the puncture would also let out some hot dense gas and maybe collapse the magnetic field, and a decent amount of energy would drop into the local environment. But it would only wreck the plasma vessel and the room it's in. In none of these cases would you actually get a nuclear explosion. At worse, there'd be an explosion of radioactive material, but it wouldn't be a big Fat Man-level explosion. web.archive.org/web/20120206063519/www.whiterose.org/howlingcurmudgeons/archives/006974.html The original web page for this article is dead so the Wayback Machine was the only way for me to get it. The author of this article is a physicist, unlike the superheroes involved in that scene and apparently, Brad Meltzer, too.

I hate how so often it seems like they need to make whoever Batman's sidekick is be just like him. Tim Drake father dying is probably the best example of that. But the one that angered me the most is Dick Grayson. And how they were like yeah him and Starfire can never work out why because Dick Grayson is also a playboy just like Bruce is. So at the end of it they wrote it as Dick was more so just always sexually lusting after Starfire instead of ever truly being in love with her. Which my god did that drive me insane. Like really nothing I had read up to that point lead me to believe anything other than that Dick truly loved Starfire and that if he was ever gonna settle down with anybody it would be her. But nah just erase all those facts because if we write it as Dick never truly loved her that much then that must be the case damn all the proof you have seen in the past that contradicts that. As none of that matters anymore. It made my wish that Kingdom Come was actually the real DC universe as at least in that timeline Dick and Starfire had a daughter together.

I'm not a big DC reader but I was really into Chuck Dixon's Robin comics when I was a teenager. In a way Tim Drake was my "Spider-Man" I guess, the teenage hero I related to. Part of the reason I liked him is because he was a very Marvel-like character with a lot of normal human concerns that moonlighting as a super hero got in the way of. It's kind of ironic that the attempt by Identity Crisis to be more like Marvel just made Tim Drake more like the Batman instead. On Firestorm I really hate when writers think they need to kill off a character before they can pass the mantle down to someone else. Have them get de-powered or have them retire or whatever. At least then you don't have to jump through as many hoops when to inevitably bring them back. Killing a character meaninglessly is not dramatic. It adds nothing to a story and just complicates things later.

Good news! Identity Crisis has been entirely wiped from canon! (A couple years ago, in Justice League of America #17, actually, but I'm just finding out about it). And thank Rao, too, since Ray Palmer deserved to *finally* get a happy ending.

I feel like this event only exists to set up Blackest Night, which itself was a great event & got me hooked on the Green Lantern mythos.

The fact that you could leave out Jack Drake’s and Firestorm’s deaths in that quick summary shows just how needless they are

Hahaha! The bumper joke at the end just reminded me. In one issue of the comic, Oliver Queen's secret identity is exposed--- and nobody cares... because they didn't realize that it was supposed to be a secret BECAUSE of the beard. XD

That picture at 4:51 just really gets to me. Seeing Ralph in utter despair over the loss of his wife just sends a powerful message.

35:17 Q: "So as a murder mystery, this is not a story that ends with smiles, is it?" *What?* B: *"Is there ever a happy ending at the end of a murder mystery?"* *WHAT???* Murder Mysteries have had happy endings since the very beginning. Do you know why? Because a murder mystery almost always ends up w/ the killer being revealed, caught, and brought to justice. The happy ending is that good triumps over evil. If that wasn't the case then Murder Mysteries wouldn't be so popular b/c there's no appeal in being drawn into a mystery and following it closely only for the killer to never be revealed or get caught. It'd make people feel like they wasted their time b/c it WOULD be a waste of their time.

Avengers Dissassembled is pretty much the Marvel equivalent of this story.

Zatanna and Kyle should have known that mages belong in the back.

Ok, I’m not against deathstroke messing with the lantern ring like that, but make him WORK for it. It takes absolutely all his concentration and he can only do it for a few seconds.

Something about Batman being brainwashed into being a Metallica fan makes me chuckle 😂

That's a really good way of looking at Marvel and DC's lineups and I'm mad I never thought of it before. Marvel's heroes are the teens with attitude, DC's are the mythological beings brought to life. One saves the day and then takes you to lunch, the other saves the day and makes sure you're staying in school.

Lawlz Number 7 indeed being "Eww this was too unique a spin on the character, we gotta cut and paste!

RE: all comments about "yellow gloves"--Kyle's ring didn't have the yellow impurity, especially at this point, pre-Rebirth.

It's like there's two major stories here that got shoved together. Sue's murder kinda/sorta kicked off the mind wipe thing, but as shown. Dr. Light probably would have remembered eventually, anyway. We later learned that Batman HAD already recovered his memories. It also ruined Ralph and Sue because they could never again be Ralph and Sue, even with a resurrection. This changes who they are/were on such a fundamental level and they're not even the focus of this story or much of what came after. Reading an old JLE/JLI issue with them working alongside the female Dr. Light feels wrong. At least 52 made an attempt to fix it without hitting the reset, but it's sill a loss because they'll never be quite that fun again. I'll always point to "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, & The American Way" as a truly adult comic that addresses "dark heroes". It gives a glimpse at how frightening Superman would be if he truly cut loose and reaffirms that his code of honor and conduct are correct. Identity Crisis is just another example of what I the call dark=asshole method of lazy writing.

DC needs to stop trying to shoehorn angst into perfectly functioning characters. They are REALLY bad at it.

Firestorm's death made me cry. This entire BOOK made me cry. I loved it, but it also taught me to hate Fridging characters more than ever, like, this was the LAST time it had impact. This book taught me more about fridging than the ACTUAL FRIDGE DEATH COMIC!

With how convoluted that mystery was, you might as well say it was Col. Mustard in the library with a candle stick.

This comic is the definition of “But why? Bracket is no mad dog killer, he is after something”

In high school, as part of a reading class we read "The Kite Runner." _That_ book portrayed rape in a very mature and respectable way. It's a plot point, it shows how it affected everyone, _including_ the victim, and it didn't come _completely_ out of nowhere. It wasn't used for shock, to be "edgy," nor be dark and gritty for the sake of being dark and gritty. Keep in mind, I read this in _high school,_ and yet I _still_ see stories that use rape poorly despite being for adults! Heck, my classmate's story that I read in Writing Fiction weeks ago was more respectable to the topic than this!

Casually using rape as a plot device: They might just as well have the writer kick the victim down the stairs after she served her purpose as he goes "Duurhnhur hur we mature 8D"

I still don't get why Jean wanted to scare Sue to come back with Ray Palmer. There a story between the three that I don't know?

I read the trade of this when it came out, during that time period about 3 to 4 years DC was getting "SERIOUS FICTION AUTHORS" to write some books, Meltzer was one of those as was Jodi Picoult who did Wonder Woman Love and Murder. I was working in a book store at the time and was thinking "why are you having these folks write it? Even if they are fans they're not professionals in this media"

Just read it. It's a compelling story and it would be even more if not written poorly. Certain parts are interesting, but the other ones are either shock value or bad writing. A few examples: Sue Dibny as a plot prop, gratuitous deaths (i.e. Tim Drake's father), subplots that are nothing to do with the main plot (i.e. Boomerang's son), Jean Loring' s nonsensical revelation, certain mature topics tackled in not a sensitive way (only to be edgy) and of course, some badly executed retcons. Excellent case, Linkara, excellent case.

Linkara gets let down by DC so often that sometimes it's surprising that he still considers them his favourite company.

Okay, now whenever I watch a Millar Time episode of Atop the Fourth Wall, I think of a little 13 year old Linkara on Christmas morning opening his presents and getting an awesome pocket watch. Yay for good retcons!!! (Even though that was an actual thing that happened.)

28:30 I was really hoping he would say “GRANNY GOODNESS”

It's things like Identity Crisis wiping Batman's mind that make me wonder why they were all so uppity about Tower of Babel? I know Identiy Crisis was released after Tower of Babel, but as said in the video, retcons put past stories in a whole new light.

I hear the new Heroes in Crisis story is being really grim dark too. It seems like if you see the word “Crisis” in a DC crossover series, you should stay away.

Two things One: if want something that is an actual love letter to the silver age with DC characters, go watch Batman: the Brave and the Bold. Two: if you want an actually better DC Comics murder mystery story that is 100 times better than Identity Crisis, and that the true murderer is not an idiot who just wants to get back together with someone by a murder just for the sake of the story being a dark and depressing story, go read Batman: Long Halloween.

this whole series makes an episode of Teen Titans where Dr Light kidnaps a young girl, JUST FUCKING WRONG!!!!!!!

“AND THEY DONT FIND A DAMN THING”

Oh yes i remember the mind-wiping bs... and the shit that got pulled off with catwoman, undermining her character development

The thing with Ray Palmer's wife wanting him back is doubly stupid because I think SHE was the one who pushed the divorce in the first place because she was seeing another man. If she really wanted him back all she had to do was say so. He never wanted to split up in the first place. I could see the mind wipe of Dr. Light being a good excuse for his personality change but the rape part was not required. His infiltrating their base and just attacking Sue would've been plenty. Also, as Linkara pointed out, the Batman thing was dumb as he could've just found out in the story and distrust them from then on. I can give them Arkham as Ivy Town might be too small to have it's own mental hospital but I have to take away points since she's just a person and ANY mental hospital would do. It also sounds like a lot of the side stuff was just put in it because it needed to happen somewhere and they couldn't figure out where else to put it. To me killing off Firestorm to introduce a new one should've been done in the first few issues of the new Firestorm title. Hell, they could've kept who killed him a secret and made the new Firestorm finding out the whole first storyline. As for Boomerang I would guess it was to make way for the son to take over but that story SHOULD'VE happened in the the, then, current "Flash" series.

And now that I think about it, Sue was on the phone with Ralph when she died so the fact that they NEVER checked the phone records is even more baffling!

And honestly I found great comedy stories far more mature dark and realistic then all these bad attempts to try to be that. As linkara stated it's like these writers only know how to make angst and nothing more than that. And if that's the case they really need to be forced out of their comfort zone because sooner or later they're going to be forced out of it!

I love mystery stories, so too bad this doesn’t work.

Deathstroke disabling Kyle's ring via his own will has precedence: Aquaman did the same thing when the Brain stole Hal Jordon's arm (long story) to use his ring way back in _JLA: Year One_ by Mark Waid. Great story. A+ material.

9:28 sounds like EVERY BAT FAN EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That panel you keep showing of the Justice League all posed and smiling reminds me of one other specific, and rather well known, comic where a similar picture of better times is used ironically in a similar manner. In other words, Identity Crisis thinks it is the Watchmen, doesn't it?

i love deathstrook but god that pissed me off, i mean he overwilled a GL, ya green arrow ya i can see that but the over will and knowing were the flash is going to be...don't care that's just dumb, oh and that part about him saying he has "90%" of his brain working....even in 04 that was just dumb

The only reason to drive characters apart is to bring them back together in a triumphant way, except dc is not that smart. In either comic form or their screened material.

When everyone is a basic-ass Batfanboy who has never picked up a damned comicbook without "Bat" in the title in their lives, THAT is how you get these stories, and then the present day scenario where a bunch of edgy dudes really think DC is the "dark and mature" universe. DC is the home of the larger than life, prototypical, idealistic, hopeful superhero. DC are superheroes that Marvel's heroes would look up to if they read about them. Not some edgy cringelords ripping off old Judge Dredd villains (looking at you "BaTMaN wHO laUGhs") or arriving 15 years late to the Zombie fad.

I will now and forever shove into batards faces the time that their super genius Batgod, who's outsmarted the likes of Lex Luthor and Brainiac, was once outsmarted by a second-rate lawyer with a shrinking suit.

Actually, nuclear reactors are a lot more complicated than that. They don't explode when you stab them, they just emit radiation everywhere.

I think part of the reasoning behind making Dr Light a bumbling villain was the popularity of the teen titans animated series at the time. He was never treated as a series villain in that. And since they felt they needed a joke char to make dangerous the imported the animated version and made him rapey

For Number 3 It could be argued that Dr Light passed out after his light blast and Slade got him out of there.