The Flash is building towards DC's Identity Crisis as the next Arrowverse crossover, but that is the wrong direction to go in. While the next Arrowverse crossover isn't confirmed, there has been some setup for an adaptation of the controversial DC Comics event from 2004. Identity Crisis was a big deal, and has turned out to be very well remembered among fans, but not for the right reasons.
The Arrowverse is no stranger to adapting comic crossovers for its big, annual team-up event. “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and “Invasion!” were more direct adaptations of a storyline, while others like “Elseworlds” and “Crisis on Earth-X” were loosely based on general ideas from the comics, and “Identity Crisis” could follow in either mold.
For as much as they’re building towards it, Identity Crisis is a bad crossover for the Arrowverse to do. The series has its defenders and was the gateway into DC Comics for many readers, but as the years have passed, it’s remembered as a bad event now. The ramifications of it have led to a downward spiral in the DC universe that many believe it’s barely recovered from, if at all. Even if the Arrowverse does a loose adaptation of Identity Crisis, it’s not worth all of the negative connotations that go with it.
DC’s Identity Crisis Explained
Identity Crisis starts as a murder mystery. Sue Dibny, wife of Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man, is killed in her home. While the Trinity (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) start the investigation, other members of the Justice League, led by Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, have a lead: Arthur Light, the villain known as Doctor Light. While Oliver wants to keep this investigation secret, Wally West/The Flash confronts Oliver about what’s going on.
Oliver reveals that Doctor Light is a suspect because he raped Sue Dibny years before. When the Justice League found out, Light plotted revenge against them. Wally, remembering Doctor Light as an ineffectual villain from his time on the Teen Titans, can’t reconcile this with the bumbling Doctor Light he knew. Oliver explains that that was the Justice League’s fault as well. To keep Doctor Light from coming back after Sue Dibny, they had the sorceress Zatanna wipe Light’s mind to change his personality, an escalation of their previous habits of erasing villain’s minds to keep secret identities from being revealed. While this is happening, Batman walks in. Oliver wants to keep the more senior members out of this, so Zatanna wipes Batman’s memory of this event as well.
This retcon, showing that rape, torture, and magical lobotomies were part of the story during the supposedly more idealistic Silver Age of comics, takes up most of the book. There are other red herrings to throw off the investigation, including the death of Jack Drake, father of the then-current Robin Tim Drake, when the villain Captain Boomerang breaks into the Drake house. These threads do eventually tie in to the mystery, but they’re not actual clues to who solved the actual murder mystery that the story supposedly was supposed to be.
Instead, the mystery doesn’t get any real clues until the sixth issue (out of seven) when an autopsy discovers small footprints in Sue Dibny’s brain. This puts suspicion on Ray Palmer/The Atom, but it was really done by his ex-wife Jean Loring, who had also set up a fake attempted murder on herself to throw off the investigation. Her motivation? She didn’t want to kill her friend Sue, but thought that shrinking down, flying into Sue’s brain, and giving her a health scare would bring everyone in the Justice League closer to their loved ones. She just wanted another chance to repair her relationship with Ray, but it led to accidentally killing her friend.
How The Flash Is Setting Up Identity Crisis
The Flash introduced Sue Dearbon in season 6, the biggest hint that something like Identity Crisis might be happening. Her death is the catalyst for the series, and her presence unfortunately has the prospect of Identity Crisis hanging over her head constantly. Depending on exactly how quickly her relationship with Ralph moves forward, they could be in a place to set up this crossover story, though making Sue the victim so soon after her introduction is probably not the best idea.
The Arrowverse also introduced the Justice League at the end of “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. While it’s not been named directly and the set up of the Justice League technically happened on an episode of Legends of Tomorrow, Barry Allen/The Flash has been the one most responsible for setting up the League. There needs to be some idea of the League as an organization, not just an ad hoc response to the big crossover threat, for a lot of the story of Identity Crisis to make much sense.
Finally, after destroying the multiverse in “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, the next Arrowverse crossover has to be smaller. A murder mystery plot would be much smaller, and having the League assemble to solve a murder of someone important to all of them would make a great starting point for building up the team. While they’ve all worked together in the past, how the dynamics of the team work now that they’re a more permanent team and all on the same Earth should be explored more thoroughly.
Why Arrowverse’s Next Crossover Shouldn’t Be Identity Crisis
The first reason Identity Crisis is a bad idea is that while a lot of the characters from the event are in the Arrowverse, they’re in very different roles. Jean Loring appeared, but as a completely different character with no relation to Ray Palmer, who left superheroics, happily married to Nora Dahrk. Oliver Queen can’t be part of the story because he died in “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. Sue Dearbon is in the show, but she and Ralph have barely met, much less gotten married and become beloved members of the team. Killing her so soon would look like she was introduced only to die to motivate other characters, a particularly hated cliche. Directly adapting a story character-for-character isn’t the Arrowverse’s way, of course, so that’s hardly a reason to shut down this specific crossover idea entirely.
For as much as Identity Crisis was sold as a murder mystery, most of the comic was a big retcon. It revised the bright and cheery Silver Age of comics to show that it was hiding real darkness, for what reason exactly? Making the story seem more important? Darkness for its own sake? Trying to change a story like that just messes with current fans, who are now being told that the “real” story didn’t happen the way they remember it. The Arrowverse shows have retconned some things, but also avoided bigger ones as much as possible.
Then there’s the simply messed up storytelling and character motivations. Doctor Light raping Sue is a big plot point, but how it affected her was never brought up, instead showing how it impacted everyone else. A number of characters support retaliating against villains through torture and magical lobotomies, and this is treated as debatably effective at best or openly encouraged at worst. The actual murder itself hinges on a motivation where Jean Loring is willing to seriously hurt a friend of hers and set up a few other near-death experiences to heroes’ families if it allows her to reconnect with her ex-husband, who was ready to take her back anyway. When all is said and done, what’s her defense? She had no intention to kill anyone, and all the deaths were just accidents.
If the Arrowverse adapted Identity Crisis, most of these troubling aspects would be excised for not fitting with the lighter tone that’s been building since The Flash premiered in 2014. A different character would die, everyone’s roles would be shuffled around, and the big retcon and other gross elements would be removed. With all of those changes, what would it have in common with Identity Crisis? Doing a murder mystery? That would make for a good crossover, but if it has nothing else in common, why even make the comparison to Identity Crisis? The negative baggage associated with it over the last 16 years has offset pretty much all the goodwill that came with how well it sold at the time, so drawing that connection isn’t worth it.
While some elements of The Flash seem to be setting up Identity Crisis as a future Arrowverse crossover, that’s not the way things should go. While it was a hit in 2004, Identity Crisis is the type of dark, bleak comic series that has fallen out of favor recently. From the negative baggage that comes with the name to just how much they’d have to change things to make it fit the tone of the Arrowverse, it’s a bad idea to do a crossover based on Identity Crisis any more than just using the most basic “superhero murder mystery” setup.
"Flash" - Google News
April 21, 2020 at 12:43AM
https://ift.tt/3cA8uaU
The Flash Is Building The Arrowverse To The Wrong Crossover - Screen Rant
"Flash" - Google News
https://ift.tt/39L7UpV
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "The Flash Is Building The Arrowverse To The Wrong Crossover - Screen Rant"
Post a Comment