Before we delve into the story itself, I need to take time to explain how Sanctuary worked. "Heroes in Crisis" is the first time we actually see Sanctuary, and it isn't until issue three until they give us the rundown. Sanctuary is designed as a farm house in Nebraska run by an artificial intelligence. Some of its features include robots meant to resemble Jonathan and Martha Kent as well as Lana Lang, a reality show style confessional room where heroes can privately express themselves for the house AI to help, as well as a holodeck that helps heroes work out their issues in a more tangible way, which they call "chamber sessions". Heroes can also preserve their privacy by walking around the facility in white robes and golden masks.
Issue one is a bit disjointed, much like a good chunk of the series itself, so I'm going be summarizing for the most part. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are responding to an emergency alert at Sanctuary. Superman arrives first to find all those present have been killed, with bodies laid out both inside the house, but mostly in the field outside.
All the casualties aren't revealed in the first issue, but rather over the course of the series. To save time, those killed include Blue Jay, Commander Steel, Hot Spot, Lagoon Boy, Gunfire, Red Devil, Gnarrk, Protector, Tattooed Man, Solstice, and Poison Ivy. For the most part, it's a bunch of c-list heroes. The problem with some of these deaths though is that a good chunk of these characters hadn't been seen in years including before the New 52 reboot, and even after the reboot, some of these characters had either only made minor appearances or "Heroes in Crisis" marks their first appearance in the new continuity. Like Lagoon Boy. "Hey remember that character you liked on 'Young Justice'? He's dead now." I'm not even kidding when I say DC even tried to promote the character's return to comics with his own death. I'm just saying, it's hard to care when some of these characters hadn't made any recent significant impact. Also, I didn't notice before with the character of Blue Jay, a character who has shrinking powers. Apparently, his shrunken body was being ripped apart and eaten by birds. And here I thought I couldn't hate this story more without looking back and finding such morbid imagery.
However, there are two major characters killed whose deaths really pissed me and a lot of fans off: Roy Harper/Arsenal and Wally West/The Flash. Killing off these two shows that DC was still willing to screw with the Titans. Hell, throw in Dick Grayson getting shot in the head over in the Batman book, suffering from amnesia and now going by Rick (ugh), and Tom King has singlehandedly dismantled over half the original Teen Titans roster. Wally's death hurt the most though. His return at the beginning of the Rebirth initiative was a sign of good things to come from DC. Those who remember my Rebirth Review series know that it allowed me to expand my view of the DC universe further than ever before. The idea that this was how Wally's story would end is a giant middle finger to fans who were happy to see him back and what Rebirth represented.
Once Batman and Wonder Woman arrive to the survey the damage, they find the house ransacked, the robots of the Kents dismantled, and a message written on the wall saying "THE PUDDLERS ARE ALL DEAD!" Wonder Woman explains that puddlers were a term for those who made swords, skimming the molten metal ane removing the impurities so the iron can be strong. Batman surmises that someone who was being treated at Sanctuary was responsible for the massacre. All three lament how their attempt to help their superhero community has failed and just became another wrong to right.
The only ones unaccounted for at Sanctuary are Booster Gold and Harley Quinn. The two apparently believe they saw the other kill all the other heroes, and after initially getting away from each other, Harley finds Booster at a diner and it leads to a fight between the two.
It's also in this issue where we are introduced to a recurring plot element throughout the series, that of the confession cam videos, featuring heroes who have come and gone. The layout of these pages are nine panels with the heroes in front of the camera just saying what comes to mind.
Now in theory, this is a pretty good idea, especially in the first issue, as it allows us to get some insight to those residing at Sanctuary. Unfortunately, this idea becomes overused quickly, turn out to add nothing of value to the story, and just feels like a way to fill out the page count. I did do a tally and these scenes make up 31 of the 202 page count. I know that doesn't seem like much, but when they're sprinkled throughout the story in random spaces, it can get annoying and hurts any momentum the main story may be building.
One of the biggest examples of these pages being a waste include one for Black Canary in issue four, where she's sittting down in the first panel, says "Ah, $%@# this" in the second, gets up and walks out in the third panel, and the remaining six panels are just the background of the room. Like, why?! Then you have the pages featuring multiple characters at once, many of whom play no major part in the story and some whose dialogue doesn't really give us any clue about what they're actually at Sanctuary for. For example, Catwoman has a panel where she just says "Meeoww." Or better yet, there's one with Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes where he says "You ever see that old movie? The one where the guy has to do the thing? I think that's me. I'm the guy who has to do the thing." I have literally no idea what King is trying to have Jaime say here. And that's the problem. DC let King have full reign of the toy chest, and he's acting like he has this deep insight to all the characters. Sometimes it works, other times it seems like he's trying too hard to the point where you're not sure what the character is trying to say, and the rest of the time it seems like he just gives up.
Also, the nine panel page is one of the ways King tries to emulate Alan Moore, who famously used this layout often in his work, including "Watchmen" and "Batman: The Killing Joke." There's more I think King is trying to emulate from Moore and particularly "Watchmen" with this story, but we'll get there.
I will say though that despite my rage towards Wally and Roy's deaths, I did objectively find the beginning of the story an intriguing start with a genuine mystery to be solved. Much like "Civil War II" though, how a story begins doesn't entail how the rest of it goes.
Issue two sees Batman performing an autopsy on Commander Steel as Superman and Wonder Woman believe Batman already knows who committed the massacre. Batman denies this, but the other two tell him that he's been known to try and exploit heroes' weaknesses (see the "Tower of Babel" storyline for example) and that he would put backdoors into Sanctuary to do so. Batman insists he intended to keep Sanctuary anonymous, so that heroes could talk about their problems without judgment and that any information collected is deleted immediately afterward. Batman's final argument is that he himself has gone to Sanctuary for sessions. Back to the autopsy though, Batman finds a pair of wind-up teeth down Commander Steel's throat, and that someone forced it down. This leads them to Harley as a suspect.
The earlier fight between Harley and Booster ended with her stabbing him and leaving him for dead. Afterwards, Harley went to Penguin for help and was given one of his safehouses to hide out in. We also see that's she back to wearing her original jester outfit; I'd say that would be at least one win for this series, but she's clearly going back to her Rebirth look by this September. Of course, the Trinity find Harley. Upset, she runs to Wonder Woman for a hug claiming that Booster killed everyone at Sanctuary. This is an act though as Harley uses the opportunity to steal the lasso of truth. After kicking back Wonder Woman, Harley gets the jump on Batman, wrapping the lasso around his neck. Superman and Wonder Woman don't want to make any sudden moves with Batman's life in danger. Harley then makes Batman tell her what he has in his utility belt to fight Superman, forcing him to reveal where he's concealing his Kryptonite ring. Harley uses the ring to weaken Superman, and as Wonder Woman's helping him, Harley lets go of Batman and makes her escape, still carrying the Kryptonite ring. A lot of people complained about this scene with Harley being able to beat out the Trinity. Honestly though, these moments in comics where a character beats someone they're outclassed by happens so much that it doesn't bother me. I mean, they all underestimated Harley and she took advantage of that. I will say though that I think Wonder Woman still could have given chase; Harley was leaving, taking the Kryptonite with her which meant Superman would have been fine in a little while, and Wonder Woman was in much better shape compare to the other two.
Elsewhere, Booster is awakened by his robot companion Skeets, who has healed Booster of his wounds. It's here we see that King is still writing Booster as stupid as he did in "The Gift". Booster explains to Skeets what happened, that either he or Harley killed everyone at Sanctuary, and is wondering what he should do next. Despite Skeets' insistence that he should turn himself in, Booster doesn't listen and convinces himself to solve the mystery because that's what Batman would do. Booster then heads to Central City to find the other Flash, Barry Allen. Barry is fighting a group of samurai robots (because comic books) as Booster arrives talking about what happened believing Barry already knows everything. Unfortunately, Booster is too dumb to realize that Barry has no idea what he's talking about and he's ignoring Skeets' pleas to shut up. It's here I really question why Skeets needs to be here. I know banter between him and Booster is a staple, but the way King writes Booster, it makes him look even more stupid when he won't listen to reason from his closest friend; it's more like he just needs someone to bounce his ideas off of to convince himself to do something he was probably going to do anyway. Booster then begins to name off some of the victims "Like Arsenal...Blue Jay...Ivy...Wally...". Upon hearing Wally's name, Barry races off to Sanctuary to confirm his death and is back almost immediately, decking Booster and screaming "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" with tears in his eyes.
I like this splash page for a number of reasons. 1) It's an emotional moment for Barry and it's one that has some real weight to it, something I wish this story had more focus on. 2) Booster getting punched out; story wise it's just because he may be the killer, but he really deserves it because of just how casually he tells Barry "Oh hey, your old sidekick is dead."
Back in Gotham, Harley is atop a suspension bridge dropping a rose into Gotham River below, feeling guilt over Ivy's death. It's only one page and I wouldn't have mentioned it, but this ends up being a plot point later. I'll just save some time here by saying that in issue five, the rose is picked up by a red gloved hand as it's washed ashore.
Issue two ends with Lois Lane receiving a package at the Daily Planet. It's a recording of Arsenal's session from Sanctuary with a message that reads "Our heroes hide themselves from us. From Sanctuary. Here is the truth. More truths will be coming." It is signed by "the Puddlers."
This issue is okay, but the end of it really helps add fuel to the mystery. Too bad it ends up being disappointing.
Before going into issue three, it's worth noting that when this story was announced, it was to run for seven issues. By the time the first issue came out, it expanded to nine. From what I could tell, King was given two extra issues that were devoted to expanded character insight, which I guess you could consider interludes. The first of these is issue three, and it's okay I guess as I assumed there was a reason for such a break in the story. By the time I get to issue 6, I'll explain why these issues turn out to bring very little to the story and how they could easily be skipped without missing anything.
I'll just skim through the main points of issue three:
* Lagoon Boy is using his chamber session to get hit by a laser over and over to try and get over a similar incident during a battle with the Titans.
* Wally West is using his chamber sessions to spend time with his family. To explain some backstory, Wally had been erased from history because of "Flashpoint" and trapped in the Speed Force, and therefore the family he had in the old continuity had been lost as well. Once he returned in Rebirth, Wally learned that his former wife Linda didn't know who he was and it wasn't until the "Flash War" storyline that Wally remembered that they had had twin children, who no longer existed. Trying to cope with the loss of his children was the reason Wally checked himself into Sanctuary.
* On the day of the massacre, Booster Gold was actually at Sanctuary for his first day and learning the in's and out's of the place. When the emergency alert sounds, Booster exits his chamber session to witness Lagoon Boy being impaled with a spear and Wally being bashed in the head with a mallet from Harley Quinn as he was cradling Roy's body. I know that makes it sound like the case is closed and that Harley was the killer, but considering there are six more issues, there's obviously more to it.
As we actually get back to the plot in issue four, Batman and Flash (Barry) believe they know who's responsible for the massacre based on the evidence they've gathered. The problem is Flash thinks it's Booster while Batman blames Harley; obviously there's some bias in their investigations.
Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice, Wonder Woman is using the lasso of truth to interrogate Booster about what happened. Booster says that he saw Harley hit Wally with the hammer, then she knocked him out, later woke up in the field among the bodies, and flew away from the scene.
We then cut to Lois and Clark's apartment, opening with this splash page of Lois doing a pose in her underwear and wearing a Superman t-shirt.
Anyway, Lois tells Clark that she receives a new Sanctuary confession video from the Puddler every day and that if she doesn't publish something about it soon, the videos will start going to someone with less discretion and not as connected with the superhero community as she is.
Elsewhere, Batgirl has located Harley at one of Joker's old hideouts. Harley wants a fight but Batgirl is able to calm her down. She tells Harley that Batman would be able to find her as easy as she did, saying "he'll take you and he'll judge you. He'll see you. The same way he sees me. As pitiful. Broken." This is in obvious reference to "The Killing Joke" where Joker shot Barbara point blank and crippled her; unlike the pre-Flashpoint continuity though, Barbara healed and returned to being Batgirl. That being said, what the hell is Barbara talking about? I admittedly don't read Batgirl's solo book, but based on her interactions with Batman in books I have read, I never got this impression of Batman's feelings toward Barbara. I even did some digging and way back in Batgirl's sixth issue of her New 52 series (which was set after her return to the role), Bruce assured Barbara she was always meant to be Batgirl. Between comics pre and post Flashpoint and the Arkham video games, Bruce has always treated Barbara as a valuable partner as both Batgirl and Oracle. Now, I'm kind of hoping Barbara is just saying this to connect with Harley, but what I think would have made this seem genuine is if they bonded over being hurt by the same man, i.e. the Joker. In any case, Batgirl is able to settle down Harley and the two agree to work together to find the real killer.
Wait a minute...Barbara's judgment is still bizarre here. Harley may be trying to redeem herself, but she's been a Bat-family villain for the longest time. Between her and Booster, Harley would be the one more likely to kill anyone. Why the hell is Barbara trusting Harley all of a sudden?!
Back at the Hall of Justice, Booster is in a holding cell and being visited by his best friend, Blue Beetle Ted Kord. Booster tells Ted that even under the lasso's influence, just because he believes he didn't kill the heroes at Sanctuary, it doesn't mean he didn't, which does make sense given his mental issues. Well apparently Ted's been taking the same stupid pills as Booster as he uses his airship, the Bug, to blast a hole in the wall and breaks Booster out. The two decide to solve the case themselves, declaring "bros before heroes."
Later in the Batcave, the trinity are fuming over Ted and Booster's jailbreak. Superman adds to the bad news though as he reveals to the other two about Lois receiving the Sanctuary videos and that she's publishing an article, but will let the heroes remain anonymous as she can. Batman doesn't believe this as any videos taken by Sanctuary would have been deleted immediately, but Superman assures him that he's seen the videos himself. All this does is make me wonder why the Sanctuary AI needed to record anything in the first place, especially if any footage was going to be deleted anyway. Batman is furious and noting how between the murders and Lois receiving the videos that it can't be a coincidence. Wonder Woman asks Superman when Lois will be posting the story, with Superman's reply that "she sent it 35 seconds ago."
All I really have to say about issue four is that it's all over the place.
Issue five begins with Booster and Beetle hard at work on the case...sitting on the couch, watching TV, drinking beer, and eating pizza. Lucky for the reader, we peer in on them at the moment Booster comes up with an idea. They should go see Barry Allen and look over the clues he's gathered for themselves. Beetle points out that he tried that before and got locked up, but Booster says they wouldn't expect them to do the same plan twice. I mean, I guess there's some logic to that.
In the Batcave, Batgirl is convincing Batman to let her take a look at Skeets, using his tech to try and find Booster. Batman has already done this but Batgirl claims that she has developed another method to analyze him, hoping it could pick up something he missed. Batman agrees and Batgirl's response is a little off: "Fine? Really? Cool. That's cool. Thank you Batman. You rock." It comes off like she's a teenager (keep in mind Barbara is in her twenties) trying to convince their parent to do something that's just a cover for something else. That's obviously the case since she's working with Harley, but she doesn't have to sound like she's covering something up. It's dialogue that unfortunately reminds me of her immature behavior in the prologue story in the "Killing Joke" animated movie.
We cut to Lois and Clark's apartment, where Clark is preparing a statement for a press conference Superman and Wonder Woman are to give concerning Sanctuary. Clark hopes to ease people's fears because they're scared about the idea of superheroes having such psychological problems that they need to seek help. At the press conference itself, Superman gives a pretty good speech, basically saying that people shouldn't be afraid of heroes having such problems, but that they should be comforted that these heroes, who know the risks of their job, realize their problems and are working to better themselves.
So this whole idea of people worried about superheroes having psychological troubles...I kind of get it. Compared to Marvel heroes, DC heroes represent more of an ideal and something to aspire to; I feel this would be true in universe and out. Powered or not, the people have witnessed these heroes perform tasks that make them appear to be gods among men; they've even seen Superman die and come back from the dead. Considering the level of power some of these characters have, it's understandable to fear that such beings could reach a breaking point and hurt others. Even in the real world, many people have had someone they've looked up to and had that perfect image shattered in some way. The problem though is this idea isn't fully realized as we don't actually SEE how the public is reacting; we're only told about it. Not only that, but this plot point doesn't become relevant for the rest of the series.
This also brings me to one of my points concerning Tom King and Alan Moore. I believe "Heroes in Crisis" is Tom King's attempt to make a "Watchmen" story with DC heroes. "Watchmen" introduced us to heroes who were obviously flawed, turning the ideal of superheroes upside down, along with the public's love-hate relationship with them. "Heroes in Crisis" is all about superheroes coming to terms with their flaws and to some degree how people perceive them once they learn of such flaws. Here's the thing though: Tom King may try to be like Alan Moore, but his writing style makes him come off like Brian Michael Bendis trying to be Alan Moore. In terms of dialogue, King reminds me a lot of Bendis. It's hard to explain exactly, but sometimes these two write dialogue in such a way that it doesn't come off naturally, where it borders on rambling or trying too hard to hammer in the point the characters are trying to make. I've made it a point to only bring up King's dialogue when I feel necesssary, or this review would be much much longer. If anyone's captured Moore's style well, it's Geoff Johns on "Doomsday Clock", the story that's actually a "Watchmen" sequel and the culmination of the Dr. Manhattan plotline introduced way back at the beginning of "Rebirth." Since issue one of that story, Johns has done a brilliant job of recreating Moore's style as we're reintroduced to the world and characters of "Watchmen".
Let's get back to "Heroes in Crisis" though. Batgirl takes Skeets to a playground and tells him that he knows he has a way to track Booster and explains her plan: Harley Quinn is going to beat the hell out of Skeets until he tells them where Booster is.
This actually works by the way. So to be clear, Batman couldn't figure out how to track Booster by analyzing Skeets' systems, but Harley is able to torture the robot to the point where he tells her and Batgirl. Oooookay. As the two head towards Booster's location, Batgirl reminds Harley she promised no killing. Harley replies "You worry too much, Girl Bat. I won't kill him. I'll just murder him." Batgirl has to tell her that's the same thing and we have to remind ourselves that Batgirl is working with the ex-supervillain murder suspect instead of bringing her in.
Speaking of Booster though, he crashes through the window of Barry's lab with a smile saying "Hey Barry! How's the whole mystery solving going? Did I do it?" Much like in "The Gift", Booster still can't act appropriately in certain situations. Deservedly so, Barry decks Booster again and screams what most readers are thinking when King writes him: "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" This time around though, Booster has his weapons back online and knocks Barry out with an energy blast. This allows Booster and Beetle to go over the evidence and thanks to some time travel forensics Booster knows, they discover that the body of Wally West is five days older than it's supposed to be. And just because it was these two that found that out doesn't mean I was wrong about Beetle breaking Booster out. Before they can do anything with this knowledge though, Batgirl and Harley arrive on the scene.
Issue five is when I started having serious problems with the story the first time around, mainly because the public reacting to Sanctuary doesn't live up to its potential. But I was also worried because it was with this issue where I and probably a lot of readers realized who the killer was, even though we were wishing it wasn't so.
Issue six is the second character insight interlude issue. It is in my opinion the worst issue of the series and where I and probably a lot of people lost any hope with this book.
So imagine you're reading this series as it was coming out. We just got a major clue concerning Wally, you wait a month to see where that leads, and nothing comes of it in the next issue, so you have to wait yet another month. I get that King wanted to do more character insight, but he should have done it in a way where the central conflict of the story, i.e. the murder mystery, doesn't lose its momentum. Hell, we've been getting these insights since issue one with the nine-panel confessional pages. That's why I said before that you can skip issues three and six and miss nothing. And to compare to "Watchmen" again, Moore did take the time to dive deep into the characters, but they were his own creations that readers needed to know more about. King is using established characters and trying to make it seem like he has a deep understanding of everyone he's writing (keyword is "trying"). Even Geoff Johns does a better job at this with "Doomsday Clock", looking into the backstories of new characters like the criminal duo Mime and Marionette, as well as the new Rorschach. Also, despite the constant delays "Doomsday Clock" has faced (the book started in November 2017 and at the time of this writing has only reached issue ten of its twelve issue run), whenever a new issue does come out, the story does progress and leaves you looking forward to the next one.
But like issue three, issue six takes a look at three characters:
* Gnarkk, a caveman. King has Gnarkk talk about a lot of philosophical stuff, but doing so in caveman speak. It's really hard to get through, so I honestly just skipped his scenes.
* Another look at Wally West as he reflects on how everyone from Barry to Superman to the Titans were glad to have him back and that his return was a sign of hope. However, Wally is upset that he doesn't have his family, and that despite the fanfare he's received from everyone, they didn't lose as much as he did. From a story standpoint, this is showing Wally at a low point, creating a parallel to issue three, where he was trying to live out having his family again and enjoying himself. However, from a meta standpoint, this kind of pisses me off because it shows that King knew what Wally meant to "Rebirth" and the old and new fans it brought in, and he still decided to kill him.
* Ivy is helping Harley, who is not actually supposed to be at Sanctuary, work out some of her issues, mostly by using chamber sessions so she can kill Joker over and over again. And we have this freaking page:
First off, could they have at least color-coded the speech balloons so we can keep track of who was saying what? But more importantly, this is another dialogue issue. THIS IS NOT HOW PEOPLE TALK. I genuinely want to know, has anyone in real life ever had this kind of back and forth conversation full of short sentences and fragments?
Anyway, Harley and Ivy are in a chamber session when the emergency alert sounds. Ivy tells her to stay put, thinking it's just a drill and to come out if she doesn't come back. However, Harley does see Gnarkk cradling Protector has he succumbs to his own injuries. More importantly though, we see the opposite of issue three, as she witnesses Booster killing Wally with an energy blast as he was cradling Roy's body. If you're confused considering what was shown before, this all makes sense later.
After the release of this issue, I was basically trudging along when it came to the rest of this series, just wanting to get it over with. Seriously, by this point, I was slamming my head with this and every following issue.Issue seven gets back to the plot again with Harley attacking Booster, with her mallet shattering on Booster's energy shield, constantly saying she's going to kill him. So what are Batgirl and Beetle doing during this? Are they fighting each other or trying to break the two up? Nope, Barbara's facepalming and just hanging back with Ted as they watch the two duke it out. This is sitcom level writing here, like in one episode of "Archer" where an annoyed Lana just casually makes some coffee while Archer is fighting another agent they're supposed to work with.
As the two keep fighting, Ted offhandedly mentions that Booster's energy shield is remotely hooked up to the Bug's operating system, which is tied into Ted's consciousness that only really works while Ted's conscious...so Batgirl then punches Ted out. She then tells Harley that the shield's out followed by "Remember, no killing!". As a reminder, Batgirl's saying this to the girl who keeps talking about killing Booster. Harley says she's going to kill him again, and Batgirl replies "Did I not just say no killing?! […] C'mon!" "C'mon"?! For Pete's sake Barbara, this isn't like telling a kid not to eat glue when they keep trying to. SOMEONE IS ABOUT TO BE MURDERED!
Booster is at Harley's mercy, and Booster pretty much gives up, admitting in anguish that he's a failure and begging Harley to kill him. Is it bad that I'm not exactly hoping she stops? Harley picks up the broken handle from her mallet and slams it down, making a "CKKRKK" sound, but the next panel shows she pierced it down on the floor right beside his head. She curses and collapses down next to him.
The four settle down and talk about how Wally may still be alive, but they have to find him quick because it's been five days since the massacre. They develop the plan to hook up Skeets to Kord's satellites, so they can scan for any time travel disturbances on the planet. Ted thinks they should bring in the League on this, but Barbara thinks they should keep it small since Wally is probably in a bad place. Booster points out that the League doesn't trust the lot of them anyway: "Everyone thinks we're nothing. Even we think that. That's why they think we did it. Because only nothings could do it." So his logic is A-list heroes could never do anything so terrible; I'd make a Hal Jordan/Parallax joke, but that would be redundant with what we're about to find out. The point is, Booster says the four of them are the only ones who can save Wally and solve the mystery. Given Boosters's track record under King's writing, those aren't good odds.
Elsewhere, we see Wally West in a field of flowers planting the rose Harley dropped in Gotham River. He flicks some Speed Force lighting at the flower. It then grows and blooms, unleashing a reborn Poison Ivy, as seen in probably the best drawn page of the series.
I haven't said much about the art from Clay Mann, but it's one of the few great things about this series. There are some fill-in artists, but none of them match what Mann brings to this book.
Ivy thanks Wally for helping her, but Wally apologizes for hurting her and for what she's about to see. Suddenly, another Wally West appears as the original Wally tells Ivy, "Death. You'll see my death."
Like issue six, it's confusing, but thankfully(?) we have all questions answered in the next issue.Issue eight depicts the final confessional video sent to Lois, that of Wally West. And I have to give credit to King; he actually subdued himself with the confessional room scenes in this issue and didn't make them nine panel pages. Wally talks about how despite being at Sanctuary over three weeks and thinking he's made progress, he still feels alone. The Sanctuary AI keeps telling Wally that he's not alone and that there are other heroes hurting like he is. Wally believes no one could be feeling the pain he is, even going so far as to think Sanctuary was built just for him and that anyone else there is just trying to make him feel better about himself. Wally had begged Sanctuary to show him someone else, but was told it was meant to be anonymous and that any data collected is immediately deleted and scattered to the point where the average man would never be able to piece it back together. But Wally, being the fastest man alive, was able to recover every piece of the heroes' confessionals (which again makes me wonder why they needed to be recorded just to be deleted). The way the book displays it, it seems like Wally was able to do this by running into cyberspace itself; if that's indeed what happened, even for comics, that's pushing the level of absurdity.
Anyway, Wally watched every confessional, experiencing "the totality of a thousand heroes in crisis" (roll credits). It overwhelms Wally and he rushes outside the farmhouse into the field, trying to collect himself. This actually sets off the emergency alarm, causing the other heroes to head outside and then towards Wally to try and help him. A distraught Wally is building up too much Speed Force energy, and in a moment of weakness, he unleashes a surge of lightning that kills everyone surrounding him and scattering them across the field.
As much as it sucks that Wally was the killer, in the context of the story, it makes sense. Out of everyone in the aftermath of "Flashpoint" and the New 52 reboot, no one had lost more than Wally. He didn't just lose his family; he lost his place in the universe. Sure, he was able to jog the memories of his friends, but to the rest of the world, he didn't exist; worst of all, he was just a stranger to the woman he loved. I take some solace in that Wally did it by accident, but what he did next was inexcusable.
After what happened, Wally ran back into Sanctuary, seeing that Booster and Harley were still in chamber sessions. With Wally basically in control of Sanctuary now, he reprogrammed the chamber sessions and used his speed (going so fast that no one notices him) to make Booster and Harley believe they had gone outside when in actuality though, they were still in the chamber and were made to watch the other kill Wally, eventually placing them back outside after making sure they saw what he wanted them to see. Wally would also steal Booster's time travel tech to travel five days into the future to kill himself (with his future self telling him to find Ivy's flower in Gotham River) and then bring the body back to place with everyone else at Sanctuary; if anyone's wondering why Wally didn't just go back and stop himself from killing everyone, it's revealed in the final issue that he had worried about causing another "Flashpoint" like Barry did, which was the reason his children were erased in the first place. Following that, Wally would lay out the clues that would fool both Barry and Batman into believing Booster or Harley could be the killer. Wally also ransacks Sanctuary, destroying the computer and robots, and writing the Puddlers message on the wall. Wally talks about how puddlers died young because of their work, "almost as if what was wrong with the iron went into them". But said iron was used to build cities and create a beautiful new world. Wally finishes his confession, admitting he set everything up to distract everyone, so that he could have five days not only to kill himself, but to finally tell the truth.
The moment Wally decided to cover up what he did was the moment the character himself was assassinated. He elaborately framed two innocent people who were seeking help as he and everyone else at Sanctuary was, even going so far as to shove a pair of chattering teeth down Commander Steel's throat. Wally may be admitting his misdeeds and planning to kill himself as penance, but the way it's written sounds like he's trying to justify his actions. His talk about the puddlers and how some good came from their sacrifice makes it sound like he and the other heroes being gone would make the world a better place. Not only that, but he says he "made everyone focus on the murders that weren't". Admittedly, what Wally did was involuntary manslaughter, but his cover up attempts make it just as bad as murder. Wally was understandably in a bad spot, but I feel things could have gone better for him if he just waited for the trinity to arrive and explain what happened.
Still, this makes me think back to Batman's autopsy of Commander Steel back in issue two. Everyone at Sanctuary essentially died from being struck by lightning; could the WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE not tell this from his examinations?! I know Batman can't just solve everything, but I feel between this and not being able to ascertain Booster's location from Skeets, his skills are being severely underplayed in this story.
Okay, one issue left. Let's get this over with. Past Wally is about to kill present Wally, which is interrupted by our motley crew of Harley, Booster, Beetle and Batgirl CRASHING THE BUG and NEARLY HITTING Ivy and the two Wally's, moving out of the way thanks to their speed. I'm sure they expected Wally to move out of the way, but that was a huge risk; they basically tried to save Wally by nearly killing him.
The four heroes come out of the crashed ship and put the situation together after seeing the two Wally's, which is followed by a nice reunion between Harley and Ivy. Past Wally starts to have a breakdown knowing what he has to do, but present Wally is actually there to console him. Present Wally, inspired by Superman's speech from issue five, assures his past self that he's truly not alone as he thought. He points to the other heroes around them, the problems they've all had to deal with, and the fact they were all there to help him. My main takeaway from this is that this all could have been avoided if Sanctuary had just included a group therapy option.
The problem is if Wally doesn't kill himself, it will create a time paradox. Booster then chimes in saying they don't need to kill Wally, they just need a dead body. To elaborate, Booster and Beetle will go into the future to make a lifeless clone of Wally, which past Wally can bring back with him to ensure there's no time discrepancies. Before this plan is put into motion, Harley puts her two cents in, by kneeing past Wally in the groin and cursing him out for killing Ivy and framing her. If this was supposed to be an attempt at comedy, someone should have told King that any chance at comedy died along with the rest of the heroes in issue one.
And so, Booster and Harley are cleared and free to hang with their best friends, Barbara is checking herself into the reopened Sanctuary (hopefully with that group therapy option), and Wally West is locked up by the League...somewhere. Wally plans to embrace his pain, hoping it can make him better and that he can one day redeem himself as the series FINALLY ends not with a bang but a whimper and allow those reading the story to be able to move on.
If I hadn't made it clear, this comic sucks. I thought maybe holding off a month to review this would have lessened my rage at this story since it ended, but looking back just made me find more to hate. There's a lot more I could have talked about, but I just wanted to cover what I felt was important.
As I said at the beginning, "Heroes in Crisis" is a story that had potential to be great, but it ends up combining the worst parts of past DC stories like "Identity Crisis" and "Cry for Justice", with needless deaths and bad character depictions. It's drawn out too long and its attempts to be deep are hindered by writing that makes characters' actions and dialogue seem really off. It wants to be both a look into the mental health of superheroes and a murder mystery but is unable to balance it well enough to the point where it should have just been one or the other. Hell, it doesn't even work well enough as a murder mystery. Issue eight gives us all the answers anyway, and I think it probably would have been better if they had Wally reveal everything after Booster, Harley, Beetle, and Batgirl arrived before he killed himself so they could piece it together as well.
And while I'm somewhat happy Wally didn't die, the path they put the character on could be viewed as a worse fate. I'll admit, I didn't really know much about Flash history until just before "Flashpoint", but for fans who started reading the Flash between the late 80's to the 2000's, their Flash was Wally West. For twenty years, he was THE Flash, so much so that it was the Wally West version used in the Justice League animated series. As much as I hate what's been done to Wally, I can't imagine how fans who hold Wally dear to their hearts must feel. If there is a path to redemption for Wally, it won't be an easy one.
I haven't hated a comic this much since "Civil War II". In a way, "Heroes in Crisis" is definitely the worse of the two. "Civil War II" may have had characters acting stupidly, but the issues actually progressed from one to the next and wasn't so far up its own ass. To give "Heroes in Crisis" a little credit, it doesn't hurt DC Comics as a whole for me like "Civil War II" did to Marvel for awhile. "Heroes in Crisis" may have left a bad taste in my mouth and burnt off a lot of good will DC had built with "Rebirth", but DC still makes up a majority of my pulllist with a lot of good stuff to read. In short, "Civil War II" is worse as an event whereas "Heroes in Crisis" is worse as a story.
Still, this story has really soured me on Tom King's writing. Like Brian Michael Bendis, I'm intending to avoid King if I'm able to from here on out. I just need to make it through the rest of his run on Batman, which should wrap up by December; after three years and over seventy issues, I think I'm in too deep to drop out now and it could still have a good ending.
I do have a couple ideas on how the story could have worked better.
1) Have it so that the Sanctuary house AI was behind the murders. Say it gained sentience and after compiling so much data from the heroes, in its own demented way decided to end their pain by killing those on site at the time, even going so far as to play/frame both Booster and Harley. It would then appear as if it were offline, but actually transferred offsite and leaked the videos to Lois Lane from there. I feel like this way, it would feel even more like a personal defeat for the trinity, creating a place that was intended to help only for it to become as fractured as the heroes it treated.
2. Have it be A murder mystery, i.e. a SINGLE murder. Someone is killed in Sanctuary, and the house is locked down until the trinity arrives. They would interview everyone present at Sanctuary, in turn being forced to compromise the anonymity they had intended for the heroes who came there.
Overall, "Heroes in Crisis" is a book that will make you need your own therapy session after reading, and I am so glad that I can put this book behind me after months of thinking about it.
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