But first, a few (relatively) spoiler-free thoughts:

I liked it, I think.

I didn't like what happened in it at all. But I think it's a promising first chapter...with a very high cost of admission. 

I liked that there weren't any death scenes. We're just presented with the deaths as something that's already happened, that we're learning about after the fact. Death scenes are a way to say goodbye, and King didn't want to give us that. He gave us sudden loss. 

In future issues we'll piece together what happened, the way survivors do. But for now, we just have the loss, and no explanation.

You need to be a member of Captain Comics to add comments!

Join Captain Comics

Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • I liked it, too, Rob.

    I don't have much to say about it yet, but Tom King may be the new Alan Moore.

    A "Crisis" limited series hasn't resally clicked with me like this since Identity Crisis.

    I think we're got a discussion on our hands.

  • A very disturbing book with two shocking departures with a third from my POV.

  • Into the nitty-gritty: 

    We see Roy and Wally dead. We see Hotspot, Lagoon Boy, and Citizen Steel. We see Blue Jay as well, with the birds. There's a Green Lantern symbol to the left of Superman on the splash where he uses his telescopic vision; we also see feathered wings out of frame. I assume they're not Blue Jay's, since he's small; my guess would be Golden Eagle? As for the GL, I don't know. I think if it were one of the big Earth GLs, we would know about it already, but why would a space GL be on Earth? Arisa spent time on Earth, though, so she's a possibility. Another guess, further afield: Charlie Vickers. 

    And there are more bodies in the field, which we see from afar, but don't get Superman's close-up view. Some may be robots, but probably not all of them. I think the uncertainty is part of what the intention is with this issue -- we're left wondering who else we might know that was there, and if our loved ones are safe. 

    Here's one more thing to think about: When do Harley and Booster's interviews take place? I wonder if there's some misdirection there -- that the other characters are talking about what brought them to Sanctuary in the first place, but Booster, and especially Harley, are at a rebuilt Sanctuary after this is all over, talking about what happened during the attack. It's just a hunch; we're not given the time of any of the interviews, which could be an intentional omission. (We're also not given Booster's name at the top of his file, like the other characters get. That might also be intentional, but I think it's just as likely that the inconsistency is either an oversight or a choice for design reasons, to let his word balloons breathe a little more.) 

  • The further away we get from Identity Crisis, the more I hate it. I'm trying to figure out whether or not this will be the same.

    Jeff of Earth-J said:

    A "Crisis" limited series hasn't resally clicked with me like this since Identity Crisis.

  • I'm not a reader at this point, but they seem to be treating Harley Quinn as an out-and-out hero. This seems to validate Kevin Smith's naming of his daughter Harley Quinn Smith.

  • Harley gets treated a lot of different ways in different comics. She's more villainous &  dangerous in Suicide Squad, I think; in her own book, she's more of a good-hearted Bugs Bunny-like agent of chaos. I prefer the sillier version. 

    I Heroes in Crisis, considering she tries to murder Booster with a diner knife, I'm not sure "out-and-out hero" is the proper label for her. Although in her defense, she seem to think he killed all the people back at Sanctuary. (He thinks the same of her, or at least thought so.) 

  • In the panel where Superman scans the fallen heroes, there is a woman in white. Is she supposed to be the Silver Sorceress. She was mentioned by Bluejay as being involved with "that...Arrow". Was that Roy Harper? 

    The Silver Sorceress was the Heroes of Angor's counterpart to the Scarlet Witch but she never had a silver costume. Bluejay was inspired by Yellowjacket. Among the casualties were Citizen Steel, Flash III and Arsenal, themselves possible doubles of Captain America, Quicksilver and Hawkeye. Do you think that was deliberate or coincidental?

  • I think Blue Jay is referring to Silver Sorceress's death at the hands of Dreamslayer back in the original Justice League Europe series. She was shot with an arrow then. 

    I believe the woman in the mask is one of Sanctuary's robotic caregivers. 

    That's an interesting thought about the Avengers analogues, but I think it's most likely coincidental. 

  • The destroyed robots inside Sanctuary were shown covered in a blue fluid, presumably an artificial pseudo-blood. But the woman in white is splattered with real blood and is prominent among the slain heroes. I feel there's more to her than just another robot. While she's not named, neither was Citizen Steel or Lagoon Boy which is a big pet peeve of mine, not identifying characters in these crossovers! 

  • It could be that she's human, but most people online are identifying her as a Sanctuary robot. It's possible that the blood on her is not her own blood. 

    I figure the characters will get ID'd over time; this is playing out like a real-world mass shooting, so I expect a list of casualties next issue. Maybe even a portrait and a short bio of each one, like something the NYT would do a few days after the event. Right now we're still in the stage where we're unsure about who died and what exactly happened and why. 

This reply was deleted.