Identity Crisis: 9 Things It Got Right (And The 1 Big Thing It Didn't)

No matter how much praise you heap on Identity Crisis, there is no getting away from the elephant in the corner of the room; the exploitative and gratuitous rape of Sue Dibny by Doctor Light. While I appreciate that such a beat is required for Identity Crisis to work as a story, there are many other ways this affect could have been achieved.

What needed to happen was "a loved one of a member of the League is attacked by Doctor Light, forcing the heroes to do the unthinkable". Why that had to be a sexual assault, let alone such a graphic one, is beyond my understanding. There is no excuse for such creative choices not being rejected straight away in a medium where creators often sacrifice women to motivate their male counterparts. The fact that Light would ultimately have nothing to do with the murder of Sue Dibny only makes the scene even more tragic.

The behaviour of the other members of the League in response to Light's actions was just as polarizing with the fanbase. Although this was more a debate on how readers thought those characters would/should have behaved rather than the out and outright ire the treatment of Sue resulted in.

This sad lack of vision on either the creative team or the publisher is the real tragedy of this story. Something that should have been great now must come with a caveat emptor sticker on the cover.