Identity Crisis was horrible dreck. It was marketed HEAVILY and sold well on that basis.
Those who like it have never read any GOOD stories to compare it to, and think that
"OMG deathrapeangst" equals a successful story. There are enough people like that buying
comics so DC & Marvel will never have to resort to good stories instead.
We begin with a death milked full of pathos. A wife died and on top of that, she just happened to be
pregnant NOW when she was about to die. We follow a false lead to one villain because he
raped her once (and this is the first time anyone's ever heard of this.) This was a secret because
the JLA's been magically removing the memories of some villains and reforming others
(and this is the first time anyone's ever heard of this.)
We have Deathstroke facing the Justice League. Possibly 2 of the JLA'ers present would have no
chance to beat him (Green Arrow and Hawkman.) All the others have ways to completely foil each
attempt of his to defeat them, yet they flounder like amateurs who don't know how to use their
powers. Atom forgets he can control his mass and density, and something with nearly no energy
at all shoves him., Despite being a scientist, and knowing that he can increase his mass, his volume,
or both instantly and falling to the ground still at a tiny size, he turns completely to full adult size
while somehow still flying (violating physics,.) Black Canary's sonic attack travels slower than the
speed of sound, because Deathstroke hears her attack about to begin, and he is able to move and
disable her despite moving slower than sound himself (he doesn't produce sonic booms when he
moves.) Zatanna, able to speak and say "Pots!" and freeze him in place with one syllable
(like she freezes Batman in the same miniseries), and instead speaks 3 useless syllables to
Deathstroke before collapsing. (She should have frozen him and then collapsed.) Green Lantern
Kyle Rayner struggles to keep Deathstroke from controlling the power ring. This is strange, since
years before, the ring had been altered so that nobody else COULD use it. Kyle demonstrated it
by throwing it out a window and calling it back to himself. Kyle was taken prisoner and someone
wore the ring. While prisoner, Kyle used the ring to show himself what was going on, then break
himself out of jail while the person was WEARING IT. So he should have been able to ignore
Deathstroke's attempt. Also, Kyle has also made manga-style battle armor for himself for when
he needed to fight close-up- which would have made him invincible to Deathstroke's attacks.
Instead, he just stands there and lets DS approach him. Deathstroke is fast but THOUGHT is
FASTER.
Hawkman is somehow temporarily out of the fight because he fell a few feet by surprise. Hawkman
is an incredibly focused fighter. He's fought in freefall for hundreds of feet so he could FINISH THE
FIGHT and THEN stop his fall- which was the correct order. He obviously would have fallen here-
and hit Deathstroke with his mace on the way down! But his was a lesser egregious handling.
Only Green Arrow should have been stopped by DS.
I saved the first fighter for last because it was so completely ridiculous. Deathstroke fought the
FASTEST MAN THAT EVER LIVED. Let me explain how fast Wally was and is. When Wally was
LESS fast than this fight, he was caught in an explosion. His reflexes kicked in. He was able to
eat something, find the other people caught in the explosion, and get them to safety before the
actual explosive force hit them, The entire time, he's perceiving the world as if it's all in virtually
a freeze-frame. THAT'S how fast Wally was, and is now faster than THAT as of this story.
He also vibrates through solid objects- walls, bullets, swords, explosions.,,,
So, here's the fight. Flash moved. DS saw him move. DS hit a button to set off explosions that
funneled Flash's path so that DS's moved sword (it was in a different position before Flash began
moving) went through Flash's chest.
Let's slow this down and look at it from Wally's POV. Wally begins moving- and hits Deathstroke
and disarms him before DS can react. DS does not have time to press a button,
(When Wally was much slower, he disassembled the engine block of a getaway car in drive.)
So, DS can't press the button (let's pretend he had his thumb on the button and his hand on the
device, even though he did not.) The button he can't press would set off a signal moving as fast
as Flash, which means Flash would move fast enough that the signal would set things off
BEHIND HIM.. So, that's 2 reasons Wally's too fast for DS in this fight.
OK, the signal was never sent out. If it had been, and Wally decided to stop for lunch and didn't
outrace the signal, the explosives would go off. Wally's fast enough that he could hop across
the tops of the concussive waves of the explosions like skipping stones. But he probably would
JUST VIBRATE THROUGH THEM.
Ok, so the explosions that never come don't stop Wally, and he neither skips over them nor
vibrates through them. Then he reaches Deathstroke. DS somehow has moved several times
faster than sound to put his sword in place. Wally has lots of time to see it move and respond.
(Remember the explosion? Wally's faster now...)
Even if Wally decided to look away, Wally's reflexes are superhumanly fast. If he saw himself
about to be impaled, he'd have lots of time to move or just VIBRATE THROUGH THEM.
He's done that when surprised by GUNSHOTS.
The only possibility here is that Wally CONSENTED to having a sword in his chest,
After a fight that was written so poorly, the writer should have hung himself. He did not. He had
the JLA DOGPILE DS, and Green Arrow claims the JLA really teaches you how to fight,
The writer has a lot of damn gall to have that line come 1 page after that travesty of a fight.