Dark Crisis #2 Discussion/Spoilers

[Iclifton]

I genuinely like Dark Crisis so far, and the reason is to me that this is just an adventure with characters I like as the leads. I know for a fact the Justice League aren’t gone, heck they are 75% of the Tie-ins, instead they are just taken off the board so other heroes can shine.

So what I’m getting is a big event book where I’m seeing Dick Grayson (my favorite character), Jon Kent, Wally West flash and his family, The Entire Green Lantern Corps minus John Stewart, the JSA, the Titans, Black Adam, Jace Fox Batman, Yara Flor Wondergirl, Jackson Hyde Aquaman, and etc all getting a moment with really gorgeous art. I’m content with that, characters I like all in one big story drawn well. Maybe it’s simplistic in my view but hey I’ll take it.

Pretty much. Good character moments that are drawn well with characters I like.

[Lal]

Overall, I liked Dark Crisis #2. It was fast-paced, the fights were great, and while I did have some issues with it, I still think it was pretty good.

The Nightwing-Deathstroke fight was especially great (and long overdue), but after years of their rivalry being mostly ignored, I wish there was some kind of buildup for this fight in either the Deathstroke or Nightwing solos. It could have made this confrontation so much better.

My main problem with the issue was probably that Titans were completely useless. Nobody represents legacy more than the Titans, and yet they were completely nerfed in this big "DC legacy celebration". How are we supposed to take them seriously and believe they are ready to be the world's next protectors after being so useless when their own school was under attack?
Jon, who's still mostly inexperienced was more competent than the entire Titans generation (excluding Dick). That really shouldn't happen.

That being said, Williamson mentioned that the Titans are a crucial part of Dark crisis, so I hope we'll see them become one of the major teams and the JL in the next issues.

[Nite-Wing]

I think more needs to be said about the fact that to facilitate all these legacy heroes getting the spotlight you need to effectively kill off or remove the OGs from the plot
I think this whole event is gimmick storytelling but it reminds me of marvels early event storylines which were so good because they all had gimmick
DC has never had one beyond crisis and that is what has made all their crisis events weak compared to things like sinestro corps war or metal

Just fanservice and little care for consistency is bad too but not when cooked right and hitting the right beats
I mean the retcons with GL alone and ignoring continuity would be savaged if not for the fanservice element of kyle Rayner being brought back

Same with the titans being useless again when they are all well traveled vs deathstroke but it works because it's giving dick the fanservice spotlight he was missing out on

This is less a traditional crisis and more of a toy box story playing with the characters that some fans crave for. It's fine to just accept that but not pretend this is an event that is well planned out or implemented

[SebastianS]

I think more needs to be said about the fact that to facilitate all these legacy heroes getting the spotlight you need to effectively kill off or remove the OGs from the plot
I think this whole event is gimmick storytelling but it reminds me of marvels early event storylines which were so good because they all had gimmick
DC has never had one beyond crisis and that is what has made all their crisis events weak compared to things like sinestro corps war or metal

Just fanservice and little care for consistency is bad too but not when cooked right and hitting the right beats
I mean the retcons with GL alone and ignoring continuity would be savaged if not for the fanservice element of kyle Rayner being brought back

Same with the titans being useless again when they are all well traveled vs deathstroke but it works because it's giving dick the fanservice spotlight he was missing out on

This is less a traditional crisis and more of a toy box story playing with the characters that some fans crave for. It's fine to just accept that but not pretend this is an event that is well planned out or implemented

I mean... I think retconning/handwaving away the latest GL run has made A LOT of folks VERY happy. It was controversial for just so many things - and not in a good sense. DC really dropped the ball.

[thwhtGuardian]

I thought this was pretty terrible, unfortunately. The art is nice but that story, ouch. We're two issues into a series called "Dark Crisis" and I honestly have no idea what this series is about. Pariah has Anti-Monitor armour...because why (and how)? Why did the fight at Titans' Tower take up so many pages only for Deathstroke to just warp outta there? Beast Boy gets shot in the head and is (maybe) permanently scarred? Nope, nope and nope.

I felt like the entire issue could have been done in like, 4 pages. It's hard to believe this is from the same editor as Worlds' Finest, which is fantastic every month.

That's pretty much my issue too, we're three issues in when the Death of the Justice League is included...and the thrust of the plot has yet to be revealed. They have yet to really give us a hook to make us really care and read on.
Go back and read any other event and I guarantee at three issues you will have felt that you had a better grasp of where the story was going.

[king81992]

Overall, I liked Dark Crisis #2. It was fast-paced, the fights were great, and while I did have some issues with it, I still think it was pretty good.

The Nightwing-Deathstroke fight was especially great (and long overdue), but after years of their rivalry being mostly ignored, I wish there was some kind of buildup for this fight in either the Deathstroke or Nightwing solos. It could have made this confrontation so much better.

My main problem with the issue was probably that Titans were completely useless. Nobody represents legacy more than the Titans, and yet they were completely nerfed in this big "DC legacy celebration". How are we supposed to take them seriously and believe they are ready to be the world's next protectors after being so useless when their own school was under attack?
Jon, who's still mostly inexperienced was more competent than the entire Titans generation (excluding Dick). That really shouldn't happen.

That being said, Williamson mentioned that the Titans are a crucial part of Dark crisis, so I hope we'll see them become one of the major teams and the JL in the next issues.

The Titans have been incompetent for years. The last Titans team you could call 'competent' was Johns and even then, calling them truly competent would be a stretch.

[InfamousBG]

That's pretty much my issue too, we're three issues in when the Death of the Justice League is included...and the thrust of the plot has yet to be revealed. They have yet to really give us a hook to make us really care and read on.
Go back and read any other event and I guarantee at three issues you will have felt that you had a better grasp of where the story was going.

Agreed....

[Kershaw]

Williamson vehemently stated in multiple interviews, he is going to make Deathstroke irredeemably evil. Yet in this issue, no one was actually killed and he showed to be controlled. Wanna bet that the exact opposite will happen in the end? He'll come out of this cleaner than ever. A little injury here or there never mattered much. But I don't know why I'm surprised, when Black Adam is going to lead the League and Harley Quinn is treated like a saint nowadays.

[king81992]

Williamson vehemently stated in multiple interviews, he is going to make Deathstroke irredeemably evil. Yet in this issue, no one was actually killed and he showed to be controlled. Wanna bet that the exact opposite will happen in the end? He'll come out of this cleaner than ever. A little injury here or there never mattered much. But I don't know why I'm surprised, when Black Adam is going to lead the League and Harley Quinn is treated like a saint nowadays.

Deathstroke was always irredeemably evil, despite fans and writers pretending otherwise. Nothing else Slade can or doesn't do will change that fact.

Black Adam leading the League/ forming his own isn't going to be depicted as a good thing. For all his flaws, he's right about Harley having no business on the JL.

Harley's whitewashing is ridiculous, there's a compelling redemption story to be told with her but DC prefers to play the LOL comedy card to justify all the bad things she's done.

[king81992]

There aren't many things you could do with the character if you played her serious and actually had her turn good. Either kill her or have her locked up forever. Once you do all those bad things, part of being good is accepting that you deserve to be punished for them. That's why Anakin's story ended when he actually did something good

What worked in Star Wars doesn't work in other narratives. There are a bunch of characters DC could tell compelling redemption stories with and do stuff with them as heroes/reformed villains, but they don't.

[j9ac9k]

Can they say that Harley essentially did her time during her service with Task Force X? She might not have been redeemed, but maybe rehabilitated?

[Frontier]

Can they say that Harley essentially did her time during her service with Task Force X? She might not have been redeemed, but maybe rehabilitated?

I think that's supposed to be the idea, although it hasn't always been consistently written.

[Nite-Wing]

People can't question Harley's resume anymore
Black Adam who genocided a whole country is leading the Justice League and she for that matter has a much better heroic resume than Adam ever did
Willaimson also flubbed that interaction because anyone can throw Adams crimes in his face they are widely known and affect many

For that matter I doubt Willaimson has the power to quell Deathstroke's popularity to make him irredeemable
That's just a writer hyping his story up
He will come out of this event with a solo title just because he's popular and people want to read about him

[krazijoe]

People can't question Harley's resume anymore
Black Adam who genocided a whole country is leading the Justice League and she for that matter has a much better heroic resume than Adam ever did
Willaimson also flubbed that interaction because anyone can throw Adams crimes in his face they are widely known and affect many

For that matter I doubt Willaimson has the power to quell Deathstroke's popularity to make him irredeemable
That's just a writer hyping his story up
He will come out of this event with a solo title just because he's popular and people want to read about him

Not a Deathstroke fan. He should just change his name to Pamela Voorhees and be done with it.

[Stanlos]

Williamson vehemently stated in multiple interviews, he is going to make Deathstroke irredeemably evil. Yet in this issue, no one was actually killed and he showed to be controlled. Wanna bet that the exact opposite will happen in the end? He'll come out of this cleaner than ever. A little injury here or there never mattered much. But I don't know why I'm surprised, when Black Adam is going to lead the League and Harley Quinn is treated like a saint nowadays.

Isn't he a pedophile manipulative mass muderer for hire? Will he now drink the blood of newborns?