Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Tom King

It killed off a bunch of (spoilers) Titans - which seems to be the DC Crisis way - but I'm not sure what it accomplished besides bringing Harley closer to the Big 3.
The Sanctuary is exposed and destroyed, but not rebuilt - which seems to undermine the central argument of the book's premise.
And poor Wally.

So a lot of people are still dead. Ivy is alive (sort of) and I am very glad that Wally is still alive.
BUT I am most disappointed about Roy Harper. Most of the others I didn't know very well. I knew of Steel, Blue Jay and Solstice all a little but that's pretty much it. I have searched and read of the others that appear confirmed to have died but some of those are still a bit vague.

The biggest thing #9 achieves (other than keeping Wally alive and letting Booster and Harley off the hook) is to explain (kind-of) what Wally's thoughts were and why he did what he did. I thought it was actually good technique to have Wally counsel Wally. As for Booster's "solution" to the dead Wally problem, that felt kind of a MacGuffin even though it is consistent with the universe. I liked that Wally's choices after the accident are not condoned or seen to be the right thing to do, but just choices made by someone in a lot of pain and struggling with how to fix an unfixable situation.

One thing I realised was that this is one of those stories that really needs a reread after reaching the conclusion. Shocking I know with a story that not only involves a little time travel but is told maybe up to half in flashbacks that don't appear in the order they occurred. I didn't reread it in detail but I did go back through each issue and understand a lot of things that were unclear or just missed the first time. Things like all the references to Ivy's flower (there are a lot), Wally's multiple appearances throughout, Booster and Harley's experiences and memories and what they meant.

So in the end we have a number of heroes dead (including Roy), Wally imprisoned (for manslaughter?), a new Ivy (it will depend on future writers whether this is a good or bad thing) and public knowledge that Sanctuary exists along with the implication that it is back in operation and helping even more big name heroes.

If the inciting event is all solved with jaunts through time that are so common place that Booster does it on his birthday, why not just go back and erase the event?

Heck, since they all use 25th century clones to get out of this, why not make a lot of 25th century clones, go back with them all and save the lives of everyone at the opening scene by replacing *everybody* with an inactive clone? (never mind clone rights here ) Time travel is made to sound very easy in the book as is the cloning, so I don't see why not.

I also noticed that there has been no pay off to the reveal of the laughable Sanctuary concept. I expected a Watchmen like psychiatrist strike like the police force did there at the least Over three days later when no one noticed their lives impacted by their absence. "Robots are not therapists!" and "Kryptonians are after your jobs!" placards.

At least Legends (where Crisis of the Soul came from as posted above, which is in the back of the minds of DC when they launched this) ran with the idea of people losing faith in their heroes.

I agree that the ending had an emotional resonance that the series did not for me. Wallly's discussion with himself was poignant and seemed heartfelt. Harley was awesome throughout the series IMO and the Batgirl/Harley team up was effective. Booster was a plot device.

I do not know how I feel about the whole "he is super powerful and made a mistake - let's give him a chance to make it up". There seems to be a very different kind of morality at play. I understand holding "heroes" to a different set of moral, ethical and legal standards (they do beat up on strangers after all - sometimes people who are mentally ill) BUT I'd say murder is usually a deal breaker. Will Wally serve time? Seems doubtful.
I will probably reread it - one day. Not today though. The murders seemed gratuitous and I'm still shocked how many characters had to die for Wally to lean. It's a bit creepy

Marvel had a character with speed in their name who was involved in the deaths of many and had to make amends. He ended up as Penance with a costume with spikes in it that gave his constant pain. In tribute, Wally's penance will be that he gets a similar costume and calls himself Speedball.

Another irritating thing is that now it's a plot device, everybody in the DCU has to be seen to use it. Heroes in Crisis: Sponsored by the American Psychiatric Association.

I agree that Harley was the standout character from the series. I think she is a bit overused at the moment but her portrayal here was excellent. Several of the other characters had their best moments when they were interacting with her. Particularly liked when she didn't kill Booster, and they collapsed together and had their little sideline chat. Felt very real.

Good to see Babs in full detective mode again, busy figuring out how to solve the mess. Many of her Oracle stories were her best appearances. Loved that punch out of Blue Beetle.

Having read and enjoyed JLI it was fun seeing Blue and Gold back together again. I admit to not having read enough current BB to understand how the New 52 Ted Kord connects to the dead Infinite Crisis version, which at least the variant cover showing WW's killing of Lord that this still somehow happened.

As for Booster as simply a plot point, if they had only brought him in at the end I would agree. certainly in the last issue his solution was very convenient. Nevertheless I thought he was well handled as a major character through all the other issues, particularly his introspective arcs.

The most trepidation I have is how DC handles the fallout. Will Sanctuary become an important component of 21C DC Universe? Will its existence have an effect on public perception of heroes? How will Ivy's new "life" be handled? Will Roy be resurrected and when? How will Oliver react when he finds out? Is Oli more N52ish or post-Crisisish these days? And most importantly what will the Flash writers do with Wally now? He was the one and only Flash for so long that I can perfectly understand him cracking over losing everything but they better now make some very careful choices about where to go next.