Heroes in Crisis: No Crisis Ever Ends Well For...

One thing about Tom King that I've noticed: He loves writing for the 3-by-3 grid. You'll see that frequently in HEROES IN CRISIS #1, the latest so-called crisis to hit the DC Universe, and the first to hit it since the promise of an optimistic restart that came with REBIRTH.

Something else came with REBIRTH as well besides optimism, and both are dead after this issue.

The main narrative of the story follows Booster Gold and Harley Quinn, who meet out in the middle of flyover country, have some pie and coffee, then end up in a bloody battle. I will say that Harley is written wonderfully nutty here -- not the non-sequitur, fourth-wall-breaking whacky that we see in SUICIDE SQUAD, but someone who is psychotically out there, but with a sympathetic side. And Booster Gold is written, in foil, as normal and plain as can be imagined.

Both are tied to events at Sanctuary, a therapy respite built by the Justice League to help metahumans deal with the post-traumatic stress of a life of constant battles that often have extreme consequences. There are a lot of heroes -- and apparently a villain or two -- who have checked in there, and they all have one thing in common.

They're all dead now, including Sanctuary itself, which turns out to be a super-therapist android built by the Trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

The question is: Whodunnit? We have two named suspects, each blaming the other, but if King has developed any kind of mystery at all, it will almost certainly be a third person we aren't thinking about.

But the bigger question left in the minds of DC Comics fans is: How are they going to undo all this? And undo it they must, because some of those deaths are rather important from the perspective of current storylines, specifically touching on how Doctor Manhattan's interventions in the DC Rebirth effected events thus far.

Clay Mann's art is simply exquisite, made more so by the very colors of Tomeu Morey. The hues give a depth of realism to the faces that you don't often get in comics

I want to be mad about this -- I do -- as several DC fans were today when taking to Twitter to voice their dismay. But looking at the book objectively, in terms of plot and appearance, there is nothing here that can be nitpicked as bad comic storytelling. This is a truly engrossing first chapter, and I'll be coming back for more. I doubt I'll be alone.