HEROES IN CRISIS
Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman turn sleuths in DC’s latest event
Even superheroes are in need of some therapy in the latest icon-spanning DC crossover.
When DC Comics tapped Tom King to helm their next event book, the Batman scribe didn’t just want to write another multiverse-altering crossover. Instead, in Heroes In Crisis he is telling a more heartfelt but no less impactful tale, which is literally ripped from today’s headlines.
“I was pushing my three-year-old on a swing, and was thinking about what scared me the most,” King tells Red Alert. “It was around the time of one of those school shootings, which happen all the time in the US. The fear of a mass shooting just crept into my head, and what would it lead to, and how would the heroes deal with it.”
Taking the form of a murder mystery, the seven-parter explores what happens when several heroes are apparently brutally slain by one of their own number. “I wanted to write about the consequences of leading a life of violence, and trying to move forward and do your best every day,” explains King. “I believe in superheroes and their righteousness, but they pay a price for what they do. Part of that is the mental anguish of it, which doesn’t always go away, as it’s not just something that can just be stitched up, and it’s almost like part of your identity.”
Illustrated by Clay Mann, Heroes In Crisis takes place in Sanctuary, an ultra-secret hospital for traumatised superheroes located in the middle of rural Nebraska, which has been built by Batman using Kryptonian technology and inspired by Wonder Woman’s compassion. “On the outside, it’s just this little farmhouse, which is like the one that Clark Kent grew up in, but when you go inside, there’s hyper reality rooms that can give you whatever therapy you need to get better,”
says King, who insists that Heroes In Crisis doesn’t tie in with any similarly named previous series like Final Crisis or Identity Crisis. “I didn’t originally have ‘crisis’ in the title, but then I look at what these sanctuaries are called in real life, and they’re called crisis centres!”
While King notes that, “DC has its own major detective figure in Batman himself,” the Caped Crusader shares investigative duties with Superman and Wonder Woman. “They each bring something different to it, but they get in each other’s way as well,” he says. “The whole thing starts with them discovering this murder and thinking ‘for once we tried to achieve something without punching and now we’re back to hunting something. Our quest for hope became another quest for vengeance.’ That eats at them, as it’s almost like in doing a violent thing to solve a violent thing, they’re undermining their own attempt to create peace.”
Having been marked out as prime suspects, Booster Gold and Harley Quinn provide some much-needed light relief. “I’m writing a story that’s just full of gloomy sadness, so you need something to cut against the grain,” says King. “What connects Booster and Harley is that they’re funny, and they’re also the people in the DCU who have made mistakes. But they just keep going and try to be the best version of themselves that they can be, which is kind of perfect for a story about heroes stumbling and trying to get back up again.”
Heroes In Crisis #1 is out 26 September.
DON’T qUOTE mE “THe fIrST ONe IS GOOD, THe SeCOND ONe IS MeH.” Luckily for Chris Hemsworth, the third Thor was AMAZING!