Skyward, Heroes in Crisis, Runaways

New comics for the week!

Skyward 12

Joe Henderson tells us how Lilly, Willa’s mother, stayed alive all this time.  She’s been living in the underground city that Nate, Willa’s father, secretly developed.  (He’s like Jor-El, planning for disaster that no one else saw coming.) In the twenty-one years since gravity first disappeared, the city’s developed an extreme isolationist attitude towards the outside in the name of security and safety.  All contact in or out is prohibited.

After the explanation, Lilly’s new husband, the mayor of the city, destroys the (only?) door out of the complex trapping Willa and Barrow in with the rest of the inhabitants.  It’s very much a table setter of an issue, and the thought of reading about a close minded society is really leaving me unenthused right now.

Heroes in Crisis 8

Wally West did it.  All the pressure and trauma of past events finally got to him, and in a moment of weakness, he released an explosion of speed force that killed everyone in Sanctuary.  In response, his fragile mind decided to cover it up and frame Booster Gold and Harley Quinn for the massacre, leaving him just enough time to perform some as-of-yet unspecified redemptive task while Batman and the others sift through the muddled evidence.  

This issue’s stirred up a lot of controversy on the internets.  Personally, I hate what Tom King’s done to Wally. I love this Flash from the Mark Waid days, and this is such a departure from his established personality.  I imagine this is how a lot of people felt when Hal Jordan went nuts in the aftermath of Coast City’s destruction during Reign of Supermen.  

However, I believe that’s the point King is trying to make - this is what PTSD can do to even the best of people.  He’s clearly writing this from a place of personal experience, and I think the fact that I find Wally’s actions to far out of whack is exactly the cultural incomprehension that he wants to address.  

I went into this issue thinking that I knew the effects of PTSD, and how it can change someone’s personality and state of mind.  My revulsion at Wally’s actions, and quick impulse to proclaim it a result of poor writing (despite all my previous praises for his top notch skills) rather than a realistic depiction of the disorder shows how much I have left to learn.  I’m choosing to believe that the disconnect is in my knowledge base, not in King’s ability to write a good story.

Runaways 20

Going to another comic that deals directly with psychological trauma, Victor attempts to commit suicide in a heart-wrenching issue.  His silent agony, his inability to share his nightmares with his friends, and his final solution are harrowing in their despair. As terrible as it all is, I couldn’t help but think, “This makes sense,” following Heroes in Crisis.  I could relate to Victor, I couldn’t relate to Wally.  And that makes this a “better” issue for me.