Comic Review: Heroes in Crisis #6

Heroes in Crisis #6

DC Comics

Writer: Tom King

Artists: Mitch Gerards and Clay Mann

While it’s far from a course correction, Heroes in Crisis #6 finally offers something worthwhile. And it’s through Gnarrk the Cro-Magnon, of all things. The sixth issue of DC’s newest, “shocking” event shows more of Sanctuary, the mental health refuge built by and for superheroes. For all this book’s faults, its central premise is compelling. Seeing a superhero’s trauma treated makes for great storytelling. Especially when that treatment doesn’t work out. This issue largely takes a break from the event’s unwieldy murder mystery to properly explore that idea. While the book still can’t escape its ugly obsession with degrading DC’s superheroes, Heroes in Crisis #6 at least manages to achieve more than any previous issue.

My main takeaway is that Tom King and Mitch Gerards need to do a Gnarrk miniseries. This issue shows the superpowered caveman struggling to reconcile his past with the present. So he’s turned to the philosophical and artistic greats for help. The Teen Titans Z-lister contemplating the works of Keats, Hobbes, and Rosseau while perched atop a hologram of his long dead pet woolly mammoth is surprisingly effective. While the caveman’s story is little more than a brief subplot, he still receives a complete story arc. Gnarrk’s musing might feel heavy-handed at points but his story carries meaningfulness and genuine emotion that Heroes in Crisis distinctly lacks.

Unfortunately, the other characters are still nowhere near as well handled. Heroes in Crisis #6 examines how Wally West losing his family invalidates whatever “hope” his return offered. This is difficult to dispute but the book doesn’t handle the Scarlet Speedster’s reaction all that well. Part of what distinguished Wally’s tenure as the Flash was his refusal was that he couldn’t be idle in the face what he saw as an unnecessary loss. The desperate ends he’d go as a result made that quality his greatest strength and weakness. That’s hard to reconcile with the helpless moping he does in issue #6. It’s happened in the previous book but Heroes in Crisis chooses a very poor approach. This series clearly has more in store for Wally West. But his plotline seems to get worse with every development.

Clay Mann still draws the interview segments but Mitch Gerards illustrates the rest of Heroes in Crisis #6. This is also easily the best-looking issue of the miniseries. Gerards’ work has an energy and emotion that Heroes in Crisis desperately needs. His facial expressions are much more believable and nuanced than what Mann has done for the book. Unfortunately, Gerards also engages in the entirely inappropriate sexualization that’s marred Heroes in Crisis from the start. Even then, it’s nowhere near as excessive as Mann’s contributions. All in all, Heroes in Crisis #6 offers a tantalizing glimpse of what this event could have been. Hopefully, the rest of it can live up to the standard this issue set.