Review: Heroes in Crisis #8

I’m not going to lie, I never truly saw myself making it this far with a book like Heroes in Crisis. This was another one of those books where you couldn’t help being cautiously excited for knowing that it could be a series of events thrown at us for the sake of shock value. Something we tend to fear all too much about stories which are at the level of big events. So far, this has been a solid story told. It has a message, it has taken us into the parts of being a superhero that most are not bold enough to explore. However, we are at that stage where we need things to happen. The kind of things that will make this a worthwhile investment to have followed.

Worthwhile was fortunately what we got from this issue of Heroes in Crisis. For all the circles we have danced around between the inconsistencies and information fed to us, we finally reached this point where all the cards were left on the table for us. Don’t get me wrong, the confessions have been captivating for the engagement, and this story has struck gold asking the right questions about mental health. However, a story like this still needs direction at the end of the day. We were getting so close to the end of this story that you couldn’t possibly see how they could wrap things up in a way that would be satisfying. They would have to be bold enough to give us an issue where there was nothing but the truth to reveal to us. That is what Heroes in Crisis #8 turned out to be.

Off the bat, this is where you could truly appreciate the switch to Mitch Gerads most. Clay Mann had a distinct approach going on to the way these heroes engaged in their confessions, but perspective sometimes can change the impact in ways you wouldn’t expect until you toy with it. It made a big difference to have these characters a bit more front and center to experience everything being conveyed to you through their faces. The same could be said for the hand that Travis Moore had in the first scene. He really captured a lot of the confessing heroes in a light which sums up where they came from and why they came to Sanctuary.

With that said, the strength of this issue came from the reveal of what truly happened on the day where all those heroes were slaughtered. Like I said, there was inconsistencies. As well as questionable choices made in who they spent more time fleshing out in this story. All of it began to make sense once they decided to tell a story that could put all the pieces together. Quite brilliant if you ask me because even if you thought you knew who did it, you couldn’t have guessed how that person pulled off such a tragedy. No clue could have prepared you for the actual scene which unraveled when the time came to show what happened. All of it I also thought was clever because of the perspective we found ourselves seeing these confessions from. That was another discovery they nailed when there has always been the question of who sent the tapes.

Gerads and Moore also managed to produce some stunning colors as well for this issue. On one hand you had Gerads proving how explosive he can get with the speed force effects, and then you have Moore who really showed how to capture a mood through grey tones.

The only problem I have right now is that we do have our answer, but there is still only one more issue to bring this to a close. It feels like some things are going to be rushed through unless this next issue is bigger than the others. There needs to be resolution for Harley and Booster, and this is a big thing the Trinity are dealing with. Deleted tapes were not actually deleted, heroes died on their property, in general this is betrayal on many levels. How do you address all of this in one issue?

Ignoring the questions that would ultimately bring this down. As it is? Heroes in Crisis #8 was a work of art. So much emotion was poured into speaking to the part of a heroes life that we dare not explore. The parts which show us that no one is impervious to the things that break normal people.

Heroes in Crisis #8




Jideobi Odunze Author
