Review: Heroes in Crisis- The Price and Other Stories

Quick Summary

Pros: The Flash’s storyline is emotional and builds on what is currently happening in his solo series. Green Arrow’s story is equally emotional and helps show off Arsenal in a way that Heroes in Crisis failed to do. The volume’s artwork is positive through all of the stories.

Cons: Batman’s storyline is lackluster and fails to build up the emotions or intensity present in other stories. The final Green Arrow chapter doesn’t fit with the rest of the collection.

Overall: This Heroes in Crisis tie-in collection works in some ways but does not work in others. For the Flash and Green Arrow, this collection delivers the emotional fallout one would expect from the main event. For the Flash, it even connects into his solo adventures and advances the narrative there. However, the portions of the book focused on Batman’s story are all pretty mediocre. In the end, this book is for fans of the Flash’s recent adventures or those looking to see the Flash and Green Arrow react to what happened in Heroes in Crisis.

Story

Heroes in Crisis: The Price and Other Stories collects several stories of varied appeal. The main storyline is a crossover between The Flash and Batman. For the Flash, this storyline is a great continuation of the ongoing narrative, one that builds on previous storylines while displaying the Flash’s emotional response to the main Heroes in Crisis (Review) event. For Batman, the storyline is lackluster and has twists that undercut any emotion or depth the storyline could have otherwise had. After this crossover, the rest of the volume focuses on Green Arrow’s reaction to what happened in Heroes in Crisis. These stories are well-crafted and emotional in a way that works well on their own but also help expand on points that are underdeveloped in the main event. All in all, this volume is great if you go into it for the Flash, Green Arrow, or Arsenal but not that great if you go into it for Batman.

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The most significant story in The Price and Other Stories, written by Joshua Williamson, is a great continuation of the narrative currently unfolding in the Flash’s life. It brings back concepts that have developed across the series, like the ongoing conflict with Godspeed and the turmoil within Barry and Iris’s relationship. Then it advances these concepts by explaining that Godspeed is working for a mysterious new villain and by having Iris take a break from Barry. On top of all of this, the narrative shows the intensity of Barry’s attempt to come to terms with Wally’s death, which takes him to some seriously dark places. All in all, the Flash’s story was interesting and I’m interested in seeing how the story’s new developments play out in the future.

The other half of this narrative focuses on Batman. Like the Flash’s portion of the story, Batman’s portion of the story also focuses on concepts from his recent past, as Gotham Girl was a central character in the first Rebirth Batman story arc. However, unlike the Flash’s portion of the story, Batman’s is not handled as well. Gotham Girl’s motivation seems to jump from a genuine mental breakdown cause by Batman’s failures to a simple case of mind control. Though some of her statements and actions contained plenty of emotional charge, the fact that they may have simply been coming from the mind control robs the narrative of these otherwise rich emotions. On top of all of this, the action ends up falling flat, as Gotham Girl’s resurrected minions have the same exploitable weakness her brother had so long ago.

The rest of The Price and Other Stories, written first by Julie Benson and Shawna Benson and then by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, looks at Green Arrow in the aftermath of Roy Harper’s death. The majority of the Green Arrow chapters hit hard. Roy’s death did not receive nearly enough attention in the main Heroes in Crisis event so to see it expanded upon here helps make up for this omission. The only problem is that the final Green Arrow chapter isn’t much of a Heroes in Crisis tie-in at all and is actually more of a Justice League: No Justice (Review) (Reading Order) tie-in, causing it to fit very poorly in this collection.

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Art

The visuals in The Price and Other Stories are positive right from the start. Scott Kolins starts the collection off with blistering action and energy in an issue of The Flash. Then, Guillem March’s work on the Batman/The Flash crossover brings out an awesome level of intensity. Here, the realistic visual approach allows the serious and somber tone of the storyline to come through perfectly. This allows a maniacal smile to take on an additional level of sinister and allows a moment of reflection to convey the depths of a character’s inner turmoil.

In the Green Arrow chapters, by Javi Fernandez, things look just as good. The first chapter contains a level of detail that bring some serious emotion to the characters’ faces and comes with some fantastic colors from John Kalisz, which really help set the mood. Then, the work on the rest of the chapters retains this level of emotion but also brings out a dynamic level of energy. This looks particularly good in the chapters where the villain’s reality-altering powers warp the Seattle cityscape. Overall, all of the visuals in this book are positive and assist with the storytelling.

Continuity

Heroes in Crisis: The Price and Other Stories collects tie-ins to the Heroes in Crisis (Review) event. A full explanation of this event will be given in ComicBookWire’s upcoming “Heroes in Crisis Reading Order”.

The stories in this volume continues from different places for different characters.

• Impulse’s story continues in the Young Justice series, which starts with Young Justice Vol. 1: Gemworld.
• The Flash’s story continues in The Flash Vol. 11: The Greatest Trick of All.
• Gotham Girl’s story continues in Batman Vol. 11: City of Bane Part 1.
• The scene of Batman and Superman together is a prelude to the events of Batman/Superman Vol. 1: Who are the Secret Six? (Review).

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• The reset of the DC Universe in Flashpoint (Review) (Reading Order) and Wally West’s return in DC Universe: Rebirth (Review) are mentioned a number of times throughout this volume.
• Impulse returned in The Flash #50, collected in The Flash Vol. 8: Flash War (Review).
• Wally West left for Sanctuary in The Flash #51, collected in The Flash Vol. 8: Flash War (Review).
• The Flash’s history with Godspeed is detailed across The Flash Vol. 1: Lightning Strikes Twice (Review).
• Godspeed entered the Speed Force in The Flash #44, collected in The Flash Vol. 7: Perfect Storm (Review).
• Wallace West joined a new group of Teen Titans in Teen Titans Vol. 1: Full Throttle.
• Impulse’s story continues in the Young Justice series, which starts with Young Justice Vol. 1: Gemworld.
• The history surrounding Gotham and Gotham Girl is detailed across Batman Vol. 1: I am Gotham (Review).
• The Green Arrow issues reference Green Arrow receiving a box at the conclusion of the Justice League: No Justice (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• Green Arrow #45 references a time when Green Arrow and Green Lantern confronted Roy Harper about his drug use. This happened in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85-86, collected in Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard Travelin’ Heroes.