Source: dc.wikia.com

1. Refrigerate as necessary

The story ends by revealing that The Atom’s ex-wife, Jean Loring, was Sue’s killer and (indirectly) Jack Drake’s killer, as well. She only intended to scare the two, with the hope of frightening her ex-husband into getting back together with her. Loring is locked up forever in Arkham, and The Atom is all sad and stuff.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the process of “Fridgeing”.

For those who don’t know, the concept of Fridgeing comes from a piece by comics writer Gail Simone in reference to the process of killing or otherwise disposing of female side characters for no other purpose than giving a male character “development”. The process is troubling, because it’s seen as wasting a character in a hacky method when a better writer could find a less wasteful way to develop a character.

The name comes from an early issue of Kyle Rayner’s tenure as Green Lantern, in which his girlfriend is chopped up and left in his refrigerator by D-list villain Major Force.

Sue Dibny is INARGUABLY fridged in this book. Like, her death is a plot device for every character, EXCEPT her. It’s distressing. And such a waste of such a great character, too. In fact, I’d argue that Jean Loring and Jack Drake (even though Jean isn’t killed and Jack’s a guy) are both fridged in Identity Crisis as well. Both characters are removed from the playing field to give other characters motivation they don’t actually need.

Oh, Identity Crisis, I don’t like you very much and writing about you has only made me madder, but you aren’t Avengers #200, so I guess you get a pass on most fronts. Next, I’ll  write about something that makes me happy.