Posted in: Comics | Tagged: clay mann, crisis, dc, heroes in crisis, sanctuary, Tom King

Heroes in Crisis: DC's Next Big Event by Tom King and Clay Mann Explores Sanctuary Trauma Center

Last Month, Bleeding Cool told you that a crisis is coming.  Back in January, superstar writer Tom King told us about a concept called Sanctuary. As it turns out, these may be one and the same. DC Comics announced via press release that Tom King, Clay Mann, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles will team up to produce Heroes in Crisis, a comic about DC Superheroes dealing with the trauma of violence at a crisis center called Sanctuary, which is founded by Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. So where's the "crisis" part? Well, when Sanctuary fails, things go bad for the DC Universe in the kind of way that will require a 7-issue mini-series to resolve.

In the press release, King elaborated:

I feel like I'm part of a rolling generation of people who spent their 20s overseas fighting terrorism. Millions of people cycle through that machine and come home to America. And I think that sort of experience of violence is shaping who we are as a culture, and as a country. And I want to talk about that. I want to talk about that experience, the experience of what violence can do to a person, to a community, to a nation, to a world.

If I could do anything to the DCU, it would be to bring a sense of community of superheroes and people. I feel a duty to talk about what violence does to a society through the comics I'm creating.

Back in January, here's what King had to say:

Every DC Comic is full of violence. It's fun and exciting and I enjoy reading about that, but do we talk about the consequences of that, both on the characters and the readers, and they asked me to think about that and do something with it. And we are.

It's called SanctuaryWe're creating something where it's sort of like a crisis center for superheroes. It's gonna be DC-wide, all the superheroes, and it's gonna be a place where these superheroes who are living violent lives every single day — Batman gets in a fight every single night, five times a night.

We're creating a place superheroes can go that mimics the good work people are doing for veterans around the world, where they can have a space where they can actually admit that this violence has had consequences for them and has affected them mentally, so that your greatest heroes, who are inspiring our children, can say proudly: yes, I've had some mental difficulties, and yes, working with people has helped me through them. And we don't hide behind that.

Heroes in Crisis #1 (of 7) hits stores on September 26th. Look for the follow-up, Readers in Crisis, in which comic book readers deal with the trauma of never-ending super-mega-crossover events, sometime later.

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