Tom King’s “Heroes in Crisis” will show superheroes in recovery from emotional trauma

Tom King’s been teasing his next project as far back as January.  Initially known as “Sanctuary,” it was to be a story about the mental health repercussions for superheroes and a place they could go to recover.  That project now has a name: Heroes in Crisis.

Scheduled to ship in September, Heroes in Crisis will be written by King with art by Clay Mann and will run seven issues.  It sounds like DC had intended for this to be announced last night when King was a guest on Seth Meyers’ late night chat show, but no such announcement aired.  (Then again, half the time the primary guest runs over and the writer doesn’t even get on screen, so it really wasn’t a total loss by late night PR rules.)

The general premise appears to be the same as teased in January: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have set up a sort of traum

a center where heroes can go when things get overwhelming.  Something that’s likely modeled, at least in part, by services offered for military veterans.  Heroes in Crisis is what happens when Sanctuary fails.  It’s described as a murder mystery starring Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Booster Gold and Harley Quinn.  (Remember, Harley was in the mental health field before she met Mister J.)

Tom King’s official quote that’s making the rounds on the mainstream news sites:

“I feel like I’m part of a rolling generation of people who spent their twenties 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 shapi

ng 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.”

This appears to be a personal project for King, a former CIA intelligence officer who’s spent some time overseas.

According to official DC pr:

HEROES IN CRISIS is not a tale of universes colliding and dying. Instead this is a story centering on 

the humans and superhumans under the mask; this is about what allows them to get up and fight when it appears they can’t ever get up and fight again. When it’s too much, and it’s often too much, heroes go to Sanctuary—created by Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman—to find a moment of safety before returning to a universe of violence. HEROES IN CRISIS is also about what happens when Sanctuary fails, resulting in catastrophic consequences for the DCU. 

“If I could do anything to the DCU,” concluded King, “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.”

The premiere issue of HEROES IN CRISIS, written by Tom King with art by Clay Mann and Tomeu Morey, lettered by Clayton Cowles, and edited by Jamie S. Rich and Brittany Holzherr, will reach comic book stores and be available digitally on September 26.