Comic books you hate or disliked

[berk]

I Seaguy and Gerber's defenders and dislike Morrison's more mainstream work, in which it seems to me that he caters to the worst of readers' wish-fulfillment fantasies.

Seaguy OTOH I see as an inventive examination of the basic elements of the hero's story (i.e. any hero's story), as well as what might be described as a Gerberesque indictment of how the powers-that-be attempt to control that story for their own ends.

I'd pick Secret Wars as a representative "Classic comic I hate". Not only is it a flimsy - to the point of near non-existence - story idea in itself, but it was also a precursor to the many similarly weak stories (or "events") we continue to see in mainstream superhero comics right to this day.

[destro]

Through the 80s, you can see a gradual shift from his father's style to his more modern drawing. I think his art is good for stills but bad for action.

Venom's Separation Anxiety and Carnage Unleashed were stories that promised alot and delivered very little. It was crap like this which gave symbiote a bad name for a long time in the MU.

The 1st time I remember noticing his style change was when he was doing that Punisher War Zone series in the 90s. I don't think his modern style is bad, but it's a little less natural looking than I'd prefer. His 80s Spider-Man work was great, every time I see it I wish he had stuck with that.

[Superdog]

Kevin Smith's Batman and Daredevil are profoundly bad.

[Superdog]

How does Morrison cater to wish fulfilment? *is curious*

[destro]

I Seaguy and Gerber's defenders and dislike Morrison's more mainstream work, in which it seems to me that he caters to the worst of readers' wish-fulfillment fantasies.

Seaguy OTOH I see as an inventive examination of the basic elements of the hero's story (i.e. any hero's story), as well as what might be described as a Gerberesque indictment of how the powers-that-be attempt to control that story for their own ends.

I'd pick Secret Wars as a representative "Classic comic I hate". Not only is it a flimsy - to the point of near non-existence - story idea in itself, but it was also a precursor to the many similarly weak stories (or "events") we continue to see in mainstream superhero comics right to this day.

At least with Secret Wars you could mostly ignore it if you wanted to. Other than Spidey's new suit and the Thing leaving the FF there was little effect on the regular books so you could just continue on with your favorites and forget about Secret Wars if you wished to, which is a good way to do an event.

I liked the 1st Secret Wars, but I was 8 years old when it came out. As a kid I liked seeing all of the different heroes together and learning about them, it was just fun for me. Everybody had some big moments to shine, especially Doom. And I liked the toys as well.

It was Secret Wars II that started crossing over into every book and disrupting the stories.

[Sean@CharitablePress]

At least with Secret Wars you could mostly ignore it if you wanted to. Other than Spidey's new suit and the Thing leaving the FF there was little effect on the regular books so you could just continue on with your favorites and forget about Secret Wars if you wished to, which is a good way to do an event.

I liked the 1st Secret Wars, but I was 8 years old when it came out. As a kid I liked seeing all of the different heroes together and learning about them, it was just fun for me. Everybody had some big moments to shine, especially Doom. And I liked the toys as well.

It was Secret Wars II that started crossing over into every book and disrupting the stories.

I agree with this....it seems that age comes into play with love/hate for comics. I was 7 when Secret Wars came out, so I loved it because of the new toyline....I hadn't been able to get a new Marvel character at the store since Mego had died out a few years before. The comic book story was secondary to me but, because of the other connection, I enjoyed it.

On the flip side of that, many of the books that are universally applauded from that era didn't reach me because of my relative youth. I didn't like The Killing Joke, was only moderately interested in Watchmen, and didn't like The Dark Knight Returns all that much. Then there was the Marvel era of the 90s that didn't do anything for me and I started going back into the older Silver Age and Bronze Age stories and I enjoyed most of them.

Once we got into this century, I was in my 20s and I was able to find value in pretty much ANY book that I read, even if I didn't like the entire story or premise. I'd find a cool art sequence or a clever mini-cliffhanger in the writing that made me appreciate SOMETHING about it. I guess now I just like having as many options to read as possible.

[The Confessor]

I'd recommend checking out The Other Side. Great Vietnam war comic, and Stewart's art is phenomenal.

Seconded.

He takes every opportunity to say that he smokes a looot of weed. Look there for your explanations.

Posting under the influence...never a good idea.

[DubipR]

I'm probably gonna get some venom flung my way but I'm going to say Claremont/Byrne X-Men. I loathe the idea of mutants but man that run is f**king terrible. I read it as a kid, and I didn't care for it; then I re-read it as an adult... even worse. I forgot how much Claremont loves to write paragraphs in the panels. Absolute utter tripe. I'll also second Moore's Killing Joke; not as great as everything thinks it is.

[MRP]

It is very difficult to say I have hated any comic, but intensely dislike sure.

Near the top of my list would be Swamp Thing #88, not so much for what was in the issue, but for what wasn't and the decision process behind killing Veitch's story by DC's higher ups after the story had been greenlighted by the editor.

A recent story I despised was the recent Didio penned Challengers of the Unknown revamp in DC Universe Presents...I picked up the first two parts cheap at a con, and didn't get passed the first few pages of the second issue before I threw it down in disgust and walked away.

Teen Tony Stark coming out of the Crossing storyline also left a very strong bad taste that lingers still many years later.

Rob Liefeld's Captain America left the same kind of bad taste.

However, I now try to avoid comics, new or classic that I believe I will have a strong negative reaction to, there are too many comics that do appeal to me and too little time and money available for those for me to waste time or resources on anything I suspect will leave me with a bad taste.

-M

[prince hal]

Whichever Crisis it was in which Sue Dibny was raped. Absolutely repellent. I wish I could get that page out of my mind.

[Reptisaurus!]

I Seaguy and Gerber's defenders and dislike Morrison's more mainstream work, in which it seems to me that he caters to the worst of readers' wish-fulfillment fantasies.

Seaguy OTOH I see as an inventive examination of the basic elements of the hero's story (i.e. any hero's story), as well as what might be described as a Gerberesque indictment of how the powers-that-be attempt to control that story for their own ends.

Right, yeah. I like Seaguy quite a bit myself. Although I'm a huge fan of his work in general.

And one of the reasons for this is 'cause I don't think his more out-there stuff is better than his writing-for-corporate trademark. There are bits of his Batman or X-men runs I think are just as good as Seaguy. (And that's rare - Generally most creators do more personal, daring, and just all-round BETTER work when they're mining fresh creative ground rather than being the 7,614th dude to write Batman.)

[MurderFace]

Hmmm...It's pretty hilariously sad how many comics I read every day, and I still can't really think of any I've disliked! But, I'd say I didn't love I LOVE LED ZEPPELIN or IDENTITY CRISIS, if I had to pick.

[edhopper]

How could forget how much I utterly loathed Final Crisis. I am not a Morrison hater, his All Star and Action are among the best written Superman titles.
But sometimes he just misses completely. FC was just terrible in every aspect.

[inferno]

As far as classic comics go, I will mention the Marvel cosmic stuff. I recently grabbed a couple issues of Marvel Spotlight on Captain Marvel... they were written by Doug Moench who I usually like and they were free. But, man, is it a hard slog to get through.

[Venomous Mask]

Star Wars: Empire's End. Dark Empire II was really building up a great finale, and then they ended it with this two-issue whimper. Mediocre art, weak story, and definitely not the final death scene that someone like Palpatine deserved.