Comic books you hate or disliked

[dan bailey]

No way. The Silver age Superman was great. Moore wrote a love letter in that story. Cmon, Slam.

I agree with you, of course, but people like what they like & dislike what they dislike.

I hate every aspect of the Silver Surfer. Others think the character & at least the first incarnation of the title were the greatest thing since sliced bread. The end.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I just reread Civil war and found it to be very good. Given the events of the story, it was SUPPOSED TO make the reader feel uncomfortable. Both times Captain America and Ironman squared off, it was extremely violent and hard to watch.

If it had been set in the Ultimate Universe, the characterization and story would have made sense.

That Marvel let him shoehorn this characterzation slaughtering into their mainstream universe was idiocy.

And Millar cannot just write a good story. It's always about gore, sex, rape, and shock value.

The man's a hack of Chuck Austen levels.

[The Confessor]

Don't be embarassed. You are, after all, talking to the guy who made the audience at a debate tournament laugh when he pronounced the word "epitome" as "EH-puh-tome."

Cei-U!
I knew what it meant, I used it correctly but I'd never heard anyone say it!

Ha, ha...I've had similar experiences with words actually. For years I used to pronounce the word "genre" as GIN-ear, until somebody politely explained how it was supposed to be said. Like you, I was using it correctly but I'd never heard it said. Unfortunately, I pronounced it that way for so long that even today, I have to be careful I don't accidentally revert back to my old pronunciation if I ever use the word in a conversation.

Same goes for paradigm, actually...which I pronounced as "para-didge-um" until embarrassingly recently.

I just reread Civil war and found it to be very good. Given the events of the story, it was SUPPOSED TO make the reader feel uncomfortable. Both times Captain America and Ironman squared off, it was extremely violent and hard to watch.

I really like Civil War a lot too. I think it's unfairly maligned. It’s probably the best and most exciting big, comic event crossover I’ve ever read.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I really like Civil War a lot too. I think it's unfairly maligned. It’s probably the best and most exciting big, comic event crossover I’ve ever read.

While we all have opinions, words fail me right now.....

[dan bailey]

While we all have opinions, words ail me right now.....

IIRC, Confessor has alluded in the past to having partaken in the occasional illicit substance during his youth. Now we have unfortunate proof of the long-range impact of such experimentation.

[Scott Harris]

Count me in among those who think Millar is a horrible, overrated, smug hack. Civil War might actually be the best thing he's written, but I suspect that's because other people came up with the story. And even then, I think it's not very good at all, both because the characterizations, events and motivations are completely arbitrary but also because it's just not a smooth read. I mean, Secret Wars suffered from many of the same problems but in my opinion is a much better read. About the best thing I can say for Civil War is that it actually had consequences in the MU unlike most crossovers. And it was marginally better than Secret Invasion, which would be the worst crossover event of all time if Inferno didn't exist.

[Slam_Bradley]

Slam_Bradley, the only stuff I ever read preceding the last issue of All Star Comics was the odd tale reprinted in a Flash 80-page Giant. Is that how you learned the S. & S. Superman differed?

I know I read at least some of the Siegel & Shuster Superman stories in Superman From the 30s to the 70s. Probably the odd reprint. Then I picked up they Archives that covered that period years later.

Were Messrs. Weisinger and Schwartz credited? I don't REMEMBER credits back that far except Charles Moulton. I know the DC sff anthologies ran uncredited. Did Superman change because of a switch of writers and wasn't this prior to Showcase 4?

I don't remember when DC editors started being credited. I'm pretty sure it was after Weisinger's time.

No way. The Silver age Superman was great. Moore wrote a love letter in that story. Cmon, Slam.

To each his own. I didn't like Superman when I was 10. Re-reading the same stories at 40 didn't change my mind. As I've said, even Alan Moore couldn't make SA Superman interesting.

I hate every aspect of the Silver Surfer. Others think the character & at least the first incarnation of the title were the greatest thing since sliced bread. The end.

I'm with you on this one. Not that I've read every appearance of Silver Surfer. So it's possible he's been used well somewhere. Vaguely possible. But despite really spiffy Buscema art I found his first series virtually unreadable. What a whiny angst-ridden waste of paper. The only good parts were when he'd occasionally get slapped around.

[berk]

I hate every aspect of the Silver Surfer. Others think the character & at least the first incarnation of the title were the greatest thing since sliced bread. The end.

To each his own. I didn't like Superman when I was 10. Re-reading the same stories at 40 didn't change my mind. As I've said, even Alan Moore couldn't make SA Superman interesting.

I'm with you on this one. Not that I've read every appearance of Silver Surfer. So it's possible he's been used well somewhere. Vaguely possible. But despite really spiffy Buscema art I found his first series virtually unreadable. What a whiny angst-ridden waste of paper. The only good parts were when he'd occasionally get slapped around.

Agree with Slam about Superman and with both Dan and Slam about the Surfer to some extent. Only to some extent because, as Shaxper was just saying in the (latest) Stan vs Jack thread, Kirby's original conception of the Surfer seems to have been significantly different from what Stan made of it, first in the FF and even more so in the Lee/Buscema series. Kirby's Surfer apparently was based on the idea of the favoured angel rebelling against his tyrannical God, in contrast to Stan's self-sacrificing (and self-pitying) alien. Lucifer as opposed to Christ, as someone in the Kirby Kollector put it, IIRC. One might be a nicer guy , but the other has much more story potential, I think most would concede.

[FanboyStranger]

I think there's been a couple of phases in Mark Millar's career. His early days are a mixed bag with a pretty good mini entitled Saviour and one of 2000AD's worst runs ever in his Robo-Hunter. Then Grant Morrison took him under his wing, and he improved a great deal. Millar's Swamp Thing run was actually the best the book had been since Rick Veitch left, upping the ante with every storyline, and Millar would turn in these absolute gem single issues like the story of the priest in Hell, "Swamp Dog", and "Chester Williams: American Cop". He also worked on Superman Adventures, which was the best of the Superman books published during that timeframe. That period ends with Tangent: Superman, which was probably the last really thoughtful thing that Millar has written.

Starting with The Authority, Millar began relying on shock as his go-to move. It was somewhat refreshing at first-- here's a truly hardcore superhero series dealing with major threats-- but by the time the second volume of The Ultimates finally ended, it had gotten very stale and routine. (Chosen came out around that time, and that was pretty good, but then he had to throw the twist at the end in the most juvenile manner possible.) After that, it was all shock all the time, and his books have taken on the values of terrible action movies that think they're more than they really are.

[Cei-U!]

I don't remember when DC editors started being credited. I'm pretty sure it was after Weisinger's time.

The individual editors began receiving credit (in the indicia) as of the March 1959 issues. Prior to that, the entire line was credited to Whitney Ellsworth.

Cei-U!
I summon the fine print!

[Slam_Bradley]

The individual editors began receiving credit (in the indicia) as of the March 1959 issues. Prior to that, the entire line was credited to Whitney Ellsworth.

Cei-U!
I summon the fine print!

Ok. I remembered that Ellsworth was credited as the editor of the entire line for quite a while. Wasn't sure when the change was made. I never paid any attention to the indicia.

[dupersuper]

Exactly the problem as I see it: the reader can't hear whatever else there might be to the story over the blaring sound of how awesome they are, or at least how awesome the writer would have us think they are.

Putting aside that I enjoy the sound of how awesome Superman is, I heard the rest of the story just fine.

To each his own. I didn't like Superman when I was 10. Re-reading the same stories at 40 didn't change my mind. As I've said, even Alan Moore couldn't make SA Superman interesting.

You didn't like his Supreme run either?

[Slam_Bradley]

You didn't like his Supreme run either?

it was OK. Overall I liked it.

[Johnny P. Sartre]

EDIT: Never mind, Fanboy Stranger already answered for me

[berk]

Putting aside that I enjoy the sound of how awesome Superman is, I heard the rest of the story just fine.

No doubt. As always, I'm just talking about my own feelings and not trying to tell anyone else what they should or should not enjoy.

I can avoid Superman and Batman. I used to have a problem when, for example, I couldn't read a story about the New Gods because everything they appear in turns out to be a story about how awesome Superman or Batman is - and, all too often, how lame the New Gods are by way of contrast. But now I just stay away from that stuff altogether.