Comics You Want to Like but Don't?

[Nitz the Bloody]

Question for anyone here; are there any comics you really wanted to read and thought you'd get into, but for whatever reason ended up disappointing you? If so, why? And how would you change them so they'd better fit what you thought would be ideal?

For me, the comic that frustrates me the most is Jason Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men. I really enjoyed the Schism storyline, and I loved most of Jason Aaron's Wolverine stories, so I was really looking forward to his ongoing X-Men book. That hope dried up only a few issues in. Instead of focusing on the more interesting story threads from Schism, Aaron played up the weakest part of the story-- the Hellfire Kids-- and used that tone to define the whole book. The Hellfire kids themselves could potentially work, as a thematic conflict towards Wolverine's Friend To All Children role; instead, they come across as villainous Scrappy-Doos, immediately thrust forward as A-List villains despite offering little except wacky plot devices. Just because you give them a Wendigo-ray doesn't make them convincing.

In fact, wackiness seems to be the rule of the day for Wolverine and the X-Men, and the whole tone of the book is like an obnoxious sit-com. The X-Men themselves don't do too much, and even their sub-plots are done with so little development that they just feel forced (such as putting Iceman and Kitty together, with no good dramatic reasoning, or doing the same for Husk and Toad). The spotlight goes to the new kids, but most of them are cut down to comedic stereotypes; Broo being the menacing alien with the lovable nerd persona, Idie's fundamentalist upbringing reduced to talking about how mutants are monsters with a completely straight-faced smile, Kid Gladiator being the obnoxious school jock, Quentin Quire (who was introduced as a disturbing, intense Eric-Harris-style murderer) as the rebel with a heart of gold, etc. There doesn't feel like there's any credible character depth, and the plots are similarly kept from going past "OMG so crazy". I can forgive Aaron the Wolverine-in-a-wheelchair thing due to the scheduling of AvX derailing it, but since it wasn't going to last more than a few issues anyway, the whole thing couldn't have been much more than a piece of contrived storytelling designed to set up a simple and tasteless joke of Wolverine in a chair like Professor X.

Jason Aaron is perfectly capable of playing stories, even superhero stories, with convincing characters and dramatic stories. He doesn't have to go as angsty as the X-Men have been in the past few years, but he shouldn't try to play Xavier's School as Hogwarts, unless he's going to acknowledge that the Harry Potter series got really dark really fast and was better for it.

Any others?

[BlackagarBoltagon]

To be honest, my answer would have to be most Marvel comics, period.

As a kid I was always a Marvel Zombie, I had a few titles from other publishers (Spawn, few Batman issues, etc) but I was all about Marvel. If it had an X on the cover, I bought it. Then I got back into comics in 2005, during Civil War and was 100% Marvel yet again, really big on Spidey this time. I kinda dropped out of comics again after a couple years, then when I heard about AvX coming I thought this might be a good point to get caught up and jump back in with the event. Yet again I was mostly Marvel, but something was different. None of the X books seems to hold my interest anymore, Spidey bores me, and AvX has been a letdown. It all just feels like going through the motions to me. I want to like them, and still have favorite characters like Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, and Iron Fist, but it just doesn't do it for me any more. After AvX and the current Wolverine arc (which isn't that good anyway), Venom is the last Marvel title on my pull list. I'll check out some upcoming stuff, but not much. Maybe I'm just losing interest in capes books, though I still LOVE Invincible.

Meanwhile Image and other Indies have been putting out great stuff that seems much more diverse, daring, and rewarding to read.

[dancj]

Hellboy.

Beautiful art, great characters, crap story.

[icctrombone]

Hellblazer. I felt that after Moores Swamp thing run, he should have been just as engaging in his own title. I'm sure it's loved by many people but it missed the mark for me.

[Nitz the Bloody]

Hellboy.

Beautiful art, great characters, crap story.

What's wrong with Hellboy's story? I ask because I haven't really been able to get into the series, but can't quite put my finger on why.

[Totoro Man]

I enjoyed Hellboy-- but I think it's one of those titles where the art work comes first, then characters, and THEN the story. it's great for atmospheric artwork and fun characters-- but the strength of the story-telling varies dramatically! Mignola even admited that some of his 'stories' weren't so much narratives as they were vignettes or episodes. Mignola draws on lots and lots of folklore, mythology, and arcane horror stories for inspiration-- so if you don't already know a lot about horror traditions from various countries-- his stories will leave you feeling sorta cold. the Hellboy stories I enjoyed most are the ones where I was most familiar with the mythological trappings that preceeded the Hellboy narrative. he's building on a lot of existing myths-- and there's also the fact that a lot of horror comics fans like the "evil lurking under the veneer of normality". Mignola just goes straight for 'pure, monstrous, obviously' evil a lot of the time.

also, it's worth pointing out that while Hellboy is a sharply defined and memorable character-- much of the supporting cast can feel bland and interchangeable. and this is coming from a guy who owns several years worth of the title.

[dancj]

What's wrong with Hellboy's story? I ask because I haven't really been able to get into the series, but can't quite put my finger on why.

I couldn't honestly tell you why, but basically the Hellboy stories I've read (and everything else I've read by Mignola) have just completely failed to engage me in any way.

[chicainery]

I couldn't honestly tell you why, but basically the Hellboy stories I've read (and everything else I've read by Mignola) have just completely failed to engage me in any way.

I totally agree. I have read Hellboy and tried to like it, but I just find it "ok."

[Reptisaurus!]

Hellboy.

Beautiful art, great characters, crap story.

I wouldn't even say that... Thinking as a critic, I'd rate Hellboy as really, really, good on every level. It just doesn't do anything for me.

Hellblazer. I felt that after Moores Swamp thing run, he should have been just as engaging in his own title. I'm sure it's loved by many people but it missed the mark for me.

Yeah, ditto. I'm sure I've read over a hundred issues of Hellblazer always thinking "Man! I love (name of current creative team.) This is gonna be awesome! And I don't even remember any of it.

[Nitz the Bloody]

Come to think of it, add Kingdom Come to the list. I'd probably have liked it better had they not made all the new-generation heroes one-dimensional strawmen.

[Zevious Zoquis]

Hmmm, interesting. I've just started with Hellboy and I'm finding it freaking awesome. Its pushing all the right buttons for me as a Lovecraft fan and a fan of pulp adventure fiction in general. I'm absolutely loving it...

For me the answer to the op is The Walking Dead. I do like it, but I want to love it. I just find the relentlessness of the story wears me down. I find that my love of the Zombie Apoc only really extends through the first few days or couple of weeks. Once it settles down to being less about zombies and more about survivors killing each other in ever more gruesome ways I start to loose interest...

[stelok]

I tried to like Avengers versus X-men, (this year's Marvel crossover) but I didn't. it failed to spike my long-lost interest. Ditto for the previous year's crossovers "Flashpoint" and "Fear Itself."

[Nitz the Bloody]

Agree about Walking Dead, which I can't get into for the same reasons Zevious specified. However, I generally assume the worst about crossovers, so I can be pleasantly surprised if they actually entertain.

[ceefax]

The walking dead...arrghh...like I love survival futures and this could be a good one, but I ...I....hate it. Adlard gets a hard deal, but kirkmans character voicing is awful. Some of the stuff they say is so cliched. I haven't a clue who anyone is most of the time. The artwork leaves me cold aswell, look at the artwork on saga in comparison, I'd love her to move to TWD, the story in saga isnt my thing but i read for the art. But I keep dipping in just to see if TWD is getting good, but it never gets better. I find kirkman an arrogant son of a...to boot.... Oh and I found watchmen a little dull too....er what else...the dark knight..couldn't get past the sloppy artwork and dense layout. Daredevil by miller aswell...meh.....oh god....here we go...half of sin cities....Jesus perhaps I don't like comics....oh hold on..100bullets, criminal, scalped, fatale.

[bocatron]

I'd hate to bash a writer, but Bendis doesn't cut it for me. There are books I want to read just to keep up with continuity, but I'm afraid that I won't like it. A lot of times I'm right. Bendis changes too many things too many times.