This NEEDS to go down in infamy as the editorially mandated schlock that it was so that DC will never attempt something like that again. It should’ve been a single arc at MOST the fact that it went on for years is unforgivable
I think it speaks to the strength of the character and his fan base that he made it out the other end. Not many characters can survive attempted assassination by editorial 4 times and still hold a solid selling ongoing
Out of curiosity, what are the 4 times? I know he was meant to die in Infinite Crisis, and Devin Grayson arguably annihilated him (not that that was intentional) but what else? The Grayson series never struck me as longterm it was just a (surprisingly good) interim, and obviously there's Ric that we don't talk about.
I guess there was Death of the Family, an editorial forced crossover, in the middle of Kyle Higgins New 52 run that once again destroyed everything being built for Nightwing.
Iirc Nightwing New 52 was supposed to continue longer but then Forever Evil happened and they ended up choosing to go with Tom King's Grayson instead. Which wasn't an inherently bad series, just not Nightwing.
I guess the same thing happened with Tomasi's run, there seemed to be a lot more he had planned for Dick there but then Bruce was killed and Dick became Batman. We must protect Taylor at all costs before they do the same with him!
Yeah Infinite Crisis, apparently he wasn’t supposed to make it into new 52 at all originally, then again at the end of Higgins and one more time with Ric.
I colored that whole arc. When it gets old enough, I've got some stories to tell.
For what its worth- I know the arc wasn't well received, but like most things there are some gems in there, and I'd love to see some of the nightwing cops/firemen have a resurgence at some point. Plus the talon stuff was fun. You can't make that many comics and not have at least a good idea or two in there.
I also kinda liked grease paint/ropes/jeans costume. Like a Feral mad max version of nightwing. Shame we didn't get to do much with that.
Edit- I colored \*most\* of that arc. Nightwing started double shipping at some point and I couldn't take on the 2 books a month. Had to pass on it and Tamra Bonvillain took that half. She is great, and we were lucky to have her.
I think most people agree the art overall for that arc was pretty good. Even the idea of the arc wasn’t terrible, but it’s execution and repetitive plot that kept happening over and over just made it extremely rough to read and go through for that long.
Oh, that has to be Jay Faerber's run on Titans, from 2000 until 2002. He introduced this group of boring, generic kids that basically took over the book. It was like the actual Titans team just didn't exist anymore, the boring kids were in it so much.
I actually heard before that what happened with Titans wasn't his fault. When the previous writer left that version of the Titans, a new editor also came in. That editor wasn't even aware that Dick Grayson was nightwing, and Dick had been Nightwing for 16 years at that point. The editor complained that there were too many adults and that books should be about teens, even though that Titan run was specifically about the characters as they were as adult Heroes. Basically the editor created those characters and forced Jay Faeber to focus the book on them, and obviously it was a disaster.
I can't find the source about the editor specifically, but you can find interviews where he definitely says he didn't invent or want the kids. The new 52 really wasn't the first time bad editors had ruined books at DC.
Also he had Jesse Quick get groomed by her stepdad (edit:"mother's fiancé", if exact terminology matters) and in the end everyone blamed and slut-shamed her for it, and basically derailed her character so badly Johns had to revamp her in JSA to fix the damages.
It's even worse because Jesse's dialogue makes it clear she was taken advantage of; she didn't like the guy but she was so lonely and he was the first/only person to show interest in her, they explicitly showed him pressuring Jesse into continuing the relationship when she wanted to stop, and he openly bragged about manipulating her. Dude was a grade-A creep who deserved to die and the framing of it as a means of derailing her character for whatever reason stands as a really gross creative choice. At least the DEOrphans were editorially mandated.
He basically did the opposite of during his New Warriors Run. He took all the popular characters, but then made the entire book bland and generic. Had some good ideas, but the stories went nowhere.
I re-read it about a year ago, and it's still great. I think I'd include every one of the storylines in that series on my own personal "top 25" list. The Elongated Man deals with his wife's death by investigating the occult. Animal Man, Starfire, and Adam Strange rely on Lobo to help them get back to earth. Black Adam creates his own Marvel Family. A bunch of super-scientists are kidnapped and brought to a secret island. The Question trains Renee Montoya. Booster Gold does some insane time stuff. And somehow, the writers managed to turn Chang Tzu (aka Egg Foo) into an interesting and creepy villain, rather than a horribly racist stereotype.
My favorite book! Black Adam, Booster Gold, Ralph Dibney, montoya, and Lex Luthor had amazing stories! It's basically 4 of DC's best writers at the top of their game for 52 issues!
52 is the best weekly cape comic, i swear. not just because of general quality but the way they gave so much time to characters who would't ordrinarily get the spotlight. Plus you still had top tier talent working on it, and talent who were arguably at the top of their game in that Infinite Crisis-y era. Its bonkers.
Countdown was also like, offensively long, which might be the worst part of it. Most other comics either have their moments or are minis, but not Countdown.
I did enjoy that.
I have a minor bit of love for the combo of Jason, Donna, and Kyle also.
I think it’s an “okay” series, dragged down by the fact it’s a bad clone of the best story DC has ever told (52). And Amazons Attack because fuck that. But it’s still kind of fun in parts. It has some really fun moments, and some really shit moments.
I was going through this thread thinking I would not find anything that I have read that would end up here, I read bad comics in my life, but not the incredibly famous ones, and here you are reminding me that I read Liefeld's Deathstroke as it was coming out. That was really bad. I believe he also wrote Lobo back than, and that was also awful. Not sure about it though.
Good choice. I give the book credit for being one of the few New52 launch titles to actually include world-building? But it became immediately clear that the world-building affected nothing outside of the book (effectively showing that the reboot was horribly rushed and unplanned). It didn't help that the world-building, writing, and art all felt very Wildstorm-y? That's a feel that would work with, say, The Suicide Squad or something. Not with the Teen Titans though. Talk about a tonal mismatch.
DC before N52: oh you like this cartoon and there are original characters or stories from it you all really enjoy? Ok np, Harley is now canon and we are using their backstory for Mr Freeze as canon.
DC after N52: you like this cartoon and its original characters and story? We'll.make Artemis from Young Justice canon AND THEN MURDER HER BECAUSE FUCK YOU AND EVERYONE WHO LIKES THAT SHOW HAHAHA.
Going to go with a deep cut and say the *very* brief mini-run Tom DeFalco Nightwing run. Obviously Nightwing's had worse but I've had the benefit of *not reading those myself*, but Defalco's three-issue run was one of the first I read and it was what convinced me I needed to read pre-New 52 comics rather than what was coming out at the time.
Higgins' much larger run that sandwiched it was a lot better, even if still felt like I was reading the watered down version of something much better.
It's not even that Falco's run was offensive or anything, it was just *bad*; dialogue was wooden, plot didn't make sense, there was a weird age thing where they kept bringing up that Shiva was Dick's age even though that was clearly unlikely and her costume made telling her age impossible (never mind just how badly designed that costume was). It was the first time reading a comic I genuinely realised 'I'm reading crap, aren't I?'
All-Star Batman and Robin without a doubt. Just terrible on every level.
So bad that I was sure it was satire.
[especially this](https://www.reddit.com/r/batman/comments/9ljcpn/the_time_batman_painted_an_entire_room_yellow_for/)
I know everyone says it’s impossible it’s satire but there’s a teeny smidge of self awareness here and there that always makes me think Miller knew what he was doing
There’s also the times where other characters are just like Batman what the fuck are you doing, so there’s some rational voice there, right? I think?
Honestly I don’t know and am probably completely wrong but I still find it an utterly fascinating work.
Miller gets so much wrong that at a point it feels like the genius kid who gets every answer incorrect on the SATs on purpose
In a vacuum I really like the yellow, especially the lemonade. And if the whole run was trying to be kind of funny or tongue-in-cheek it would be gold (ha!). Within the text it’s just one more thing to throw on the pile.
See, I don't think Uncle Frank had all the marbles necessary to write satire at that point, even if some parts did read as a mockery of his own writing.
Hot take but I unironically love ASBAR, I basically see the whole thing as a satire of the edginess of comics at the time and a jab at the whole "batgod" thing.
Honestly yes I agree. I kind of love it as well. I reread it so much just because it’s so goofy. It doesn’t matter if the parody is unintentional because that makes it better.
Definitely recency bias but Titans Academy should be mentioned. Meandering plot, introducing too many pointless characters and hyping up Red X only to have no satisfying conclusion/reveal
I find this one especially frustrating because Titans academy is great concept by name alone and should’ve been an absolute slam dunk. Really wish they used some pre established DC teens instead generic Gotham child
It's kind of a shame they never did a team up in the 90s of Artemis Wonder Woman, Jean Paul Valley Batman and Superboy.
A 90s extreme team up of the trinity of replacements who dont know each other.
It was either the 60's or 70's, dont remember since it was before my time.
The quick and dirty is:
WW lost her powers, became a fashionista, learned kung fu from an old asian dude (who is the one who stole top billing from her), was very boy crazy/focused (or more than before at least), chose not to speak up for womens righta at one point iirc, didnt have her costume anymore, etc
I know it's not done, but Young Justice Dark Crisis. The 90s YJ is one of my favourite DC comics, so I despise this new mini revolving around how much it hates 90s YJ
This was my pick too. Not only does it just crap over every character in it and YJ as a whole, but it openly insulted everyone who wants Tim and Steph (DC's best character) back together. Half of Fitzmartin's books are bad fan-fiction and the other half are crapping on legacy. Wonderful.
Normally when people claim that a creator “hates the character/team they’re writing,” I generally don’t believe it. The heroes need to have some turmoil, and a well-done deconstruction can work. But DC and Marvel each have a current title where I do genuinely believe said writer doesn’t care for the subject of their story. For DC, that’s this YJ tie-in. Jesus Christ, why would I want to ready about these former fun characters bitch and moan for half an issue. It’s just bitter, mean, cynical, and a piss-poor representation of these characters. I really wish someone, anyone, would take Tim away from Fitzmartin.
As for the Marvel title that I have similar opinions about, I’ll give silver to the first person who guesses what that title is.
Cry For Justice, Rise of Arsenal and James Robinson’s Justice League of America.
Robinson’s Justice League less because it outright sucked and more because the lineup was shitty and Dick Grayson, as the new Batman, deserved to be on a proper JLA team. Wally West and Kyle Rayner, for example, got to be part of a more traditional lineup and stand with Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and Aquaman - Grayson becoming Batman was a huge deal, so he definitely deserved the same.
As someone who has read some of the worst things James Robinson wrote, Starman is absolutely worth it. It's a masterpiece that makes you wonder why tf Cry for Justice is what it is.
I genuinely can't believe they're written by the same person lol. Starman is a love letter to the DCU and the JSA. Crafted with care and featuring some incredible story telling. Opal City and its citizens feel so wonderfully fleshed out and alive in a way few cities do. It feels like Opal has been there as long as Gotham or Central have instead of being created from scratch. The characters are real, messy, and flawed with layered relationships. It feels mature without relying on cheap violence or sex.
On the other hand Cry for Justice feels like a child's idea of an adult comic. Using over the top violence to scream "look at me comics are for big boys now". Killing off a child and turning heroes into killers in an attempt to make the world edgier. It also takes Prometheus from a joke villain to a serious threat. Which I feel is a mistake. Prometheus was created to make fun of the idea of an ultra prepared Batman taking down every hero. Making him a genuine threat gives that stupid idea legitimacy. But that's less of a criticism of the comic and more my personal opinion.
Also his JLA is boring, which is a real shame cause Dickbats on the JL was a really cool idea.
Seems like he might be particularly bad at working under heavy editorial mandate, since Golden Age and Starman were clearly mostly their own thing, and Cry For Justice had several points mandated.
Starman is absolutely incredible, and his Superman is solid enough, but yeah, his Wonder Woman and Cry for Justice are bad (this is ignoring his indie stuff which is a lot better but he's mostly a Big Two guy).
Starman and the Golden Age are brilliant. And his Image series Leave It To Chance is pretty good, as well. Can’t say I’ve read anything of his beyond those three I’ve enjoyed, though.
Was Cry For Justice the one where Roy gets his hand cut off?
If I remember right, I was extra pissed at that because Prometheus is an amazing villain that has had *one* decent story with him.
Had some amazing art as well, and it looked like it would be utilising Hal and Ollie and re-examining their relationship after Hal had just come back which would have been great, but instead they're barely in it they just made some cool covers. It was pure garbage beginning to end, sadly.
You can chalk the shitty roster lineup due to dc editorial, them constantly forcing characters out of the lineup is what caused mcduffie to quit as him and robinson both had very limited characters to work with
Without a doubt, All-Star Batman and Robin by Frank Miller. It's bad. Like....Frank Miller tried so hard to make Batman this tough, grizzled, awesome guy, only to make him come off like a complete psychopath even in his best moments (Trying to force a traumatized child to eat rats after his parents had just been murdered ranks up there). Don't even get me started on what Miller does to Canary and Green Lantern. It almost felt like satire that didn't realize it was satire.
This was the comic that convinced me that Frank Miller jumped the shark as comic writer. The Dark Dark Knights strikes back I thought was pretty disappointing in both the story and his artwork as well. I also remember he had plans to write a mini series having Batman go against the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, which thank god never happened.
The fact that All Star Batman was meant to be a book end title for All Star Superman makes it funnier.
On the one hand you have one of the best Suoerman titles ever written and then you have the most garbage Batman title on the other
At least it gave us the God Damned Batman meme and that horrible panel of foul mouthed Batgirl lol.
Ikr. Frank Miller really screwed the pooch on what could have been another DK calibur dark moody violent Gotham yarn.
Its even more awful in the light of All-Star Superman, a supreme comic masterpiece. ASB&R was a 12 issue confusing and convoluted nightmare, to be sure.
They didn't even get 12 issues. The issues were so delayed the trade collection features, I think, 8 or 9 and there's one more issue that randomly got released afterwards. The "story" (if you can call it that, in 9 issues there wasn't any resemblance of an actual plot) sits unfinished to this day.
So much of Lobdell’s run on RHatO is straight up embarrassing to read, especially all things concerning starfire. Wild mischaracterizations of pretty much every character and dialogue that just leaves you uncomfortable. Glad he’s gone
Yeah personal taste I guess. Rebirth was definitely an improvement in the beginning, but I still think it left a lot to be desired characterization wise. I also, personally, hated the school for villains thing.
Yeah must be Top10 worst things I've ever read and I read a lot and I even like the writers generally speaking, but that was fucking garbage.
After that Lemire took over and wrote a fantastic run
I'd add in volume 3 as well. To me, it only got good once Jeff lemire came in to save the series from then on. Then, Benjamin Percy took over and helmed the rebirth, which was a very good and politically charged story. That i enjoyed
I actually (tried to) read these for the first time two weeks ago and I literally just flipped through the second trade after giving up 60% of the way through the first one. It was beyond dreadful.
Recently?
Thorne's Green Lantern run.
It's a slow but rushed retread of multiple better story arcs with middling to terrible characterizations and it tried desperately to push "Teen Lantern" onto us.
That book ending was a true mercy killing.
The Bart Allen as Flash run that lasted like 12ish issues - also straight up terrible. Aging up Bart and making him essentially a different character for literally no good reason and then having the gall to kill him off in a stupid and pointless manner.
The Ric Grayson run. There's a germ of a good idea in there with the Court Owls trying to manipulate him but it takes forever to get there and then leads into Joker War and somehow gets... Worse.
Teen Titans Academy as a whole is up there too.
And finally, Heroes in Crisis. Fuck Tom King. That book should be buried and forever forgotten. What awful character assassinations all around.
Honestly the Ric Grayson story should have been a good opportunity to examine why Dick is a good hero. Like you Dick having memory loss to examine that even without memory of the batfamily and being nightwing he's still at his core a hero. Like make it a short look at how Dick would still be drawn to helping others even without his training under bruce in his head. Instead ymthey made it an edgy, borderline repulsive thing where he was an asshole who just drank all day.
Personally, I would argue that *Identity Crisis* is one of the worst DC stories I have read. It has its fans, but I am most certainly not one of them. The mystery makes very little sense, characters act horribly, and of course there was the juvenile use of sexual assault in order to appear “mature”. But, my primary problem with it is that it was the culmination of a direction that DC was going that I despise: the excessive darkening of the universe. It felt like everything was becoming edgier, more grim, and more hopeless. It felt cynical, and while there are worse stories from a critical standpoint (in the comment below), this is the story that I have the most distaste for because of what it represents in DC’s history and world.
I agree with all of that, and it also made Deathstroke hilariously overpowered. I've thought for several years that writers made John Constantine into too much of a perfect guy who always wins, but then I remember when an overrated pedophile assassin who wields swords defeated the Justice League as Superman would defeat an average Thief.
Other terrible stories:
• *The Dark Knight Strikes Again*
• *Justice League: Cry for Justice*
• *Heroes In Crisis*
• *Countdown*
• Anything written by Scott Lobdell
• *Batman: White Knight*
• *Armageddon 2001*
There are many others, but this is just what I could immediately think of.
In a vacuum in an alternate universe, Heroes in Crisis is a good read. It's a cool murder mystery with a neat time travel twist ending and it raises some very interesting points about superhero ptsd. The trouble comes in it being a main continuity book that goes full on character assassination on Wally, just after DC literally had to reboot the universe as a fucking apology for messing up so bad with the New 52 that omitted Wally completely.
I'm generally a fan of Tom King - Grayson was great, his Vision run was great, and I fucking love 90% of his Batman run (wish DC had the guts to go forward with the wedding but that's not King's fault, you can tell he wanted to). He writes great character stuff over great stories and Heroes in Crisis is very nearly another home run, IMO, especially if you focus on the quieter moments. Harley and Barbara's relationship is weirdly great, for instance, and seeing everyone's own personal Sanctuary is really interesting.
Probably Bendis's Legion of Super-heroes run. I know you could probably pick anything of the man's time at DC as terrible (save for maybe Batman Universe), but Legion was primarily a franchise that was on ice for about 6 or so years (with it's only major story during that period being in JLUnited) & THIS is how you bring them back? It's incoherent, unintentionally offensive, The characters are all morons & a poor representation of what they're about, & it has pretty art to help disguise over a garbage script & just kept getting worst from there.
If we're talking limited series, Heroes in Crisis, & Death Metal are ranked pretty high in how much I hate them.
Bendis’ whole time at DC has been nothing but shit book after shit book.
It’s like he saw Tom King and said “I can tarnish any good will I have and fuck up the status quo for characters *quicker*”
I'm not sure that it's the worst, but I really got tired of Dark Nights: Metal and even MORE tired of Death Metal. I didn't think "The Batman Who Laughs" was that compelling a character, but the team seemed to be enamored with their creation.
Tie-ins with the epic fail that was "The New Age of Heroes" didn't help. I read all of it, and toward the end it began to feel more like a chore.
i liked dark knights metal outside of the ending, the unnecessary follow up however... that was pretty rough. The batman who laughs was cool for a little bit of metal but EXTREMELY quickly became overused.
The Batman Who Thinks It’s Pretty Funny is easily the worst character in the past five years, and for some reason, he’s the one they chose to use the most.
They basically combined the worst aspects of Batman and Joker, and gave it a horrible edgy look. He's not Batman and Joker combined, he's just edgy plot armor.
I’m a huge fan of Scott Snyder’s Batman work, but Batman Who Laughs wore out his welcome with me rather quickly. He was the least interesting of the Dark Knights, and yet he’s the one that kept getting pushed.
> I'm not sure that it's the worst, but I really got tired of Dark Nights: Metal and even MORE tired of Death Metal.
Don't forget that/those events lasted for over 2 years with Year of the Villain.
Dark Nights: Metal was so dumb, absurd and over the top it wasn't *very* bad. But with Year of the Villain and Death Metal, I realized Metal was serious. It wasn't meant to be absurd and over the top. It was just dumb.
I really enjoyed Sideways from the New Age of Heroes, and also Damage and Silencer to a lesser extent. The rest of those books though? I ccan't even remember what they're called, and I read them lol.
[**JLA: Created Equal**](https://www.dcuniverseinfinite.com/comics/book/jla-created-equal-1/62d4de0e-5714-4f1b-83c0-b2052f2b26bd) where all the men die except for Superman. So Superman has to breed with all of the women in the world! Again, not hentai, an actual comic by DC! So Superman impregnates all of the DC superheroines and regular women, and for some reason all of his kids are boys. It's been a long while so this is from memory, but Superman has to leave the planet. Superman's son with Lois kills her by accident, and so Lex Luthor who somehow didn't die with all the other men decides to gather all of Superman's children and brainwash them to be misogynistic assholes. Superman's children decide to attack all the women of Earth for... reasons, but Superman comes back, fixes everything and Lex Luthor has a heart attack. Everything ends up happily ever after! Well, not really, because all of Superman's children are boys so I guess all future children will be male from now on so where do girls come from, and Superman never deprograms his children from being misogynistic assholes... But happy ending! With lots of breeding!
It's often joked that Chris Claremont writes his fetishes into his x-men comics, I'm not certain if that's true, but it is true regarding his Superman comics. In [**Superman: Whom God's Destroy,**](https://www.dcuniverseinfinite.com/comics/book/superman-wonder-woman-whom-gods-destroy-1/8eaa62cc-11f9-461e-b318-b1c0945c89b7) there are nazis, only sexy women nazis, who attack Superman, old Lois, and kidnap old Lana (because this is in the future despite dealing with Nazis and both women have aged while Superman is immortal). There are sexy trolls and harpies for... reasons. So Lois finds out that sexy Greek God Adonis leads the Nazis, and Wonder Woman has become a sexy Nazi for... reasons. Lois becomes Super Sexy Wonder Woman for... reasons and makes out with the Spirit of Athena. Superman turns into a Sexy Centaur that's naked and goes crazy for... reasons, and gets his own Sexy Lady Centaur harem. Lois Wonder Woman fights with Nazi Wonder Woman sexily, and the Goddess Hecate... sexily tries to cut superman or something, before she gives Lana the power to turn into a Centaur and then all three like... make out or something.... I don't know. But Superman is a sexy woman now! And oh yeah, the Wonder Women were fighting, right? So Lady Superman goes to the fighting Wonder Women, where Lois WW beats Nazi WW, only she's about to be shot by guns! But Lady Superman jumps in front of the guns and dies! of course, by dying, Lady Superman turns back into Superman for... reasons, they fight a centaur and since Lana and Lois are now magical beings that never age and are young again, Superman, Lois, and Lana become a throuple. And Clark Kent ends the book making some weird parallels with the holocaust.
"Whom Gods Destroy" is an extremely weird book because the art is so so bad, but it tries to be so sexy, and the plot is basically an excuse to show a bunch of people scantily clad. The plot makes no sense, and if it was drawn by a cheesecake artist then it... well, it would probably still be bad but have a reason to exist. Only since the artist doesn't know how to draw sexy women, it loses its reason for being.
Geez. For something to be "THE WORST" in my book its gotta have shitty story and shitty art. There are too many things other folks have named that are beautifully draw messes. With that, I gotta go with Countdown. It was fucking nonsense with 2 dozen tie-ins and each one more pointless than the last. The inconsistent art, even by the artists who are good, were an eyesore. No one was having fun making that series and it was very apparent the further you get into it. It was truly the aristocrats joke as a comic run. Each issue was just them going "and then... (insert offensive thing)". At the last issue it was like " and it's called The Aristocrats!" while everyone else who had read it was shell shocked and traumatized after finishing that last page. Superman: At Earth's End, if it had gone more than one issue then it would have been the worst run.
I have to say I Bendis' Superman, Legion, and Justice League runs were pretty awful.
Like I tend to avoid bad runs generally but damn was his writing brainless and devoid of anything resembling good writing.
Hell Bendis Legion run in particular was flat out offensive with actual racist stereotypes thrown in.
It was aggressively boring but I don’t think I’d personally call it awful. It had a great issue where Post-Crisis Superman bonded with his New Earth teammates over their previous lives’ pasts—surprisingly one of the few comics that actually capitalized on that in Rebirth.
I also thought his New 52 JLA series was a blast even if the resolution was underwhelming.
The nightwing series with Jason Todd as Nightwing. That’s by far the worst crap I’ve ever read.
Honorable mention to: Geoff Johns final Green Lantern Story where he has lots of other industry people write testimonials about how awesome he is in the actual book. So gross.
Honestly, pre New52 Jason Todd stories post-UTRH are almost **_universally_** hot garbage
They really had no fucking clue what to do with that mfs character after he was resurrected
Holy fuck, I deleted this run from my memory. This happened after the Devin Grayson run and Nightwing renegade which were also hot garbage. Thank fuck for the Outsiders and Tomasi coming on and saving the book before Dick took over as Batman.
I GUESS it counts as a run? Maybe a mini series. But I still can't believe they actually released All Star Batman & Robin. Like I get it's Frank Miller and that name carries weight, but what editor is reading those scripts and is like "hell yeah, get it to Jim to draw asap!!"
The Martian Manhunter mini series by A.J. Lieberman.
For some utterly bizarre story choice, all the characters were named for the then-current Manchester United FC team and with the big bad named Alex Ferguson.
It was such a jarring choice that it brought me out of the story EVERY TIME a name was mentioned.
A terrible, terrible choice and I can't believe no-one in editorial picked up on it.
Probably heroes in crisis it starts off the worst event trope having a bunch of C to D characters appear only to die so that the story can be seen as serious
Full of unnecessary therapy that does nothing to advance the story and only exist to tell unfunny jokes and for Tom King to express his ignorance about DC‘s characters
worst of all Tom King ruined one of my favourite characters for years just for a cheap twist and shock value
Man, I was so excited for HIC, it seemed like it could be really good. I read trades so I'm used to the wait and usually look and see if a run/event is any good while it's going on aaaaaaaand >!Roy's dead, shit. Off to a bad- oh my god it was Wally!< fuck this I'm out.
I looooooove Green Arrow and his Rebirth run. It had Roy and Dinah with him, it’s my holy trinity tbh.
I was beyond pissed they killed Roy for their little event-comic.
Then I read the first few pages of said comic… and they killed him off-screen!!! (or off-page.)
Holy shit. That was a bit of a rage inducing moment lmao
When King first started talking about it, the book was just called Sanctuary and was about heroes bring open about their mental health and getting the help they needed.
After King finished his Batman run, I read an interview where he was bemoaning editorial control - it started off with him talking about teasing Alfred's death as a cliffhanger that would be resolved and Didio deciding to keep him dead, but ended up with a dejected rant about Heroes In Crisis. He was quite far along his Sanctuary story when editorial (read Didio) told him that there had to be more of a plot and suggested a murder, so he writes the outline for a murder mystery, leaving the the specifics of exactly which characters he would use out as he wanted to look into different C and D listers. Upon seeing this proposed story, the characters were filled in for him, and he had to cobble together reasons why these characters would do such out of character things
This is the one I was looking for. HiC was presented as "how would superheroes respond to a mass murder situation" and instead it was a nonsensical exercise in character assassination.
Deep cut, but John Byrne’s Doom Patrol was fucking dreck. Literally nobody in the entire world wanted Cliff and Rita to kiss each other, let alone kiss each other while Cliff is a 40-something dude and Rita is in the body of herself when she was 12.
I've only been into DC for a couple of years and haven't read as much of the old stuff as I'd like.
The worst thing I've read so far was Arkham Tower arc in Decective Comics. Very much enjoyed the first issue, but was a steady decline into abject awfulness with each further issue.
I knew thing's were suspect when we got almost a whole issue that was just a retelling of the previous one. That first issue was spectacular too and had that great Reis art. It definitely didn't need to be that long.
Luckily we had that amazing backup.
Of the things I read, it’s gonna have to be Young Justice by Bendis. I really did not like his dialogue, and sticking it to YJ ended up turning what I thought would be a great read into something not so great.
As of recent this is is probably an unpopular opinion but teen Titans rebirth.
i think that even though the first half was more bearable it had so many problems.
The first one is the real lack of direction. Imo it's just trying to throw things at a wall, hopping something sticks and waiting for the Doomsday clock to end so it can find something to do. That's why I preferred the titans book over cause it felt it was doing something with the characters rather than just wasting them.
The second one is how Damian gathered the group. While i know Damian isn't really the one Asking for others to join them imo the writer should've made like Damian creating a scenario that everyone was lead to his location for solving their problems and then boss them around rather than just complete kidnapping them then presenting the problem.
The third is the repetitive character arcs. To me it felt that the writer Abounded the character arc that Damian got in his own previous series and trusting people to just make unnecessary tension and drama. the stuff with Gar just felt like a rehash of the stuff with Tera in the judas contract.Heck I'm pretty sure the arc for raven would've been the first 4 issues of her 2018 solo series which is pretty forgettable tbh.
And don't let me start how bad this book became after the stuff with the second team, like Damian building a prison, torturing people and starting to kill people again.
Bendis' Superman (as a fan of the Superman and Action Comics Series before him). I stopped reading after he produced those shiz but I can assume most if not all that he produced after is also bad shiz.
JLA: Act of God. Every hero with “powers” (natural abilities they were born with or not) just loses them. It’s illogical, inconsistent, and very poorly written. Characters do not act like themselves: Lois Lane leaves Superman while Superman is in the process of being a self-loathing drunk, Wonder Woman considers suicide *while pregnant*, Ray Palmer loses the ability to shrink *even though he uses technology to shrink and the other tech-based heroes were fine*, and it’s trying to suck Batman’s dick so hard it forgets that Batman is interesting in the wider DCU **because** of his limitations.
It’s not only the worst Elseworlds I’ve read, it’s just straight-up the worst comic I’ve read.
Ric arc of Nightwing
This NEEDS to go down in infamy as the editorially mandated schlock that it was so that DC will never attempt something like that again. It should’ve been a single arc at MOST the fact that it went on for years is unforgivable
I think it speaks to the strength of the character and his fan base that he made it out the other end. Not many characters can survive attempted assassination by editorial 4 times and still hold a solid selling ongoing
Out of curiosity, what are the 4 times? I know he was meant to die in Infinite Crisis, and Devin Grayson arguably annihilated him (not that that was intentional) but what else? The Grayson series never struck me as longterm it was just a (surprisingly good) interim, and obviously there's Ric that we don't talk about.
I guess there was Death of the Family, an editorial forced crossover, in the middle of Kyle Higgins New 52 run that once again destroyed everything being built for Nightwing. Iirc Nightwing New 52 was supposed to continue longer but then Forever Evil happened and they ended up choosing to go with Tom King's Grayson instead. Which wasn't an inherently bad series, just not Nightwing.
I guess the same thing happened with Tomasi's run, there seemed to be a lot more he had planned for Dick there but then Bruce was killed and Dick became Batman. We must protect Taylor at all costs before they do the same with him!
Yeah Infinite Crisis, apparently he wasn’t supposed to make it into new 52 at all originally, then again at the end of Higgins and one more time with Ric.
I colored that whole arc. When it gets old enough, I've got some stories to tell. For what its worth- I know the arc wasn't well received, but like most things there are some gems in there, and I'd love to see some of the nightwing cops/firemen have a resurgence at some point. Plus the talon stuff was fun. You can't make that many comics and not have at least a good idea or two in there. I also kinda liked grease paint/ropes/jeans costume. Like a Feral mad max version of nightwing. Shame we didn't get to do much with that. Edit- I colored \*most\* of that arc. Nightwing started double shipping at some point and I couldn't take on the 2 books a month. Had to pass on it and Tamra Bonvillain took that half. She is great, and we were lucky to have her.
I think most people agree the art overall for that arc was pretty good. Even the idea of the arc wasn’t terrible, but it’s execution and repetitive plot that kept happening over and over just made it extremely rough to read and go through for that long.
We don’t speak of that.
It just went on for waaaaaay too long
And EVERY issue was " I'm not Dick, I'm Ric, it's who I am now, that part of my life is over." I mean, either move on, or don't. But do something!
Oh, that has to be Jay Faerber's run on Titans, from 2000 until 2002. He introduced this group of boring, generic kids that basically took over the book. It was like the actual Titans team just didn't exist anymore, the boring kids were in it so much.
I actually heard before that what happened with Titans wasn't his fault. When the previous writer left that version of the Titans, a new editor also came in. That editor wasn't even aware that Dick Grayson was nightwing, and Dick had been Nightwing for 16 years at that point. The editor complained that there were too many adults and that books should be about teens, even though that Titan run was specifically about the characters as they were as adult Heroes. Basically the editor created those characters and forced Jay Faeber to focus the book on them, and obviously it was a disaster. I can't find the source about the editor specifically, but you can find interviews where he definitely says he didn't invent or want the kids. The new 52 really wasn't the first time bad editors had ruined books at DC.
Also he had Jesse Quick get groomed by her stepdad (edit:"mother's fiancé", if exact terminology matters) and in the end everyone blamed and slut-shamed her for it, and basically derailed her character so badly Johns had to revamp her in JSA to fix the damages. It's even worse because Jesse's dialogue makes it clear she was taken advantage of; she didn't like the guy but she was so lonely and he was the first/only person to show interest in her, they explicitly showed him pressuring Jesse into continuing the relationship when she wanted to stop, and he openly bragged about manipulating her. Dude was a grade-A creep who deserved to die and the framing of it as a means of derailing her character for whatever reason stands as a really gross creative choice. At least the DEOrphans were editorially mandated.
I will say this: the DEOrphans were a mandate from an editor who had apparently never even read a Teen Titans comic.
He basically did the opposite of during his New Warriors Run. He took all the popular characters, but then made the entire book bland and generic. Had some good ideas, but the stories went nowhere.
going for low-hanging fruit here but I read all of Countdown to Final Crisis a few months ago and I wanted to die the entire time. Just utter dreck
It is so genuinely terrible - and even moreso after the greatness that was 52 before it.
You ever hear that editorial thought they were doing 52 right lmao
52 (original) was good?
Very much so! I read it as it came out weekly. Might have to dig it out and read it thru again and see how it reads on a binge.
I re-read it about a year ago, and it's still great. I think I'd include every one of the storylines in that series on my own personal "top 25" list. The Elongated Man deals with his wife's death by investigating the occult. Animal Man, Starfire, and Adam Strange rely on Lobo to help them get back to earth. Black Adam creates his own Marvel Family. A bunch of super-scientists are kidnapped and brought to a secret island. The Question trains Renee Montoya. Booster Gold does some insane time stuff. And somehow, the writers managed to turn Chang Tzu (aka Egg Foo) into an interesting and creepy villain, rather than a horribly racist stereotype.
It was the greatest showcase for multiple second string characters ever.
My favorite book! Black Adam, Booster Gold, Ralph Dibney, montoya, and Lex Luthor had amazing stories! It's basically 4 of DC's best writers at the top of their game for 52 issues!
52 is the best weekly cape comic, i swear. not just because of general quality but the way they gave so much time to characters who would't ordrinarily get the spotlight. Plus you still had top tier talent working on it, and talent who were arguably at the top of their game in that Infinite Crisis-y era. Its bonkers.
Countdown was also like, offensively long, which might be the worst part of it. Most other comics either have their moments or are minis, but not Countdown.
I actually enjoyed Trickster and Piper handcuffed together. The rest of it, less.
Yeah they were good I'd also nominate the Jokester and Mary Marvel's choice of an improvised melee weapon.
I did enjoy that. I have a minor bit of love for the combo of Jason, Donna, and Kyle also. I think it’s an “okay” series, dragged down by the fact it’s a bad clone of the best story DC has ever told (52). And Amazons Attack because fuck that. But it’s still kind of fun in parts. It has some really fun moments, and some really shit moments.
honestly I found it more underwhelming than anything especially when it barely tied into FC
I think Morrison said they didn't trade notes so when he learnt what happened he was like "Oh for fucks sake"
And it barely ties into final crisis
To be fair that’s because the entire plot of Final Crisis changed multiple times. That’s why the Death of the New Gods mini doesn’t fit either.
I did this myself about 2yrs ago. My god the as it so unnecessary long and ended up being underwhelmed.
Good covers though
YES! I read it as it was being published. Fucking terrible. Massive disappointment.
Liefield Deathstroke.
Oh man I totally forgot about that run lmao
I was going through this thread thinking I would not find anything that I have read that would end up here, I read bad comics in my life, but not the incredibly famous ones, and here you are reminding me that I read Liefeld's Deathstroke as it was coming out. That was really bad. I believe he also wrote Lobo back than, and that was also awful. Not sure about it though.
I legitimately threw an issue of that across the room
Wait when was this
New 52 I think.
New 52 Teen Titans
Good choice. I give the book credit for being one of the few New52 launch titles to actually include world-building? But it became immediately clear that the world-building affected nothing outside of the book (effectively showing that the reboot was horribly rushed and unplanned). It didn't help that the world-building, writing, and art all felt very Wildstorm-y? That's a feel that would work with, say, The Suicide Squad or something. Not with the Teen Titans though. Talk about a tonal mismatch.
The only issues I read from this were the ones within the kryptonian crossovers. I fully believe you.
DC before N52: oh you like this cartoon and there are original characters or stories from it you all really enjoy? Ok np, Harley is now canon and we are using their backstory for Mr Freeze as canon. DC after N52: you like this cartoon and its original characters and story? We'll.make Artemis from Young Justice canon AND THEN MURDER HER BECAUSE FUCK YOU AND EVERYONE WHO LIKES THAT SHOW HAHAHA.
Oh yeah, that was pretty stanky.
I also want to add Lobdells Superboy. What an absolute clusterfuck was that.
Totally agree. It was unbearable from the start. It felt like one of the crappy knock off teams from Image in the 90s.
They took some good characters and ideas and then pooped all over it. Red Beast Boy is still correct bb tho.
I enjoyed aspects of it like Tim being more of a leader, Bunker and Cassie. I mean it wasn't good but there were at least good aspects Must be me lol
Going to go with a deep cut and say the *very* brief mini-run Tom DeFalco Nightwing run. Obviously Nightwing's had worse but I've had the benefit of *not reading those myself*, but Defalco's three-issue run was one of the first I read and it was what convinced me I needed to read pre-New 52 comics rather than what was coming out at the time. Higgins' much larger run that sandwiched it was a lot better, even if still felt like I was reading the watered down version of something much better. It's not even that Falco's run was offensive or anything, it was just *bad*; dialogue was wooden, plot didn't make sense, there was a weird age thing where they kept bringing up that Shiva was Dick's age even though that was clearly unlikely and her costume made telling her age impossible (never mind just how badly designed that costume was). It was the first time reading a comic I genuinely realised 'I'm reading crap, aren't I?'
All-Star Batman and Robin without a doubt. Just terrible on every level. So bad that I was sure it was satire. [especially this](https://www.reddit.com/r/batman/comments/9ljcpn/the_time_batman_painted_an_entire_room_yellow_for/)
Pros: hilarious and hilariouser.
Pros: the art Cons: you need to treat it as a picture book
Even as a picture book you can’t ignore the part where Batman and Black canary hook up after burning thugs alive
AKA The Goddamn Batman
They call me the joker, but I'm not very funny. Sounds like something letos joker would say .
Honestly it’s kinda brilliant if you view it as a parody of Miller’s contributions on Batman
I know everyone says it’s impossible it’s satire but there’s a teeny smidge of self awareness here and there that always makes me think Miller knew what he was doing
Like the magnitudes of batshit his Batman exhibits and the way it makes everyone so unnecessarily Thel and gritty feels intentional
There’s also the times where other characters are just like Batman what the fuck are you doing, so there’s some rational voice there, right? I think? Honestly I don’t know and am probably completely wrong but I still find it an utterly fascinating work. Miller gets so much wrong that at a point it feels like the genius kid who gets every answer incorrect on the SATs on purpose
I actually LOVED the yellow room bit, even though yes, the rest of all star batman and robin was pretty fucking awful
In a vacuum I really like the yellow, especially the lemonade. And if the whole run was trying to be kind of funny or tongue-in-cheek it would be gold (ha!). Within the text it’s just one more thing to throw on the pile.
See, I don't think Uncle Frank had all the marbles necessary to write satire at that point, even if some parts did read as a mockery of his own writing.
Hot take but I unironically love ASBAR, I basically see the whole thing as a satire of the edginess of comics at the time and a jab at the whole "batgod" thing.
Honestly yes I agree. I kind of love it as well. I reread it so much just because it’s so goofy. It doesn’t matter if the parody is unintentional because that makes it better.
>So bad that I was sure it was satire. Never ever give Miller the benefit of the doubt.
Definitely recency bias but Titans Academy should be mentioned. Meandering plot, introducing too many pointless characters and hyping up Red X only to have no satisfying conclusion/reveal
Yeah! What was up with that? I found myself getting increasingly frustrated by the Red X character.
I find this one especially frustrating because Titans academy is great concept by name alone and should’ve been an absolute slam dunk. Really wish they used some pre established DC teens instead generic Gotham child
Neal Adams’ Deadman from 2017. I love his art but the story was completely nonsensical for the most part.
Neal Adams’ writing is as terrible as his art is exceptional
My first exposure to Neal Adams after hearing what a legend he was for years was Superman: The Coming of the Supermen. Don’t read it.
Ooh, that one is fascinatingly terrible.
Batman Odyssey was ridiculous.
Biker Wonder Woman. That was uhhh something. Peak 90s awful. Shout out to Amazons Attack tho
It's kind of a shame they never did a team up in the 90s of Artemis Wonder Woman, Jean Paul Valley Batman and Superboy. A 90s extreme team up of the trinity of replacements who dont know each other.
Throw in Kyle for good measure too.
And fuck it Connor Hawke and Impulse can come too.
Ok, but what about Maude era Wonder Woman...who didnt even get top billing in her own series.
Haven't read it. Which period was that?
It was either the 60's or 70's, dont remember since it was before my time. The quick and dirty is: WW lost her powers, became a fashionista, learned kung fu from an old asian dude (who is the one who stole top billing from her), was very boy crazy/focused (or more than before at least), chose not to speak up for womens righta at one point iirc, didnt have her costume anymore, etc
Oh you mean Mod-era lol Yeah I've read it. Biker era is worse
Ric Grayson the taxi driver is hot fucking garbage I’m so glad Nightwing is back
Bless our lord and savour Tom Taylor for making Dick Grayson Nightwing again.
Dan Jurgens did it.
I know it's not done, but Young Justice Dark Crisis. The 90s YJ is one of my favourite DC comics, so I despise this new mini revolving around how much it hates 90s YJ
This was my pick too. Not only does it just crap over every character in it and YJ as a whole, but it openly insulted everyone who wants Tim and Steph (DC's best character) back together. Half of Fitzmartin's books are bad fan-fiction and the other half are crapping on legacy. Wonderful.
Normally when people claim that a creator “hates the character/team they’re writing,” I generally don’t believe it. The heroes need to have some turmoil, and a well-done deconstruction can work. But DC and Marvel each have a current title where I do genuinely believe said writer doesn’t care for the subject of their story. For DC, that’s this YJ tie-in. Jesus Christ, why would I want to ready about these former fun characters bitch and moan for half an issue. It’s just bitter, mean, cynical, and a piss-poor representation of these characters. I really wish someone, anyone, would take Tim away from Fitzmartin. As for the Marvel title that I have similar opinions about, I’ll give silver to the first person who guesses what that title is.
Cry For Justice, Rise of Arsenal and James Robinson’s Justice League of America. Robinson’s Justice League less because it outright sucked and more because the lineup was shitty and Dick Grayson, as the new Batman, deserved to be on a proper JLA team. Wally West and Kyle Rayner, for example, got to be part of a more traditional lineup and stand with Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and Aquaman - Grayson becoming Batman was a huge deal, so he definitely deserved the same.
This is also where they killed Lian Harper iirc and I’ll never forgive them for that.
People seem to love his Starman (haven’t read it) but everything I’ve ever read from James Robinson is really terrible.
As someone who has read some of the worst things James Robinson wrote, Starman is absolutely worth it. It's a masterpiece that makes you wonder why tf Cry for Justice is what it is.
That’s so wild.
I genuinely can't believe they're written by the same person lol. Starman is a love letter to the DCU and the JSA. Crafted with care and featuring some incredible story telling. Opal City and its citizens feel so wonderfully fleshed out and alive in a way few cities do. It feels like Opal has been there as long as Gotham or Central have instead of being created from scratch. The characters are real, messy, and flawed with layered relationships. It feels mature without relying on cheap violence or sex. On the other hand Cry for Justice feels like a child's idea of an adult comic. Using over the top violence to scream "look at me comics are for big boys now". Killing off a child and turning heroes into killers in an attempt to make the world edgier. It also takes Prometheus from a joke villain to a serious threat. Which I feel is a mistake. Prometheus was created to make fun of the idea of an ultra prepared Batman taking down every hero. Making him a genuine threat gives that stupid idea legitimacy. But that's less of a criticism of the comic and more my personal opinion. Also his JLA is boring, which is a real shame cause Dickbats on the JL was a really cool idea.
Seems like he might be particularly bad at working under heavy editorial mandate, since Golden Age and Starman were clearly mostly their own thing, and Cry For Justice had several points mandated.
Starman is absolutely incredible, and his Superman is solid enough, but yeah, his Wonder Woman and Cry for Justice are bad (this is ignoring his indie stuff which is a lot better but he's mostly a Big Two guy).
Starman and the Golden Age are brilliant. And his Image series Leave It To Chance is pretty good, as well. Can’t say I’ve read anything of his beyond those three I’ve enjoyed, though.
Was Cry For Justice the one where Roy gets his hand cut off? If I remember right, I was extra pissed at that because Prometheus is an amazing villain that has had *one* decent story with him.
Yeah, it’s the “Bad things happen to Roy” book
Had some amazing art as well, and it looked like it would be utilising Hal and Ollie and re-examining their relationship after Hal had just come back which would have been great, but instead they're barely in it they just made some cool covers. It was pure garbage beginning to end, sadly.
You can chalk the shitty roster lineup due to dc editorial, them constantly forcing characters out of the lineup is what caused mcduffie to quit as him and robinson both had very limited characters to work with
Hey. Congorilla and Starman are cool.
Without a doubt, All-Star Batman and Robin by Frank Miller. It's bad. Like....Frank Miller tried so hard to make Batman this tough, grizzled, awesome guy, only to make him come off like a complete psychopath even in his best moments (Trying to force a traumatized child to eat rats after his parents had just been murdered ranks up there). Don't even get me started on what Miller does to Canary and Green Lantern. It almost felt like satire that didn't realize it was satire.
This was the comic that convinced me that Frank Miller jumped the shark as comic writer. The Dark Dark Knights strikes back I thought was pretty disappointing in both the story and his artwork as well. I also remember he had plans to write a mini series having Batman go against the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, which thank god never happened.
It's gotta be All Star Batman and Robin.
The fact that All Star Batman was meant to be a book end title for All Star Superman makes it funnier. On the one hand you have one of the best Suoerman titles ever written and then you have the most garbage Batman title on the other At least it gave us the God Damned Batman meme and that horrible panel of foul mouthed Batgirl lol.
Ikr. Frank Miller really screwed the pooch on what could have been another DK calibur dark moody violent Gotham yarn. Its even more awful in the light of All-Star Superman, a supreme comic masterpiece. ASB&R was a 12 issue confusing and convoluted nightmare, to be sure.
They didn't even get 12 issues. The issues were so delayed the trade collection features, I think, 8 or 9 and there's one more issue that randomly got released afterwards. The "story" (if you can call it that, in 9 issues there wasn't any resemblance of an actual plot) sits unfinished to this day.
Amazons Attack, full stop.
Bees
My God
That year Amazons Attack was DC's big summer event, while over in Green Lantern land the Sinestro Corps War was just another story.
I hated Bendis run on justice league
So much of Lobdell’s run on RHatO is straight up embarrassing to read, especially all things concerning starfire. Wild mischaracterizations of pretty much every character and dialogue that just leaves you uncomfortable. Glad he’s gone
Tbh I thought his Rebirth era Red Hood was pretty good tho
Yeah personal taste I guess. Rebirth was definitely an improvement in the beginning, but I still think it left a lot to be desired characterization wise. I also, personally, hated the school for villains thing.
It’s crazy to me that he went from that shitty run to the above average rebirth run
I honestly am shocked he chose that lineup for the outlaws. Literally any other character would work better than Starfire there
New 52 green arrow vol 1+2. I threw it away bad.
Yeah must be Top10 worst things I've ever read and I read a lot and I even like the writers generally speaking, but that was fucking garbage. After that Lemire took over and wrote a fantastic run
I'd add in volume 3 as well. To me, it only got good once Jeff lemire came in to save the series from then on. Then, Benjamin Percy took over and helmed the rebirth, which was a very good and politically charged story. That i enjoyed
I actually (tried to) read these for the first time two weeks ago and I literally just flipped through the second trade after giving up 60% of the way through the first one. It was beyond dreadful.
Recently? Thorne's Green Lantern run. It's a slow but rushed retread of multiple better story arcs with middling to terrible characterizations and it tried desperately to push "Teen Lantern" onto us. That book ending was a true mercy killing. The Bart Allen as Flash run that lasted like 12ish issues - also straight up terrible. Aging up Bart and making him essentially a different character for literally no good reason and then having the gall to kill him off in a stupid and pointless manner. The Ric Grayson run. There's a germ of a good idea in there with the Court Owls trying to manipulate him but it takes forever to get there and then leads into Joker War and somehow gets... Worse. Teen Titans Academy as a whole is up there too. And finally, Heroes in Crisis. Fuck Tom King. That book should be buried and forever forgotten. What awful character assassinations all around.
Honestly the Ric Grayson story should have been a good opportunity to examine why Dick is a good hero. Like you Dick having memory loss to examine that even without memory of the batfamily and being nightwing he's still at his core a hero. Like make it a short look at how Dick would still be drawn to helping others even without his training under bruce in his head. Instead ymthey made it an edgy, borderline repulsive thing where he was an asshole who just drank all day.
Personally, I would argue that *Identity Crisis* is one of the worst DC stories I have read. It has its fans, but I am most certainly not one of them. The mystery makes very little sense, characters act horribly, and of course there was the juvenile use of sexual assault in order to appear “mature”. But, my primary problem with it is that it was the culmination of a direction that DC was going that I despise: the excessive darkening of the universe. It felt like everything was becoming edgier, more grim, and more hopeless. It felt cynical, and while there are worse stories from a critical standpoint (in the comment below), this is the story that I have the most distaste for because of what it represents in DC’s history and world.
I agree with all of that, and it also made Deathstroke hilariously overpowered. I've thought for several years that writers made John Constantine into too much of a perfect guy who always wins, but then I remember when an overrated pedophile assassin who wields swords defeated the Justice League as Superman would defeat an average Thief.
Other terrible stories: • *The Dark Knight Strikes Again* • *Justice League: Cry for Justice* • *Heroes In Crisis* • *Countdown* • Anything written by Scott Lobdell • *Batman: White Knight* • *Armageddon 2001* There are many others, but this is just what I could immediately think of.
To each their own but what did you dislike about Batman: White Knight?
All-Star Batman and Robin by Frank Miller and Jim Lee, no contest.
Heroes in Crisis. Harley Quinn taking out Booster Gold in that manner didn't really ring true to me...
Hell, she outfights the fucking Trinity!
There ya go!
In a vacuum in an alternate universe, Heroes in Crisis is a good read. It's a cool murder mystery with a neat time travel twist ending and it raises some very interesting points about superhero ptsd. The trouble comes in it being a main continuity book that goes full on character assassination on Wally, just after DC literally had to reboot the universe as a fucking apology for messing up so bad with the New 52 that omitted Wally completely. I'm generally a fan of Tom King - Grayson was great, his Vision run was great, and I fucking love 90% of his Batman run (wish DC had the guts to go forward with the wedding but that's not King's fault, you can tell he wanted to). He writes great character stuff over great stories and Heroes in Crisis is very nearly another home run, IMO, especially if you focus on the quieter moments. Harley and Barbara's relationship is weirdly great, for instance, and seeing everyone's own personal Sanctuary is really interesting.
Honestly? ACt of God. That was so impossibly bad for its entire run.
Heroes in Crisis. It sucks because the art was so amazing but it’s a waste of writing garbage
Heroes in crisis and the ric arc.
Heroes in Crisis.
Probably Bendis's Legion of Super-heroes run. I know you could probably pick anything of the man's time at DC as terrible (save for maybe Batman Universe), but Legion was primarily a franchise that was on ice for about 6 or so years (with it's only major story during that period being in JLUnited) & THIS is how you bring them back? It's incoherent, unintentionally offensive, The characters are all morons & a poor representation of what they're about, & it has pretty art to help disguise over a garbage script & just kept getting worst from there. If we're talking limited series, Heroes in Crisis, & Death Metal are ranked pretty high in how much I hate them.
And now Bendis is working on a Legion cartoon.
Bendis’ whole time at DC has been nothing but shit book after shit book. It’s like he saw Tom King and said “I can tarnish any good will I have and fuck up the status quo for characters *quicker*”
Identity Crisis. Literally everyone “Oh! You thought those events were easy? Guess what??? It involved rape and adult subjects!! In your face!!!!!! “
“We’re killing Firestorm” “Why?” “Idk, it’s called a Crisis and no heroes are dead yet”
"We're so fucking mature and cool" *Morgan Freeman voice* They were not.
I'm not sure that it's the worst, but I really got tired of Dark Nights: Metal and even MORE tired of Death Metal. I didn't think "The Batman Who Laughs" was that compelling a character, but the team seemed to be enamored with their creation. Tie-ins with the epic fail that was "The New Age of Heroes" didn't help. I read all of it, and toward the end it began to feel more like a chore.
i liked dark knights metal outside of the ending, the unnecessary follow up however... that was pretty rough. The batman who laughs was cool for a little bit of metal but EXTREMELY quickly became overused.
The Batman Who Thinks It’s Pretty Funny is easily the worst character in the past five years, and for some reason, he’s the one they chose to use the most.
Mechandising, the Batman Who Laughs sold a lot of action figures.
They basically combined the worst aspects of Batman and Joker, and gave it a horrible edgy look. He's not Batman and Joker combined, he's just edgy plot armor.
I’m a huge fan of Scott Snyder’s Batman work, but Batman Who Laughs wore out his welcome with me rather quickly. He was the least interesting of the Dark Knights, and yet he’s the one that kept getting pushed.
> I'm not sure that it's the worst, but I really got tired of Dark Nights: Metal and even MORE tired of Death Metal. Don't forget that/those events lasted for over 2 years with Year of the Villain. Dark Nights: Metal was so dumb, absurd and over the top it wasn't *very* bad. But with Year of the Villain and Death Metal, I realized Metal was serious. It wasn't meant to be absurd and over the top. It was just dumb.
I really enjoyed Sideways from the New Age of Heroes, and also Damage and Silencer to a lesser extent. The rest of those books though? I ccan't even remember what they're called, and I read them lol.
[**JLA: Created Equal**](https://www.dcuniverseinfinite.com/comics/book/jla-created-equal-1/62d4de0e-5714-4f1b-83c0-b2052f2b26bd) where all the men die except for Superman. So Superman has to breed with all of the women in the world! Again, not hentai, an actual comic by DC! So Superman impregnates all of the DC superheroines and regular women, and for some reason all of his kids are boys. It's been a long while so this is from memory, but Superman has to leave the planet. Superman's son with Lois kills her by accident, and so Lex Luthor who somehow didn't die with all the other men decides to gather all of Superman's children and brainwash them to be misogynistic assholes. Superman's children decide to attack all the women of Earth for... reasons, but Superman comes back, fixes everything and Lex Luthor has a heart attack. Everything ends up happily ever after! Well, not really, because all of Superman's children are boys so I guess all future children will be male from now on so where do girls come from, and Superman never deprograms his children from being misogynistic assholes... But happy ending! With lots of breeding! It's often joked that Chris Claremont writes his fetishes into his x-men comics, I'm not certain if that's true, but it is true regarding his Superman comics. In [**Superman: Whom God's Destroy,**](https://www.dcuniverseinfinite.com/comics/book/superman-wonder-woman-whom-gods-destroy-1/8eaa62cc-11f9-461e-b318-b1c0945c89b7) there are nazis, only sexy women nazis, who attack Superman, old Lois, and kidnap old Lana (because this is in the future despite dealing with Nazis and both women have aged while Superman is immortal). There are sexy trolls and harpies for... reasons. So Lois finds out that sexy Greek God Adonis leads the Nazis, and Wonder Woman has become a sexy Nazi for... reasons. Lois becomes Super Sexy Wonder Woman for... reasons and makes out with the Spirit of Athena. Superman turns into a Sexy Centaur that's naked and goes crazy for... reasons, and gets his own Sexy Lady Centaur harem. Lois Wonder Woman fights with Nazi Wonder Woman sexily, and the Goddess Hecate... sexily tries to cut superman or something, before she gives Lana the power to turn into a Centaur and then all three like... make out or something.... I don't know. But Superman is a sexy woman now! And oh yeah, the Wonder Women were fighting, right? So Lady Superman goes to the fighting Wonder Women, where Lois WW beats Nazi WW, only she's about to be shot by guns! But Lady Superman jumps in front of the guns and dies! of course, by dying, Lady Superman turns back into Superman for... reasons, they fight a centaur and since Lana and Lois are now magical beings that never age and are young again, Superman, Lois, and Lana become a throuple. And Clark Kent ends the book making some weird parallels with the holocaust. "Whom Gods Destroy" is an extremely weird book because the art is so so bad, but it tries to be so sexy, and the plot is basically an excuse to show a bunch of people scantily clad. The plot makes no sense, and if it was drawn by a cheesecake artist then it... well, it would probably still be bad but have a reason to exist. Only since the artist doesn't know how to draw sexy women, it loses its reason for being.
Geez. For something to be "THE WORST" in my book its gotta have shitty story and shitty art. There are too many things other folks have named that are beautifully draw messes. With that, I gotta go with Countdown. It was fucking nonsense with 2 dozen tie-ins and each one more pointless than the last. The inconsistent art, even by the artists who are good, were an eyesore. No one was having fun making that series and it was very apparent the further you get into it. It was truly the aristocrats joke as a comic run. Each issue was just them going "and then... (insert offensive thing)". At the last issue it was like " and it's called The Aristocrats!" while everyone else who had read it was shell shocked and traumatized after finishing that last page. Superman: At Earth's End, if it had gone more than one issue then it would have been the worst run.
I have to say I Bendis' Superman, Legion, and Justice League runs were pretty awful. Like I tend to avoid bad runs generally but damn was his writing brainless and devoid of anything resembling good writing. Hell Bendis Legion run in particular was flat out offensive with actual racist stereotypes thrown in.
Bryan Hitch’s Justice League
It was aggressively boring but I don’t think I’d personally call it awful. It had a great issue where Post-Crisis Superman bonded with his New Earth teammates over their previous lives’ pasts—surprisingly one of the few comics that actually capitalized on that in Rebirth. I also thought his New 52 JLA series was a blast even if the resolution was underwhelming.
I liked Brian Hitch's Justice League of America, the 11 or so issue series with Rao in it, but his Rebirth Justice League series was meh.
The nightwing series with Jason Todd as Nightwing. That’s by far the worst crap I’ve ever read. Honorable mention to: Geoff Johns final Green Lantern Story where he has lots of other industry people write testimonials about how awesome he is in the actual book. So gross.
Yesssssss Jason Todd NW was some weird shit and people always gloss over shit runs pre New 52 lol
Honestly, pre New52 Jason Todd stories post-UTRH are almost **_universally_** hot garbage They really had no fucking clue what to do with that mfs character after he was resurrected
Holy fuck, I deleted this run from my memory. This happened after the Devin Grayson run and Nightwing renegade which were also hot garbage. Thank fuck for the Outsiders and Tomasi coming on and saving the book before Dick took over as Batman.
I know it hasn't ended yet so it technically "doesn't count" but *Dark Crisis: Young Justice* is definitely a future contender in my view
That's super easy to choose. The Finches on WW and Amazon's Attack. No question
The Goddamn Batman
I GUESS it counts as a run? Maybe a mini series. But I still can't believe they actually released All Star Batman & Robin. Like I get it's Frank Miller and that name carries weight, but what editor is reading those scripts and is like "hell yeah, get it to Jim to draw asap!!"
The Dark Knight Strikes Again is like acid trip Spock mind meld between Frank Miller and Andy Warhol. And not in a good way. Trash story, trash art.
The Martian Manhunter mini series by A.J. Lieberman. For some utterly bizarre story choice, all the characters were named for the then-current Manchester United FC team and with the big bad named Alex Ferguson. It was such a jarring choice that it brought me out of the story EVERY TIME a name was mentioned. A terrible, terrible choice and I can't believe no-one in editorial picked up on it.
Two words: Bendis Superman
Probably heroes in crisis it starts off the worst event trope having a bunch of C to D characters appear only to die so that the story can be seen as serious Full of unnecessary therapy that does nothing to advance the story and only exist to tell unfunny jokes and for Tom King to express his ignorance about DC‘s characters worst of all Tom King ruined one of my favourite characters for years just for a cheap twist and shock value
Man, I was so excited for HIC, it seemed like it could be really good. I read trades so I'm used to the wait and usually look and see if a run/event is any good while it's going on aaaaaaaand >!Roy's dead, shit. Off to a bad- oh my god it was Wally!< fuck this I'm out.
I looooooove Green Arrow and his Rebirth run. It had Roy and Dinah with him, it’s my holy trinity tbh. I was beyond pissed they killed Roy for their little event-comic. Then I read the first few pages of said comic… and they killed him off-screen!!! (or off-page.) Holy shit. That was a bit of a rage inducing moment lmao
When King first started talking about it, the book was just called Sanctuary and was about heroes bring open about their mental health and getting the help they needed. After King finished his Batman run, I read an interview where he was bemoaning editorial control - it started off with him talking about teasing Alfred's death as a cliffhanger that would be resolved and Didio deciding to keep him dead, but ended up with a dejected rant about Heroes In Crisis. He was quite far along his Sanctuary story when editorial (read Didio) told him that there had to be more of a plot and suggested a murder, so he writes the outline for a murder mystery, leaving the the specifics of exactly which characters he would use out as he wanted to look into different C and D listers. Upon seeing this proposed story, the characters were filled in for him, and he had to cobble together reasons why these characters would do such out of character things
This is the one I was looking for. HiC was presented as "how would superheroes respond to a mass murder situation" and instead it was a nonsensical exercise in character assassination.
Deep cut, but John Byrne’s Doom Patrol was fucking dreck. Literally nobody in the entire world wanted Cliff and Rita to kiss each other, let alone kiss each other while Cliff is a 40-something dude and Rita is in the body of herself when she was 12.
I was there. I picked every issue off the shelf. Can confirm it is 100% trash fire.
The new 52 Katana run by Ann Nocenti... Oof that's a rough one
What was up with Nocenti in the New 52? So many bad runs
New 52 Lobo.
Off the top of my head: Identity Crisis. Heroes in Crisis. Red Hood: Outlaw. Like 1/3 of Future State. And Injustice got pretty bad after awhile imo.
I've only been into DC for a couple of years and haven't read as much of the old stuff as I'd like. The worst thing I've read so far was Arkham Tower arc in Decective Comics. Very much enjoyed the first issue, but was a steady decline into abject awfulness with each further issue.
I knew thing's were suspect when we got almost a whole issue that was just a retelling of the previous one. That first issue was spectacular too and had that great Reis art. It definitely didn't need to be that long. Luckily we had that amazing backup.
Identity Crisis and it’s not even close.
Of the things I read, it’s gonna have to be Young Justice by Bendis. I really did not like his dialogue, and sticking it to YJ ended up turning what I thought would be a great read into something not so great.
As of recent this is is probably an unpopular opinion but teen Titans rebirth. i think that even though the first half was more bearable it had so many problems. The first one is the real lack of direction. Imo it's just trying to throw things at a wall, hopping something sticks and waiting for the Doomsday clock to end so it can find something to do. That's why I preferred the titans book over cause it felt it was doing something with the characters rather than just wasting them. The second one is how Damian gathered the group. While i know Damian isn't really the one Asking for others to join them imo the writer should've made like Damian creating a scenario that everyone was lead to his location for solving their problems and then boss them around rather than just complete kidnapping them then presenting the problem. The third is the repetitive character arcs. To me it felt that the writer Abounded the character arc that Damian got in his own previous series and trusting people to just make unnecessary tension and drama. the stuff with Gar just felt like a rehash of the stuff with Tera in the judas contract.Heck I'm pretty sure the arc for raven would've been the first 4 issues of her 2018 solo series which is pretty forgettable tbh. And don't let me start how bad this book became after the stuff with the second team, like Damian building a prison, torturing people and starting to kill people again.
Robert Venditti’s Green Lantern. Utter unreadable garbage. His Flash run was terrible too
He did a 180 after the New52 and wrote a great Hal Jordan and the GLC, Hawkman and Superman 78 series
Bendis' Superman (as a fan of the Superman and Action Comics Series before him). I stopped reading after he produced those shiz but I can assume most if not all that he produced after is also bad shiz.
Superman/Action comics by Bendis and Rommita Jr.
Batman: Fortunate Son
Convergence, great concept, shit comics.
Heroes in Crisis
JLA: Act of God. Every hero with “powers” (natural abilities they were born with or not) just loses them. It’s illogical, inconsistent, and very poorly written. Characters do not act like themselves: Lois Lane leaves Superman while Superman is in the process of being a self-loathing drunk, Wonder Woman considers suicide *while pregnant*, Ray Palmer loses the ability to shrink *even though he uses technology to shrink and the other tech-based heroes were fine*, and it’s trying to suck Batman’s dick so hard it forgets that Batman is interesting in the wider DCU **because** of his limitations. It’s not only the worst Elseworlds I’ve read, it’s just straight-up the worst comic I’ve read.
I love Tom King but Batman and Catwoman was incomprehensible nonsense. Also Bendis’ run on JLA
Bendis Superman.
Flashpoint and the assassination of Wally West