After a great deal of contemplation, and even a bit of cringing, I am here to present my list of the “Worst of 2007” in comic book events. I didn’t take this lightly, and had quite the time preparing this list. Hopefully you will find something you agree with, or maybe have a bit of conjecture to share. Whatever the reaction, here it goes!
12. Spider-Man 3 Movie: I just had to go there. I couldn’t help it. Spider-Man 3 was gorgeous to look at to be sure, but for most of the movie I kept thinking that too much was going on. This film would have fared better for me if it would have focused either on Harry and Peter with some Venom thrown in, or would have spotlighted the Sandman character. I also felt that the use of Gwen Stacy was awkward to say the least. There were many great things in this movie that just didn’t mesh because it was too busy.
11. Nightwing Series: Poor Dick Grayson. He had a rough year. First Bruce Jones made him fight Jason Todd for Nightwing supremacy. Then Marv Wolfman came on to try and fix things with a “flashback” tale. Now Dick is enmeshed in the Ra’s Al Ghul storyline. I am hoping that after a very lackluster year that this book can get back on its feet. It is a text book example of too many cooks spoiling the dinner.
10. Countdown Weekly Series: While I have enjoyed several of the Countdown tie-ins, this weekly installment has yet to catch its breath. There is a great deal going on, and it has a very uneven feel. Some cohesiveness would go a long way. I keep hoping, being the eternal optimist that I am, that it all pulls together in the end. It is an expensive bet to make, and I am pretty worried at this point in time.
9. Wonder Woman Shipping Delays and Tie-in Issues: This book just couldn’t get a break. After delayed shipping that made me want to drink, the book dovetailed immediately into the Amazons Attack saga. There wasn’t a chance to just chill with our girl and get reacquainted. That really sucked. Hopefully new writer Gail Simone and the powers-that-be at DC can change that soon.
8. Ultimates 3 #1: Joe Madureira returned to comics and I realized that I had never missed him. In fact, let me be so harsh as to say that the ungrateful guy should have just stuck to video games and left us poor readers alone. To add insult to injury, the tale being told by writer Jeph Loeb was so preposterous that it made me go back and lovingly read every issue done by Mark Millar. This is not a good sign of things to come.
7. Mary Jane Sexy Statue debacle: On all counts, the “sexy” Mary Jane statue was a disaster. Bent over and sassy, super model Mary Jane confounded and enraged the female population of comic book readers while driving an even bigger wedge in the already widening gap between male and female fans. Last year I spoke of the great divide in readership. Well guess what? It has gotten much worse and I don’t see anyone seeing eye-to-eye in the near future.
6. Amazons Attack mini-series: Okay, get off my ass for not liking this already, would ya? I don’t think it is going to ruin the Amazons forever or any crap like that. I just didn’t like the story. It was contrived, irritating, and senseless. When I saw that it had all just been a set up for Granny Goodness to be bad, it made me angry. This was a Coundown tie-in that didn’t work for me.
5. Death of Bart Allen: I know that the Flash characters of the DCU are vulnerable. There is no such thing as a “safe place” for speedsters, other then Jay Garrick. That still didn’t make Bart Allen’s death any easier to swallow. After having to be put into the Flash outfit, which took him away from the Titans team he flowed so well with, DC’s decision to kill him off didn’t sit well with me. There was a great deal of potential there for storytelling that is now gone. Yes, Wally is back and that is good, but I am greedy. I want Bart to be there with him, helping him raise his kids.
4. Manhunter Title M.I.A.: I really miss the Manhunter series from DC. It has left a hole for me. Having the character appear in Birds of Prey was a consolation prize at best. When are we going to get Kate Spencer back, dammit!!??!!
3. Marshall Rogers and Mike Wieringo- Rest in Peace: Two great talents left us this year, and much too soon. Batman legend Rogers was in his 50’s and Tellos genius Wieringo only a year older then me. It breaks my heart to even think about it. All I can say is that the good lord has two fantastic guys in heaven drawing his tales.
2. Failed Wildstorm Relaunch of The Authority and Wildcats: What the hell was this about? Did Grant Morrison not turn in any scripts? Did Jim Lee drop the ball? What a disaster this was. Two issues of The Authority and one issue of Wildcats were all we got before it was all shuffled under the carpet. Talk about disrespectful to fans. This was damn near the worst.
1. “One More Day” Spider-Man storyline: Peter and Mary Jane’s courtship and marriage were retconned out of existence and I am pissed about it. Lucky fans- we get to trade a lot of memories for the return of Harry Osborn. Whooptie-freaking-doo! Joe Quesada may be sitting there being gleeful, but this old reader hates it. My last issue of Spider-man was this one. Marvel doesn’t care about my demographic, or if they do, they think I will follow blindly. Think again.
That is it for the list of "worst" comic events. Tomorrow I will be back with my list of the 12 "best". See you there!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
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7 comments:
11.) Yeah...any series where the good guy eats the bad guy...and then throws him back up...in a serious matter....not good.
10.) It's getting good, they found Ray Palmer this last issue...I know I know I keep saying its getting better but, really...they are finally wrapping crap up as it gets down to the end.
6.) It was awful...the fact that Will Pfeifer from Catwoman had a hand in this, STILL amazes me. Your not alone in not liking this mini, BELIEVE ME.
5.) Guggenheim was just really starting to shine with Bart too. Now we have some abysmal Flash stories from of all people Mark "I made Wally West cool" Waid.
2.) Don't forget Gen13 either...what the heck?
Looking forward to your next list *coughs* Green Lantern #25 *coughs*
Rough list for Spider-Man! He starts end ends the list. And has a guilt-by-association the Mary Jane incident But I do agree with you on them!
#2 - yeah I was really looking forward to it. Has it even happened yet? Seems like Wildstorm is more stalled now than it was before it "relaunched."
#4!!!! THIS WOULD BE MY #1!! BRING BACK MANHUNTER! Just when I was convincing lots of customers to read the book they stall it out. I was sure they'd said she was coming back, but so far there's no sign of her. I guess DC is too busy creating a million unnecessary event tie-in mini-series.
12. Yeah, Spidey 3 was like 2.5 movies in one. Too much story so everyone got screwed narrative wise. But I remind myself that it’s not Ang Lee’s Hulk, and feel so much better.
11. Not reading
10. Got burned too many times so I didn’t pick this up. And from what I hear that was a wise choice. Not reading
9. Not reading
8. ugh that guy’s art SUCKS… not reading
7. From my perspective this is one of the most overblown stories of the year. The statue was totally stupid and sexist but there were so many more important things to talk about and spend energy on. The raging by female fans and the counter-raging by male fans was like two groups of suicide bombers arguing about which side of body god is telling them to strap the bomb on. Silly and ridiculous all around IMHO. What was really gross, was that everybody felt perfectly justified in insulting each other.
Sorry if that’s curt.
6. Did not read, thank god
5. In my Atomic Romance Awards post I voted Flash runner up as the most ruined character of 2007 …after Spiderman of course.
4. Man… who? Not Reading… I’m seeing a pattern here.
3. Awful/horrible no other way to put it. Sad they’re gone
2. I’m going to be curt again, sorry. Wildcats, I hate these guys. They symbolize everything I disliked about the speculation boom but to each his or her own. The Authority, on-the-other-hand, was interesting although the art was never to my taste.
1. Totally agree. I would never spend my money on crap like this and I didn’t, I read it in the store. Joe is insane on this. See my post Spider Faust for one of the main reasons I think this is a bad Idea.
Guess I dodged the worst of it. I don't really buy or read the titles listed here all that much, and I have yet to see Spiderman 3 (the bad reviews put me off and I went on to other things), so I guess I missed some lowpoints. And yeah, Spidey is really taking it on the chin lately. Good thing I'm not a huge fan. Between the countless tie ins and the revolving door of "who's going to die next" and "who's being brought back", they're making it tough on fans of the spandex set. At least my fave Wolverine never has a death story...wait a tick...oh, crap.
12. Yeah, it was pretty crowded, but I ended up liking more about it than disliking it.
11. It sounds like DC really has no idea what they want to do with Dick Grayson. He almost seems to be sort of a "non-entity". Considering Didio was ready to whack him, maybe the continuing apathy toward the character reflects this.
10. I've never been happier with a decision to drop a book than dropping this dog. I've picked up issues here and there that actually seemed to have something of significance happening (such as last week's Atom issue), but for the most part, it seems to be a colossal waste of everyone's time. This ridiculous thing can't get over soon enough.
9. I agree on the shipping delays...not to much for WW, but on the Superman books. DC finally seems to be righting the ship, but they really let this problem fester for way to long. My opinion of artist Adam Kubert (who caused the delays for Action Comics) will be tainted for a long time to come. Extremely unprofessional. Didn't that daddy of his teach him anything at that cartooning college of his?
8. I've never understood what the appeal of Jeph Loeb's writing was, and I'm glad to see more people starting to question his A-list status. Most of his stories are "free-flowing" at best, and flat out incoherent at worst. As for the art, I would think the switch from Bryan Hitch's ultra-realism to Joe Mad's much more cartoony style would induce whiplash in just about any fan of the first two volumes of Ultimates.
7. I recall this was a time of the year when there seemed to be a sexist-themed outrage almost every week....and it all got a little silly after awhile. Sure, the statue and the other stuff was ridiculous...but man, you'd think the sky was falling.
6. This think had "don't buy this under and circumstances" written in bright, neon lettering anytime I saw it on the stands. I'm glad my "sucky comics sense" was tingling for this dog.
5. Barry should have been the one to return...not this warmed-over "Incredibles" pap.
4. Well, you can't say DC didn't give the character a chance. What did she get, like, THREE cancelation repreves?
3. Ditto
2. Can we just pull the plug on Wildstorm already? What's keeping this joke of a publishing label around? It certainly can't be sales of their non-existant titles.
1. You won't get much argument from me, although I've been down on Marvel's handling of Spider-Man since the wretched "Sins Past" storyline making Gwen Stacy into Norman Osborn's whore. At that point, I realized these people (specifically JMS and Quesada) don't really "get" Spider-Man.
Great list, Heidi! I look forward to tomorrow's "Best Of" list!
Although the MJ statue wasn't something I'd buy and it did get some people angry, I'm not sure we can say it was a disaster on all counts. Enough people liked it that it sold out immediately.
12. I did enjoy the movie, but totally agree there was way too much going on. It should've been 2 movies, at least.
11. Not being a fan of the Batman family titles, I never read Nightwing until Marv Wolfman came along. I thought, "Yes, this'll be MY Nightwing!" Oops, I was wrong.
10. Some decent issues, but on the whole not a strong series.
9. DC said they were pulling out all the stops to make the big 3 the BIG 3. But as soon as it was announced it seemed like the shipping schedules just shot into the toilet.
8. I was a fan of Joe Mad back in the day, the only reason I picked this book up. Not impressed, and the story was so bad, I'll not be back.
7. Just don't care.
6. I really really liked the art...
5. Guggenheim made the book soooo good. I was pissed when it all turned out to be a joke. They should've just left Bart in the Titans.
4. More Manhunteeerrrrrrrrr!!!
3. I literally cried over both of them. And now your making me think about it and may start again...
2. Snore.
1. Don't read it and this definitely won't get me to start...
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