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** [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] has [http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/5273-amazons-attack-1-and-2 reviewed the] [http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/5425-amazons-attack-3-and-4 entire miniseries] [http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/5595-amazons-attack-5-and-6 as well.]
* Bruce Jones' run on the once-spectacular ''Checkmate''. He knew the title was going to be canned when he took it, so he felt free to go insane. How bad was this? He took a gritty, realistic spy thriller and made it about a morphing, amnesiac animal man fighting giant porcupines.
* ''[[Cry for Justice]]'', a DC miniseries by James Robinson that featured [[Green Lantern|Hal Jordan]] trying to create a proactive Justice League (because that always ends well). Nicknamed "Gay for Justice" by readers, thanks to some unfortunate lettering styles. The series features gratuitous gore and violence, characters being dismembered, horrible writing and gross characterization, and everyone constantly shouting "[[For Great Justice|For justice]]!" Put it this way — when the author directly and explicitly apologizes to the fans over the quality of the work, ''twice'', '''before the series has finished''', then you know you're dealing with something '''''awful'''''. It was pointlessly [[Darker and Edgier]], even killing off Lian Harper last-minute for no real reason, and that was just one among a great almighty ''fuckload'' of senseless deaths. Robinson got himself under all manner of fire for its release, despite the fact that he fought tooth-and-nail against the editors, who wanted much, much more in the pointless death and destruction departments. Not two years later, it and both of its follow-ups were retconned in full. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908055647/http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/29265-justice-league-cry-for-justice-1-2 It] [http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/29356-justice-league-cry-for-justice-3-4 got] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110128181013/http://at4w.blip.tv/file/4674807
* DC Comics' weekly series ''[[Countdown to Final Crisis]]'', by most accounts. Bad Writing, bad art, bad characterization, three different names (it started as ''Countdown'', then ''Countdown to Final Crisis'', and the final issue was titled ''DC Universe Zero''), three alternate Earths destroyed to prop up villains fans don't like, tie-in mini-series that explain key plot points that are equally horrible, and an ending that completely contradicted the events that it was created to build up. Shortly after ''[[52]]'' was finished, Dan Didio asked [[Grant Morrison]] to give some of his (work in progress) scripts of the first several issues of ''Final Crisis''; other than that, it was pretty much controlled by Didio. It also pulled away advertising from the infinitely better ''[[Sinestro Corps War]]'' story that was going on at the same time. The whole thing was declared [[Canon Discontinuity]] the minute it was finished, but it still didn't erase the horrible taste it left in readers' mouths. It was so bad that the intended final issue, ''DC Universe #0'', written by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns, essentially replaced ''Countdown'' as the real lead-up to ''[[Final Crisis]]'' (the only thing that was acknowledged from ''Countdown'' was Darkseid's death, fall, and reincarnation into a human body as seen in ''[[Seven Soldiers]]''). It was built up to be the spine of the DCU, but quickly became the ''colon''.
** As with many others of the comics listed here, [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] reviewed it. His review was on four parts, but only two of them were dedicated to the [http://atopthefourthwall.com/countdown-part-1/ comic] [http://atopthefourthwall.com/countdown-part-2/ itself], because in his opinion the plot was so thin that he could chuck half of the comic's run in 20 minutes and his public wouldn't lose nothing of importance. The other two parts were [http://atopthefourthwall.com/countdown-prologue/ a prologue] to explain the background, conception and characters involved in the disaster, and a countdown of [http://atopthefourthwall.com/the-top-15-worst-moments-of-countdown/ the 15 most awful moments] of the comic.
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** To very briefly sum up the suitability issue for non-readers -- the plot of ''Born Again'' (one of the most famous ''[[Daredevil]]'' arcs ever written) requires the hero to have so few allies that they could potentially turn to in a time of crisis that they could successfully be prevented from reaching them, or simply despair at contacting, that they are forced to struggle through the entire arc alone. Nightwing's list of close allies includes the entire Bat-Family (of which he is a founding member), Superman, and the entire lineup of every incarnation of the [[Teen Titans]] or the Titans (which is ''dozens'' of people). And that's just his ''close'' allies, the ones who are like family. At the time of Devin Grayson's run, Dick Grayson's list of ''friends'' encompassed literally 95% of every superhero then published by DC, excepting only ones in alternate continuities/time zones such as [[Vertigo Comics|Vertigo]] or the [[Legion of Super-Heroes]]. Entire plot arcs have been based on the premise that Dick Grayson is the single most well-networked superhero in comics. It would be easier to make ''[[Captain America]]'' into a friendless abandoned loner than Nightwing, and yet, they tried to make us believe it could happen. To this day, despite now being [[Canon Discontinuity]], it is still one of the most infamous stinkburgers in Bat-Comics.
* Bruce Jones' run of ''Nightwing'', which followed Grayson's, made her run look like Shakespeare. Nightwing became a male model who slept with his boss, and she just happened to have superpowers. Then Jason Todd showed up and started fighting Dick on a model runway; and then Jason Todd was turned into a ''tentacle monster''.
* ''Rise Of Arsenal'' is the spiritual sequel to ''Cry for Justice'', which ought to warn readers off. The story is jarringly offensive and bad, attempts at gaining emotion from the reader feel forced and manipulative, Roy Harper is massively [[Out of Character|out of character]] (even after considering that he's a grieving father), and the art is often inconsistent. To sum up how bad this book can be: there's a moment where Roy beats up a bunch of thugs in an alley to protect a dead cat that he thinks is his dead daughter while strung out on heroin... yes, that ''does'' happen. Oh, and they solve the plot point of Roy's grief by [[
* ''[[Superman: At Earth's End]]'' is a truly failed attempt to make Superman fit in [[The Dark Age of Comic Books]]. From turning the Man of Steel into a gun-toting, incoherent, moronic Santa Claus lookalike, to the overall stupidity of the plot (the main villains are [[You Cloned Hitler|clones of Hitler]] — such a plot could be effective in a comic that didn't take itself seriously, but here it comes across as lazy), it truly comes as a complete mess of [[Executive Meddling]] gone wrong.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908172420/http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/3252-superman-at-earths-end At least two good things came out of it]: "[[Atop the Fourth Wall|I AM]] [[Catch Phrase|A MAN!]]" and "[[Memetic Mutation|Of course! Don't you know anything about science?]]"
== Marvel ==
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* ''Marville'', written by Bill Jemas, was created on a bet between him and [[Peter David]] to see who could write a better selling comic. The problem here is that at the time he worked for Marvel, Jemas was an '''editor'''. And boy, does it show. The book is filled with terrible jokes that feel like they were stolen from a rejected [[Seltzer and Friedberg]] script, ham-fisted political commentary, characters from the mainline Marvel universe showing up just to act out of character and do unfunny things, and tons of mean-spirited digs at DC while Marvel got off Scott-free. Eventually, this fell in favor of what read like a [[Chick Tract]]... as adapted à la [[Shoggoth on the Roof]] by a schizophrenic primary-schooler.<ref>[[Wolverine]] evolved from an otter (because that's how that works) and, through some reason or another, either becomes immortal or gets a long line of [[Identical Grandson]]s (the comic can't pick one). In the same issue, Jesus Christ is called "the first superhero".</ref> The last two issues were a recap of the series and a guide on how to submit scripts to a now-defunct comic line. Bonus points for increasingly desperate cover art featuring a red-haired woman (who appeared nowhere in the comic) in various states of undress when Jemas was certain he'd lose. (He did.) Watch Linkara rip it apart [http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/2012/01/marville-1.html in] [http://atopthefourthwall.com/marville-2/ six] [http://atopthefourthwall.com/marville-3/ very], ''[http://atopthefourthwall.com/marville-4/ very]'' [http://atopthefourthwall.com/marville-5/ funny] [http://atopthefourthwall.com/marville-6-7/ parts].
** Let's not forget the issue that didn't have word balloons. Oh, it had dialog, just not word balloons. Apparently, the artist couldn't be bothered to actually ''put in the word balloons'', leaving them putting the terrible dialog (in script form) in a corner of the panel.
** The worst part is that apparently Bill Jemas ''does believe'' everything he put in this comic. Meaning that every crazy theory, all the scientific inaccuracies, and every philosophical nonsense in this thing? [[Fridge Horror|All those are his sincere beliefs]].
* The ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' storyline ''[[One More Day]]'' is perhaps the most hated case of [[Executive Meddling]] since [[Doctor Who|the Sixth Doctor.]] ''Decades'' of continuity and characterization were [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]'d out of existence because [[Joe Quesada|some guy]] didn't like the direction the character was having. The [[J. Michael Straczynski|writer]] hated every minute of it and tried hard to get himself disassociated with it. It goes like this—Spider Man's aunt May takes a bullet and is about to die. [[Reed Richards Is Useless|Somehow, nobody in the Marvel Universe can do anything to change that.]] So, in a move wholly detached from reality and maturity, he makes a [[Deal with the Devil]] to save Aunt May's life (against her wishes, by the way)... in exchange for his marriage. It was contrived to the point of stupidity, worse in that Quesada claimed having them just plain divorce would piss people off and made only the flimsiest attempts to justify his actions (he was even accused of [[Didn't Think This Through|wholly disregarding any impact]] [[They Just Didn't Care|this would have on anything]]). It essentially created its own [[Continuity Snarl]] by re-introducing elements that were never relevant in the first place, was full of [[Voodoo Shark]]s, retcons (the biggest of all being Spidey's ''public unmasking,'' which they expressly stated would ''not'' be undone) and overall stupidity on the part of all involved.
** To twist the knife even more, came the "sequel", ''Brand New Day'' where we are informed that it was ''Mary Jane'' the one who strongarmed the above mentioned deal with the devil and that she was on board on it all the time. This, despite having previously shown as objecting all the way. Because it wasn't enough to [[Ship Sinking|retcon away her marriage,]] they ''had'' to [[Ron the Death Eater|demonize her too]].
** It should probably be noted that the reason Straczynski objected to the story to the degree that he did was not actually due to the story's quality and more to do with the fact that his original proposal for it had been turned down, a proposal that would've jettisoned ''three and a half'' decades of continuity (as opposed to the two that that final product did away with). Whether this would've been better or worse than what we got is [[Broken Base|debatable]], at that three and a half decades would've included nearly every infamously-awful ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' story ever told, such as the [[Clone Saga]] and ''[[Character Derailment|Sins]] [[Squick|Past]]'', which remained in-continuity in the story that ended up being told.
** Linkara really didn't want to review this because of the utter hate he had for this storyline (as quoted above), but eventually relented and reviewed it for his [http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/2012/07/200th-episode.html 200th episode].
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== Other Comics ==
* The artist of ''Minimum Security'' (see
* ''[[Transformers]]'' fans [[Broken Base|disagree on just about everything]], [[Fan Dumb|often violently]]. But nobody has managed to find a fan who would dispute listing these works:
** ''[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Beast_Within The Beast Within]'' is poorly drawn, incoherent, badly written, and completely independent of any known canon. Not even Hasbro acknowledges it. Special mention goes to the Beast, a Dinobots combiner. Fans had been pondering what one would look like for years—the fact that [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070710211127/transformers/images/thumb/1/10/Butwhy.gif/413px-Butwhy.gif this] was its canon appearance came off as a slap in the face.
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* The [[Valiant Comics]]-[[Image Comics]] [[Intercontinuity Crossover|crossover]] ''[[Death Mate]]'' helped [[Creator Killer|destroy]] [[Valiant Comics]] and was one the contributing factors that led to [[The Great Comics Crash of 1996]]. The writing was horrible; [[media:DeathMate.jpg|the art]], [[Rob Liefeld|Liefeldian]]; the concept was flawed, and Image released its contributions years late.
* The original ''[[Family Guy]]'' comics from Devil's Due Publishing. Nothing good can happen when you take a show that mostly derives its humor from delivery, timing, and voice acting and adapt it into a medium that has ''none of that''. There is zero attempt to make this in any way comic-like. The panels are just rows of boxes, composed into a vaguely comic-like simulacrum. A joke or conversation will start in the third-to-last panel on one page and end halfway into the next. Everything looks stiff, like someone just took a screen cap of the show. The comic is almost always at 3/4 view, and the artwork is full of blatant cutting and pasting, facial - expressions, poses, even entire panels are copied wholesale. The book only lasted three issues, all three were collected into a TPB lovingly named "The ''Family Guy'' Big Book of Crap." [[Old Shame|Really says something about what the people who worked on it thought of it.]]
* ''Holy Terror'' is the comic that made people realize that [[Frank Miller]] has lost the genius he once had. The plot is that two blatant [[Expy|expies]] of [[Batman]] and [[Catwoman (comics)|Catwoman]] <ref>The book was originally going to be a Batman [[Graphic Novel]]
* ''[[Incarnate]]'' is a comic written and "drawn" by [[Kiss|Gene Simmons']] son Nick. "Drawn" is written in quotation marks because he allegedly traced and copied most of the art from various manga. In case he gets cleared of that — most of the dialogue is broken and fragmented, and the story is completely incoherent. It's so bad that the company has ceased distribution of the comic because of legal claims from the company that publishes the manga he stole the art from, which, by the way, included ''[[Hellsing]]'', ''[[Deadman Wonderland]]'', ''[[One Piece]]'', ''[[Death Note]]'', ''[[Bleach]]'', and various [[Deviant ART]] pages.
* Antarctic Press' ''[[Robotech]] Sentinels: Rubicon'' was an effort by AP at continuing the long-running ''Sentinels'' comic that was cancelled when they acquired the ''Robotech'' license (and this was after Ben Dunn had said that AP would not continue the Sentinels comic, a [[Take That]] aimed at both the fans [[Armed with Canon|and the former creative team]]). The result had nothing to do with anything that had come before (or after); it instead consisted of a largely incoherent story filled with [[Flat Character|unidentifiable characters]] and a plot that was largely incomprehensible (the most coherent part consisted of a White Light in space destroying random ships accompanied by an "EEEE" sound effect). The artwork was terrible; the half-arsed computer toning effects vanished after the first issue, and two pages of the second issue [[Ashcan Copy|consisted of raw pencils]]. The series was [[Cut Short|canned after two issues of a planned seven]] without resolving anything; many fans considered it a [[Mercy Kill|mercy killing]].
* The sleazy French spy-action series ''SAS'' is already bad; it's like [[James Bond]] without the humor. But the [[Comic Book Adaptation]] tops itself, with ''[[Osama Bin Laden]]'' being presented as a [[Worthy Opponent]]. Sure, the author probably wanted a [[Take That]] against France-bashing post 9/11, but surely there were less stupid ways of doing it.
* The
** The second lowest point was the villain Whateley. He gets a brief mention in ''Dying Inside'', a confusing cameo in ''The Grinning Man'', and a ludicrous connection in ''Dead/Alive''.
* ''[[The Unfunnies]]'' by [[Mark Millar]]. You know something is wrong when the ads tell you to "leave good taste at the door". The comic tries for [[Refuge in Audacity]] and is obviously trying to balance funny with drama, but fails to be funny and thus misses the refuge. The main villain is a [[Karma Houdini]] who has more depth than any of the other characters. The comic attempts to mix real life photography and a cartoony style to get a [[Roger Rabbit Effect]], but screws that up massively thanks to [[Special Effects Failure]].
** Just in case you need any more convincing, according to some family friends, Mark Millar's wife herself read about six pages and tossed the book at his head.
* Behind the already bad but copied-enough-that-no-one-cares-anymore [[Rob Liefeld]]-esque art of the ''[[Warrior (Comic Book)|Warrior]]'' mini-series lies unheard-of levels of walls and [[Walls of Text]] that contain bad grammar and made-up words used to explain "destrucity", a philosophy of former [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] wrestler [[Ultimate Warrior]], which makes no sense to anyone in the world except him. If you manage to figure out what is being said, then it makes less sense than [[Time Cube]]. Oh, and then there was the Christmas special consisting entirely of pinups, several of which have violent and disturbing imagery. [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] and Linkara [http://atopthefourthwall.com/tag/ultimate-warrior/ teamed to tackle it].
== Artists, Writers, Editors, etc ==
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** In one of the Wizard drawing books, he explains the use of reference in drawing comics. Thing is, he showed reasonable ways to do it (using a picture of an ice skater for a drawing of a girl flying), and the comic drawings were different enough from the references for it to be considered ''his'' drawing. Now, he simply traces his reference pictures, and in later drawing books, he flat-out traces. [http://jimsmashextended.blogspot.com/2008/07/greg-land-tracing-swiping-recycling.html You can see some of this here.]
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