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So Bad It's Horrible/Comic Books: Difference between revisions
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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 (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).
** [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?]]"
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** 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 retcon away her marriage, they had to 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].
* ''Sins Past'' (and its sequel ''Sins Remembered'') is the other contender for most infamous Spiderman storyline of the Oughthies, and until ''One More Day'', it was considered the actual worst. It gets like this: apparently Gwen Stacy secretly got pregnant and gave birth to twin children, that were raised and artificially aged up by Norman Osborn to get back
** It says something when the writer of this crack fest, [[J. Michael Straczynski]], complained about the [[Executive Meddling]] received while writing it, which turned out to be [[Joe Quesada]] overruling Straczynski's original choice for the twins father, Spidey himself, despite being way more logical, on the amount that "[[Harsher in Hindsight|it would age the character too much]]". Note that this book [[Foreshadowing|came before]] ''One More Day'', where Straczynski and Quesada also worked.
* [[Jeph Loeb]]'s ''[[The Ultimates]] 3'' is accused of having exceptionally-poor writing and [[Flanderization]] ''en masse''. Many critics argue that Loeb [[Did Not Do the Research|doesn't seem to have bothered reading any of the other books]] in the [[Ultimate Universe]] or familiarizing himself with their characters, and has merely made the characters caricatures of their counterparts in Earth-616 regardless of whether this is appropriate. It was loaded with [[Plot Hole]]s, [[Wall Banger (Darth Wiki)|WallBangers]], and stupid, ''stupid'' writing mistakes.
** And then there's ''Ultimatum'', a [[Crisis Crossover]] which is filled to the brim with [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|meaningless and cruel deaths]], [[Contemplate Our Navels|pretentious dialogue]], the same characterization flaws as ''Ultimates 3'', [[Artistic License Physics]], and all kinds of [[Bloodier and Gorier|violent, gory]] deaths that served no purpose other than to apparently "wipe the slate clean." Once again, watch Linkara rip it to shreds, [http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/2011/05/ultimatum-1-2.html here], [http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/2011/05/ultimatum-3-4.html here], and [http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/2011/05/ultimatum-5.html here].
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* ''The Leftersons!'' is a political themed comic in the vein of ''[[Mallard Fillmore]].'' It somehow manages to be ''both'' more [[Anvilicious]] and less funny than its inspiration. The creator of the comic doesn't seem to understand American Liberalism, and so the strip fails at satire. [[Strawman Political|The characters]] have no personality to speak of. The art is unbelievably boring; many panels, and even layouts for entire strips, are [[Cut and Paste Comic|reused again and again with random background color changes]].
** An example of its failure: the son of this [[Strawman Political]] family is named Stalin and wears a Darwin-fish shirt, and his hair is done in a random-ass [[Totally Radical]] 1980s punk style, which shows you how up to date the author is.
** The wife is named Imelda because, you know, Imelda Marcos was evil and therefore... she was a liberal! [[Critical Research Failure|Haha!!!]]
* Many consider the reactions to the political strips of ''[[Mallard Fillmore]]'' a textbook example of [[Confirmation Bias]]. The problem with that idea is that much of those with similar views (conservatives, especially older ones) don't find the strip funny, either. Those on the opposite side of the political spectrum tend to find the comic blatantly insulting, which is probably the point. Non-political readers just find it joke-free. Check any comics board with a newspaper section and note how many posts on [[Fan Nickname|"The Duck"]] contain the phrase [[Don't Shoot the Message|"I'm a conservative, but..."]]. The comic itself would probably be relegated to right-wing websites and newsletters were it not used as a "counter-balance" for the liberal viewpoints presented in ''[[Doonesbury]]''. It tends to substitute talk radio talking points for punchlines, [[Did Not Do the Research|forgets to do its research]], and it frequently repeats the same "joke" over several strips from slightly different angles. It overuses [[Strawman Political|Straw Liberals]], many of whom are in the regular cast. This is made all the sadder because Bruce Tinsley's occasional non-political strips can be genuinely funny and do show a flair for observational humor. Unfortunately, those strips make up less than 10% of the strip's output. Discussing ''[[Mallard Fillmore]]'' on [[The Comics Curmudgeon]] is now an automatic banning offense.
** It may be redundant to mention, but ''Mallard Fillmore'' also has horribly ugly art which often consists only of [[Floating Head Syndrome|the duck's head shoved into a corner]] by a [[Wall of Text]]. And if it's not ''that,'' you'll often see Mallard splayed out in front of the television with his (thankfully undetailed) crotch on full display.
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