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Dork Age/Comic Books/The DCU: Difference between revisions
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** Of course to some, Superman Blue was an ''improvement'' over Superman's [http://comiccoverage.typepad.com/comic_coverage/2009/07/worst-cover-ever-business-in-front-party-in-the-back.html hideous mullet hairstyle] he wore from 1993-1996.
* Pretty much every single time Chuck Austen gets his claws on a mainstream comic, one of these results (skip to the Marvel section for what he did to ''Uncanny [[X-Men]]''). A particularly egregious one, though, was probably his run on ''Action Comics'', where he seemed to really want [[Superman]] to be a violent asshole somewhat like the Golden Age Batman. And he was loudly adamant that Clark Kent should dump Lois Lane because she was a gold-digging, power-hungry whore who was only sleeping with him because he was Superman... ''[[Critical Research Failure|even though Lois fell in love with and became engaged to Clark long before she ever found out he was Superman]]''. This led to loads of [[Derailing Love Interests]] in favor of [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|Lana Lang]], who came off as a pathetic sociopathic [[Stalker with a Crush]] and made the elder Kents into [[Jerkass]] [[Meddling Parents]]. Needless to say, the entire run was hustled into [[Canon Discontinuity]] faster than a speeding bullet when Austen got booted off the title.
* [http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/30/worst-comics-2010-superman-grounded/ This article] argues that ''Superman Grounded'' was a thankfully short-lived [[Dork Age]]. It's generally considered to have been salvaged when Chris Roberson took over and shifted the story from Superman [[Walking the Earth]] and lecturing people to [[Walking the Earth]] and saving lives.
* [[Black Canary]]'s infamous late-80s "Jumpsuit and Headband" costume, complete with bizarre wing epaulets and pirate boots. A later run of the character in ''Action Comics Weekly'' even featured her back in the original costume, ''burning'' the jumpsuit and grinning wickedly. Another issue of ''[[Birds of Prey]]'' featured her horror at seeing scores of action figures of herself in this costume... and then emphasized the point by saying the reason the toyshop had so many was that they couldn't get rid of them.
** Dinah entered a second Dork Age when she married [[Green Arrow]], left the Birds of Prey and was reduced to a [[Faux Action Girl]] and [[Damsel in Distress]] of the Green Arrow books. Ironically, she was the ''leader of the Justice League'' at this time.
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* When [[Batman]]'s [[Knightfall|back was broken by Bane]], Azrael [[Anti-Hero Substitute|replaced him]], essentially becoming a [[Darker and Edgier]] version of Batman who ended up using lethal force. ''Very'' few people liked him, although arguably they weren't supposed to, a la John Walker as Captain America. [[Word of God]] confirmed that [[Fan Nickname|AzBats]] was a giant [[Take That]] to readers who were crying for [[The Punisher]]-As-Batman. It needs to be pointed out that AzBats, the [[Darker and Edgier]] Dark Knight(!!), was ultimately defeated by ''[[Weakened by the Light|blinding light]]'' -- a surprisingly subtle [[Take That]] on the part of the writers, that. AzBats was immediately followed by an even more gritty, but awesome, version of Bruce Wayne (the Kelley Jones/Doug Moench run).
** AzBats was introduced in issue #500, too. People will be remembering him for a while as a cautionary tale.
** Batman suffered a massive [[Dork Age]] during most of [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]]. The campy '60s ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' TV show starring [[Adam West]] was actually an [[Adaptation Distillation]] of the stories published during this period, and was far superior to its source material because it didn't take itself seriously. This was the ''ONLY'' period when Batman wasn't the "dark creature of the night" most know him as. His first appearances in [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]] had him as a gothic figure; he was brought back to this in [[The Bronze Age of Comic Books]], became really dark in [[The Dark Age of Comic Books]], and flip-flopped between "mellowed-out" and "hardly any better than Azrael" during [[The Modern Age of Comic Books]].
* [[Firestorm]], under the watch of John Ostrander in the late '80s, became [[Darker and Edgier]], leading up to the big revelation... that the character was meant to be Earth's fire elemental. Oh, and the power plant sabotage that brought Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein together in the first place? Not an accident. In an attempt to make Firestorm's origin more deep or something (see also: the first of the JMS/Quesada Spider-Man offenses listed in the Marvel section), it was later explained that Martin Stein was ''always'' meant to be Firestorm/the fire elemental. Ronnie just got in the way (which was "rectified" in ''Firestorm'' (vol. 2) #100, when Stein replaces Ronnie and Mikhail "Pozhar" Arkadin in the Firestorm Matrix).<br /><br />This was likely an attempt to tie Firestorm into the [[Swamp Thing]] mythos, with a similar revelation having happened to that character -- rather than a brilliant scientist turned into a plant-monster by a [[Freak Lab Accident]], he was actually a mystical plant elemental, who as a result of said [[Freak Lab Accident]], ended up thinking he was said brilliant scientist. DC went on to incorporate a number of characters into similar roles (for example, in addition to Firestorm, Red Tornado was revealed to be a mystical air elemental, rather than a robot who could manipulate air via superscience). Sadly, what worked for a horror-based [[Swamp Thing]] written by [[Alan Moore]] lead to mass-dorkageness in [[Lighter and Softer]] works written by anyone slightly less talented than [[Alan Moore]].
* In the [[The Dark Age of Comic Books|'90s]], Guy Gardner had his own solo series. After losing ''two separate rings'' to a Parallax-influenced Hal Jordan, he rechristened himself "Warrior" and somehow became the [[Last of His Kind|last descendant]] of an alien race, which gave him the power to [[Arm Cannon|turn his arms into guns]]... for some reason. Writers ignore this era at their peril, though: despite the gawdaful concept (apparently submitted as a joke), and equally bad '90s art, Beau Smith's run on ''Warrior'' is responsible for much of Guy's development from [[Jerkass]] to [[Boisterous Bruiser]].
* ''[[The Spectre]]'' had a storyline about Uncle Sam, starting with the basis that, as he was the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of America, he hadn't always been Uncle Sam, instead being [[The American Revolution|the Minuteman]], or [[Antebellum America|Brother Jonathan]], or [[American Civil War|split in two as Billy Yank and Johnny Reb]], depending on the era. All very reasonable. Somehow, that led to him being reinvented as The Patriot, who wore a white bodysuit with red stripes on one shoulder and a blue patch with stars on the other, and a golden space helmet with an eagle on top. Eventually somebody realized that, by their own rules, he should keep being Uncle Sam until a new "Spirit of America" image took root naturally, and he reverted to his old look.
* [[Shazam|Captain Marvel]] and the rest of the Marvel Family underwent one not too long ago. Essentially, [[Dan
** Ironically, while the last few years have been horrible for the characters in the comics, they've been doing very well in other media, with the classic Captain Marvel appearing in video games (''[[Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe]]'') and cartoons (''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'', ''DC Showcase - Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam'', ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'').
** Currently, the [[New 52]] reboot is providing some hope, as it's restarting from scratch and includes some well-received [[Canon Immigrant|Canon Immigrants]] from the ''[[Flashpoint (comics)|Flashpoint]]'' event. But fans are still wary of some [[Darker and Edgier]] elements that have come up, so we'll see if the Dork Age is truly over yet.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Dork Age]]▼
[[Category:The DCU]]
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