Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Why the Past Month's Comics Sucked

So April was the cruelest month, at least for the comics I've been reading.

1) 'Nuff said already about S/LSH #29.

2) Amazons Attack! Attack my wallet, and my sense of decency. Everything "essential" (and I use that word generously) was covered, much better, in Wonder Woman #8. Plus, I am sorry, but Amazons do NOT slaughter innocent civilians on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I will NOT buy the remaining issues of this series, and I will let DC know why, for my own piece of mind.

While I'm on Wonder Woman, I loved Picoult's first issue, but by #8 we have Diana Prince looking for Circe in the women's room of a supervillain dress-up bar. Now, I love a supervillain dress-up bar as much as the next comics geek, and a lady's room, great. But somebody tell me, WHY was Circe there?!?!?!

3) Teen Titans titanic teen pointless slugfest non-stop for what seems like, oh, the last 12 issues or so. I don't just mean the Titans East story. When was the last time this title made any sense at all?

4) Superman. Oh good, an issue spent wondering if he is bad for earth (after months of fill-ins, where us readers spent time pondering what he would do). At the end, he got off his ass and tried to determine the truth of it, but a whole issue of angst. I thought after Infinite Crisis Superman was supposed to get away from this kind of stuff. I won't even comment on Action Comics. I think they were trying to tell a cool story about everyone's favorite Phantom Zone villains. Or was that just the Superman II: The Donner Version?

5) All-Star Superman. What the hell happened this issue? The only thinged I gleaned from it was that Steve Lombard uses male performance enhancements. Not exactly a bombshell, from those of us who remember the character.

6) World War III. Did I care why Martian Manhunter became anti-social? How about just telling a Martian Manhunter story explaining why he became anti-social? He had a mini-series for Pete's sake. Couldn't you cover the topic there? Same for Aquaman turning into Dr. Calamari. There IS an Aquaman ongoing, after all. Squeeze it in. Is there now an insatiable market for Teen Titans dismemberments? I am not part of that target demo, I guess.

7) Was Batman even published this month? Nope.

What's the common thread here? Decompression? Check. Missed deadlines? Check. Writer and artist prima donnas? Check. Character assassination? Check. Endless tie ins to events that maybe don't warrant one comic, let alone 4, 6 or 8? Check. Too much meta/post-modernist deconstructionism? Check.

At the heart of it, it seems DC is interested only in big events about stories, about doing meta-stories about stories, rather than stories themselves. Did I enjoy 52? Very much, at least much of it. But did we need 52 issues about recreating the multiverse? No. It could have been handled as an epilogue to Infinite Crisis, the fact of it, then we could have seen stories actually ABOUT it, as appropriate, in the actual regular comics. Meanwhile all progress in the DCU ground to a halt. Sure would have been great to see Superman/Action touch on the Luthor/Everyman thing, for example. Oh well. And now Countdown is starting, and my guess by the end of the year is that Countdown will be the only book DC publishes.

I stopped reading comics altogether in the late 1990s because stupid crossover events ruined almost every title I read. I am mighty close to pulling the trigger again.

This was a depressing post to write, but I had to get it out, and complaining to my wife didn't seem the best venue.

Meanwhile, USAGI YOJIMBO (Stan Sakai) and BIG BANG COMICS (Gary Carlson & friends) continue to be as good as ever. (Marvel? DC? Who needs them?)

It looks like DC has been watering down the soup and may continue to do so with their continuing Event series.

52 was interesting for its individual stories, although I agree that the multiverse thing might have been better handled as you suggest. And maybe All-Star Superman just had an off issue - it's been pretty good so far, but the last issue did receive more criticism. (I'm trying to be upbeat here!) However, it does sound like the DC train derailed in April - I wouldn't call it a train wreck yet. Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall in their offices?

And, as prof suggests, could be time to look around for other comic options.

I think 52 was actually hurt by the whole OYL thing in other books more than anything. I do think it probably would've been better if it had been run concurrrently with the other books rather than "filling in the missing year". But it was an experiment, and, overall, I think it was highly successful. Hopefully they've learned some lessons from this experience that will apply to Countdown.

Otherwise, Jonah Hex and The Spirit both continued to be great in April, so there is good stuff being published, even by DC.

I have to agree about Amazons Attack. A little crazy there. And WW #8 basically was the same issue but better. And to tell the truth neither interested me all that much.

Teen Titans? Eh. I mean the plots are good but I just feel it's missing something. It has lost its umph, IMO.

All-Star Superman was the worst of that run so far. But it ended good.

Personally I liked WWIII.

Yeah I think 52 started out as something that was supposed to work with OYL but it ended up as something completely different that worked better without it.

The big Two's events have been lacking for the last year now. I think, having Bendis and Johns and their respective writing entourages go pretty much non-stop for the last 3 years has drained of not only ideas but also the energy needed to deliver punchy work in their own series.

Hopefully if they continue the event marketing they can find some new voices to drive it. Not only to bring in some diversity but to get the energy into the work and get series moving again.

I agree it appears Geoff and Bendis are calling all the shots. At DC I kind of like since I'm a huge Geoff fan. At Marvel? eh.

I have to say that I'm pretty burnt out on Marvel and DC these days too. I honestly can't say which one is better, because I don't think either one is trying that hard anymore to tell great stories about their characters.

But there is still great stuff coming from both of them! I can at least count on my favorite 5-7 comics from each company to remind me that there's a reason I still collect comics.

And there's always Vertigo and independents, though I'm currently not that into as many independents and only collecting Fables and Y from Vertigo.

At this time last year I had more enthusiasm about DC than ever. Now I'm burnt out on them. Marvel continues to act in a way that makes me think they hate me personally.

Geoff is still going great with JSA.

Amazon Attacks....I am still waiting and seeing what happens. But I thought what happened in the first issues was way over the top.

Pete Woods did do some great work though.

If you had seen this book in black and white, I think you might agree that the real genius here is Brad Anderson (colorist). He did amazing things for this book. But maybe I'm biased.

This might be dumb coming from me, but I think they just need to come up with better ideas for the comics.

"And, as prof suggests, could be time to look around for other comic options."

The sad thing is, most of the "other" comics I used to read and enjoy and disappeared. Frank Cho has been too busy at Marvel to do what he should REALLY be doing-- LIBERTY MEADOWS. On the other hand, Mike Allred may have FINALLY gotten that hellish Marvel period out of his system, as the 1st issue of a new MADMAN series finally turned up this month. And Steve Rude's NEXUS is coming soon as well!!!

Terry Moore's STRANGERS IN PARADISE will be ending next month, however. Just as well, probably. Maybe this will give me an excuse to finally go back and re-read the thing from the beginning...

I'm with EDE on Jonah Hex. I love that comic. I think DC is suffering from all the OYL, 52, Countdown stuff, and now Amazons Attack.

D'Chinner, I hope things get better for you because if you dropped comics your posts/opinions here would be missed!

I personally enjoyed 52 VERY much and have high hopes for COUNTDOWN. I'll be watching what happens with the multiverse very closely.

Teen Titans *is* feeling the lessening presence/absence of Geoff Johns but until this month it has been one of my favorites.

S/LSH 29 was just okay for me. I don't think I hated it as much as others did, but it certainly won't ever be a favorite.

I knew I was taking a risk with WW3 but it was okay.

I bypassed AMAZONS ATTACK! alltogether. Glad I did. From the get-go, 6 issues seemed a bit much for this premise, one that I fully expected to be told just as well in WONDER WOMAN, a book I already collect.

On the plus side, I am SO into the JLA/JSA/LSH crossover right now. OUTSIDERS ANNUAL # 1 was good.

Marvelwise, I'm dropping Ms. Marvel. I can follow her somewhat throught the Dan Slott-written INITIATIVE AVENGERS.

In other companies, I've been newly hooked on THE WALKING DEAD and WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY became a fast favorite from the first issue.

Thanks all for the suggestions, commiserations and counter-arguments! I feel better (catharsis is a fact, jack!), even if I still think April sucked. Prof, I will take your advice and look into the "lesser" publisher title! (I have to go to the CBS without the 4-year old. He has like an anti-browsing super power.)

Lashie, I want to enjoy to JLA/JSA crossover, but even there...for one thing, there's no villain. Yes, it might be Ultra-Humanite and that would be cool. Also, it's just so hard to lay back and enjoy the multiverse after 20 years of COIE, Man of Steel, End of An Era, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, etc., especially their impact on the Legion. I'm delighted to see Wildfire again. Delighted. But it's like post-traumatic stress, you see Drake, then you think about all the stupid changes, reboots, uncertainty about our favorite characters. As Cobie puts it, you get burned out, even on the stuff that's good. Oh well, enough kvetch. This has definitely helped me think about how to change my pull list, at least.

"But it's like post-traumatic stress, you see Drake, then you think about all the stupid changes, reboots, uncertainty about our favorite characters. As Cobie puts it, you get burned out, even on the stuff that's good."

I know that feeling. I used to love Spider-Man... but I dropped him 3 TIMES over the years-- the 3rd time, I swore, that was it. And apart from the Steve Rude mini, it has been. (Steve's my #1 fave artist these days, but even most of HIS Marvel projects weren't doing it for me. That one was an exception. It was SO good-- it actually made Roger Stern look bad by comparison. Which REALLY made me realize how bad it's been for over 30 years...)

Batman used to be my favorite costumed hero. I got sick of what they were doing with him by 1989!!! Think about THAT one! His guest-apearances in other people's books just made me hate what they'd done to him all the more. When it was appararent that INFINITE CRISIS was not going to end in a "reboot", I said "Screw it!" I didn't care how much "better" he might be now-- for me, it was too little, too late.

LEGION, of course, has gone thru good and bad periods its whole existence. But until 1986, it had always been a "consistent" history. (Especially if you take into account a few alternate futures, seen in the earliest Superman stories). But since Paul Levitz & Karen Berger both left at the same time, it's been an almost steady downward slide. That's a LONG time for a book to keep getting worse and worse and worse. Sure, there's been the occasional improvement-- Stuart Immonen's debut, the first 6 months of the "reboot" (for me, anyway), the first year of "THE LEGION" (Abnett, Lanning & Coipel proved they did know what they were doing; Marvel sabotaged it by hiring Coipel away-- bastards!). When I saw the first 4 months of "Waid's World", that was it. I dropped the book-- the only book I'd bought non-stop since the late 70's.

Now, judging by what seems to be going on with the-- ahem-- "Multiverse"-- I may give LEGION another try sometime soon. But unless it's the "real" Legion (the one with that 30-year unbroken history), I just can't be bothered anymore. I'd rather read about the Pantheon of Heroes in BIG BANG COMICS.