WORST Comics Storyline
overgeeked
B/X Known World
The Green Lantern story where they introduce the "emotional rainbow" nonsense. Don't know the name of it. But it's terrible.
FitzTheRuke
Legend
Sins Past. The one where it was revealed that Norman Osborn had had two kids with Gwen Stacy before he killed her. And they grew up to look exactly like Gwen and Peter. And they were adults. (Yes, I know there were feeble excuses made to explain these things, but they were all feeble and the whole idea is just gross and stupid).
FitzTheRuke
Legend
I'll give you the "emotional rainbow" part - that IS pretty stupid, but the overall Geoff Johns Green Lantern storyline was awesome.
Ryujin
Legend
The death of Superman with subsequent "inheritors" characters, followed by his resurrection. It cheapened everything that followed. It's not the first time that he came back from the dead. I can clearly remember that in the 100 page "DC Super Specials" they killed him in Kandor and then the moment that his body was removed from the city he came back to life, because he couldn't be dead in the world where he was invulnerable or some such weak hand-wave, but it was all over in one story and didn't string everyone along as "he's really gone forever."
OMG. The memories, they hurt!
I submit Avengers vol.3 #71 by Geoff Johns. It should have gotten him and the editor Tom Brevoort fired. You can't even see all of it in the TPB version because they took a page or two out. It isn't that they dwell on Hank and Jan again (see more on that below, that wasn't the worst here), it's that in the Avengers, not the Ultimates, the Avengers, they have a size changing sex scene with Hank and Jan and follow it up with the crushing brutal awfulness of Whirlwind beating up and murdering a woman he had paid to dress up like Jan. Inexcusable and unforgivable.
Some other nominees from the Avengers in order:
Wanda raping Simon in Avengers West Coast 56-57 is in second only because the art isn't as graphic. Byrne and editor Howard Mackie should have been fired.
Assuming Michelinie's story of what happened is true, Avengers 200 was a last minute rewrite. The story they basically wanted to use got ninja'd by a few months and who knows what they were thinking when they had Kang's son use mind control to rape Carol Danvers so that she would conceive and bear him as a child. And at the end the other Avengers just let them go off together (no mention of possible mind control or anything). Would it be better if the original with the supreme intelligence artificially inseminating her had happened? I really like Chris Claremont's Avengers Annual 10 that addresses this - but I've got nothing to say against anyone who finds what she went through in that one awful too and it deserving a nomination.
The slap (whether it was an artist mistake or intended) in Avengers 213 was awful, but the dozen or so issues after that worked the storyline out and numerous authors have dealt seriously with Hank Pym's mental health and spousal abuse. The Wasp series about Nadia a few years back did a spectacular job. So 213 isn't my nominee - it could have been a tragedy that led to a continuing story of the road back from some betrayals and the lifelong struggle against mental illness. On the other hand, numerous authors have made a joke of spousal abuse and/or mental health (ignoring both the issues after 213 and the work of the other writers who followed in that spirit). All the writers who did that were at best having naughty word weeks, at worst are naughty word.
And now some lesser ones.
Whatever issue it was where Hank Pym's soul was eaten. Expletive everyone involved in that issue.
Anything putting the Sentry into the 616. I hates it with the power of a 1,000,000,000 burning suns. Invalidating the history of the Marvel, universe, lazy powers, and insipid writing.
Byrne destroying Wanda and the Vision more generally in West Coast Avengers.
Busiek's Kang Dynasty. Lazy world.threat and trashing where vast parts of the surface are mangled by an insane secret defense grid, a country becomes nuclear zombies (granted Thor is awesome in it), Washington DC is nuked, all the worlds heroes are locked up in concentration camps ... and the repressions are gone in two issues (compare to, say, 9/11 in the real world or even the snap in the MCU). Most overrated Avengers story of all time - and it isn't close. Maybe this shouldn't be on this list, or above the next one - but the disappointment stung worst here because I had expectations.
A few Avengers issues by Bendis where he has clearly decided that part of his story is insulting all the long time fans. He had some good stuff, but he was also an inane child here and there.
I submit Avengers vol.3 #71 by Geoff Johns. It should have gotten him and the editor Tom Brevoort fired. You can't even see all of it in the TPB version because they took a page or two out. It isn't that they dwell on Hank and Jan again (see more on that below, that wasn't the worst here), it's that in the Avengers, not the Ultimates, the Avengers, they have a size changing sex scene with Hank and Jan and follow it up with the crushing brutal awfulness of Whirlwind beating up and murdering a woman he had paid to dress up like Jan. Inexcusable and unforgivable.
Some other nominees from the Avengers in order:
Wanda raping Simon in Avengers West Coast 56-57 is in second only because the art isn't as graphic. Byrne and editor Howard Mackie should have been fired.
Assuming Michelinie's story of what happened is true, Avengers 200 was a last minute rewrite. The story they basically wanted to use got ninja'd by a few months and who knows what they were thinking when they had Kang's son use mind control to rape Carol Danvers so that she would conceive and bear him as a child. And at the end the other Avengers just let them go off together (no mention of possible mind control or anything). Would it be better if the original with the supreme intelligence artificially inseminating her had happened? I really like Chris Claremont's Avengers Annual 10 that addresses this - but I've got nothing to say against anyone who finds what she went through in that one awful too and it deserving a nomination.
The slap (whether it was an artist mistake or intended) in Avengers 213 was awful, but the dozen or so issues after that worked the storyline out and numerous authors have dealt seriously with Hank Pym's mental health and spousal abuse. The Wasp series about Nadia a few years back did a spectacular job. So 213 isn't my nominee - it could have been a tragedy that led to a continuing story of the road back from some betrayals and the lifelong struggle against mental illness. On the other hand, numerous authors have made a joke of spousal abuse and/or mental health (ignoring both the issues after 213 and the work of the other writers who followed in that spirit). All the writers who did that were at best having naughty word weeks, at worst are naughty word.
And now some lesser ones.
Whatever issue it was where Hank Pym's soul was eaten. Expletive everyone involved in that issue.
Anything putting the Sentry into the 616. I hates it with the power of a 1,000,000,000 burning suns. Invalidating the history of the Marvel, universe, lazy powers, and insipid writing.
Byrne destroying Wanda and the Vision more generally in West Coast Avengers.
Busiek's Kang Dynasty. Lazy world.threat and trashing where vast parts of the surface are mangled by an insane secret defense grid, a country becomes nuclear zombies (granted Thor is awesome in it), Washington DC is nuked, all the worlds heroes are locked up in concentration camps ... and the repressions are gone in two issues (compare to, say, 9/11 in the real world or even the snap in the MCU). Most overrated Avengers story of all time - and it isn't close. Maybe this shouldn't be on this list, or above the next one - but the disappointment stung worst here because I had expectations.
A few Avengers issues by Bendis where he has clearly decided that part of his story is insulting all the long time fans. He had some good stuff, but he was also an inane child here and there.
Last edited:
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Well, dang, there go sll my ideas. I endorse all of this, particularly the Carol Danvers impregnation horror.
But to throw another hat in the ring: Hydra Captain America. That was the shark jumping the shark, and I literally have no idea what's been happening in Marvel comics since then.
Sorry, he brought up bad comics and apparently I have some strong feelings on the subject
I went back and added one, the one with the destruction of Hank Pym's soul. I couldn't even bring myself to look up the issue number.
For Cap-Hydra, I get the creative team at the time being mad we won't trust them -- but at some point it would be nice if the advertising would stop treating us like idiots who don't know it will all almost certainly be changed back soon if they really are to be trusted, and they should also blame their excremental predecessors who in a few cases did break things as a reason for us not giving them blind trust.
Last edited:
Ryujin
Legend
Ad Campaign - He really, really, really is a Hydra agent and was all along.
Actual Comics - No he's not, and he wasn't.
Last edited:
