As you might imagine, I have quite a lot of comic book trades. And, as with any large collection, some of it is crap.
We all experience buyer's remorse from time to time, and we are all lured in by shiny beads or what-have-you. There are comics I wish I could retcon from my shelves as easily as they do with Superman's origins.
Do not misunderstand me: I gotta lotta good stuff too. And a lot of it is not awful, but poor, and that's a different story. Nor am I trying to say that these trades are quantifiably terrible. There's no such thing. It's just that, in my humble opinion, I feel that the quality of the work does not justify my purchase.
Here are a few examples:
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters: Brave New World
If you know of it, and if you frequent my blog, you might be surprised. The winning duo of Palmiotti and Gray as writers is usually an instant favourite with me. Throw in an underappreciated DC super-team, and we're all set, right?
Unfortunately, despite excellent character work, the plot is a little rambling. And the art by Renato Arlem is sketchy and repetitive. The writers have resurfaced this series again, and I'll definitely check it out, but I won't get my hopes up.
Batman: Hush Returns
Again, if you're a big fan of me then you'll know that I am in turn a big fan of the Dark Knight. And I loved Loeb and Lee's Hush and what Paul Dini's done with him in modern continuity. But before Dini got his magic hands on him, he had a near-death experience (literally and figuratively) in Hush Returns by I-Don't-Even-Remember-That's-How-Bad-It-Was.
Both Hush and Prometheus are reduced to simple thugs, and the Joker acts... sane! I couldn't even tell you what else happens in here, as I think future Bat-writers chose (wisely) to forget it existed. I wish I could remove it from my memory as easily as Hush removed that bomb Joker puts in him.
Ultimatum: March on Ultimatum
Now we're really getting into it. The Ultimate Marvel Universe's first big Event story, written by Jeph Loeb. At the time, there was joking that Loeb had been sent by DC to sabotage Marvel from within. After reading this, I could believe it (if not for his awesome, subsequent stories).
This is just the prelude to Ultimatum by the way, which makes me amazed that anybody read that far. The thing reads like a nineties comic. Yeah, that bad. Personally though, I think they shoulda just shot the Ultimate Universe in the head before this point anyway.
Justice League Elite
Speaking of nineties comics, apparently Joe Kelly, after an incredible JLA story (The Obsidian Age), felt that we needed a return to the "X-treme!" era of costumed crime-fighting. A Justice League "black ops" splinter group was assembled, with characters running the spectrum of interesting, from "Hmm" to "Meh".
But a lack of gravitas or orginality saw this sink fast. And I'm not really that fond of Mahnke's art style, although it has grown on me recently.
The entire run of Shadowpact
This takes the gold in the category of "Why do I own this?" Not just one or two trades: All four of the damn things! I've never even read the fourth one!
Spun-out of DC's Day of Vengeance mini-series, which itself was spun-out of the Infinite Crisis Event, it involved a team-up of some lesser-known magical heroes, fighting the forces of darkness, etc. But the new and exciting characters quickly dulled, and I was just reading it on instinct by the end.
Everything to do with Countdown
After the undefinable, astronomical, historical, you-can-see-it-from-space success of 52, DC did what anyone who made a heap of money off a huge gamble woulda done: Gambled it all again. Countdown to Final Crisis, in case the title didn't give it away, was supposed to be a weekly companion to Grant Morrison's insanity-on-paper Final Crisis. Like 52 it would focus on the "little people" of the DCU -- Jimmy Olsen, Mary Marvel, Holly Robinson, etc. -- but unlike that mega-series, it was written by an ever-changing team.
Needless to say, it was not as successful as either 52 or Final Crisis, and didn't really have anything to do with the latter in the end. Like a fool, I bought every single thing connected to it. But at least I learned what all comics fans learn at some point: You don't have to read all the tie-ins to enjoy a good story.
And hey, there's still good comics out there. Plus, I'm sure somebody loves one of the above. If it's you, contact me for a great deal.
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