Unpopular Comics That Don't Deserve The Hate

[Timothy Hunter]

What generally reviled comics do you enjoy?

[CSTowle]

Loved the Clone Saga from Spider-Man. A lot of bad comics, but a lot of good ones too. Loved the Death of Aunt May issue #400 (which is why, in my headcanon, she's still dead and at best what's around is a clone), loved the Lost Years of Ben Reilly (like that he used Uncle Ben's first name and Aunt May's maiden name as well), liked a clearly cheap knock-off of the Joker as their version of the Jackal, Kaine was dang creepy (and enjoyed his Scarlet Spider series much later), speaking of him liked the '90s trashiness of the hoody Scarlet Spider, liked Ben's weird extended leg Spider-Man costume and little gadgets. I was a young teenager at the time, but it kept me interested the whole time. Actually lost me only when they brought Norman Osborn and Aunt May back to life and got rid of their baby.

I absolutely loved Emerald Twilight, the Ron Marz Green Lantern story. Hal Jordan was always one of the least interesting main DC characters to me, much preferred a Guy Gardner who actually had some personality, but to see him finally snap and for understandable reasons and just say to heck with it and go rogue was a lot of fun to read. The lame "alien parasite made me do it" retcon (while I understand, wanted to get back to zero without much work involved) turned me off on any reboot. Again, in my headcanon he acquired the power to rewrite reality and that was the best he could come up with, because he'd always wanted to "set things right" and go back to being a beloved superhero.

Those are the only two I can think of from the top of my head, but curious what others suggest.

[Alan2099]

I absolutely loved Emerald Twilight, the Ron Marz Green Lantern story. Hal Jordan was always one of the least interesting main DC characters to me, much preferred a Guy Gardner who actually had some personality, but to see him finally snap and for understandable reasons and just say to heck with it and go rogue was a lot of fun to read. The lame "alien parasite made me do it" retcon (while I understand, wanted to get back to zero without much work involved) turned me off on any reboot. Again, in my headcanon he acquired the power to rewrite reality and that was the best he could come up with, because he'd always wanted to "set things right" and go back to being a beloved superhero.

I'm with you on that one...

and Hal DID get the ability to alter reality during Zero Hour and when he became the Spectre.

[Adam Allen]

I thought the "alien parasite" retcon for Parallax was pretty lame too, but since I had been one of the fans upset about Jordan's villain turn in Emerald Twilight, I was willing to accept the lameness, to finally get the character back to not having such huge marks against him. None of the less-bs ways of allowing some kind of redemption had really worked, so dumb alien energy parasite, it is!

Plus which, lame as the space-bug version of Parallax was initially, it led to all the color spectrum stuff for the Lanterns, which I think improved on their mythology greatly. So, guess I'm saying Rebirth kind of fits the thread topic, since most everybody thought parasite Parallax was a cop-out, but from Larfleeze to Dex-Starr and all the rest, I think a great deal of good came out of that kind of silly retcon.

[DanMad1977]

I love the clone Saga too. A Great and terrific time then. I had a blast.

[Zauriel]

Loved the Clone Saga from Spider-Man. A lot of bad comics, but a lot of good ones too. Loved the Death of Aunt May issue #400 (which is why, in my headcanon, she's still dead and at best what's around is a clone), loved the Lost Years of Ben Reilly (like that he used Uncle Ben's first name and Aunt May's maiden name as well), liked a clearly cheap knock-off of the Joker as their version of the Jackal, Kaine was dang creepy (and enjoyed his Scarlet Spider series much later), speaking of him liked the '90s trashiness of the hoody Scarlet Spider, liked Ben's weird extended leg Spider-Man costume and little gadgets. I was a young teenager at the time, but it kept me interested the whole time. Actually lost me only when they brought Norman Osborn and Aunt May back to life and got rid of their baby.

.

I liked the Clone Saga up to the point where they revealed Peter parker as the clone and Ben Reilly as the original.

I can't believe they mucked the continuity when they revealed the corpse found in a smokestack was the clone that fought Peter Parker. Why did the dead clone's body not dissolve like the others? Why was it still intact all the time?

[DanMad1977]

I liked the Clone Saga up to the point where they revealed Peter parker as the clone and Ben Reilly as the original.

I can't believe they mucked the continuity when they revealed the corpse found in a smokestack was the clone that fought Peter Parker. Why did the dead clone's body not dissolve like the others? Why was it still intact all the time?

Yeah, but at the time it was a real shocker to me. A big wtf moment that had me thinking for days about it. Ok, I was still relatively young then, but boy thats where the ride began. I was still glad that it turned out the other way.

[CSTowle]

I guess even at the time I figured it was like the "Death of Superman" or Batman's broken back, or Legion killing Xavier and rewriting history (but only for the X-Men line, for some reason). A temporary shake-up of status quo. Or, more recently, Nazi/Hydra Captain America that some folks truly believed would be the norm from now on. Of course it's temporary. But I get the concern.

[Adam Allen]

Most big changes are wiped away pretty easily once they're tired of them, like how nearly every hero has been killed and resurrected at some point. Some things stick more in fans memory for some reason, though -- Hal's slaughtering a city and all the other Lantern's being so hard to undo for so long, probably the best example of that.

Things have maybe changed to where it's even easier than ever to just do whatever you want and know you can erase it again after, these days -- I think all the House of X stuff is a prime example of that reality, because I don't believe for a second that all of that is meant to be the set canon, once its done -- but, you still never know, if your story resonates enough, how easy it will be for people to forget about it. Like, I suspect that you would still have some people, if you asked why they don't like Cyclops, explaining that he's a dick for having abandoned his family when Jean Grey was brought back. Even though all of Marvel reality has been rebooted like multiple times since that.

[PCN24454]

I actually liked Brand New Day of Spider-Man. I actually felt it was better than JMS's run.

[OopsIdiditagain]

All-Star Batman and Robin. Yes, it was edgy and had dumb moments but it was ironically funny. If adult swim ever makes a batman series, it should be based on that.

[K7P5V]

I'll say this for Disassembled, the artwork was truly memorable (IMHO):

[DanMad1977]

Didnt know that disassembled is unpopular, but if it is, count me in, I like that story. And the art...

[4saken1]

I remember a lot of hate for Squadron Supreme when it came out, but I loved that series. I even liked the Michael Straczynski reboot.

[Timothy Hunter]

Do most haters of Identity Crisis already have a familiarity with Sue Dibny and Jean Lorring? I've only read bits and pieces of Justice League Europe and the first issue of Sword of the Atom (where Jean was from the get go was portrayed as a bitch) not enough to gain an emotional attachment to those main characters.