Wrong turns made in storylines for DC Comics

[andersonh1]

The biggest one in recent years was aging Jon Kent up off-panel. I loved having 10 year old Jon as his dad's "sidekick" and the whole family going on adventures. And all of that was just thrown away for no good reason that I can see.

[caj]

I agree with not allowing Donna Troy to keep her pre-Crisis origin and not re-establishing Katar Hol and Shayera Thal as another pair of Hawks during the Return of Hawkman storyline.

Both of these mistakes have been haunting DC Comics' history for far too long.

[blunt_eastwood]

I am still waiting for the Pandora payoff!

LMAO.

The "payoff" was that she got killed by Dr. Manhattan

[blunt_eastwood]

I'm surprised no one said having Hal be the main villian in Zero Hour.

[krazijoe]

LMAO.

The "payoff" was that she got killed by Dr. Manhattan

They had a little potential with that and totally blew it. HELL! They could have said she WAS Dr. Manhatten in this UNiverse!

[John Venus]

Jesus, yes, all of this.

In fact, Titans are a recurring one here. Rebirth Titans were fine till Lazarus' Contract and then it was all downhill. And there was Sean McKeever's Titans; poor guy.

Other examples: cutting Gail Simone's BoP short in order to remove Dinah from the Team and make her marry Ollie. Forcing Morrison's Batman's INC to finish under Nu52 continuity. OYL Outsiders, OYL Titans, OYL Cass and OYL Nightwing were all examples of things that were running just fine and then "BAM: SUCKY NEW DIRECTION!" The integration of Wildstorm characters into the New 52 had a lot of potential - even if flawed - and then for some reason all of it was mandated to have a crossover centered around Eclipso. That killed it. Everything concerning Chris Kent.

And of course, Williansom, after jumping trough every possible hoop, being the one guy with the faintest concern about continuity, out of some miracle writting being able to put the Flash franchise back in some sort of shape... to be handed Heroes in Crisis. Yeah, that one was tough!

Yes, that whiplash from the joy of Wally West returning in Rebirth to the infuriating 'Heroes in Crisis' is something I'll never forget.

All that stuff you mentioned is part of the reason why being a DC reader in the 00's was so frustrating and it got worse once the Nu52 rolled out.

Wrong turns:
1. Making Donna a murder weapon created to fight Diana (fights everything we love about Donna, completely undermined the character).

2. Aging up Jon 5 years. (Robbed the readers of years of potential Super Sons stories, which we were loving, and made him too duplicative of Connor).

3. Making Hawk the villain Extant instead of sticking with the original plan (because it leaked). Ruined Hawk and also felt forced in the story.

All of this.

The ending to the New Krypton story. It was total amateur hour hack writing. Blowing up New Krypton and killing all the Kryptonians was beyond lazy. It makes it even worse knowing the Flashpoint reboot was coming soon which made it seem even more stupid. There were so many other ways to end that with out the obvious "kill em all" garbage. Have the whole planet sent to the Phantom Zone. Have one of the cosmic forces move the planet to the other side of the universe under a red sun with Superman knowing they are out there but not knowing where. Have the whole planet locked in suspended animation with Superman not knowing how to free them. Anything would have been better than that **** ending they gave us.

Yes, this.

I wasn't a regular Superman reader but once World of New Krypton came out I was all in on Superman titles. It was the most exciting the line up had been in long time.

I also loved Chris Kent, whom come to think of it, is basically the proto Jon. Clark and Lois adopting Zod and Ursa's son was such a neat angle. He too was prematurely aged up and later got tangled in a romantic plot line.

The worst part was that Clark had no reaction to his people getting genocided again, the next arc with JMS was him walking around America because some random woman gave him **** for not helping cure her son of cancer.

[blunt_eastwood]

They had a little potential with that and totally blew it. HELL! They could have said she WAS Dr. Manhatten in this UNiverse!

Are you talking about the big "mystery" of the evil that was coming? I thought that whole thing was so stupid personally.

[krazijoe]

Are you talking about the big "mystery" of the evil that was coming? I thought that whole thing was so stupid personally.

Evil coming or how Pandora manipulated Flash into creating New 52. A new Cosmic force that is Cosmic level would have been nice.

[Stanlos]

I am still wondering what the point of Darkseid War was or why the need to muck up WWs origin and do double damage with the missing twin who was ACTUALLY the Chosen One. I really do not like the last regime.

[Refrax5]

Making Hawkworld take place in the present day instead of being a "year one" type story for the post-Crisis Hawks.

Bringing back the Lost Lanterns just to kill most of them off in quick succession.

Heroes in Crisis, obviously. Good Lord.

Everything that happened in Earth 2 after Robinson left.

[Dog of Thunder]

Bringing back E-2 Superman during IC and then killing him off and then literally dragging his corpse around the DCU was just gross. He got his happy ending at the end of COIE. Let him have it or treat him respectfully.

Definitely this. This is where Geoff Johns exposed himself as a fraud. I know that sounds harsh, but it accurately describes my feelings. The Pre-Crisis characters returning from limbo had so much potential, but that was squandered. Superboy Prime may be the worst written character I have read. Still not sure why he and Alexander Luthor became villains, or why Earth-2 Superman and Lois died, or why the Titans had to be humiliated in another crossover. It's been suggested over the years the Superboy Prime was supposed to represent old-school comic fans, maybe?

[Gaius]

I'd say the issue was less the killing of Max and how DC handled the fallout. Especially since they dragged it out past Infinite Crisis while letting Batman and Superman off the hook for their failures.

Definitely one of mine too. Diana was shoehorned into a plot point that didn’t reflect her character.

It certainly took Diana down a dangerous road that I don't think she's ever recovered from. And what was worse was how awfully it was followed up on. There was no real redemption for Diana. The evidence never really surfaced that cleared her name completely. So it leaves a stain that many writers since have exploited, making things worse.

Yep, meanwhile Bruce was wagging his finger from a moral high ground made of the corpses of people he got killed.

[Thor-Ul]

Letting big name writers reboot the Legion for no real reason other than they want too further shattering the fan base every time. They did it with Mark Waid and that was a total failure. They did it again with Brian Bendis and that too was a total failure.

In defense of Mark Waid, it must be said than he was willing to continue with the reboot Legion, but the threeboot was imposed by editorial demand, only to be retracted sometime later, causing Waid to leave DC, until just recently. SO for that I put the blame on DiDio.
And again, I am not a Bendis defender, but considering what I just said above these lines, I am willing to accept than it was DiDio who suggested Bendis to go with yet another Legion reboot. I am willing to accept than Bendis played with the given hand, but also I think than if he would had fought stronger, DiDio would had accepted not to reboot the Legion. But if Bendis didn't asked for the original team, he is as guilty as DiDio.

[brandnewfan]

The biggest one in recent years was aging Jon Kent up off-panel. I loved having 10 year old Jon as his dad's "sidekick" and the whole family going on adventures. And all of that was just thrown away for no good reason that I can see.

This.

This right here.

We didn't have enough time with young Jon.

[caj]

Definitely this. This is where Geoff Johns exposed himself as a fraud. I know that sounds harsh, but it accurately describes my feelings. The Pre-Crisis characters returning from limbo had so much potential, but that was squandered. Superboy Prime may be the worst written character I have read. Still not sure why he and Alexander Luthor became villains, or why Earth-2 Superman and Lois died, or why the Titans had to be humiliated in another crossover.

Agree completely with all of this.

Such a sad and horrible storyline for four characters who should've been left alone if this was the plan for them.