Wrong turns made in storylines for DC Comics

[caj]

You're reading a DC Comics book and LOVING it. Then something happens and the story takes a wrong turn that ruins it for you.

What are some examples of wrong turns writers (or book editors) have taken in DC Comics (your opinion only)?

[D.Z]

Most stuff with relationships.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

Whoever made the decision (Didio) to cancel the often promised Speed Force title that was supposed to accompany the Barry-Allen-and-only-Barry-Allen-starring Flash book in the oughts, just to try to force fans of Wally and other members of the Flash Family to swallow that they would support Barry and nobody else.

The whole "Young Justice heroes aren't SERIOUS enough, they need to be traumatized/forced into 'growing up' and becoming SERIOUS" debacle.

[Gaius]

Max Lord neck snap pretty much derailed all the more interesting stuff that was going on in Rucka's WW run and the character for pretty much the remainder of the Pre-New 52 years.

[John Venus]

Nightwing Annual #2: Cute, a little melodramatic, still think Dick as Robin stuck in a safe with Batgirl was hilarious. Then the whole scene with Dick sleeping with Babs on the night of his wedding with Kory then inviting Babs to the wedding the morning after scene happens and ugh.

Dick and Kory's wedding in the original telling was like that too. The relationship was really well done under Wolfman's pen then as they get closer to the wedding, **** just starts falling apart, you got Mirage sleeping with Dick while disguised as Kory, Kory being mad at Dick over it, Dick being a huge jerk as well, etc, etc. The whole thing's a mess.

[caj]

Booster Gold leaves JLA to form the Conglomerate in JLA #38. You can't separate Blue and Gold. The book was never as good afterwards.

[D.Z]

Putting all the pre flashpoint stuff back in which killed everyones sales but the Batfamily and few others.

[Dog of Thunder]

The whole "Young Justice heroes aren't SERIOUS enough, they need to be traumatized/forced into 'growing up' and becoming SERIOUS" debacle.

DC Comics has not been the same, to me, since Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day. It's all been too cynical. The Titans have been been the collective punching bag of every crossover villain since. Donna Troy has never recovered and likely never will.

[Stanlos]

The ridiculously unbalanced and thematically disconnected conclusion to Infinite Crisis. Pretty much wasted the excellence provided in the year leading up to the mini.

[BohemiaDrinker]

The whole "Young Justice heroes aren't SERIOUS enough, they need to be traumatized/forced into 'growing up' and becoming SERIOUS" debacle.

This.

Nightwing Annual #2: Cute, a little melodramatic, still think Dick as Robin stuck in a safe with Batgirl was hilarious. Then the whole scene with Dick sleeping with Babs on the night of his wedding with Kory then inviting Babs to the wedding the morning after scene happens and ugh.

Dick and Kory's wedding in the original telling was like that too. The relationship was really well done under Wolfman's pen then as they get closer to the wedding, **** just starts falling apart, you got Mirage sleeping with Dick while disguised as Kory, Kory being mad at Dick over it, Dick being a huge jerk as well, etc, etc. The whole thing's a mess.

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!

[Midnight_v]

Armageddon 2001 nothing was worse than not making The Monarch Captain Atom in that story. Just a waste.

[Jon Clark]

Putting aside plot points that were bad ideas (to me) from Day One, hand-offs where writer A started a plot and Writer B had to resolve it, and twists that were meant to be changes of direction where i just didn't like the new direction...

1)Darkseid's Curse: Following up The Great Darkness Saga by having it revealed that Validus, a longtime Legion opponent, was really the sone of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl transformed by Darkseid and sent back in time made Darkseid seem petty and felt more like an idea from a bad fan-fic.

2)The Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman and the death/resurrection of Steve Trevor. I understand killing him off in the first place. Putting aside the whole problem with undoing deaths in comics as a whole, I can accept his being restored. But they couldn't leave it alone killing him a second time and then pulling another Steve Trevor out of their a,,,sleeve just before Crisis close everything off jst to give them a marriage as the universe was being closed down?

3)Byrne's need to have Superman kill and the aftermath. This sort of fits under the "handoffs" I wasn't going to include but in this case it was Byrne's original need to write the Pocket Universe arc as a story ending with Superman killing that set the ball in motion. Even Zack Snyder at least didn't feel the need to have Superman decide to kill Zod because he was a potential threat. Byrne made a point of showing us gold kryptonite (a Silver Age trope that was supposedly permanent) depowering the Zoners BEFORE Superman decides to kill them. He could have set up a situation like in Snyder's film where Superman kiils one of the Zoners while they were still powered and an active threat. Still would be a low moment in my mind but it would have made more sense. The decision by the next team to give Superman PTSD and a whole separate personality developing... only compounded the issue.

[Thor-Ul]

Doomsday Clock, when in the last spread page, the Legion didn't returned but that other thing than Bendis created.

[Factor]

Doomsday Clock, when in the last spread page, the Legion didn't returned but that other thing than Bendis created.

That was messy. It really didn’t fit the story Johns had been telling with Saturn Girl.

[Agent Z]

Max Lord neck snap pretty much derailed all the more interesting stuff that was going on in Rucka's WW run and the character for pretty much the remainder of the Pre-New 52 years.

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.