10 Worst Tropes DC Comics Still Rely On

[Tzigone]

13. The Guardians of the Universe are old, out-of-touch, ineffective, emotionless power-mongers who do more harm than good.
14. Batman's a dick who does more damage than good for those he takes under his wing.

Yep. I miss not Bat-Jerk and the Good Guardians.

[Captain Smith]

a. Superhero loses his or her powers
b. Joker never just gets shot or killed
c. Whining about not killing and bad people do it again. Police and Military kill to protect. Heroes are wussies.
d. I agree, too much unstoppable Batman
e. Hal goes crazy yet again, the GLC is dissolved, yet again
f. What's Wonder Woman - clay, half god?
g. The Speed Force does everything

[Phoenixx9]

Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but the villains are so bad and powerful and have these dastardly plots, yet they always lose to the heroes.

[Alan2099]

Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but the villains are so bad and powerful and have these dastardly plots, yet they always lose to the heroes.

You want the badguys to kill the good guys and get away with it?

[Phoenixx9]

You want the badguys to kill the good guys and get away with it?

Ahahahaha, well, no, not all of them! Not to that extreme! Lol.

But all the bad guys cannot be weaker, slower, dumber, less couragous etc than all of the good guys. Even as a kid I never liked that!

[Sutekh]

e. Hal goes crazy yet again, the GLC is dissolved, yet again

Hal, and Diana, should be the last two standing on any sort of mental breakdown chart of Leaguers. Willpower is literally his thing, and she's more or less a spirit of truth made flesh. (Counting non-regular-Leaguers, Shazam with the Wisdom of Solomon should also be at the top of the chart.)

Plus the Corps falling apart so regularly, when it's supposedly lasted in an unbroken line *for millenia* before now, is just ludicrous.

Same with any ages-old place like Atlantis lasting for thousands of years (or entire worlds like Thanagar, Tamaran or Rann blowing up), and then collapsing into rubble and / or civil war every three to five years during the late 20th/early 21st century. Cursed to live in interesting times, indeed! (And this applies to Marvel as well. The planet Xander, the lands of Atlantis and Wakanda, the Savage Land, the Kree Empire, Asgard, etc. lasted in some cases for many thousands of years without significant incident, but in the last decade or so, in Marvel years, they've each been blowed up *multiple times*).

Not only is it kind of diminishing returns, as a reader (oh no, Atlantis blew up! Like it did a couple of years ago. And a couple of years before that...), but it also makes our heroes look like they *totally suck* as leaders and protectors. The Green Lantern Corps endures for millenia, and then they make the mistake of recruiting some Earth dudes, and bam, dead, dead, dead again. Maybe we should get some more Slyggians or Hlvrni instead?

[Captain Smith]

Good point, recruiting humans for the GLC doesn't seem to work out. Didn't the Spectre just step on Atlantis a few years back? Wonder what the homeowners' insurance rates are for Atlanteans - or that matter folks in Metropolis or MU NYC. I would think they would be uninsurable. Pay extra for Galactus landing on your condo?

Two most ridiculous powering mechanisms - the Speed Force and the Emotional Spectrum. Along with the color cooties in the batteries.

[DABellWrites]

This isn't even just a DC problem. The Boys, with Homelander, Invincible, with his dad, Image with Supreme, Marvel with King Hyperion, *everyone* has their 'evil Superman' it seems... But yes, if you're go-to story is 'what if someone with the same powers as one of our flagship heroes went bad,' that gets old. Plus heroes fighting mirror-copies with the same powerset is cute *once,* but by the 37th time, not so much.



Anyone called 'the world's greatest assassin,' who is in the role of adversary to heroes, and therefore *never allowed to kill one,* suffers from this. Not just Deathstroke, but Arcade, over at Marvel, as well (who is far more ridiculous, IMO). But yeah, Slade's both hampered by constantly going up against people with plot armor, and also by the fact that his powers are kind of weak, compared to every League member not named Batman (who has the strongest plot armor of them all!).

Supreme was never evil. He was 90s edgy, "look Superman is killing people!"

[DABellWrites]

No, there aren't. The problem is that DC doesn't put out enough of anything else. The expansion of the Bat-line should be the blueprint for other characters.

There should be at least 5 Super-books. At least 2 Green Lantern books. Aquaman, Green Arrow, Black Lightning and more should have books.

The issue here is that DC can't sell anything other than Batman because of the poor choices they themselves make. It certainly isn't a problem that there is too much of the successful thing, it's that they repeatedly fail to make anything else viable and have always been painfully slow at picking up on/promoting popular characters (for current examples, look how long they waited for Johns for SHAZAM, Stargirl and the JSA).

DC can put out its full line of Batman books AND another 50 books if they chose to. They choose not to.

Resenting the Bat-line for being popular and believing that is somehow keeping your favourite character from having a book is just bizarre logic.

Superman did have multiple books, that's how badly DC Comics has come to rely on Batman. From 1949-2018, Superman carried multiple books in different periods. The peak of Superman was during the 1950s/1960s when Clark had Action comics, Superman (1939), Adventure comics with Superboy, the LOSH, and Supergirl being the leads over the years, Superboy (1949), Superman's Girl Friend: Lois Lane, Superman's Pal: Jimmy Oslen, Adventures of Superman (1939, newspaper strip). These titles ran for YEARS. These days, a Superman title can sale on par with Wonder Woman, which is saying a lot.

The Batman reliance is telling of the current state of DC Comics is right now. When DC Comics stopped double shipping titles, they only did it because other titles wasn't bringing in the money. I read a comicsbeat article, eventually Rebirth sales was mid-tier selling titles. DC Comics is a business, they choose to pump out Batman books because Batman books sell. DC Comics does what any business would do. It's the same reason why in the 80s/90s Marvel had flooded the market with all those X-men books. X-men sells, readers want X-men. It's why Marvel is slapping Spider on anything these days. Spider-Man sells.

So, no it's bizzare-logic. It's very logical.

[krazijoe]

Eye Glasses are a great disguise.

[Ra-El]

Evil Superman is the worst.

What about "heroes dead parent was actually evil/controversial?

The number o stories where Jor-El was actually some mad scientist or Thomas Wayne was a evil billionaire are quite a few.

[WonderLight789]

Saying that Wonder Woman is a powerhouse and an important figure for the DCU. when we all know they portray her power level as a ´pathetic weaklink and her presence doesn't really matter in the DCU at large. Those sexists at WB and DC need to stop the lipservice. Because they are fooling nobody.

[WonderLight789]

Superman did have multiple books, that's how badly DC Comics has come to rely on Batman. From 1949-2018, Superman carried multiple books in different periods. The peak of Superman was during the 1950s/1960s when Clark had Action comics, Superman (1939), Adventure comics with Superboy, the LOSH, and Supergirl being the leads over the years, Superboy (1949), Superman's Girl Friend: Lois Lane, Superman's Pal: Jimmy Oslen, Adventures of Superman (1939, newspaper strip). These titles ran for YEARS. These days, a Superman title can sale on par with Wonder Woman, which is saying a lot.

The Batman reliance is telling of the current state of DC Comics is right now. When DC Comics stopped double shipping titles, they only did it because other titles wasn't bringing in the money. I read a comicsbeat article, eventually Rebirth sales was mid-tier selling titles. DC Comics is a business, they choose to pump out Batman books because Batman books sell. DC Comics does what any business would do. It's the same reason why in the 80s/90s Marvel had flooded the market with all those X-men books. X-men sells, readers want X-men. It's why Marvel is slapping Spider on anything these days. Spider-Man sells.

So, no it's bizzare-logic. It's very logical.

That's what happens when you have no clue what to do with anything outside one character. But not everything is bad after all. When i look at superman sales today. It's the only great pleasure i have these days. To see superman flopping.

[marhawkman]

Hal, and Diana, should be the last two standing on any sort of mental breakdown chart of Leaguers. Willpower is literally his thing, and she's more or less a spirit of truth made flesh. (Counting non-regular-Leaguers, Shazam with the Wisdom of Solomon should also be at the top of the chart.)

Plus the Corps falling apart so regularly, when it's supposedly lasted in an unbroken line *for millenia* before now, is just ludicrous.

Same with any ages-old place like Atlantis lasting for thousands of years (or entire worlds like Thanagar, Tamaran or Rann blowing up), and then collapsing into rubble and / or civil war every three to five years during the late 20th/early 21st century. Cursed to live in interesting times, indeed! (And this applies to Marvel as well. The planet Xander, the lands of Atlantis and Wakanda, the Savage Land, the Kree Empire, Asgard, etc. lasted in some cases for many thousands of years without significant incident, but in the last decade or so, in Marvel years, they've each been blowed up *multiple times*).

Not only is it kind of diminishing returns, as a reader (oh no, Atlantis blew up! Like it did a couple of years ago. And a couple of years before that...), but it also makes our heroes look like they *totally suck* as leaders and protectors. The Green Lantern Corps endures for millenia, and then they make the mistake of recruiting some Earth dudes, and bam, dead, dead, dead again. Maybe we should get some more Slyggians or Hlvrni instead?

See, having places like this get attacked or threatened with destruction is perfectly viable. It's ACTUALLY blowing them up that's dumb.

[Menacer]

Agree or disagree with the list? Please add your own examples that weren't included. It's a pretty solid list from CBR.

https://www.cbr.com/worst-current-dc-tropes/

01. Batman Keeping Secrets Is Nothing New
--The character has existed for 80 years, yah he's secretive
02. Everything Is A Crisis
--once a year a major event happens, for some like myself, these are my favorite stories to read.
03. The Constant Continuity Reboots Are Getting Out Of Hand
--technically there has been only 2 hard reboots though?? Correct? CoIE and New52.
04. There Are Too Many Batman Books
--if they sell then they are valid, and frankly I collect at least 15 dc series a month in my pull series and none of the books I collect are DC. I Have never had an issue reading great DC books that arent batman.
05. Evil Superman Stories Are So Played Out
--Superman is my favorite DC hero, I love him, but I'd still love to see ZSJL 2 AND 3 and have seen those battles play out. I love Injustice. Red Son. Frankly I just want good stories . OF course I want Superman to be good. But a good evil Superman story done well is fine by me.
06. DC Goes Back To The Well And Waters Down Amazing Villains
--I agree with this actually... but again hard to avoid bad stories or misuse of classic villians when decades of issues are published.
07. The Multiple Lanterns Corps Aren't As Great As They Once Were
--cant really comment on this. Ive read lots of great Lantern stories but modern Green Lantern stories are lacking
08. Other Villains Trusting Lex Luthor Is Laughable By Now
--again hard to avoid when u view it as 80 years of stories. Gotta take the stories 1 at a time. Not all at once.
09. Deathstroke Remains A Credible Threat Despite His Many Failures
--what villains have succeeded? I mean really? In dc comics the heroes win
10. Powerless Vigilantes Defeat Superpowered People
--you may not be suited for comic books. With this logic Batman would never win. But thats not how comics work

I left my responses in the quotes