Worst of 2014

[PD98]

To go with my "Best of 2014" thread, here you chose what was the worst thing that Marvel did in the comics in 2014.

[Inhuman X]

AXIS... but maybe most of all because its freshest in my memory. Enough has been said about it as to reasons why.

[InformationGeek]

....hmmm... tricky. Marvel did have a rather bad year with their comics... I would have said Avengers & New Avengers for how bad the writing, characterization, dialogue/narration, and pretentious of it was. However, in the end, the worst, absolute worst thing I've seen from Marvel has to be Ultimate FF. My god, what the hell was Marvel thinking or doing when it came to this book? I did a whole bit on it when it came to my worst of the year list, but I'll just quote a little bit of here to sum it all up.

The results of that ended up with a plotline about Susan Storm having to have a baby with Reed Richards in order to stop the end up the universe because Ultimate Spider-Ham says so. As stupid and moronic as that may sound to begin with, her response was to attempt to surgically cut open Reed’s balls and extract the semen from him in order to artificially inseminate herself. I went on a nice tirade and rant about this back in the original review for why this was so bad, so go check that out. But to sum it up so people don’t have to read it, this action would have turned Susan into a rapist in some ways, resulting in an absolute assassination her character, and would have been so damn wrong and a huge highlight of double standards in comics (reverse the situation and I guarantee you websites everywhere would have been talking about this).

But that’s not what happened and Susan and Reed found another way for her to have a baby in order to save the universe, thus finding a loophole in this contrived storyline. Even ignoring how awful the story was, how bad the characters were, how contrived the story was set up, and the deus ex machina of it all… the worst and most insulting thing about this was the sexism. It was most likely unintentional, but think about it. Susan Storm, the team leader and ONLY female character in the comic, in her final story arc was demoted to being a babymaker. She didn’t do a single thing in the final arc except give birth to a magical baby that solved everyone’s problem. She didn’t fight in the final battle nor protect herself when she nearly got into danger. A man had to do that. Also, she acted completely hysterical and tried to cut a guy’s balls off to get pregnant and that man had to talk her down from it. You see? This is quite bad, really damn backwards, and downright insulting for a character like Susan Storm, even if it is the Ultimate Universe version of her.

[John Ossie]

Ultimate FF was pretty bad

[Jeremi]

Probably Guardians of the Galaxy.

[Nomads1]

Haven't really enjoyed Marvel in quite a while. Hard to decide what was the worst among so many disappointments. I guess I'll go big with the lackluster events (original Sin, Axis, etc...). Boring and unfunny sitcom Marvel Cosmic (GotG, Nova, Starlord, etc...) is also a HUGE let down. I guess it's easier for me to decide what I liked most.

Peace

[BaneofKings]

AXIS was probably the worst of 2014 for me. I wasn't a great fan of the All New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men this year as well so that would probably go on there too.

[sifighter]

1.Cataclysm: the Ultimates last stand
2. Latour's Wolverine and the X-men, it started ok but then it just fell apart
3. Havok being left inverted
4. This one isn't something terrible but I'm gonna miss Skaar

[magnum]

Worst of the year for me are:

-too many events that cross over a crap load of titles!
-that leads into having a million (I am being over dramatic on purpose) X titles, Avengers titles and certain characters in way too many titles!!

-the announcement that the Fantastic Four are being cancelled for a time! granted it will not be forever and I understand the business reason for it but it is still the book that has been there from day 1.

[megaharrison]

-Worst Book: So many to choose from. Ms. Marvel, Ultimate FF, Rocket Raccoon. Its been a busy year

-Worst Crossover Event: Axis or Cataclysm

-Worst New Character: Silk, She-Thor, Kamala Khan

-Worst moment of 2014: this. I died inside

[RobinFan4880]

The worst? Peter Parker coming back! GAH! Otto was vastly more interesting.

[JJ Fiegel]

Cosmic Marvel was awful this year. It's like they stuck all their worst writers there (with the exception of Duggan, who's a solid writer).

Cataclysm. One of the worst comics I have read in recent memory. And it destroyed Ult Reed. And ruined Fialkov saving the Ultimate line from Humphries. The relaunch UFF suffered incredibly from that potato art too.

Robinson on FF has been rough this year. It's been better than Fraction, but it started off incredibly derivative and now has had one of the stupidest twists that a story can have: "I have been responsible for everything bad that has ever happened to you." At least Reed, Sue, Val, Ben, and Doom are safe with Hickman for the time being.

Ooga chaka banana has to be the worst moment of 2014. Or maybe Kamala doge speak. That one was pretty bad too.

[Alpha to Omega]

What they've done to Thor.

[Supernature]

In terms of writing and overall stewardship:
- AXIS. All of it. The writing was stilted and the art subpar considering what every artists involved had produced previously.
- Almost every X-book bar X-Force and a few bright spots in Uncanny X-Men. That side of the MU is just painfully directionless.
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Very poor use of the cosmic side of the MU if you ask me.
- Too many events: too close to each others, too many at the same time. Very few are actually good however.

In terms of art:
- Kris Anka's insipid redesigns.
- Marvel's inability (or is it just disinterest ?) to keep consistent art teams on some books, notably: X-Men, Storm, Mighty Avengers. It does a good job of telling me where these books rank in Marvel's priorities, though.
- Might come as a surprise but Mike Deodato's art: stiff, overworked, relies too heavily on 3D models. It often distracts me from the story being told. I hate it.
- Rock-He Kim's interiors for X-Force. Again overworked, expressionless and riddled with anatomical errors. Probably had a part in the failure of this otherwise good book.

[JJ Fiegel]

Oh, one more thing. The worst thing Marvel did in 2014 was decide to make Kev Walker the regular artist on New Avengers.