What books haven't stood the test of time for you?

[Hellboydce]

Upon revisiting some of the books of my youth, the following jump out as not being very good (imo)

Animal Man (Morrison)
The Invisibles
Spawn (obviously)

[The Whovian]

Stern's Amazing Spider-Man. I absolutely cherished this run when I was a kid. I read it again recently and was disappointed. It wasn't bad. Just not as good as I thought it was when I was a kid.

I still think the Juggernaut two issue story and the Hobgoblin arc is very good stuff. But the overall run just hasn't stood the test of time for me. Which saddens me.

[Balakin]

weird, Animal Man wasn't as impressive to me as other Morrison books but it just improved by the 2nd reading. Although I haven't read it as a kid, just as an "adult".

To me The whole Marvel Secret Invasion-Heroic Age era. First I loved it but when I've read it the second time it wasn't the same. On the other hand I still love DC's Infinite crisis-52-Final crisis era books just as much as I used to. (and no, not because Marvel is bad, there are plenty of MArvel books for me that stood the test of time).

[Mace Dolex]

Lots of independant publishers obviously (Image, Continuity).

[John Aston]

The Wonder Man series did not age well at all.

[kp404]

Some of the early Claremont run mainly because of the dialogue. As a kid, the on-the-nose, descriptive, and redundant dialogue didn't bother me. But rereading it, the stories are still classic, but a lot of the dialogue is just too on-the-nose and stilted. Still one of my favorite runs though

[TomSlick]

West Coast Avengers

[Allen Champion]

70s Marvel--superhero and TOMB OF DRACULA. I now think DC was actually doing better work in the 70s!

[Iron Fist]

Most of Claremont's early Uncanny X-Men run right through the phoenix sagas.

[codystarbuck]

Dark Knight. I had trouble with parts of it then; mainly the depiction of Superman and the description of how other heroes walked away from things. It didn't ring true. It is more glaring now and I find more and more of it to be a right-wing fantasy and the satire to be somewhat ham-fisted. By contrast, Howard Chaykin's American Flagg was far more "on-the-nose" about the media and really captured the consumer culture, in the extreme. That work dates itself in the backstory, and one of the characters (William is drawn to look more like a Windsor, than a Spencer); however, I find that it holds up pretty darn well and is pretty precient about a lot of things (war as entertainment, mindless "reality" tv, extreme sports, fetishized advertising, etc, etc).

I find that Year One holds up far better as a timeless piece, while Dark Knight is very 80s.

Contract With God is one, from Eisner. It's a serious look at life issues; but, I think Eisner was more effective in other works and even in his earlier work in the Spirit. Invisible People and Dropsie Avenue are far stronger works.

A large chunk of superhero stories don't hold up well; but, that is mostly due to changes in perspective. Some don't interest me now; but, they are still good stories. I just don't see them in the same light.

Deathlok is one where I loved the idea of it, in the 70s and loved the issues; but, when I reread it years later, it has major problems. It starts well and sort of ends well; but, there is a big hole in the middle. The ending isn't final and is kind of left hanging for some years, until those Captain America issues. His appearances in between don't do much to carry on the story, just insert the character in other places.

For X-Men, some of those early plots don't hold up as well, and the dialogue definitely doesn't; but, there is an enthusiasm permeating the work that disappeared by the 80s. It's definitely a more swashbuckling series, with Dave Cockrum. I miss that in the later stuff.

[Mike]

The three that come to mind right away is:
Justice League by by Keith Giffen and J.M. Dematteis.
Green Lantern by Gerard Jones
Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross
But I'm sure there are more from the 90s and 00s that I could add to the list.

[SJNeal]

The Wonder Man series did not age well at all.

How dare you?!

West Coast Avengers

And you!

Justice League by by Keith Giffen and J.M. Dematteis.
Green Lantern by Gerard Jones
Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross

You guys are killing me...

[Balakin]

How dare you?!



And you!



You guys are killing me...

Exactly! Savages! Heartless Savages all of you!

[FlashingSabre]

Exactly! Savages! Heartless Savages all of you!

I just read JLI a couple of years ago. I wasn't even alive when it came out, and I still find it hilarious. I can't believe people don't like it.

I just recently read Morrison's X-Men for the first time. A lot of it is really good. A lot of it isn't. I'm kind of shocked people hold it on such high pedestal. The new ideas are fantastic, and some of the character stuff is great, but for the most part everyone is at least slightly OOC, the plots vary in quality, and most of the villains are completely underdeveloped, to the point where I don't care what's happening on the page. I can't really see how this stands the test of time so well. .

[codystarbuck]

I just read JLI a couple of years ago. I wasn't even alive when it came out, and I still find it hilarious. I can't believe people don't like it.

I just recently read Morrison's X-Men for the first time. A lot of it is really good. A lot of it isn't. I'm kind of shocked people hold it on such high pedestal. The new ideas are fantastic, and some of the character stuff is great, but for the most part everyone is at least slightly OOC, the plots vary in quality, and most of the villains are completely underdeveloped, to the point where I don't care what's happening on the page. I can't really see how this stands the test of time so well. .

Pretty much how I've always felt about Morrison, going back to when he first started working at DC. I love some of his stuff, like some of it, scratch my head at some of it, don't care for some of it and think some is either pretty mediocre or is just a blatant copy. Not that different from a lot of prolific writers in comics or any field. The current level of worship, in some corners, seems way over the top. To each his own, though.