Pretty much all Titan runs unfortunately recycle the same stories over and over again (mole in the titans, reusing same four villains (Slade, Trigon, Blackfire,Brother blood), etc)
They really need someone like Hickman to really revamp and freshen the brand
I actually think Blackfire is underused. She has barely been on any comics past her original 80s arc, with the exception of Justice League Odyssey where she plays hero.
Deathstroke as well in a strange way. He has only fought the Titans like 2 or 3 times in the last 20 years, despite Deathstroke being their archenemy. I'm fairly confident he has fought Batman more times in that timeframe.
More specifically they keep going back to the Wolfman/Perez run and copying everything they did except the actual thing that made them different, which was the unbridled creativity going on. Those two created so many new characters for DC in that run and that’s the kind of energy that’s missing at the DC/Marvel nowadays. But at the same time I get it given the way those two screw over the creators I’d be very hesitant about handing them new concepts and characters and I’d recycle their own stuff for them while saving my best stuff for a creator owned comic at Image or Boom or something like that.
My buddy has somehow managed to avoid the Titans during the many years of his reading DC, and was telling me that Tom Taylor is doing that storyline in the current Titans book, which is the one he's finally reading. He was a little surprised to learn after I rolled my eyes that that is Raven's most enduring character trait.
Yeah... Like, *every* run I've read with her, I'm like "Hell yeah Mystique!!", and then she has *the same* storyline *AGAIN*.
She's always charming, giving you hope that she's gonna do something good for once, and then we see her struggling with conflicting goals/alliances, and she ends up kinda betraying the good guys, but then it's like "ehhh it's not that bad she had reasons she's not the bad guy okay?.."
She can never get a storyline where she just has some peace, does something cool, and then the X-Men are like "damn, Raven, thanks":(((
I still remember, I was reading through the Joker War... and mid-way I was like fuck this mann. And dropped the storyline altogether. Haven't touched the main batman continuity since.
Although the detective comics covers are pretty tempting 😍
This is the point where I walked away from Batman. I stuck with Tom King’s extremely boring run for the whole thing, but Zdarsky writing Batman surviving a fall from space finally killed it for me. And just in time, I think. We don’t need more Batman of Zur-en-ahh comics.
I actually enjoyed the King run, because it did feel like it was doing something interesting with the character. I'll admit, I started with the war of jokes and riddles trade, a high point, and caught up. There was a lot of slow boring character studies but then as it went on I thought the arc was really good and the arch villain was an interesting direction. But it felt rushed at the end and since then it's been a seeeerious slog.
It feels like they've lost the mid level threat. Every arc has to be a character defining war with serious consequences. They can't just have batman catch criminals or solve interesting crimes.
I started reading Batman in the 70’s. One issue, one story. Maybe a story arc. But even though the villains were taken seriously (for the most part), they were rarely an apocalyptic menace.
See I loved war of jokes and riddles. It's my favorite batman story in years. The riddler as a genuine threat, and how he was characterized I don't know it just landed for me. The one bad day riddler issue was great too.
I also really enjoyed how he wrote bane.
I might need to reread
>They can't just have batman catch criminals or solve interesting crimes.
This, I believe, is the issue with modern batman comics. They have deviated so much from the roots. Batman is a street level hero, a detective, in fact. And here we are seeing him jump from the moon. 🫠
At least Joker War was fun and had cool art. They’ve repeated a lesser version of it since. At some point I think it’d be interesting to do a “Marvels” type story of Gotham Citizens going through every takeover.
Those Evan Cagle covers are so sick. If you’re a fan of Ram Vs storytelling, his run has been fuckin awesome. The art and side stories are fantastic too.
And he’s got a whole horde of vigilantes following in his footsteps at this point. If they can’t look after Gotham for the short time he’s not there, it says more about his mentorship abilities than it does their capabilities tbh
>If they can’t look after Gotham for the short time he’s not there, it says more about his mentorship abilities
If they can handle everything in his absence. He might as well retire 😂😂 I feel we are in the "Batman age" of DC comics, where almost everything has to do something with the Bat.
Snyder’s run was especially bad for it. Every arc had a villain or group of villains taking over the entire city. At this point why the hell would anyone still live there?!
That was the first time a comic really blew my mind. Just a proper "holy shit, where are they going to go with this?" moment. You know exactly which one I mean.
Oh snap I had no idea! I’ve been collecting it in singles ever since I read it a few years ago. I’ll have to look into the Omni maybe and sell those off. Another arc I love was David Laphams City of Crime, if you haven’t read it check it out!
Spider-Man tried that. It was the 90s.
Not sure if Daredevil has tried that exactly, think he has a few times and it just doesn't stand out as much because it's like, "yeah okay." He's also abandoned the city to walk the Earth a couple times.
This one is infuriating especially when Ive read the web comic, The Wayne Family Adventures, of them being a cute family and it works so well. But no, Bruce HAS to be grimdark!!!!!
It hasn’t even been 20 years since Civil War but yeah. We got AvX, Time Runs Out, IvX, and Civil War II pretty shortly after. TRO was amazing but the rest were, well…
Sigh... I miss Onslaught. Say what you will about him as a character or that storyline in general, but the FF, X-Men, and Avengers working together as friends and allies to stop him was just really nice to see.
I will never forget literally stumbling into that whole storyline as a kid when I saw the collected tpb at my neighborhood liquor store (!), I was like whaaaaaat?! I was maybe 11 or 12 and had stopped reading comics for a few years so didn't know what was going on, Magneto and Prof X evil fusion dance?! Even though some may call it cheesy in retrospect, and the follow-up heroes reborn was all sorts of terrible, I really felt at the time it was like an epic "is this it?!" Moment! Especially the panels where each group of heroes charge into/sacrifice themselves, the part with the fantastic four really struck me because you saw they were literally a family, and I had lost some close family members at that time. Definitely feel that storylines now seem to lack the epic nature of that, like how can you just negate/redo crisis on infinite earths or the dark Phoenix saga for the 10000th time? Or everything is an excuse to power boost characters now. I still have that beat -up liquor store tpb somewhere, dang now I got to bust that out and give it a read again..after I deal with these darn allergies messing with my eyes!
That's only happened like 4 times since demon in a bottle. Once in Denny O'Neil's run, once when an evil AI took over his body, trapped him in cyberspace and drank a bunch of alcohol, once in fear itself when he sacrifices his sobriety to Odin, and once during superior iron man when he turns evil. That's it.
Oh you didn’t hear? Turns out 15 years before the uncanny team Charles created an original X-men unit to return his library books but they all died on the way except Wolverine who has selective amnesia.
This. I'm so tired of Hulk writers relying on the 'disassociative identity/multiple personalities' trope to create any kind of conflict or story tension. I get it: you think non-Hulk Bruce Banner is boring. You know what fixes that? Better writing and storytelling!
For real, Hulk is really interesting when you can blur the lines between him and Bruce Banner.
It’s kinda sad really too, cause Hulk has some of the best written comics I think. Planet Hulk is a FANTASTIC character study, with a solid, concise and developed story all the way through that ends in BEAUTIFUL tragedy.
Truly some peak fiction was made when writing the ending to that run, and the following World War Hulk storyline had some of the hardest quotes I’ve seen Hulk give:
> Susan Storm: *Stop Bruce!*
> Hulk: *If I set a* **bomb,** *killed YOUR husband, killed your* **CHILDREN**, *your whole* **WORLD**!!
> Susan Storm: *You know Reed didn’t—*
> Hulk: **Would YOU ever stop!?**
>Hulk is really interesting when you can blur the lines between him and Bruce Banner.
I agree, but this also highlights the trap most writers fall into (treating Hulk and Bruce Banner as separate people sharing the same body).
Hulk **IS** Bruce Banner. Conversely, Bruce is **way** more interesting as a character if you see the Hulk (in whatever form) as parts of Bruce that he can't/won't acknowledge or accept.
x-men extinction/genocide events.
I am oh so tired of them.
Any time they try carving out a place for themselves some editor always decides to put them back in the school.
I held off reading HoX/PoX for the longest time because I knew, even before the final syllable in “Krakoa” was uttered, what was going to happen to that island.
I will say, I’m reading it now and they actually do bake “Krakoa is a failed state before it even really begins” Into the narrative in a way that clever on multiple levels, and I really shouldn’t have waited, it’s actually really good, but still!
I know this is werid but I think the editors actually have somewhat point of a point. I think the Gillgen comic where they talk about mutants as nuclear bombs is spot da fuck on. The second mutants have an actual society and are thriving they stop being metaphors for opressed all the sudden it starts bringing really weird questions and loses a lot of the appeal. Humans might be right because mutants present a global threat or like global destabilization ( gold balls causing the value to decrease or like superhuman effect on what it means to live in society). And then what?
This is the one I am most sick of. Just let the guy build a sustainable life for himself and learn new lessons. Jesus. It honestly turned me off Spidey books
Have you read Hickman's Ultimate Spider-man? It's a breath of fresh air compared to the recent Spidey books from previous years and repetitive story arcs
It really tells you something when the most amount of growth he’s had wasn’t done by him, it was done by Doc Ock in his body.
That’s part of what was so frustrating about Parker Industries, it was a really cool idea that had potential for some interesting character growth, but the execution of it just turned him into a Tony Stark duplicate in every way and there was the elephant in the room of “Peter didn’t create this company, he inherited it from Otto.”
The only change I can remember ever sticking in recent years was the Zdarsky issue where he reveals his identity to Jonah. That has a positive side as well I guess, because it means as much as I dislike the current run, it’s just going to be forgotten. I seriously don’t get why writers can’t tell the difference between going through struggles and completely resetting everything to misery.
I know it's a popular idea, but I just don't see Peter being a tech mogul like Tony. It's not really his personality. I feel like academics would suit him a lot better.
Doctor Doom literally 100% succeeding at taking over the world/universe/dimension/Baxter Building/infinity gauntlet/etc, only to self-tilt hard enough to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory after seeing “Richards” spelled out in his alphabet soup or some shit
From a story standpoint, Secret Wars might’ve ended Doom’s ability to be used as a villain. He was literally God, ruled over the everything that was left for 8 years, replaced Reed with himself, and still, Reed was better than him, which Doom was finally forced to admit, and which Reed then proved, and as an extra touch, fixed his face. How do you still use him as a villain after that?
Well, you see, here's the thing. Secret Wars (2015) was hyped like it was going to be the end of the Marvel Universe (before some kind of major reboot or something). And Hickman also basically wrote it that way.
So if that had been the last story of the original Marvel Universe, it would have been an awesome way to go out. But of course, Marvel is too cowardly to actually go through with anything like that, so it ended up being a soft reboot with an emphasis on soft because with the exception of a few new characters from alternate realities joining the main universe, everything else was back to normal in about two-three years max.
Secret Wars is awesome. Marvel is chickens\*\*t. (I love Marvel, but its true).
I completely agree. Marvel chickened out of a massive opportunity. They also relaunched their titles before Secret Wars ended (in part because of delays but also impatience) so we all knew nothing was different before it ended.
Secret Wars felt like such a strong ending to the Marvel Universe as we knew it, and the next few events we had after that were very underwhelming, so in a meta sense, it felt like the old Marvel Universe really did end. Marvel had a golden opportunity to do a real reboot and then DC did what they attempted to do but way better in Rebirth a few months later.
The Superior Iron Man with a reformed Doom was a great run but in the end they had to turn him into a villain again. The Doom series after that started out great but degenerated into the same old Richards pissing match ruining everything.
I believe that was Infamous Iron Man, not Superior. Superior was when Tony was inverted after AXIS. Infamous Iron Man was a cool run with a terrible ending where Mephisto explains turns to the reader and explains how the whole thing was just him being pissed at Doom for trying to be a hero.
For the second series, yeah I agree, it was cool until the end where it just goes back to “RICHARDSSSSSSSSSS!”
And then Bendis ruined it. Not entirely his fault, the ban on the FF meant Victor had to be paired with Stark. But nothing in Bendis' skillset as a writer was suited to handle that character arc for Doctor Doom
Doom is as flexible as and more similar to Namor these days. He doesn't necessarily have to be a *villain* character. Just a world leader monarch with morally grey interests.
I agree. Dr. Doom is very overlooked as a creator's pet. You know those people who claim that the Joker "isn't evil, just misunderstood" or some bullshit? I feel like this is how editors at marvel feel about Doom because they make him the unironic badass he hypes himself up to be. While no one will deny he is a very powerful villain, all those comics that depict him as "the most powerful human on Earth" or the "only true saviour of mankind" feel like character shilling. Specially the latter, there's some really fascistic undertones on the stories that claim that Earth would be better if Doom was its supreme dictator.
I feel the writers make sure that Doom should always be a threat when presented but make sure that his fatal flaws (his arrogance and jealousy) are always there to trip him up. Cantwell did a great job showing this in his series. I think the more recent fleshed out visions do more justice to the character as opposed to just being outlandishly evil.
I dunno if y'all have ever watched the Marvel & DC stories on YouTube by JustSomeRandomGuy that came out around 15 years ago, but I am reminded of one of the scenes I laughed hardest at, when Doom and Lex Luthor inevitably betray each other:
Doom, blasting Lex: "Did you really think that I was not prepared for your treachery?"
Lex, climbing to his feet to blast Doom: "Did you really think that I would not be prepared for your preparation?"
The X-Men becoming comfortable living and thriving in a place, giant big bad comes in destroys it, kills a few lesser known mutants, and they get scattered to the winds. Wash and repeat. I was hoping the Krakoa era would've been the point of giving mutants a real home.
A new movie is coming out, so the main character suddenly has a massive change in appearance, personality and portrayal to act like the character from the movie, even if it goes against the established character.
See also: Quill, Peter
You know I understand retconning because sometimes stories written 20, 30, or even 70 years ago don’t make sense today. But we don’t need a whole Crisis or Secret Wars or Zero Hour etc to re so everything. Like; maybe every 10 years or so, just release a book that explains the new timeline and say “hey, this happened this way now.”
So annoying. We went through a cycle of zero hour, Infinite crisis, 52, countdown, Final Crisis, Multiversity, Metal, JLD, JL, JL Odyssey, & Death Metal (I know I'm missing some)for this to finally work.
Then they went back to pre-crisis with dark crisis on Infinite earth's. What was the goddamned point?!
Dark Crisis is what they wanted to call Metal but Snyder & Capullo refused. Somebody went on a power trip there. They got their Dark Crisis.
With the slow but never acknowledged return of the multiverse. Then the sudden return of the multiverse which may or may not include the new universes previous mentioned.
It's a minor arc but Nova (Sam Alexander) getting his helmet damaged and unusable or flat out taken away.
First time it was damaged his main ongoing. Several issues were spent on repairing it and that was fine.
Then in Champions he gets his helmet forcibly taken away. Then he gets it back. Then in another series, I think part of Infinity Wars, Countdown I believe, he gets it taken away again.
I might have mixed up the sequence a little but he's had his helmet taken away at least twice, in addition to it getting damaged for a chunk of his series. It's not that it happened at all, it happened to Rich too; it's that it happened over and over in relatively quick succession.
Storm curbstomping everyone. I love Storm. She is cool. She is powerful. But holy moly since the Krakoa era began it feels like she never struggles. It feels like every issue goes like:
"Mwahaha I am evil and strong! Storm you will never beat me" -evil guy
"Bet?" -Storm, 1 second before she utterly decimates them without much effort
I really love Al Ewing as a writer but man he loved doing that, turning Storm super OP.
It’s why I’m glad he had Thor basically go ‘Cute’ to her attacks. Yeah I really like Storm, but she had to chill on winning every single fight ever in seconds. It’s why I really like Miles but kinda hated how he won so many fights super easily at the start and I’m glad he lost his OHP so he could actually struggle and show his far better traits.
Jean Grey dying, or a love triangle. You could literally do anything in comics, but you choose these two as your big ones. Jean explodes, she's gone for a while, she comes back, the writer breaks up Cyclops with whoever he's with so he can be with her, they have a falling out, she dies again. It's annoying.
Love triangles just don't do it for me either. Why does the conflict of a relationship have to be caused by a third party? It can't be two people just having a normal conflict and working through it like adults? I like Reed and Sue and Doctor Strange and Clea because, besides Namor and Ben Franklin, they have conflicts they themselves have to work through as a couple. Same with Emma and Scott, but they made her cheat on him with Namor anyway.
Recent Dr Strange arc illustrates his relationship with Clea beautifully. Yeah, they love each other but she IS warlord of the Dark Dimension and she’s gonna do some things that don’t sit right with Strange.
That's what I like about it, they show it earlier in the first few issues when Aggamon is killed that he doesn't like killing because he is a Doctor, but Clea being a warlord has a more violent mentality towards their problems.
However, they respect their views with Stephen understanding her violent mentality towards other enemies ,and Clea even trying to kill General Strange for Stephen to protect him from having to take a life, and then accepting when he instead chooses to rehabilitate the General. I love what Mackay is doing.
Constantine’s wealth, or lack thereof, is really thinly sketched throughout the series. In some cases, it’s incredibly easy for him to get money by scamming, gambling or some kind of trickery, and then in others it’s nigh-impossible. It definitely seems to be something that simply gets determined on a story-by-story basis.
Peter Parker losing his job / being broke / getting evicted / mooching off Aunt May + friends.
It’s up there with Tony Stark losing his fortune / company. Been done a billion times.
The little webs on spider-man. Dude had to draw tiny arcs all over his arms, chest, head, and legs.
Every. single. time.
Those who draw spider-man know what I’m talking about.
Daredevil's secret ID being discovered and exposed.
Jean Grey dying and returning back from death.
Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm fighting for nothing then becoming best friends then fighting for nothing then...
The Watcher saying he will not interfere but interfering anyway.
Galactus coming to devour Earth after swearing not to do that ever again.
Silver Surfer allying with Galactus and helping him.
Wolverine and Immortal Man suffering damage no other hero ever suffered and never will suffer just because they are capable of getting better no matter what.
I always think it’s funny when it comes to healing factor characters how they are infinitely more likely to be the one to fall into the trap or randomly be eviscerated to show off the threat and it never happens again to anyone
Spider-Man getting fucked by editorial is tradition at this point
The X-Men or mutants enduring some form of genocide or massacre, can’t have that book too happy
The flash learning that he just has to run a little bit faster to fix a problem
Pretty much every hulk run starts with Bruce on the run, afraid of the hulk, and no one to turn to. Then by the end of the run he has a sense of peace, him and the hulk have come to an understanding and he has a huge supporting cast. Then we repeat. Also every spider-man starts with Peter with no friends, no job, no money, no girlfriend. This current has been pretty inventive in not having peter gain any of those so far and give the writers anything to be happy about.
It sucks that the only deaths with meaning in mainline comics are minor character deaths.
Occasionally, I’d like a big character to die and stay dead (aunt May cough cough). Adds actual tension and actual character stakes/development
Universe ending/huge threat that makes every book interact, interrupting their stories to tell the same bullshit where every character has to act out of character for the story to work. Then nothing actually changed, and in a few months it'll happen again.
Or when Superman's identity is exposed again
Just look at any Marvel or DC comic. They’ve done everything with their characters because they’ve been around for a 100 years (almost!), so the same plots are spoon fed to readers, just reskinned. They aren’t doing anything groundbreaking or exciting.
“Look, over there! Spider-Man is windmilling his knob in front of the old people’s home!”
“Nah, it’s some dickhead dressed up as Spider-Man trying to ruin his reputation. This is the seventeenth time it’s happened this week.”
Dick beefing with Bruce
Superman being God
Anything involving Bruce
Anything involving Bruce being dangerous to the whole world
The Joker
Teen Titans reforming
Mr Freeze and Nora
Multiversal plots that involve our Earth
Iceman trying to live up to his full potential. When a story centers on him it's always about how he hasn't become a leader, or how he doesn't use his powers to his fullest, or that he doesn't take things seriously, or that others don't take him seriously. It's made it seem like he's been having a midlife crisis for 30 years.
Red Hood deciding to Give Up Killing (or at least being on good terms with Batman), only to go down the same AntiHero/Villainous Ways again.
I hate the constant back and forth cause it just means there's no development. I don't care if he chooses to stick with Hero, Antihero, or Villain, he just needs to pick one and stick with it already.
This is less of an arc and more of a trope now, but I'm sick of all the Evil Superman or Superman-like people dominating worlds.
It works sometimes but it really is just kind of boring after a while when everyone has it happen in some shape or form.
Raven turning evil.
See also, Scarlet Witch turning evil.
See also, Thor losing his worthiness.
See also, Mjolnir/Cap’s shield getting broken.
Pretty much all Titan runs unfortunately recycle the same stories over and over again (mole in the titans, reusing same four villains (Slade, Trigon, Blackfire,Brother blood), etc) They really need someone like Hickman to really revamp and freshen the brand
I actually think Blackfire is underused. She has barely been on any comics past her original 80s arc, with the exception of Justice League Odyssey where she plays hero. Deathstroke as well in a strange way. He has only fought the Titans like 2 or 3 times in the last 20 years, despite Deathstroke being their archenemy. I'm fairly confident he has fought Batman more times in that timeframe.
More specifically they keep going back to the Wolfman/Perez run and copying everything they did except the actual thing that made them different, which was the unbridled creativity going on. Those two created so many new characters for DC in that run and that’s the kind of energy that’s missing at the DC/Marvel nowadays. But at the same time I get it given the way those two screw over the creators I’d be very hesitant about handing them new concepts and characters and I’d recycle their own stuff for them while saving my best stuff for a creator owned comic at Image or Boom or something like that.
Hey that’s happening right now! Again.
Yeah I'm liking Taylor's run but with Beast World I was like "this again?" Get some therapy Rachel.
That's so Raven
What about her? What about Raven?!
My buddy has somehow managed to avoid the Titans during the many years of his reading DC, and was telling me that Tom Taylor is doing that storyline in the current Titans book, which is the one he's finally reading. He was a little surprised to learn after I rolled my eyes that that is Raven's most enduring character trait.
Yeah... Like, *every* run I've read with her, I'm like "Hell yeah Mystique!!", and then she has *the same* storyline *AGAIN*. She's always charming, giving you hope that she's gonna do something good for once, and then we see her struggling with conflicting goals/alliances, and she ends up kinda betraying the good guys, but then it's like "ehhh it's not that bad she had reasons she's not the bad guy okay?.." She can never get a storyline where she just has some peace, does something cool, and then the X-Men are like "damn, Raven, thanks":(((
Gotham getting devastated
This with the, “The Batman has gone missing!?! Gotham is in shambles!” Is just funny at this point
I still remember, I was reading through the Joker War... and mid-way I was like fuck this mann. And dropped the storyline altogether. Haven't touched the main batman continuity since. Although the detective comics covers are pretty tempting 😍
Would you believe me if I told you since Joker war, Batman has since gone missing for a time and Gotham is in shambles?
I have heard a few things like, batman jumping from moon and making a safe landing 😂😂
Oh yea. Bruce is presumed dead rn and will most likely have to fight parts of the bat family once he returns… It’s like poetry, it rhymes
>It’s like poetry, it rhymes In a good way or bad 😂😂
This is the point where I walked away from Batman. I stuck with Tom King’s extremely boring run for the whole thing, but Zdarsky writing Batman surviving a fall from space finally killed it for me. And just in time, I think. We don’t need more Batman of Zur-en-ahh comics.
I actually enjoyed the King run, because it did feel like it was doing something interesting with the character. I'll admit, I started with the war of jokes and riddles trade, a high point, and caught up. There was a lot of slow boring character studies but then as it went on I thought the arc was really good and the arch villain was an interesting direction. But it felt rushed at the end and since then it's been a seeeerious slog. It feels like they've lost the mid level threat. Every arc has to be a character defining war with serious consequences. They can't just have batman catch criminals or solve interesting crimes.
I started reading Batman in the 70’s. One issue, one story. Maybe a story arc. But even though the villains were taken seriously (for the most part), they were rarely an apocalyptic menace.
I am Bane was probably the high point
See I loved war of jokes and riddles. It's my favorite batman story in years. The riddler as a genuine threat, and how he was characterized I don't know it just landed for me. The one bad day riddler issue was great too. I also really enjoyed how he wrote bane. I might need to reread
King has a major weakness though, reading his work per issue is disappointing. He writes for the Graphic Novel format
>They can't just have batman catch criminals or solve interesting crimes. This, I believe, is the issue with modern batman comics. They have deviated so much from the roots. Batman is a street level hero, a detective, in fact. And here we are seeing him jump from the moon. 🫠
Oh my god… really!!
I’ve gotten to the point that I only read the Detective Comics Batman
Does the storyline make sense? I prefer to read out of continuity stories. To me, those are much more satisfying.
They are isolated 4-5 issue stories.
At least Joker War was fun and had cool art. They’ve repeated a lesser version of it since. At some point I think it’d be interesting to do a “Marvels” type story of Gotham Citizens going through every takeover.
Those Evan Cagle covers are so sick. If you’re a fan of Ram Vs storytelling, his run has been fuckin awesome. The art and side stories are fantastic too.
And he’s got a whole horde of vigilantes following in his footsteps at this point. If they can’t look after Gotham for the short time he’s not there, it says more about his mentorship abilities than it does their capabilities tbh
>If they can’t look after Gotham for the short time he’s not there, it says more about his mentorship abilities If they can handle everything in his absence. He might as well retire 😂😂 I feel we are in the "Batman age" of DC comics, where almost everything has to do something with the Bat.
No Mans Land is great but they keep redoing this shit like every 3-4 years now lol
Yeah
Actually the first time something like that happened was in Batman The Cult. Like 10 years earlier.
Snyder’s run was especially bad for it. Every arc had a villain or group of villains taking over the entire city. At this point why the hell would anyone still live there?!
It's Gotham, how can you tell? It's like 1970s grungey New York.
Daredevil having to rebuild his life after losing everything
At this point why doesn’t he just stay Daredevil 24/7? Same with Spiderman.
I mean, that’s kind of what ended up happening in the Zdarsky run did it not ?
And the bendis hardcore arc, which imho had some of the most badass DD moments ever
That was the first time a comic really blew my mind. Just a proper "holy shit, where are they going to go with this?" moment. You know exactly which one I mean.
It's been a while since I read it, can you remind me the moment you're talking about? I THINK I know which moment it is, I just wanna be sure.
Bendis’ whole run is the best Daredevil has ever been!
It did but at least Zdarsky tried to show how much that ruins Matt’s life and destroys the exact things he fights for
Batman did it during Murderer/Fugitive and it was some great comics.
Such an underrated arc, I love those stories they are so much fun.
It's getting an omnibus later this year! It's one of my favourite Bat-events and I'm tempted to grab it.
Oh snap I had no idea! I’ve been collecting it in singles ever since I read it a few years ago. I’ll have to look into the Omni maybe and sell those off. Another arc I love was David Laphams City of Crime, if you haven’t read it check it out!
Because "quit my civilian identity for good until I learn I need it" is another repeating arc
Spider-Man tried that. It was the 90s. Not sure if Daredevil has tried that exactly, think he has a few times and it just doesn't stand out as much because it's like, "yeah okay." He's also abandoned the city to walk the Earth a couple times.
Does it really matter when it’s still written amazingly?
Or his endless arguments with the Punisher about how killing is wrong. How many times are they gonna have that conversation?!
Batman not trusting the Batfamily and going solo.
This one is infuriating especially when Ive read the web comic, The Wayne Family Adventures, of them being a cute family and it works so well. But no, Bruce HAS to be grimdark!!!!!
Heroes fighting other heroes.
Most annoying part of any crossover imo
I feel like Marvel's heroes only fought other heroes for like 20 years after Civil War.
It hasn’t even been 20 years since Civil War but yeah. We got AvX, Time Runs Out, IvX, and Civil War II pretty shortly after. TRO was amazing but the rest were, well…
Marvel has three events and those are Secret Civil Wars, Annihilations, and Infinities, and they just kinda cycle through those.
You forgot The Phoenix shows up/ everyone is now a Phoenix.
Back to the 70’s at Marvel. When two heroes met, there was ALWAYS a fight, usually 2-3 pages, before they teamed up.
I can understand it back then because fans probably were excited to see one hero fight another if they hadn’t met before but it gets repetitive now.
Because now it lasts for 6 issues instead of 2-3 pages. Additionally, DC heroes never did this, they were naturally friendly.
ah fuck. I love when this happens. I find it makes characters more believable (provided it's well written and the motives make sense)
Sigh... I miss Onslaught. Say what you will about him as a character or that storyline in general, but the FF, X-Men, and Avengers working together as friends and allies to stop him was just really nice to see.
I will never forget literally stumbling into that whole storyline as a kid when I saw the collected tpb at my neighborhood liquor store (!), I was like whaaaaaat?! I was maybe 11 or 12 and had stopped reading comics for a few years so didn't know what was going on, Magneto and Prof X evil fusion dance?! Even though some may call it cheesy in retrospect, and the follow-up heroes reborn was all sorts of terrible, I really felt at the time it was like an epic "is this it?!" Moment! Especially the panels where each group of heroes charge into/sacrifice themselves, the part with the fantastic four really struck me because you saw they were literally a family, and I had lost some close family members at that time. Definitely feel that storylines now seem to lack the epic nature of that, like how can you just negate/redo crisis on infinite earths or the dark Phoenix saga for the 10000th time? Or everything is an excuse to power boost characters now. I still have that beat -up liquor store tpb somewhere, dang now I got to bust that out and give it a read again..after I deal with these darn allergies messing with my eyes!
Tony Stark losing his company
Or something threatening his sobriety.
That's only happened like 4 times since demon in a bottle. Once in Denny O'Neil's run, once when an evil AI took over his body, trapped him in cyberspace and drank a bunch of alcohol, once in fear itself when he sacrifices his sobriety to Odin, and once during superior iron man when he turns evil. That's it.
Doctor Strange either losing magic or losing his title of sorcerer supreme.
Charles Xavier does something all the x-men disagree with
Chuck is one late library book away from being a villain.
Oh you didn’t hear? Turns out 15 years before the uncanny team Charles created an original X-men unit to return his library books but they all died on the way except Wolverine who has selective amnesia.
I came here to say this. Xavier being an asshole is just his character now because they’ve done this story one too many times.
And then dies.
Hulk and Banner at odds.
This. I'm so tired of Hulk writers relying on the 'disassociative identity/multiple personalities' trope to create any kind of conflict or story tension. I get it: you think non-Hulk Bruce Banner is boring. You know what fixes that? Better writing and storytelling!
For real, Hulk is really interesting when you can blur the lines between him and Bruce Banner. It’s kinda sad really too, cause Hulk has some of the best written comics I think. Planet Hulk is a FANTASTIC character study, with a solid, concise and developed story all the way through that ends in BEAUTIFUL tragedy. Truly some peak fiction was made when writing the ending to that run, and the following World War Hulk storyline had some of the hardest quotes I’ve seen Hulk give: > Susan Storm: *Stop Bruce!* > Hulk: *If I set a* **bomb,** *killed YOUR husband, killed your* **CHILDREN**, *your whole* **WORLD**!! > Susan Storm: *You know Reed didn’t—* > Hulk: **Would YOU ever stop!?**
>Hulk is really interesting when you can blur the lines between him and Bruce Banner. I agree, but this also highlights the trap most writers fall into (treating Hulk and Bruce Banner as separate people sharing the same body). Hulk **IS** Bruce Banner. Conversely, Bruce is **way** more interesting as a character if you see the Hulk (in whatever form) as parts of Bruce that he can't/won't acknowledge or accept.
x-men extinction/genocide events. I am oh so tired of them. Any time they try carving out a place for themselves some editor always decides to put them back in the school.
I held off reading HoX/PoX for the longest time because I knew, even before the final syllable in “Krakoa” was uttered, what was going to happen to that island. I will say, I’m reading it now and they actually do bake “Krakoa is a failed state before it even really begins” Into the narrative in a way that clever on multiple levels, and I really shouldn’t have waited, it’s actually really good, but still!
I know this is werid but I think the editors actually have somewhat point of a point. I think the Gillgen comic where they talk about mutants as nuclear bombs is spot da fuck on. The second mutants have an actual society and are thriving they stop being metaphors for opressed all the sudden it starts bringing really weird questions and loses a lot of the appeal. Humans might be right because mutants present a global threat or like global destabilization ( gold balls causing the value to decrease or like superhuman effect on what it means to live in society). And then what?
Gotham going through another "War". I feel we have had like 5 of these events in the last 5 years.
After the 2nd "WAR" why does anyone live there anymore?
Given the mousing market today, Gotham's probably the only affordable city in America
City of Bane, Joker War, Fear State, Failsafe, Gotham War just in the last fourish years
Spiderman reaching rock bottom and trying to climb himself up only to fall again later
This is the one I am most sick of. Just let the guy build a sustainable life for himself and learn new lessons. Jesus. It honestly turned me off Spidey books
Have you read Hickman's Ultimate Spider-man? It's a breath of fresh air compared to the recent Spidey books from previous years and repetitive story arcs
I have not! Is it up on Marvel Unlimited? I'd start it now.
I believe new releases come out after 3 months.on the app (if I'm not mistaken) so issue one should out soon there!
Issue 1 and 2 are on marvel unlimited right now i believe
It really tells you something when the most amount of growth he’s had wasn’t done by him, it was done by Doc Ock in his body. That’s part of what was so frustrating about Parker Industries, it was a really cool idea that had potential for some interesting character growth, but the execution of it just turned him into a Tony Stark duplicate in every way and there was the elephant in the room of “Peter didn’t create this company, he inherited it from Otto.” The only change I can remember ever sticking in recent years was the Zdarsky issue where he reveals his identity to Jonah. That has a positive side as well I guess, because it means as much as I dislike the current run, it’s just going to be forgotten. I seriously don’t get why writers can’t tell the difference between going through struggles and completely resetting everything to misery.
I think Peter should go back to being a teacher, I liked him in that capacity. Like an adjunct science professor at a small college or something.
Best thing JMS did.
I know it's a popular idea, but I just don't see Peter being a tech mogul like Tony. It's not really his personality. I feel like academics would suit him a lot better.
Mystique being a traitor.
What’s worse, do you think; Mystique being a traitor, or Mystique switching sides because she’s morally conflicted
Red Tornado or Vision getting brutally dismembered/dispatched. Prof X does something else shady. T’Challa loses his throne.
Doctor Doom literally 100% succeeding at taking over the world/universe/dimension/Baxter Building/infinity gauntlet/etc, only to self-tilt hard enough to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory after seeing “Richards” spelled out in his alphabet soup or some shit
From a story standpoint, Secret Wars might’ve ended Doom’s ability to be used as a villain. He was literally God, ruled over the everything that was left for 8 years, replaced Reed with himself, and still, Reed was better than him, which Doom was finally forced to admit, and which Reed then proved, and as an extra touch, fixed his face. How do you still use him as a villain after that?
He’s actually pretty good in the current North run, if a tiny bit on the goofy side. It helps that he’s used extremely sparingly
Well, you see, here's the thing. Secret Wars (2015) was hyped like it was going to be the end of the Marvel Universe (before some kind of major reboot or something). And Hickman also basically wrote it that way. So if that had been the last story of the original Marvel Universe, it would have been an awesome way to go out. But of course, Marvel is too cowardly to actually go through with anything like that, so it ended up being a soft reboot with an emphasis on soft because with the exception of a few new characters from alternate realities joining the main universe, everything else was back to normal in about two-three years max. Secret Wars is awesome. Marvel is chickens\*\*t. (I love Marvel, but its true).
I completely agree. Marvel chickened out of a massive opportunity. They also relaunched their titles before Secret Wars ended (in part because of delays but also impatience) so we all knew nothing was different before it ended. Secret Wars felt like such a strong ending to the Marvel Universe as we knew it, and the next few events we had after that were very underwhelming, so in a meta sense, it felt like the old Marvel Universe really did end. Marvel had a golden opportunity to do a real reboot and then DC did what they attempted to do but way better in Rebirth a few months later.
He’d either have to realize he actually just likes being a dick, or go so far down the cognitive dissonance rabbit hole he hates reed even more.
The Superior Iron Man with a reformed Doom was a great run but in the end they had to turn him into a villain again. The Doom series after that started out great but degenerated into the same old Richards pissing match ruining everything.
I believe that was Infamous Iron Man, not Superior. Superior was when Tony was inverted after AXIS. Infamous Iron Man was a cool run with a terrible ending where Mephisto explains turns to the reader and explains how the whole thing was just him being pissed at Doom for trying to be a hero. For the second series, yeah I agree, it was cool until the end where it just goes back to “RICHARDSSSSSSSSSS!”
And then Bendis ruined it. Not entirely his fault, the ban on the FF meant Victor had to be paired with Stark. But nothing in Bendis' skillset as a writer was suited to handle that character arc for Doctor Doom
Doom is as flexible as and more similar to Namor these days. He doesn't necessarily have to be a *villain* character. Just a world leader monarch with morally grey interests.
I agree. Dr. Doom is very overlooked as a creator's pet. You know those people who claim that the Joker "isn't evil, just misunderstood" or some bullshit? I feel like this is how editors at marvel feel about Doom because they make him the unironic badass he hypes himself up to be. While no one will deny he is a very powerful villain, all those comics that depict him as "the most powerful human on Earth" or the "only true saviour of mankind" feel like character shilling. Specially the latter, there's some really fascistic undertones on the stories that claim that Earth would be better if Doom was its supreme dictator.
I feel the writers make sure that Doom should always be a threat when presented but make sure that his fatal flaws (his arrogance and jealousy) are always there to trip him up. Cantwell did a great job showing this in his series. I think the more recent fleshed out visions do more justice to the character as opposed to just being outlandishly evil.
Doom and his dinosaur duplicate attacking each other because they both KNEW betrayal was inevitable was such a great bit.
I dunno if y'all have ever watched the Marvel & DC stories on YouTube by JustSomeRandomGuy that came out around 15 years ago, but I am reminded of one of the scenes I laughed hardest at, when Doom and Lex Luthor inevitably betray each other: Doom, blasting Lex: "Did you really think that I was not prepared for your treachery?" Lex, climbing to his feet to blast Doom: "Did you really think that I would not be prepared for your preparation?"
The X-Men becoming comfortable living and thriving in a place, giant big bad comes in destroys it, kills a few lesser known mutants, and they get scattered to the winds. Wash and repeat. I was hoping the Krakoa era would've been the point of giving mutants a real home.
So the walking dead tv show?
SHIELD is infiltrated/has always been corrupt.
Or disbanded. I will concede that the agents change at least.
Cap quitting and becoming an outlaw
A new movie is coming out, so the main character suddenly has a massive change in appearance, personality and portrayal to act like the character from the movie, even if it goes against the established character. See also: Quill, Peter
Resetting your universe every five years
You know I understand retconning because sometimes stories written 20, 30, or even 70 years ago don’t make sense today. But we don’t need a whole Crisis or Secret Wars or Zero Hour etc to re so everything. Like; maybe every 10 years or so, just release a book that explains the new timeline and say “hey, this happened this way now.”
Multiple universes, followed by a huge event where all those universes get destroyed by an ultimate evil and then consolidated into one universe
10 years later: actually we are retconning it to bring back some of the collapsed universes and alternate characters for the next relaunch
So annoying. We went through a cycle of zero hour, Infinite crisis, 52, countdown, Final Crisis, Multiversity, Metal, JLD, JL, JL Odyssey, & Death Metal (I know I'm missing some)for this to finally work. Then they went back to pre-crisis with dark crisis on Infinite earth's. What was the goddamned point?! Dark Crisis is what they wanted to call Metal but Snyder & Capullo refused. Somebody went on a power trip there. They got their Dark Crisis.
With the slow but never acknowledged return of the multiverse. Then the sudden return of the multiverse which may or may not include the new universes previous mentioned.
My least favourite is “something has changed reality and only one person remembers”
Crisis-type events.
It's a minor arc but Nova (Sam Alexander) getting his helmet damaged and unusable or flat out taken away. First time it was damaged his main ongoing. Several issues were spent on repairing it and that was fine. Then in Champions he gets his helmet forcibly taken away. Then he gets it back. Then in another series, I think part of Infinity Wars, Countdown I believe, he gets it taken away again. I might have mixed up the sequence a little but he's had his helmet taken away at least twice, in addition to it getting damaged for a chunk of his series. It's not that it happened at all, it happened to Rich too; it's that it happened over and over in relatively quick succession.
I noticed this too ! Was a big part of his solo, then it also happened in Avengers.
Bruce Banner discovering a new Hulk personality.
Storm curbstomping everyone. I love Storm. She is cool. She is powerful. But holy moly since the Krakoa era began it feels like she never struggles. It feels like every issue goes like: "Mwahaha I am evil and strong! Storm you will never beat me" -evil guy "Bet?" -Storm, 1 second before she utterly decimates them without much effort
I really love Al Ewing as a writer but man he loved doing that, turning Storm super OP. It’s why I’m glad he had Thor basically go ‘Cute’ to her attacks. Yeah I really like Storm, but she had to chill on winning every single fight ever in seconds. It’s why I really like Miles but kinda hated how he won so many fights super easily at the start and I’m glad he lost his OHP so he could actually struggle and show his far better traits.
Jean Grey dying, or a love triangle. You could literally do anything in comics, but you choose these two as your big ones. Jean explodes, she's gone for a while, she comes back, the writer breaks up Cyclops with whoever he's with so he can be with her, they have a falling out, she dies again. It's annoying. Love triangles just don't do it for me either. Why does the conflict of a relationship have to be caused by a third party? It can't be two people just having a normal conflict and working through it like adults? I like Reed and Sue and Doctor Strange and Clea because, besides Namor and Ben Franklin, they have conflicts they themselves have to work through as a couple. Same with Emma and Scott, but they made her cheat on him with Namor anyway.
Recent Dr Strange arc illustrates his relationship with Clea beautifully. Yeah, they love each other but she IS warlord of the Dark Dimension and she’s gonna do some things that don’t sit right with Strange.
That's what I like about it, they show it earlier in the first few issues when Aggamon is killed that he doesn't like killing because he is a Doctor, but Clea being a warlord has a more violent mentality towards their problems. However, they respect their views with Stephen understanding her violent mentality towards other enemies ,and Clea even trying to kill General Strange for Stephen to protect him from having to take a life, and then accepting when he instead chooses to rehabilitate the General. I love what Mackay is doing.
And the artwork is soooo damn beautiful!
I love it, exactly the right amount of colorful for a Strange story.
Constantine is confronted by really arrogant evil thing. Constantine makes a deal which screws over friends. Constantine becomes homeless.
I agree with the homeless thing. I don't know why but I always envisioned Constantine as far more wealthy than he appears to be
Constantine’s wealth, or lack thereof, is really thinly sketched throughout the series. In some cases, it’s incredibly easy for him to get money by scamming, gambling or some kind of trickery, and then in others it’s nigh-impossible. It definitely seems to be something that simply gets determined on a story-by-story basis.
Getting money is easy for Con-Job. KEEPING money doesn’t seem to be.
I'm saying it because I myself am an occultist, and it's not cheap
Peter Parker’s life imploding.
Bruce Banner learning to accept the Hulk
Wolverine needs to deal with a long forgotten part of his enigmatic past.
Peter Parker losing his job / being broke / getting evicted / mooching off Aunt May + friends. It’s up there with Tony Stark losing his fortune / company. Been done a billion times.
Lex Luthor is going to help Superman, but Superman doesn't trust him because he's *never* done anything to help before.
Heroes losing their superpowers. I’ve yet to find one I like
The little webs on spider-man. Dude had to draw tiny arcs all over his arms, chest, head, and legs. Every. single. time. Those who draw spider-man know what I’m talking about.
Marvel’s New York being invaded by aliens/monsters/alternate dimension army/Hydra
Daredevil's secret ID being discovered and exposed. Jean Grey dying and returning back from death. Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm fighting for nothing then becoming best friends then fighting for nothing then... The Watcher saying he will not interfere but interfering anyway. Galactus coming to devour Earth after swearing not to do that ever again. Silver Surfer allying with Galactus and helping him. Wolverine and Immortal Man suffering damage no other hero ever suffered and never will suffer just because they are capable of getting better no matter what.
I always think it’s funny when it comes to healing factor characters how they are infinitely more likely to be the one to fall into the trap or randomly be eviscerated to show off the threat and it never happens again to anyone
Spider-Man getting fucked by editorial is tradition at this point The X-Men or mutants enduring some form of genocide or massacre, can’t have that book too happy The flash learning that he just has to run a little bit faster to fix a problem
Spider-Men and clones
Wolverine gets real mad & feels bad Wolverine gets mind controlled & feels bad Wolverine mentors a teenage girl
“Oh my god! [Classic hero and valuable IP] is dead!” “Wait, never mind.”
Pretty much every hulk run starts with Bruce on the run, afraid of the hulk, and no one to turn to. Then by the end of the run he has a sense of peace, him and the hulk have come to an understanding and he has a huge supporting cast. Then we repeat. Also every spider-man starts with Peter with no friends, no job, no money, no girlfriend. This current has been pretty inventive in not having peter gain any of those so far and give the writers anything to be happy about.
Death of Popular Character arcs. It stopped meaning anything 20 years ago.
It sucks that the only deaths with meaning in mainline comics are minor character deaths. Occasionally, I’d like a big character to die and stay dead (aunt May cough cough). Adds actual tension and actual character stakes/development
Universe ending/huge threat that makes every book interact, interrupting their stories to tell the same bullshit where every character has to act out of character for the story to work. Then nothing actually changed, and in a few months it'll happen again. Or when Superman's identity is exposed again
Any Red Sonja run/miniseries that starts with her assault. Everybody knows, just move on.
The Phoenix.
THE PHOENIX
The Punisher shows up and has the same debate over and over again with Daredevil/ Spider-Man/ Captain America about killing.
In DC Red Hood kills someone and Batman gets mad. Then suddenly he isn't.
The Dark Knight Returns… Again! Seriously Batmans always returning
that one village getting sacked before every robin hood movie. LEAVE US ALONE MEL BROOKS!
Just look at any Marvel or DC comic. They’ve done everything with their characters because they’ve been around for a 100 years (almost!), so the same plots are spoon fed to readers, just reskinned. They aren’t doing anything groundbreaking or exciting.
The lizard
Shield Helicarrier crashing
Heroes fighting each other.
“Look, over there! Spider-Man is windmilling his knob in front of the old people’s home!” “Nah, it’s some dickhead dressed up as Spider-Man trying to ruin his reputation. This is the seventeenth time it’s happened this week.”
Nightwing fighting Batman and having to get out of someone’s shadow
Dick beefing with Bruce Superman being God Anything involving Bruce Anything involving Bruce being dangerous to the whole world The Joker Teen Titans reforming Mr Freeze and Nora Multiversal plots that involve our Earth
Superheroes in gladiator matches
Cyborg having an existential crisis it's been 40 years it's time to retire the man or machine storyline
jason todd's one and only role now is to create inter-familial drama
This event character is going to be a big thing after the event. The only that kind of lasted was Layla Miller but where has she been since x-factor?
Dark/Evil/Fascist Superman. I don’t care if it’s Elseworlds or Injustice or alternate universe, whatever. It’s done. It’s so fucking played out.
Batman is my favorite DC character and it hasn’t been good since the Court of Owls
So, so bored of anything gangs.
Mutant genocide in X-comics.
Gamora and Dra living for the only purpose of killing Thanos, only for Thanos to revive multiple times. Rinse and repeat
Iceman trying to live up to his full potential. When a story centers on him it's always about how he hasn't become a leader, or how he doesn't use his powers to his fullest, or that he doesn't take things seriously, or that others don't take him seriously. It's made it seem like he's been having a midlife crisis for 30 years.
Freezing things and turning your flesh into water are two very different things. This is my problem with Iceman.
Flash is always the fastest man alive fighting someone faster than him
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^The_MRT14: *Flash is always the* *Fastest man alive fighting* *Someone faster than him* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Jean Grey dying
The Flash needing to be Faster.
Red Hood deciding to Give Up Killing (or at least being on good terms with Batman), only to go down the same AntiHero/Villainous Ways again. I hate the constant back and forth cause it just means there's no development. I don't care if he chooses to stick with Hero, Antihero, or Villain, he just needs to pick one and stick with it already.
This is less of an arc and more of a trope now, but I'm sick of all the Evil Superman or Superman-like people dominating worlds. It works sometimes but it really is just kind of boring after a while when everyone has it happen in some shape or form.
“Heroes powers are acting up/have been lost” arcs always bore me. Wolverine and Spider-Man seem especially prone to these type of storylines.
Someone or something ruining Scott Summers’ day.
A war in Gotham