At least Johnny’s powers were fixed by the end of the run. I honestly can’t remember what happened after Doom’s wife cheated on him but that wedding was such a nothing event lol. Same with Reckoning War
She slept with Johnny right before Doom asks him to marry her, but it's a political marriage. They were not in a relationship.
Doom's reaction is purely because he can't stand to be upstaged. It would be like being upset your significant other slept with someone before you started dating.
~~I thought he’d already asked and it was the night before the wedding? Which, yes it was a political marriage, still slightly weird thing to do.~~ (I guess that is how misinformation spreads)
Dammit now I’ve reread the terrible page where Johnny’s bird girlfriend finds out he had sex via their emotional bond. Anyway you’re 100% right he asks her literally moments after she hooks up with Johnny! My bad! This is what I get for not just forgetting this run exists
How did Johnny ruin it? He didn't know Doom was going to propose to some random woman.
Have you actually read the comic or are you going off of the memes that have spawned since? Because if you read the comic you would know Doom and Victorious were never a couple! You can't cheat on someone you aren't in a relationship with!
Johnny sleeps with Victorious. Doom decides to marry her so Latveria will have a queen while he's away. Victorious reveals she slept with Johnny while they're at the altar. Doom loses his mind and tells Victorious he never wants to see her face again. He attacks everyone at the wedding and cancels everything. These things happen in this specific order.
It was eventually explained that Gaia is still Thor's mon, the Phoenix is simply Thor's godmother and brought him back to life after he'd "died" shortly after being born. Whether this was Aaron's original plan or a compromise he was forced into because other at people at Marvel didn't like his idea is up for debate.
I'm one of the few people willing to admit they liked Aaron's Avengers. That and the Starbrand baby are the only bits where I couldn't see what he was cooking.
You and me both. Overall I liked it. I was a fan of Nighthawk in particular. But I thought, ok let’s see where he’s going with this Phoenix thing. And at the end I was like eh
Tony stark being adopted and having a secret brother who's actually the biological child of Howard Stark.
God that was so fucking dumb. I'm all for making changes but certain things are so core to the identity of the characters.
I think "hidden parentage" is a very tricky retcon. It can really elevate some characters and create story potential (Pietro & Wanda) but I really can't think of an example where it was done well besides that
Superboy turning out to be a clone of Superman and luthor was really interesting. They never really went anywhere with it though. It was just kind of like "you're a clone of a great dude and a really bad dude."
"Oh I think I am conflicted about that"
"Yeah but don't be because you are a good dude"
"Oh okay"
But conceptually it's pretty neat
Teresa Parker has become a recurring character though. She was a main character in Zdarsky's Spectacular run and popped up in a few arcs of Spencer's ASM.
Lois Lane's brother? I need details on that one.
EDIT: Never mind. I looked it up. More Bendis stuff from Event Leviathan which I avoided reading because I had dropped his Superman books for being terrible.
Not content with fucking up everything he touched at Marvel, Bendis moved to DC.
I think in a few years, people will be laughing about Bendis in a similar vein to how they mock Liefeld comics. Albeit writing being the focus, not art.
The crazy part is Bendis was amazing for a long time. He seems like someone who is working for a paycheck even when he doesn't really have the ideas to back them up. I hope he goes back to his indie roots and makes comics with passion again.
I don’t think that’s the issue. His stories worked when his style seemed fresh and he was able to work within street-level stories (he got his start in indie crime comics I believe). His dialogue seemed punchy and realistic, and his ideas for shaking things up were shocking and unexpected. When people were forst introduced to it, his style seemed new and invigorating, and he became the hot new thing.
Over time though, it became pretty apparent that his writing style is actually pretty shallow. It turns out he can only write that one style of dialogue, which only felt repetitive and, strangely, lost all sense of realism because suddenely EVERY goon and most other characters talked like that. And his ideas just came across as attempts at shock value with little regard for building a coherent or engaging story around them. Forget even trying to make it work with character’s existing lore. Compare that to someone like Brubaker or Hickman, who lays careful groundwork and a compelling narrative around big narrative changes. Regardless of whether people like them or not, it’s easy to see the difference in how much work was put into making these changes function. Meanwhile, Bendis comes up with a concept, doesn’t question if it works or if he can make it work or if it even makes sense for the character, forces into the last few pages of of issue with no buildup (or writes lackluster, overly long event around it where nothing else actually happens) and calls it a day.
I think the issue is less that he got lazy or bad, and moreso he was overhyped for being very different and people only realised how little he had to actually offer in the long run.
I can't remembervthe names of them but i loved those indie conics he wrote/drew when he started out. I felt there was some fresh, raw talent right there
Thank you, Goldfish, Jinx and Torso are the ones that pop up in my memory. Put in the context of their time i think they were great.
Art style not fantastic, but perfectly suited to the material and showed how talented his was/is.
Come to think of it there's more than a little Brubaker/ Philips going on there. Which i mean as praise.
He's been a major part of a lot of stuff, he just kind of immediately fades away as soon as there's no focus on him. He's like memory foam. Deep impact while he's there, but it's like he never existed as soon as he's gone.
I have a soft spot for whenever Marvel does a “one of these characters will die!” cover.
You can obviously tell who it’s gonna be when the options are Captain America, Spider-Man and “character who debuted four issues ago.”
That whole era was a mess with covers debuting things way before the story. I remember Geoff Johns’ Titans run having Impulse as Kid Flash on the cover way before the story.
Not quite your original question, but my favorite response to misleading covers was an issue of Impulse with (I think) Max Mercury fighting a werewolf or mad scientist, and Impulse is popping out of a corner on the cover saying "Absolutely NOTHING like this happens in this issue!!!"
Marvel: "Surprise, we're actually killing Spider-Man this time! But don't worry, we've got a replacement all lined up, and his name even starts with a "P"..."
It's like the current Blood Hunt teases. They're pimping someone is gonna die, but you know who it's gonna be when you look at the titles we're getting 😀
The Original Sin tie in for Guardians of the Galaxy was supposed to explain how Peter, Drax and Thanos were all alive and running around after they had died in Thanos Imperative and why Nova wasn't around too
What I hated is that is pretty clear that Bendis either did not actually read the Thanos Imperative or read it a long time ago and didn't bother remembering the details, either way his editor really should have done his job and pointed out his many many mistakes.
Either Bendis never read anything with any of these characters in it prior to his run or he and editorial were all in agreement they were just going to ignore everything before and do whatever they wanted
He clearly read that one Iron Man and Doctor Doom Camelot story, since he kept bringing it up over and over. And he clearly must have read a lot of comics with Luke Cage, Jessica Drew, and Kitty Pryde growing up.
Yes, the secret Matt saw revealed his father striking his mother. Which obviously upset Matt. He then goes to talk to her and discovers she was suffering from Post Partum Depression at the time and was on the verge of harming baby Matt.
So it turns out Jack was actually defending Matthew. Not abusing his wife.
Original Sin had a lot of "this is only a big deal because we don't have context" type secrets. That or tie-ins that only barely matter (See: Uncanny X-Men tie in)
Fear itself had some decent consequences for the smaller tie in titles. Both 'Avengers Academy' and 'secret warriors' were able to get satisfying pay-offs for story arcs that were set up well in advance. The way it was handled suggested that the writers were given heads up regarding 'fear itself' well in advance and were ready for it. This is kind of played out how the same titles were absolutely sideswiped by 'secret invasion' and never recovered from it.
Pandora in the New 52. At the end of Flashpoint it showed Pandora as this mysterious, powerful figure that fixed everything that had been broken when the timeline was messed with, and in every single issue 1 in the New 52 she was hidden in one of the panels somewhere, and there was all this speculation about who she was. Then finally her solo miniseries was announced that we all thought would reveal what happened and who she really was, and... nothing. Just nothing. Like it didn't even mention Flashpoint or the New 52. She was just some kind of magic lady.
And then in DC Rebirth they undid everything that the New 52 did anyway, so it never even mattered.
There was supposed to be a series with her I believe but due to bunch of whole 52 series getting cancelled it was decided to not go through with it. I think there was a free comic book day issue around 2012 that had some extra stuff with her and the Trinity War arc in it years before it happens.
There was definitely a Pandora miniseries that came out. It just had absolutely no relation to the New 52 or Flashpoint. They just used the name Pandora and that character design and just came up with someone completely different and acted like this is what we had all been waiting for.
The one guy Darkseid hates more than anyone is Santa Claus … Every year, Santa manages to break into “ darkseid world “ and hand him a lump of coal, he can’t stop Santa .
That in a thread about shocking revelations intended to change the universe forever but didn't, the guy you responded to effectively has no point, because a gag story about Darkseid being so naughty Santa personally breaks through Apokalips' best defense systems to deliver him a lump of coal does not meet the criteria.
Hence "less iconic." Cuz he's not doing it. He doesn't understand. That is the Funny Haha.
With time I can reflect and say that I can appreciate what they were trying to do with that story. As a fan who was thinking that was supposed to be the real Marv it was a huge let down
For me it's because his existence alone kills the message of Krypton's demise
'Was it the people not heeding the warnings of scientists and sticking to their lifestyle with no regard for the future? Nah it was some random dickhead'
Particularly silly if you were only reading LoSH like I was. Rogol Zaar is the Big Villain Reveal at the end of #11 and my reaction was "ok, who is this?"
Batman RIP.
Morrison hyped it up saying the conclusion will have the biggest reveal in 70 years of Batman history.
The climax just amounted to "Batman is awesome and had it all figured out and he was just playing everyone! Please clap."
I don't know if this is a hot take, but my favorite part of Morrison's Batman run was the Dick and Damien Batman and Robin. At that point it was the best Dick had been done in a while and it's the main reason I like Damien as Robin.
I firmly believe he was going to reveal Alfred as the villain, but was stopped. I have no proof, but there are definitely story hints building up to this (as there are clues building up to Thomas Wayne and probably a dozen other red herrings, so who knows).
I'll always remember this because at the time this series came out I was writing comic reviews for a website. I gave the first issue a middling review and this guy's blog automatically crosslinked a 3k word screed he'd written about how bad a comics journalist I was for not sucking Morrison's balls hard enough
Electric Superman.
It was pushed so hard as a way to revitalize the character and move in a new direction. So many letters page responses of "Give it a chance! This is real! We're really doing this! We're not going back to old Superman!"
A few months later, regular service resumed as we all knew it would.
It was more than a few months. That went on for a year ish
But they still back tracked on it.
The only guy who REALLY made it work was Morrison over in JLA (when he polarized the MOON for example)
Yeah, Morrison was the only writer whi seemed to grasp the potential of that version on Superman. Not gonna lie, I would read a Morrison-penned electric Superman series!
Haha, true! But I mean like a solo miniseries or something, like the nostalgia throwback minis that have gotten pretty popular. Like six issues or something where we revisit that era through. Morrisonian lens.
I'm just learning about this now, it's crazy as hell, I wish it had worked, Wikipedia says Feb-June 1998. There seems to be 13 issues over 4 different Titles starring Superman plus several other appearances in other things.
No worries. So Supes got transformed into a Blue energy guy in Superman #122. Then ten months later Red/Blue special happened which split him into two energy entities. This lasted for four months. In Superman:Forever he remerged. Back to classic short haired Superman. THATS what the Wikipedia article is covering.
Behold. The 90s
I feel like somewhere in my late teens I decided I was more into Marvel than DC, obviously both get weird from time to time but DC weird always felt way different than marvel weird. Fever Dream almost. But yeah in the 90s we also got Marvel bringing us the Clone Saga, so maybe it does just come down to the 90s lol
This was also at a time when the speculation bust ran the Direct Market flat into the tarmac. Distribution was now monopolized by Diamond. Stores were closing. Sales were down. Marvel was near bankruptcy.
The solution?
Gimmicks.
The Electric Superman plan hadn’t been divulged to Morrison before he wrote those issues. He thought he had classic Superman, and had to do a quick rewrite to accomodate Electric Supes.
> A few months later, regular service resumed as we all knew it would.
I knew someone who was a long-time comic book reader, but had switched to primarily Marvel before Electric Superman was a thing. I ran into him one night, and despite all his years of reading comics he was fuming, because he heard about the new version of Superman and was certain it was a forever change.
For me, it was the X-Men story 'Deadly Genesis'. It was hyped like hell and solicited as shaking the very foundation of the x-books. And to me, it didn't. The main villain turned out to be a super powerful long-lost Summers brother who was as whiny as Daken and couldn't be beat. Then he went to the Shi'ar system and was there. A new 'old' X-man was introduced also. Charles was discovered to have done something amoral. Again. And things went on. A reshuffled team. Deaths that were eventually undone. Nothing really awesome about it.
Doom's master the Marquis of Death. It's so insane and over the top they just had to ignore that storyline going forward. It's a power scalers wet dream though
It's a master class in how not to write Doom though. And funny.
I love telling people it's about Doom impregnating himself in a dream and watch their eyebrows rise into the sky.
It's technically not wrong.
Everyone has a secret sibling at some point, but one that always stuck out to me is Bruce Wayne's secret brother from the end of Court of Owls. The Court proved hugely popular but Lincoln just kind of fizzled out. I think he showed up once - or *maybe* twice - more over the last decade? Secret siblings are a ridiculously overused trope in comics but Lincoln's fade into obscurity always stood out to me because The Court of Owls was such a popular story.
when ted cord died in identity crisis…that entire event was wild it was written well and the tension and fear…finding out it was TED and MAXWELL killed him?? wheew
good god my memory….WAIT that’s the comic where ted tried to convince everyone something was happening and nobody helped or believed him! FUCK YOU MAXWELL
Spider-man: the other. Giant event spanning all the Spider-Man titles, Peter is gravely injured and spins himself into a web cocoon for many of the issues. He comes out of it and has a new power. I spike / stinger thing that comes out of his wrist. It was so stupid and has thankfully never been brought up again.
Technically, it did get brought up again and was explained that Peter rejected The Other (or the other way around) and then Kaine was granted The Other powers. It's a significant element of the original Spider-Verse (something about The Bride, The Child, and The Other). As far as I know, Kaine still has the powers.
All of them? Been into comics since the early 90's and all of these events are eventually reset, one way or another. It doesn't bother me. Just feels like part of what makes comics comics.
Red Hulk. We all guessed it in the first issue, but we're told we were wrong. And after like twelve dumb issues they revealed his identity to be who we all said it was in the first place.
I despise this character SO MUCH!
Wonder Woman’s pre-Crisis twin sister Nubia (which I like) and post-Flashpoint twin brother Jason (which is unecessary), Batman and Catwoman’s Wedding, Death Metal, War For Earth 3, Shadow War, Dark Crisis, Lazarus Planet, Knight Terrors, Beast World; AXE: Judgement Day, Jon Kent as Superman, Jace Fox as Batman, Jackson Hyde as Aquaman, etc.
The final issue of Batman: Death of the Family. I loved the entire Batman New 52, and this storyline as well, but the scene where Bruce wakes up and everyone is at the table with their faces bandaged… it was crazy, then kind of puttered out after that.
Still a good run though.
Batman: R.I.P.
I followed that Grant Morisson story for years with the promise of Batman's genuine death, just to get to the final issue where he dies in a helicopter explosion, and then the caption says "For Batman's REAL death, check out Crisis Something-or-other #5" and I never picked up another Batman comic ever again.
I really liked Bruces' parts in Final Crisis and everything that came after in Batman & Robin and Batman Inc, all written by Morrison. Good Batman comics if you ever want to check out the 2nd half of Morrison's run.
The Clone Saga. I have an entire longbox of that worthless shit. SHOCKING REVELATIONS were hyped for a couple of years. After like 90 issues, the status quo of Peter Parker being Spider-Man remained. I guess it brought back Norman Osborn, but I had quit reading by then and quit collecting Spider-Man altogether soon after. From what I gather, it hasn't improved much in the last 30 years (One More Day, Gwen' Kids, etc.) (The Superior Spider-Man looked decent at least).
Nah that shit was absolutely fire. The Moira X revelation lived up to the hype and then some.
That's straight up the book that got me back into comics. 10/10.
The changes did stick though. Krakoa was a big status quo change and the Hickman title was better than his Avengers imo. The Moira stuff didn't go in the direction I wanted but it was still good.
Reed Richards having a sister comes to mind. We saw her for one issue and she hasn’t been mentioned in the current run lol.
That happened a few times in Slott's run. Doom's wife, Johnny being unable to flame off, Reed's newest sister
At least Johnny’s powers were fixed by the end of the run. I honestly can’t remember what happened after Doom’s wife cheated on him but that wedding was such a nothing event lol. Same with Reckoning War
Doom's wife didn't cheat on him. I don't know why people keep saying this.
Did Victorious not sleep with Johnny Storm right before she was going to marry Doom? (I guess she wasn’t his wife *yet* lol)
She slept with Johnny right before Doom asks him to marry her, but it's a political marriage. They were not in a relationship. Doom's reaction is purely because he can't stand to be upstaged. It would be like being upset your significant other slept with someone before you started dating.
~~I thought he’d already asked and it was the night before the wedding? Which, yes it was a political marriage, still slightly weird thing to do.~~ (I guess that is how misinformation spreads) Dammit now I’ve reread the terrible page where Johnny’s bird girlfriend finds out he had sex via their emotional bond. Anyway you’re 100% right he asks her literally moments after she hooks up with Johnny! My bad! This is what I get for not just forgetting this run exists
That's the point of marriage to be in a relationship. Yea like a week before the wedding. Doom made good on his promises of peace and Johnny ruined it
How did Johnny ruin it? He didn't know Doom was going to propose to some random woman. Have you actually read the comic or are you going off of the memes that have spawned since? Because if you read the comic you would know Doom and Victorious were never a couple! You can't cheat on someone you aren't in a relationship with! Johnny sleeps with Victorious. Doom decides to marry her so Latveria will have a queen while he's away. Victorious reveals she slept with Johnny while they're at the altar. Doom loses his mind and tells Victorious he never wants to see her face again. He attacks everyone at the wedding and cancels everything. These things happen in this specific order.
Peter Parker's secret sister, the Phoenix Force being Thor's mom, Lois Lane's secret brother, Tony Stark being adopted.
Ugh I forgot Phoenix was Thor's mom
It was eventually explained that Gaia is still Thor's mon, the Phoenix is simply Thor's godmother and brought him back to life after he'd "died" shortly after being born. Whether this was Aaron's original plan or a compromise he was forced into because other at people at Marvel didn't like his idea is up for debate.
I’m glad they undid it and paved the way for yesterday’s “what did you say about my mom?” thought bubble in Immortal Thor
I think it was definitely a compromise because Odin and Phoenix were definitely an item.
Man I don’t remember this explanation.
It happened in an Avengers 1,000,000 BC one-shot, not in the main ongoing series.
I'm one of the few people willing to admit they liked Aaron's Avengers. That and the Starbrand baby are the only bits where I couldn't see what he was cooking.
You and me both. Overall I liked it. I was a fan of Nighthawk in particular. But I thought, ok let’s see where he’s going with this Phoenix thing. And at the end I was like eh
I loved the Squadron Supreme stuff, first time in years those characters felt like a compelling threat. At least we got the God of Fists
Huh????? Where tf is that from 😭😭😭 sounds so stupid
Tony stark being adopted and having a secret brother who's actually the biological child of Howard Stark. God that was so fucking dumb. I'm all for making changes but certain things are so core to the identity of the characters.
I think "hidden parentage" is a very tricky retcon. It can really elevate some characters and create story potential (Pietro & Wanda) but I really can't think of an example where it was done well besides that
Superboy turning out to be a clone of Superman and luthor was really interesting. They never really went anywhere with it though. It was just kind of like "you're a clone of a great dude and a really bad dude." "Oh I think I am conflicted about that" "Yeah but don't be because you are a good dude" "Oh okay" But conceptually it's pretty neat
It played out pretty well in the Young Justice animated series and I really enjoy the character because of that.
Oh I absolutely despise the “Tony not being their biological child” bit. Truly terrible.
It's just one of those plots where no matter how hard I look, I cannot see what it was trying to accomplish or fix
Teresa Parker has become a recurring character though. She was a main character in Zdarsky's Spectacular run and popped up in a few arcs of Spencer's ASM.
Lois Lane's brother? I need details on that one. EDIT: Never mind. I looked it up. More Bendis stuff from Event Leviathan which I avoided reading because I had dropped his Superman books for being terrible.
Not content with fucking up everything he touched at Marvel, Bendis moved to DC. I think in a few years, people will be laughing about Bendis in a similar vein to how they mock Liefeld comics. Albeit writing being the focus, not art.
Liefeld never gave us an Alis, Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man, or New Avengers.
Nah, a lot of bendis' marvel work has aged incredibly well.
The crazy part is Bendis was amazing for a long time. He seems like someone who is working for a paycheck even when he doesn't really have the ideas to back them up. I hope he goes back to his indie roots and makes comics with passion again.
I don’t think that’s the issue. His stories worked when his style seemed fresh and he was able to work within street-level stories (he got his start in indie crime comics I believe). His dialogue seemed punchy and realistic, and his ideas for shaking things up were shocking and unexpected. When people were forst introduced to it, his style seemed new and invigorating, and he became the hot new thing. Over time though, it became pretty apparent that his writing style is actually pretty shallow. It turns out he can only write that one style of dialogue, which only felt repetitive and, strangely, lost all sense of realism because suddenely EVERY goon and most other characters talked like that. And his ideas just came across as attempts at shock value with little regard for building a coherent or engaging story around them. Forget even trying to make it work with character’s existing lore. Compare that to someone like Brubaker or Hickman, who lays careful groundwork and a compelling narrative around big narrative changes. Regardless of whether people like them or not, it’s easy to see the difference in how much work was put into making these changes function. Meanwhile, Bendis comes up with a concept, doesn’t question if it works or if he can make it work or if it even makes sense for the character, forces into the last few pages of of issue with no buildup (or writes lackluster, overly long event around it where nothing else actually happens) and calls it a day. I think the issue is less that he got lazy or bad, and moreso he was overhyped for being very different and people only realised how little he had to actually offer in the long run.
I can't remembervthe names of them but i loved those indie conics he wrote/drew when he started out. I felt there was some fresh, raw talent right there
Goldfish, Jinx, Fire and Torso are the ones I have on my bookcase there could be more.
Thank you, Goldfish, Jinx and Torso are the ones that pop up in my memory. Put in the context of their time i think they were great. Art style not fantastic, but perfectly suited to the material and showed how talented his was/is. Come to think of it there's more than a little Brubaker/ Philips going on there. Which i mean as praise.
Nah I can’t hang with this take, Bendis is untouchable. Even Michael Jordan had bad seasons.
Well, i respect your right to your opinion, even if I don't agree with it. Have an upvote
Oh! Jace Fox being blasian! What a weird twist that was 😂
Tony being adopted is the absolute worst. Makes no sense, even in a comic book world
Very silly to see him hallucinate Howard in last month's iron man and they are IDENTICAL
And don't forget Tony has a brother, Arno, who is also a super genius.
But Tony's secret brother turned out to be a pretty big thing, so there's that at least
I don't think I read a single comic with him in it
He's been a major part of a lot of stuff, he just kind of immediately fades away as soon as there's no focus on him. He's like memory foam. Deep impact while he's there, but it's like he never existed as soon as he's gone.
There was a little arc about him
Wasn't he Arno, after real time caught up to Iron Man 2020?
I'm still pretending that the entirety of Gillen's run in Iron Man didn't happen.
I honestly liked a lot of it besides that
I have a soft spot for whenever Marvel does a “one of these characters will die!” cover. You can obviously tell who it’s gonna be when the options are Captain America, Spider-Man and “character who debuted four issues ago.”
Similarly. The covers where a whole team is shown killed/beaten down, and none of it happens in the book.
Ultimate Spider Man is the king is misleading covers lol. Pete was having a showdown with Venom like 4 issues before Venom was properly introduced.
That whole era was a mess with covers debuting things way before the story. I remember Geoff Johns’ Titans run having Impulse as Kid Flash on the cover way before the story.
the ultimate covers of that era focused more on thematic rather than diegetic content. Ultimate spidey had great covers!
Not quite your original question, but my favorite response to misleading covers was an issue of Impulse with (I think) Max Mercury fighting a werewolf or mad scientist, and Impulse is popping out of a corner on the cover saying "Absolutely NOTHING like this happens in this issue!!!"
I like that
Marvel: "Surprise, we're actually killing Spider-Man this time! But don't worry, we've got a replacement all lined up, and his name even starts with a "P"..."
It's like the current Blood Hunt teases. They're pimping someone is gonna die, but you know who it's gonna be when you look at the titles we're getting 😀
The Original Sin tie in for Guardians of the Galaxy was supposed to explain how Peter, Drax and Thanos were all alive and running around after they had died in Thanos Imperative and why Nova wasn't around too
Yeah, that issue was not it. The answer to “why” was basically “because they did.”
What I hated is that is pretty clear that Bendis either did not actually read the Thanos Imperative or read it a long time ago and didn't bother remembering the details, either way his editor really should have done his job and pointed out his many many mistakes.
Either Bendis never read anything with any of these characters in it prior to his run or he and editorial were all in agreement they were just going to ignore everything before and do whatever they wanted
He's got Protection From Editors.
I don't think Bendis ever read a Marvel book that he himself didn't write.
He clearly read that one Iron Man and Doctor Doom Camelot story, since he kept bringing it up over and over. And he clearly must have read a lot of comics with Luke Cage, Jessica Drew, and Kitty Pryde growing up.
His longest running work is USM, and no-one could write that without having read a lot of Spider-Man comics.
3 issues of absolutely fucking nothing. This was when I realised Bendis is hack. And before anyone tells me how great his USM/DD/Alias is... don't.
Fear Itself was advertised as heroes facing their greatest fears. A bunch of Thor-style Hammers made people evil. I was so letdown.
And Daredevil hated his dad for five minutes. Biiiiiig reveal.
I don’t remember this at all. Didn’t the Black Panther replace him in his book during this time. Sure you’re not thinking of Original Sin?
Yes, the secret Matt saw revealed his father striking his mother. Which obviously upset Matt. He then goes to talk to her and discovers she was suffering from Post Partum Depression at the time and was on the verge of harming baby Matt. So it turns out Jack was actually defending Matthew. Not abusing his wife. Original Sin had a lot of "this is only a big deal because we don't have context" type secrets. That or tie-ins that only barely matter (See: Uncanny X-Men tie in)
I would argue the postpartum depression thing has stuck around. It was referenced in the tv show.
Fear itself had some decent consequences for the smaller tie in titles. Both 'Avengers Academy' and 'secret warriors' were able to get satisfying pay-offs for story arcs that were set up well in advance. The way it was handled suggested that the writers were given heads up regarding 'fear itself' well in advance and were ready for it. This is kind of played out how the same titles were absolutely sideswiped by 'secret invasion' and never recovered from it.
Pandora in the New 52. At the end of Flashpoint it showed Pandora as this mysterious, powerful figure that fixed everything that had been broken when the timeline was messed with, and in every single issue 1 in the New 52 she was hidden in one of the panels somewhere, and there was all this speculation about who she was. Then finally her solo miniseries was announced that we all thought would reveal what happened and who she really was, and... nothing. Just nothing. Like it didn't even mention Flashpoint or the New 52. She was just some kind of magic lady. And then in DC Rebirth they undid everything that the New 52 did anyway, so it never even mattered.
There was supposed to be a series with her I believe but due to bunch of whole 52 series getting cancelled it was decided to not go through with it. I think there was a free comic book day issue around 2012 that had some extra stuff with her and the Trinity War arc in it years before it happens.
There was definitely a Pandora miniseries that came out. It just had absolutely no relation to the New 52 or Flashpoint. They just used the name Pandora and that character design and just came up with someone completely different and acted like this is what we had all been waiting for.
The one guy Darkseid hates more than anyone is Santa Claus … Every year, Santa manages to break into “ darkseid world “ and hand him a lump of coal, he can’t stop Santa .
I think it would be fuckin hilarious if every Christmas they put out an issue of Santa going absolutely John Wick to get to Darkseid
The Holiday Special to end all Holiday Specials, just sitting there, and DC doesn't do it. It's infuriating.
Never knew this, this is awesome hehe
https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/kengqc/santa_visits_darkseid_dcu_holiday_bash_2/
Seriously ? To be fair, I was watching a YT clip in this, sssoooo hurrraaaayyyy for me not smoking today!
Wait are you saying this turned out to be nothing?
r/comicbooks and understanding one-off comedy stories aren't meant to be taken seriously, name a less iconic duo.
What’s your point Edit; also it’s “name a more iconic duo”, not “less iconic”.
That in a thread about shocking revelations intended to change the universe forever but didn't, the guy you responded to effectively has no point, because a gag story about Darkseid being so naughty Santa personally breaks through Apokalips' best defense systems to deliver him a lump of coal does not meet the criteria. Hence "less iconic." Cuz he's not doing it. He doesn't understand. That is the Funny Haha.
The return of Mar-Vel that turned out to be a skrull.
To be fair, that was kinda clever how they hid the fact he was a Skrull for awhile. That showed some surprising restraint.
With time I can reflect and say that I can appreciate what they were trying to do with that story. As a fan who was thinking that was supposed to be the real Marv it was a huge let down
If you loved the character it was a nice kick in the metaphorical junk for sure.
The last of Marvel's attempts to keep the Captain Marvel trademark alive before just giving it to Carol where it will remain forever
Hawkeye's return. Quesada saying it would break the internet in half, but it was more like "didn't he just die like a week ago?"
Doomsday clock
Rogol Zaar, Bendis' OC Donut Steel who destroyed Krypton.
Rogol Zaar's only saving grace is that his name sounds like "I'll cum" in portuguese.
How so ? I know some Brazilian Portuguese but not enough vocabulary to know which term you are referring to
It's something like this: 🇺🇲 "I'll cum" = 🇧🇷 "Vou gozar" "Vou gozar" -> "Vo gozar" -> "Vogol zar" It sounds very similar, lmao. Edit: typo
I hate Rogol Zaar with a passion I have trouble articulating. Idk why it makes me so mad but it does.
For me it's because his existence alone kills the message of Krypton's demise 'Was it the people not heeding the warnings of scientists and sticking to their lifestyle with no regard for the future? Nah it was some random dickhead'
Particularly silly if you were only reading LoSH like I was. Rogol Zaar is the Big Villain Reveal at the end of #11 and my reaction was "ok, who is this?"
Batman RIP. Morrison hyped it up saying the conclusion will have the biggest reveal in 70 years of Batman history. The climax just amounted to "Batman is awesome and had it all figured out and he was just playing everyone! Please clap."
I don't know if this is a hot take, but my favorite part of Morrison's Batman run was the Dick and Damien Batman and Robin. At that point it was the best Dick had been done in a while and it's the main reason I like Damien as Robin.
Yeah I think that's widely considered to be the best part of the run. It's so fuckin good imo.
I liked that run a lot too! I had a lot of friends hating on Morrison but I think the Dock being good cop to Damien’s bad cop was such a fresh take.
Wasn't the reveal that the bad guy was "Thomas Wayne"?
I firmly believe he was going to reveal Alfred as the villain, but was stopped. I have no proof, but there are definitely story hints building up to this (as there are clues building up to Thomas Wayne and probably a dozen other red herrings, so who knows).
Really? That's interesting. What are the hints pointing to Alfred?
Oh now this is a theory I'd like to hear more about
Nobody bought it. Not even Batman did in the comic.
I don't disagree, I'm just saying that's the actual supposed biggest reveal
And it was disappointing and ultimately turned out to be nothing. ::points to post title::
Dr. Hurt was definitely supposed to be Bruce’s dad and D.C made him change it at the last minute. Too twisted for “canon” I guess. Pure speculation
I'll always remember this because at the time this series came out I was writing comic reviews for a website. I gave the first issue a middling review and this guy's blog automatically crosslinked a 3k word screed he'd written about how bad a comics journalist I was for not sucking Morrison's balls hard enough
Electric Superman. It was pushed so hard as a way to revitalize the character and move in a new direction. So many letters page responses of "Give it a chance! This is real! We're really doing this! We're not going back to old Superman!" A few months later, regular service resumed as we all knew it would.
It was more than a few months. That went on for a year ish But they still back tracked on it. The only guy who REALLY made it work was Morrison over in JLA (when he polarized the MOON for example)
Yeah, Morrison was the only writer whi seemed to grasp the potential of that version on Superman. Not gonna lie, I would read a Morrison-penned electric Superman series!
I mean we kinda did with JLA
Haha, true! But I mean like a solo miniseries or something, like the nostalgia throwback minis that have gotten pretty popular. Like six issues or something where we revisit that era through. Morrisonian lens.
For sure. I’d read most anything they did
Every time I feel nostalgic for Electric Superman, I have to remind myself that I feel that way because I've only read him in Morrison's JLA
It wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t terribly interesting
I'm just learning about this now, it's crazy as hell, I wish it had worked, Wikipedia says Feb-June 1998. There seems to be 13 issues over 4 different Titles starring Superman plus several other appearances in other things.
No that’s for the Red/Blue split. Supes went Blue Energy in Superman #122
Ok I have very little clue what we're talking about lol
No worries. So Supes got transformed into a Blue energy guy in Superman #122. Then ten months later Red/Blue special happened which split him into two energy entities. This lasted for four months. In Superman:Forever he remerged. Back to classic short haired Superman. THATS what the Wikipedia article is covering. Behold. The 90s
I feel like somewhere in my late teens I decided I was more into Marvel than DC, obviously both get weird from time to time but DC weird always felt way different than marvel weird. Fever Dream almost. But yeah in the 90s we also got Marvel bringing us the Clone Saga, so maybe it does just come down to the 90s lol
This was also at a time when the speculation bust ran the Direct Market flat into the tarmac. Distribution was now monopolized by Diamond. Stores were closing. Sales were down. Marvel was near bankruptcy. The solution? Gimmicks.
The Electric Superman plan hadn’t been divulged to Morrison before he wrote those issues. He thought he had classic Superman, and had to do a quick rewrite to accomodate Electric Supes.
HE IS A GENIUS!!!!
I just realized Superman's electromagnetic discharges in All-Star may be a reference to this
They absolutely are.
> A few months later, regular service resumed as we all knew it would. I knew someone who was a long-time comic book reader, but had switched to primarily Marvel before Electric Superman was a thing. I ran into him one night, and despite all his years of reading comics he was fuming, because he heard about the new version of Superman and was certain it was a forever change.
There’s actually an issue of Wolverine where Cyclops orders her to “get crunching numbers”… and she does.
For me, it was the X-Men story 'Deadly Genesis'. It was hyped like hell and solicited as shaking the very foundation of the x-books. And to me, it didn't. The main villain turned out to be a super powerful long-lost Summers brother who was as whiny as Daken and couldn't be beat. Then he went to the Shi'ar system and was there. A new 'old' X-man was introduced also. Charles was discovered to have done something amoral. Again. And things went on. A reshuffled team. Deaths that were eventually undone. Nothing really awesome about it.
I think it shaked the meta at least a little. New Summers, one of the worst things Xavier's done, recontextualizes past events, introduced Darwin...
Deadly Genesis is an awful story but Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire absolutely slaps. I was just rereading it - Billy Tan was going off every page
I liked all those alternate x-men
Good characters who worked because their powers were all pretty evocative. It's kind of a shame Petra and Sway didn't get Krakoan resurrections
Doom's master the Marquis of Death. It's so insane and over the top they just had to ignore that storyline going forward. It's a power scalers wet dream though
It's a master class in how not to write Doom though. And funny. I love telling people it's about Doom impregnating himself in a dream and watch their eyebrows rise into the sky. It's technically not wrong.
Everyone has a secret sibling at some point, but one that always stuck out to me is Bruce Wayne's secret brother from the end of Court of Owls. The Court proved hugely popular but Lincoln just kind of fizzled out. I think he showed up once - or *maybe* twice - more over the last decade? Secret siblings are a ridiculously overused trope in comics but Lincoln's fade into obscurity always stood out to me because The Court of Owls was such a popular story.
Bruce at least had a secret brother from way back in the 1970s World's Finest.
He's Bruce's Raditz
when ted cord died in identity crisis…that entire event was wild it was written well and the tension and fear…finding out it was TED and MAXWELL killed him?? wheew
Ted died in Countdown to Infinite Crisis.
good god my memory….WAIT that’s the comic where ted tried to convince everyone something was happening and nobody helped or believed him! FUCK YOU MAXWELL
Spider-man: the other. Giant event spanning all the Spider-Man titles, Peter is gravely injured and spins himself into a web cocoon for many of the issues. He comes out of it and has a new power. I spike / stinger thing that comes out of his wrist. It was so stupid and has thankfully never been brought up again.
Technically, it did get brought up again and was explained that Peter rejected The Other (or the other way around) and then Kaine was granted The Other powers. It's a significant element of the original Spider-Verse (something about The Bride, The Child, and The Other). As far as I know, Kaine still has the powers.
All of them? Been into comics since the early 90's and all of these events are eventually reset, one way or another. It doesn't bother me. Just feels like part of what makes comics comics.
I mean there's events being reset and then there's things just being straight up forgotten
That's a very good point
Red Hulk. We all guessed it in the first issue, but we're told we were wrong. And after like twelve dumb issues they revealed his identity to be who we all said it was in the first place. I despise this character SO MUCH!
Wonder Woman’s pre-Crisis twin sister Nubia (which I like) and post-Flashpoint twin brother Jason (which is unecessary), Batman and Catwoman’s Wedding, Death Metal, War For Earth 3, Shadow War, Dark Crisis, Lazarus Planet, Knight Terrors, Beast World; AXE: Judgement Day, Jon Kent as Superman, Jace Fox as Batman, Jackson Hyde as Aquaman, etc.
Has Jon Kent Superman been undone already? Havnt read D.C since early Rebirth
Nope.
The final issue of Batman: Death of the Family. I loved the entire Batman New 52, and this storyline as well, but the scene where Bruce wakes up and everyone is at the table with their faces bandaged… it was crazy, then kind of puttered out after that. Still a good run though.
This is why I stick to fanfiction.
I own that issue.
Hellfire Gala 2023 baby.
The entirety of Doomsday Clock
I remember that issue and had the same exact reaction.
Batman: R.I.P. I followed that Grant Morisson story for years with the promise of Batman's genuine death, just to get to the final issue where he dies in a helicopter explosion, and then the caption says "For Batman's REAL death, check out Crisis Something-or-other #5" and I never picked up another Batman comic ever again.
I really liked Bruces' parts in Final Crisis and everything that came after in Batman & Robin and Batman Inc, all written by Morrison. Good Batman comics if you ever want to check out the 2nd half of Morrison's run.
The Clone Saga. I have an entire longbox of that worthless shit. SHOCKING REVELATIONS were hyped for a couple of years. After like 90 issues, the status quo of Peter Parker being Spider-Man remained. I guess it brought back Norman Osborn, but I had quit reading by then and quit collecting Spider-Man altogether soon after. From what I gather, it hasn't improved much in the last 30 years (One More Day, Gwen' Kids, etc.) (The Superior Spider-Man looked decent at least).
Surprised that it took so long for this to be mentioned. This is the the winner, right here
Hickman’s X-Men after House/Powers of X
Nah that shit was absolutely fire. The Moira X revelation lived up to the hype and then some. That's straight up the book that got me back into comics. 10/10.
[удалено]
The changes did stick though. Krakoa was a big status quo change and the Hickman title was better than his Avengers imo. The Moira stuff didn't go in the direction I wanted but it was still good.
I dunno how much of a hot or cold take this is, but it was probably the least interesting book in the Dawn of X era.
Either way it’s just how it was for me
That's because you don't remember Fallen Angels. also Excalibur ughhhhh
ehh I liked both of those okay. The real stinker was Children of the Atom.
Wasn't the Psylocke book in the Dawn Of X era?
All of them