Polite Dissent

In my years of reading comics, I’ve read my share of bad comics, and sometimes really bad comics.

Rarely, however, have I found a comic so bad that I find myself needing to burn it until nothing remains but ashes, then bury those ashes and salt the earth afterwards. That is a Godwaful Comic. These are the comics that companies should be ashamed of publishing. They should apologize to their readers and pay us money for having suffered through them. These are the comics that all but guarantee that I will never purchase any title involving those responsible ever again.

I used to stumble upon these books maybe once every two or three years. Sadly (and painfully), I have encountered two of these comics recently. Both have been from DC, and both have been part of the “One Year Later” storylines.

Battle for Bludhaven #5 has, without a doubt, the worst art that I have ever had the misfortune of experiencing in an (allegedly) professionally published comic. At what point does the editor have the responsibilty to say, “Stop! This sucks! Do it over!” It’s not like this is Civil War — it’s not like anyone was waiting with bated breath for this comic. If if had come out a month or two late, I doubt anyone would have noticed, and I sure whould have appreciated it. Of course, the story would have still been terrible, but at least the art wouldn’t require me to claw my eyes out anymore.

Nightwing #122. I’m not sure I can put the sheer horribleness of this comic into words. Just let me highight (or low-light) a few key moments.

• The repeated mentions of “Cleveland” as if it has some deep meaning. This might have been effective had it been brought up from the beginnig of the storyline, but to abruptly and awkwardly inject it into the “climactic” fight scene? It was unbelievably awkward and halted the momentum every time it occurred.
• The deus ex machina of having Jason Todd suddenly turn into a bizarre monster that swallows and then regurgitates his opponent. Where the hell did that come from? And why? Just having a random meteorite fall from the heavens and crush the bad guy would have been more logical, believable, and been less insulting to the reader.
• Jason Todd saying “so long good-bye” by telegraph. After nearly two years of Jason Todd being a focus of the Bat-Books, he just suddenly decides to leave and announces it, not in person, but by a technology that was abandoned two years ago amid multiple news reports discussing the demise of the telegraph.
• Ending the book on a stupid pun/joke. This isn’t Scooby Doo — though that clearly was the comic I should have bought.