Worst comic stories/storylines

[sharkey360]

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Hey everyone, let's talk about the worst stories or storylines you ever read in comics.

I'll start with the Maximum Carnage crossover of 1993 covering Spider-Man titles at the time. Back then, almost each issue had overblown presentations of storytelling, art and dialogue. Too many battles, a dragging plot, lack of logic in the writing, etc.

The Maximum Carnage trade paperback is available at Fully Booked at Ayala for P1,499 and looks like this.



Below is a retro review that explains why Maximum Carnage sucks

This is the poster child for 90’s excess, an example of Marvel management being under such intense pressure to generate sales that quality and coherence were jettisoned for sake of having product and exploiting the popularity of two major characters (Venom and Carnage), a mentality which ultimately destroyed both characters artistically, although they both remain popular. It is also probably the most grievous case of "Image-Theft," where Marvel tried to mimic the Image line’s emphasis on splashy art and action over plot.

A 14 part story is an insane concept. “The Day Gwen Stacy Died,” although not one of my favorite Spidey stories, is unquestionably one of the most significant comic stories of the Silver, or any age. And it's only two parts. Probably should have been more. “Kraven's Last Hunt,” again not a favorite, but considered a classic by many, is 6 parts - and that's because it was padded with one of JM DeMatteis’ inexplicably favorite creations, Vermin the Rat-Man. If Maximum Carnage had lasted, say 5 parts and took only one month to tell, then it would have been o.k. as a guilty pleasure. But it was the only Spidey story for three very long months.

The only thing that distinguishes one part from the other is that in one part a new hero will enter the story. Big fight. Next issue - this time a new villain enters the picture. Big fight. Next issue - new hero enters...well you see what I mean. And it isn't just the fighting that gets old - it's the dialogue during the fighting. I almost feel for the writers who had to write different variations of the same dialogue over and over. How many different ways can Spider-Man tell Venom that he's not going to stoop to his level, and how many different ways can Venom call Spidey a limp-wristed pussy? And it's amazing, for all the violence and carnage (pun intended), and as demented as the villains are and as bloodthirsty as Venom gets - no one dies. Everyone just gets slapped around a little in these massive free for alls. The Black Cat sprains her ankle – that’s it. Although Carnage and pals cut a violent path all across Manhattan Island, with the rest of the population succumbing to violent and irrational behavior due to some “psychic virus” created by villains’ combined psychosis (I didn’t understand any of it), it still isn't enough to raise the interest of any of the super teams such as the FF, the Avengers (although Captain America shows up), or the X-Men (they're all conveniently unavailable), or Doc Strange. The Federal Government ignores it since it doesn't send in the military (damn New Yorkers are always killing each other anyway), and not even the New York State National Guard shows up (I guess that Albany really hates New York City). It's just a damn weird story. Strange how the Stamford Massacre in 2006 resulted in the Superhuman Registration Act and all sorts of political fallout, but this bloodbath didn’t even register with Congress or anyone else.

It also represented the blatant glorification of Venom and Carnage, two psychopathic murderers - but this was during Venom's "Lethal Protector" days. Part 11 for example, which is Amazing Spider-Man #380 has Carnage dominating the cover, and the caption describes the protagonists of the story as "Venom and Pals." Venom and pals? Was the name of the magazine changed to The Amazing Venom without my being aware? To its credit, Marvel actually printed some negative letters on the letter pages and blatantly admitted that Venom and Carnage's wild popularity were responsible for their exposure. And it probably sold very well, sadly enough. This story was perhaps one of THE reasons that Spider-Man had been a weak title during that decade - but when Marvel finally noticed that the character had gotten off course - it wasn't crap like this they blamed - it was the fact that he was married to Mary Jane.

That sounds awfully familiar.

[sharkey360]

Hey everyone, let's talk about the worst stories or storylines you ever read in comics.

I'll start with the Maximum Carnage crossover of 1993 covering Spider-Man titles at the time. Back then, almost each issue had overblown presentations of storytelling, art and dialogue. Too many battles, a dragging plot, lack of logic in the writing, etc.

The Maximum Carnage trade paperback is available at Fully Booked at Ayala for P1,499 and looks like this.



Below is a retro review that explains why Maximum Carnage sucks

This is the poster child for 90’s excess, an example of Marvel management being under such intense pressure to generate sales that quality and coherence were jettisoned for sake of having product and exploiting the popularity of two major characters (Venom and Carnage), a mentality which ultimately destroyed both characters artistically, although they both remain popular. It is also probably the most grievous case of "Image-Theft," where Marvel tried to mimic the Image line’s emphasis on splashy art and action over plot.

A 14 part story is an insane concept. “The Day Gwen Stacy Died,” although not one of my favorite Spidey stories, is unquestionably one of the most significant comic stories of the Silver, or any age. And it's only two parts. Probably should have been more. “Kraven's Last Hunt,” again not a favorite, but considered a classic by many, is 6 parts - and that's because it was padded with one of JM DeMatteis’ inexplicably favorite creations, Vermin the Rat-Man. If Maximum Carnage had lasted, say 5 parts and took only one month to tell, then it would have been o.k. as a guilty pleasure. But it was the only Spidey story for three very long months.

The only thing that distinguishes one part from the other is that in one part a new hero will enter the story. Big fight. Next issue - this time a new villain enters the picture. Big fight. Next issue - new hero enters...well you see what I mean. And it isn't just the fighting that gets old - it's the dialogue during the fighting. I almost feel for the writers who had to write different variations of the same dialogue over and over. How many different ways can Spider-Man tell Venom that he's not going to stoop to his level, and how many different ways can Venom call Spidey a limp-wristed pussy? And it's amazing, for all the violence and carnage (pun intended), and as demented as the villains are and as bloodthirsty as Venom gets - no one dies. Everyone just gets slapped around a little in these massive free for alls. The Black Cat sprains her ankle – that’s it. Although Carnage and pals cut a violent path all across Manhattan Island, with the rest of the population succumbing to violent and irrational behavior due to some “psychic virus” created by villains’ combined psychosis (I didn’t understand any of it), it still isn't enough to raise the interest of any of the super teams such as the FF, the Avengers (although Captain America shows up), or the X-Men (they're all conveniently unavailable), or Doc Strange. The Federal Government ignores it since it doesn't send in the military (damn New Yorkers are always killing each other anyway), and not even the New York State National Guard shows up (I guess that Albany really hates New York City). It's just a damn weird story. Strange how the Stamford Massacre in 2006 resulted in the Superhuman Registration Act and all sorts of political fallout, but this bloodbath didn’t even register with Congress or anyone else.

It also represented the blatant glorification of Venom and Carnage, two psychopathic murderers - but this was during Venom's "Lethal Protector" days. Part 11 for example, which is Amazing Spider-Man #380 has Carnage dominating the cover, and the caption describes the protagonists of the story as "Venom and Pals." Venom and pals? Was the name of the magazine changed to The Amazing Venom without my being aware? To its credit, Marvel actually printed some negative letters on the letter pages and blatantly admitted that Venom and Carnage's wild popularity were responsible for their exposure. And it probably sold very well, sadly enough. This story was perhaps one of THE reasons that Spider-Man had been a weak title during that decade - but when Marvel finally noticed that the character had gotten off course - it wasn't crap like this they blamed - it was the fact that he was married to Mary Jane.

That sounds awfully familiar.

[Ramini]

tanang binuhat ni Rob Liefeld kai pinka bati nga story ug art..

[sharkey360]

I had a talk with the people at Fully Booked Ayala Cebu - they said someone actually bought the Maximum Carnage trade paperback (P1,499).

Poor buyer. If only he/she read the article above.

[reedzO]

marvel vs dc.... bati sad......

[sharkey360]

Here's another bad Spider-Man storyline...Spider-Man: Torment.

Featuring the Spider-Man writing debut of Todd McFarlane, Torment is a storyline about Spidey's encounter with the Lizard, who is aided by Calypso. When I first read it, I really tried to like it but in the end McFarlane's shallow approach on writing really messed everything. At the time, he was more into drawing than storytelling.

As you read it yourselves, you'll notice Torment lacking all the great elements that made Spidey stories written by David Michelinie great.



Below is a review from Amazon.com, which I fully agree with.

When "Spider-Man #1" was first released in 1990, it sold 2.5 million copies. That number is a bit misleading, since there were about 5,000 different cover variations that collectors just had to snap up. Todd McFarlane, Marvel's Golden Boy, had just been given a plum assignment: Write, pencil and ink his own Spider-Man comic book, far away from the constraints of drawing his pretty pictures over someone else's plots and scripts. It was a match made seemingly in heaven: McFarlane, who had taken "The Amazing Spider-Man" out of the doldrums and turned it into the #1 selling comic, handling the character that had made him the hottest artist around.

To say that McFarlane failed in his first assignment as a writer is an understatement. "Torment", the five-part opening arc to the series, is a disaster of unparalleled magnitude. Gone are the witty musings of previous Spider-Man scribes, replaced by the repetitive rantings of an artist who was ill-equipped to handle the plotting and writing of so complex a character. The book opens with Spider-Man lurking in the shadows and stopping a robbery (in the process calling the robber a punk, like some third-rate Dirty Harry-ripoff). Unfortunately, that can pretty much be considered the highlight. The entire series goes downhill from there. I can describe the entire five-story arc in a few sentences: Calypso raises the Lizard from the bottom of the East River (don't ask what the Lizard was doing there; Todd never bothers to explain it) and conjures some voodoo spells to torment Spider-Man (hence the title). The Lizard scratches Spider-Man with his claws, which are poisoned courtesy of Calypso. A delirious Spider-Man spends the next four issues whining and complaining about Calypso attacking him for no reason. That's it. That's the story. Oh, and Todd also throws in some pages showing Mary Jane club-hopping. Maybe I'm just missing the super-heroic aspects of dancing to '80's nightclub staples, I don't know.

Part of the problem is McFarlane's melodramatic, disjointed and overly redundant writing style. Instead of the happy-go-lucky Spider-Man that preceded, McFarlane's Spider-Man is some weird Batman wannabe, patrolling the melodramatically darkened streets of Gotham Ci.... err, New York. This is probably due to the fact that 90% of the story takes place at night in the shadows. McFarlane seems more content in drawing splash pages that serve no purpose except to show that, wow, Todd has mastered the art of drawing Spider-Man. As such, he seems to consider the story secondary, as he draws out page after page after page of non-action over five issues. The end result is a story that could have been wrappd up in two issues with a better writer. Instead, we get five issues of NOTHING. It gets so absurd that the final issue takes place over the span of five minutes, Marvel time. That's right. FIVE minutes. Todd just had no concept of how to pace and plot a story, and it shows.

The second problem is the choice of villain to kick off the series. Calypso? What happened to Doctor Octopus? The Green Goblin? The Sandman? The Rhino? Heck, I would have even taken Hydro-Man. Instead, we get a third-rate villain in the enigmatic Calypso, and the more fearsome of the villains, the Lizard, is reduced to a mindless lapdog for the scantily-clad voodoo priestess. Editor Jim Salicrup stated that when the time came to pick the villain(s) for the premiere issue, most of Spidey's usual rogue's gallery already had plots sketched out in upcoming issues. But STILL. I'm sure they could have come up with someone better than Calypso. It's obvious from Todd's handling of the character that he just didn't know what to do with her, save for casting a spell on Spidey and drawing it out for five issues. Lame.

Maybe we should have gotten the hint when, in the letter columns of the book, McFarlane admitted that he didn't really feel the story was as important as the artwork, that people picked up a book for the art and not for the story. Unfortunately, he decided to follow his inner muse and put this abomination on paper. To be fair, his writing would improve, and one need look no further than the "Perceptions" storyline to see that Todd finally "got it" and started understanding that, hey, maybe the plot and writing ARE important. And once he left Marvel and formed Image, his writing and artwork on Spawn was light years ahead of anything he did at Marvel.

Anyone who wants to see what the big fuss was about McFarlane's handling of Spider-Man would be wise to pick up the "Spider-Man vs. Venom" trade. David Michelinie does a great job scripting, and Todd's artwork just leaps off the pages, something that was sorely lacking in "Torment". "Torment" is a car-wreck, and is recommended only to those who like to watch the aftermath of such a thing.

Torment is available at Fully Booked for P1,099.

Unless you are a die-hard McFarlane fan or you are an enthusiast on McFarlane Spidey art, I don't recommend buying it.

[exculpter]

the punisher

[Ramini]

the punisher

i liked the punisher stories that chuck dixon wrote..especially River of Blood..kai pang 90's kaayo ug mga storyline..and the stuff done by john romita jr.

[Ramini]

@sharkey

mas arang2x nlang tawn nang mga gipang mention nmo na mga worst stories..if you really want to feature REALLY UGLY stories..check out X-Force (the 90's era)

[zerk]

punisher , archie crossover wala jud ko kabasa ato.. nindt ba?



YOUNGBLOOD !!!!