When Did you Feel Betrayed by Comics?

[boons88]

they really lost me when on top of the huuuge boobs and butts they started storylines and situations when the characters started screwing each other.... i mean i get plenty of that in real life.... comics was a sanctuary man.... it was a safe place..... but no longer.. so now i just dont buy comics ever.

[TK-421]

For me it was the New 52.

I admit I have been enjoying Batman, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman. But when I am reading a Batman book, it gnaws at me that he has already been through 3 Robins and very established rogues gallery within a 5 year span. I try not to think about it when I read, but it pops up.

Now with WW and AM it does not bother me so much because I really never read their books in the past at any great length. So I guess from that aspect New 52 did its job to some extent.

[Pyrotwilight]

Ah. Feeling betrayed. I have some but it's hard to explain at times. I'm more irked at cancellations these days. Manhunter by Marc Andreyko, Blue Beetle/Jaime's both series, Steve Niles Simon Dark and so forth.

One thing that I felt really betrayed by was The World of New Krypton stories that were going on in DC after Superman rescued Kandor from Brainiac in every Super book barring maybe Superboy.

Not the story themselves but DC's sudden cancelling of it.

So many things were left unexplored and quickly killed or written off. Mon-El and his girlfriend, Billi Harper (he never found out she was pregnant), were going to have a kid. Superman's people were killed off by the US government and he never reacted to it. Etc... After all, DC brought readers in only to make everything happening in every Super book pointless 5 minutes later.

I also feel betrayed whenever a company brings an old unused character only to kill them off to raise stakes or make the well known heroes seem competent.

[marvelboi77]

Originally Posted by Teague

Right after I posted this, I thought about you and Spider-Woman. I remember really feeling for you after you'd bought all that Secret Invasion art, and then it turned out that it wasn't really the character you thought it was. Ouch. Did you ever get rid of those pages?

Sure did... I made thousands and thousands in profit. Not crap... Finch was a good investment. Even did well on the Coipel ones too.

[Matches Malone]

Originally Posted by TK-421

For me it was the New 52.

I admit I have been enjoying Batman, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman. But when I am reading a Batman book, it gnaws at me that he has already been through 3 Robins and very established rogues gallery within a 5 year span. I try not to think about it when I read, but it pops up.

Now with WW and AM it does not bother me so much because I really never read their books in the past at any great length. So I guess from that aspect New 52 did its job to some extent.

Infinite and Final Crisis for me followed by the New 52. DC did a great job setting a clock and establishing a continuity with Zero Hour, only to mess it all up with Infinite Crisis. Then the sloppy end of a bunch of compelling story lines, TWICE, to reboot the universe. The resurrection of Jason Todd is a great example of this. Initially this was horribly conceived until his reemergence was reimagined via Under the Red Hood and the Lost Years. Ridiculous that a couple of panels in HUSH would lead to JT becoming a fan favourite. As much as like Jason he had a more important role as a casualty of Bruce's war than as yet another character in a bloated Bat-Family who is essentially a castrated Punisher now.

New 52 looked to be a breath of fresh air but then for the sake of not stepping on Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns toes Batman and Green Lantern did not get rebooted but the constant retconning has mad the characters an indiscernable mess as mentioned by TK-421.

[Batwing]

Storm was a wonderful character in the ANAD X-Men all the way until she went punk. I hated that issue where she ousted Cyclops for leadership of the X-Men.

Then suddenly she has some history with T'Challa and then becomes Mrs Black Panther?!

A great character that went in a direction I didn't like.

[Primal]

Amazing Spider-Man's "Sins Past" arc was like a punch to the gut and made me realize just how much influence Quesada was exerting on the storylines.

Btw, I enjoyed the hell out of Age of Apocalypse especially the Astonishing X-men title with newcomer Joe Mad's art & Generation Next with that disturbing move by Colossus at the end.

[Spidey62]

This is a great thread, even though I haven't read or don't currently read many of the books. I had a narrow reading group. I don't read any mainstream books anymore unless I go into my longboxes. It's then that I remember how much I enjoyed reading comics. They are so different from today. But, my question is - Don't the companies have editors to guide the story in a direction that doesn't force the title/character into a corner that requires a reboot to correct? Isn't that what editors do? They oversee the overall path of books, yes?

[VaultMan]

This is a great thread, and for me, all of my moments revolve around Spidey.

1) Clone Saga
2) One More Day
3) Bringing Norman Osborne back from the dead AT ALL, especially after the classic stories, from Gwen's death, leading to his death. And unraveling all of that is sacrilege.
4) And on a side note, finding out that Mysterio and Kraven were also brought back from the dead, and again, unraveling some terrific storytelling around both of these deaths. Just ridiculous.

Thanks for making me bring up old memories Teague!

[Meteor Man]

My interest in reading comics began to unravel when I read X-Men #194 in 1995. Claremont created a cool character named Nimrod, a Sentinel from the future...and he took down the Juggernaut using high frequency sonics. Something he should never have been able to do. It was the beginning of the end for me with regards to character continuity and established histories. Under all previous editors from the time Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Juggernaut, he was unstoppable, except by the mental powers of someone like Professor X, or Jean Grey. Of course, he was prepared for that with his helmet from the crimson dimension. Y'see, the Juggernaut was a character who's powers were magical in origin. They were beyond the ability of a robot from the future to overcome. So, when this retcon happened, it opened the flood gates for a bunch of punk writers to continue on with the same garbage. Next thing you know, the Juggernaut is almost destroyed by a force field set up by the Sphinx in the New Warriors comic. Then the Hulk aided by power from Apocalypse was able to stop the Juggernaut. Then there came the horse hockey event know as Onslaught, and all of the sudden the Juggernaut's whole power source and his relationship to it was completely retconed by some idiots who didn't even bother to do their homework, or were so arrogant that they just threw 35 to 40 years of character history they didn't want out the window. Then of course we've had Captain Universe put Juggernaut down, and it was so similar in appearance to the Onslaught beating that there was absolutely no shock value in seeing Juggy laying in a hole in the ground. There's more rubbish like this happening all the time with so many characters, that it's just gotten harder, and harder to stick with it. I pick up a TPB from time to time, but that's it. I just read the "New" Nova, and of course, I just want Rich Rider back. I didn't see the need to kill him after the Annihilation series...