Sooo..... Comic books. Anyone else think most of them are kinda teribble?

[Dragonclaw]

Lots of really good reads out there, but much of the "mainstream" DC and Marvel tend to be pretty sloppy. I think in no small part to how many books they try and crank out...6 Deadpool books, I lost count of the simultaneous Captain America and Thor minis...and they need to write the issues as a complete issue. Too often the look for writing the graphic novel and the individual books suffer for it.

For a great hero book check out IRREDEEMABLE by Mark Waid. The Plutonian (think Superman) saves a stadium full of people and while most everyone is cheering he hears one guy basically call him a douche and just flips out, destroys cities, kills former team mates...

 

[Wolfenbarg]

Most comic books are terrible? Sure. But the same goes for most films, books, webcomics, and whatever else you can call entertainment. Sturgeon's Law at work man. We just don't realize it in some mediums because we don't see or ever hear about the majority of the works produced in that medium.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

The only time I really dislike "regular" comic books are when they have a running story that crosses several different titles. I mean, its bad enough that they are holding the story hostage to get more money (by making you buy more books), but sometimes you don't even know which books to look in! Its like having a running Spider-Man story and having a big chunk of it in She-Hulk. Its just annoying.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I'm getting annoyed with DC because they simply can't have ANY of their heroes be in a happy relationship. Green Arrow and Black Canary are getting divorced, Nightwing is too much of an idiot around Starfire, Superboy died, Kid Devil got blown up, and Heaven forbid that Batman ever fall in love with the dozen of smart, mature, and interesting women who like him--many of which are superheroes in their own right, and therefore don't have to worry about being targeted. Raven and Beast Boy are the only ones left that I'm still hoping for.

However, I have noticed that, at least in Teen Titans, the writing is lacking in areas. Case in point, anyone who read that love scene between Superboy and Wonder Girl and DIDN'T bang their head into a wall, you are a stronger soul than I.

 

[Stormz]

My problem with all the mainstream comic books is all the alternate time-lines and universes. It gets really confusing really fast. Not to mention the absolute massive amount of super heroes in one universe, you'd think all the baddies would just give up with the thousands of super heroes around.

 

[SimuLord]

Sturgeon's Law states that 90% of everything is crud.

Sturgeon's Corollary is that 90% of the remainder, while good, isn't of interest to any given person.

So therefore, 99% of what you find is either uninteresting or crap.

 

[Gregz]

Easy, Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

 

[Uzbekistan]

To quote Escapist's MovieBob:

COMICS
ARE
WEEEEIRRRDDD

Seriously, if you haven't seen his Big Picture gig, I recomend it.

Other than that, I don't really read Western comics. I'm more into manga, though I am reading Watchman and I really like it.

 

[xdom125x]

I have to disagree. Sure, there´s a lot of crap ou there, but to say that most are terrible isnt accurate. If you read Vertigo, Dark Horse and Image books you´ll find plenty of variety outside the mainstream spandex superheroes.

The main thing is that there are 2 companies(Marvel and DC) still dominating the comic book market which have ridiculously complicated and convoluted mythology.

 

[ComicsAreWeird]

I have to disagree. Sure, there´s a lot of crap ou there, but to say that most are terrible isnt accurate. If you read Vertigo, Dark Horse and Image books you´ll find plenty of variety outside the mainstream spandex superheroes.

The main thing is that there are 2 companies(Marvel and DC) still dominating the comic book market which have ridiculously complicated and convoluted mythology.

Marvel and DC dominating the market? True, the sales figures dont lie.

Ridiculously complicated and convulted mythology? Sometimes, yes. But like i said...only on the mainsteam spandex superheroes. A lot of titles i mentioned are from Marvel and DC but they´re not complicated (Runaways, Kick-ass, etc...).
A few titles that were created to make comics more accessible to new readers from Marvel and DC would be all the comics in the Ultimate line (Ultimates, Ultimate Spider-man, Ultimate Cap, Ultimate X-Men, etc) and a few DC books like Superman:Earth One and Superman:Secret Origin that have zero continuity. Writers like Geoff Johns put a lot of mythology in their books but they are frequently creating jumping points for new readers, like in Flash and Green Lantern with "rebirth" and "secret origin".

And... the fact that those books dominate the market doesnt mean that there arent alternatives and that "most of them are kinda terrible", which is the topic in discussion. There are a LOT of great comics from Marvel and DC and there is a huge amount of great comics from Dark Horse, Image, Vertigo and Dynamite.

 

[Lieju]

Wait!!!!!! Don't flame just yet! Let me say my opinion first.
I don't hate the medium of comic books. I like the format of comic books just not the content. I like plenty of comic books. Scott pilgrim, Watchmen and that halo graphic novel was cool (elites are awesome). But the majority of comics are about super heroes which in and of it self isn't a bad thing.

I mainly read manga and artsy European comics that are about little girl's life in Iran or something, so...
Persepolis by Mariane Satrapi is good, BTW. Also anything by Enki Bilal, especially "The Carnival of Immortals", "the Rabbi's cat" by Joann Sfar, The adventures of Tintin of course...

Broaden your horizons a little. You can find all of those in English.

Easy, Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

Also this. I'd recommend reading them in order, though.

As far as American super-hero comics go, The start of Deadpool's own series was really good, and you can easily start reading from there.
It has the issue most American Superhero-comics do, and that is the creative team changing and taking the whole thing to a completely different direction. But the first 40 issues or so are good.

 

[scnj]

I do see your point, then again with characters lasting for over 50 years, your probably going to end up with several stinkers now and then.

Batman's a cool character right? But does he really need a sub plot that turns him into a pirate and caveman?

Yes. That was a very important part of a near decade long story arc which helped to redefine Batman as both a person and a concept and has led to a new era of Bruce Wayne fighting criminals with Batman Incorporated.

 

[Carlston]

Characters so over 80 years old, and stories written for 9-14 years olds.

You were expecting???

Best you can do is get the graphic novels that make them a bit more adult oriented and with stories not censored for the kiddies.

try Preacher and Transmetropolitan.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I don't get the obsession with Watchmen rather than comics. I like the Firefly comics (probably just because they let me continue my nerd-love) and a few others and although I hate how short they often are, they are still good content wise (mostly). On the other hand, I couldn't actually watch the whole Watchmen film, It just made me want to kill myself, same with wanted actually. I just found both films, and what little of the comics I read unbearable.

 

[olicon]

If you don't mind switching to a new art style, you could switch to the Japanese manga. I find that some of the more high profile ones (usually the ones that are read by the geeky otakus) tend to have very deep and emotional theme, with extremely well thought-out characters. 30 years of Batman never characterized him further than being a vigilante in black, but you will really feel like you have been Taiga's best friend for half of your life from a few volumes of Toradora.

 

[elkor420]

Preacher
Judge Dredd
All Hail Megatron by IDW
Watchmen
Planet Hulk and World War Hulk were both very good

 

[BENZOOKA]

Not a fan of comics, at least ones with superheroes, at all.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

The world is full of mostly crap things with a small percentage of awesome.

Part of that small percentage of awesome is;

Beanworld; It can be only described as an ecological fantasy that will bring joy. Do you like the feeling of joy? Then take a look at it. Not guaranteeing you?ll like it but even still... joy.

Fables; someone else already recommended this and I?m just backing them up.

Atomic Robo; Action, comedy, non linier story telling. Somehow it works and it works well.

 

[xdom125x]

I have to disagree. Sure, there´s a lot of crap ou there, but to say that most are terrible isnt accurate. If you read Vertigo, Dark Horse and Image books you´ll find plenty of variety outside the mainstream spandex superheroes.

The main thing is that there are 2 companies(Marvel and DC) still dominating the comic book market which have ridiculously complicated and convoluted mythology.

Marvel and DC dominating the market? True, the sales figures dont lie.

Ridiculously complicated and convulted mythology? Sometimes, yes. But like i said...only on the mainsteam spandex superheroes. A lot of titles i mentioned are from Marvel and DC but they´re not complicated (Runaways, Kick-ass, etc...).
A few titles that were created to make comics more accessible to new readers from Marvel and DC would be all the comics in the Ultimate line (Ultimates, Ultimate Spider-man, Ultimate Cap, Ultimate X-Men, etc) and a few DC books like Superman:Earth One and Superman:Secret Origin that have zero continuity. Writers like Geoff Johns put a lot of mythology in their books but they are frequently creating jumping points for new readers, like in Flash and Green Lantern with "rebirth" and "secret origin".

And... the fact that those books dominate the market doesnt mean that there arent alternatives and that "most of them are kinda terrible", which is the topic in discussion. There are a LOT of great comics from Marvel and DC and there is a huge amount of great comics from Dark Horse, Image, Vertigo and Dynamite.

I am a little confused on this but aren't the elseworld comics still in the DC multiverse continuity? If they weren't in there then how would lets say, Crisis on Infinite Earths(which served to eliminate other worlds) make any sense? Also the Ultimate Marvel stuff and the like were created because the comic continuity was way too complicated for anybody to just pick one up without tons of research to completely understand what's going on. Sorry, but I see it as a strike against the books if it takes a ton of research to understand them or if the people behind the books have to go "woah, this is so complicated that we should create alternate universes in our books for new people". I didn't want to say that the complexity makes them terrible but it gets difficult to consider the individual works good with all that extra research attached.