What finally did you in?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I was wonderign about the storylines/writers that finally lead people who've been long-term fans of a book or character to finally say, "I can't take this any more!" An example: I was always a huge Bat-fan, read all the monthly titles, all the one-offs and miniseries I could afford, even the really really shit ones. Then came 'Knightfall' and the Azrael-as-Batman thing, and I couldn't do it any more. It was shitter than shit, and, despite my general lack of self-control with comics, I've been Bat-free since (well, except for the occasional Elseworlds or other non-continuity story such as 'Year 100'). So what has caused YOU to finally realise you can't keeping going with a once-loved comic?

― James Morrison (JRSM), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:06 (nineteen years ago)

2000 AD: the week I realised there wasn't a single story I was looking foward to coincided with the week they ran a promotional tie-in cover for some Star Trek movie (that one that had Kirk and Picard in). If the cover had been different I might still be buying 2000 AD to this day.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:18 (nineteen years ago)

The first Marvel Secret Wars pretty much chased me away from superhero comics for 10+ years. I'm just now tentatively swimming in that pool again.

― The Jazz Guide to Penguins on Compact Disc (Rock Hardy), Monday, 29 May 2006 02:29 (nineteen years ago)

Sheeeyit, that's closer to twenty now. Or more.

I gave up on "Preacher" at the end of the second arc, where the journalist turns out to be the serial killer.

― Keywords: revenge, knife, granddaughter, demonic-possession, rock-star, eel (Aus, Monday, 29 May 2006 02:54 (nineteen years ago)

I stopped reading X-Men and related titles cause of the Xcutioner's Song back in the day. Man I still don't know what the deal with Strife was.

― Occam, Monday, 29 May 2006 03:30 (nineteen years ago)

Okay, now I have to post Norman Mailer writing X-men in the fantasy adaptation thread. Or not.

― Keywords: revenge, knife, granddaughter, demonic-possession, rock-star, eel (Aus, Monday, 29 May 2006 03:35 (nineteen years ago)

Which I guess means Truman Capote writing Doom Patrol.

― Keywords: revenge, knife, granddaughter, demonic-possession, rock-star, eel (Aus, Monday, 29 May 2006 03:36 (nineteen years ago)

I was a hardcore Marvel geek someteen years back - I cut myself off when it occurred to me that every title I was getting was esconced in some wacky crossover - often involving Ghost Rider. Even my fairly naive twelve/thirteen year-old self knew something was askew in his world when he found himself confronted with Gambit meeting Ghost Rider.

― Richard Baez (Johnny Logic), Monday, 29 May 2006 03:50 (nineteen years ago)

I read Peter David's Hulk for years. The Onslaught crossovers put an end to that.

I'm a huge fan of Swamp Thing V.2 (Moore, Veitch, et al), and I think all of the writers on that series have their own strengths and bring something worthwhile to the table. Except for Nancy Collins, whose run on Swamp Thing I will continue to condemn as the single worst run on an otherwise solid book ever. So, so bad. I'm glad I returned in time to catch Millar's run (still one of the better things he's done).

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, 29 May 2006 03:57 (nineteen years ago)

Actually, reminded by Deric's answer, I felt similarly (and I'm sure I'm not alone) about Rachel Pollack's crap run on 'Doom Patrol'. The Morrison run on this title was the first comic that I read that made me realise the potential for superhero stuff to actually be more than 2D, and to encompass so much other stuff. The Pollack run made me realise that I never wanted to read anything by her ever, ever again.

― James Morrison (JRSM), Monday, 29 May 2006 05:59 (nineteen years ago)

Y'all just hate women! :-D

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 29 May 2006 07:19 (nineteen years ago)

Anyway, I first gave up reading superhero comics because the format changed from the thick brazilian books to slim, American-style issues and that meant I could no longer keep my storylines straight (too little information, for someone used to having 2-3 issues in one volume it just felt way too confusing); also gave up on Disney comics because the brazilian imports were getting dragged out of the market in favour of portuguese productions, but there was no format change there, it's just the brazilian ones were *better*.

Bought every "Asterix" up to the second-to-last, which means I bought a whole lot of rubbish ones. But bringing back Obelix's crush and giving her an evil doppelganger? That was just a bit too desperate for me. I bailed out on "Spirou & Fantasio" after the Marsupilami left, and didn't much read its own series, either - without the Marsupilami S&F just seemed kinda dull, and an exotic animal in its natural environment wasn't half as entertaining as one set loose in modern society (the art was still great tho iirc.)

Gave up on Cerebus after "Minds", tho I think it was a delayed reaction to "Reads". Thing is, I only got into that series very recently, so I totally knew it was going to happen and had already had many a drunken laff with friends reciting the life and opinions of Dave Sim, crazy-ass mysoginist, but actually reading his screed in full, and having it contrasted with the still great comic book parts...I dunno, the laugheability factor sort of perished because the hatefulnes overwhelmed it. It just became tragic (I still laff at Sim on the interweb, tho, of course.)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 29 May 2006 07:37 (nineteen years ago)

IT WAS ECLPSO FOR ME UNTIL ABOTUT A YEAR AGO!

― chaki (chaki), Monday, 29 May 2006 08:36 (nineteen years ago)

Yup, Eclipso, Knightfall, Zero Hour, Jurgens on JLA, The Invisibles -- Grant Morrison's first really boring comic -- that did it in for me for comics for a while.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Monday, 29 May 2006 10:07 (nineteen years ago)

I gave up Cerebus at around the start of "Women" - I didn't realise I was giving up though, I thought I was 'waiting for the phonebook', but I hadn't enjoyed Flight at all and didn't think the story was going anywhere. This means I missed out on Mad Dave McMad of course.

Consciously gave up Hellblazer after "The Fear Machine" (so boring), and since it was the last monthly US comic I was getting at the time, that meant giving comics up.

Mostly since the mid-90s I've only given things up when my ability to read them for free has dried up. Also when a favourite creator leaves, which is pretty normal I guess.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 29 May 2006 10:14 (nineteen years ago)

and didn't much read its own series, either - without the Marsupilami S&F just seemed kinda dull, and an exotic animal in its natural environment wasn't half as entertaining as one set loose in modern society (the art was still great tho iirc.)

I really liked the first few Marsupilami albums as a kid... Yann is an underrated scriptwriter, and he did try to give the series a flavour and mythology of it's own. The Basil and Victoria stories (about two orphans in Victorian London) he did with Edith are even better.

I like some of the post-Franquin Spirou stories too... Like "The Machine That Dreamed", which is a weird story where Spirou and Fantasio were made more realistic (even in the art). Initially it felt quite odd if you were used to the more cartoonish characters, but I thought it was an interesting experiment.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 29 May 2006 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I thought those Tome and Janry books were pretty awesome when I was younger (my high-school mates used to read them even if they couldn't understand the French). From what I can tell, the new writers are extremely dud-ish in the Fournier mould.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Monday, 29 May 2006 11:33 (nineteen years ago)

Y'all just hate women! :-D

Actually, I'm one of the twelve people in the world who actually likes Pollack's DP run. Try again, sir.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, 29 May 2006 12:16 (nineteen years ago)

But bringing back Obelix's crush and giving her an evil doppelganger? That was just a bit too desperate for me.

thats nothing - the newest Asterix has aliens in it. ALIENS. (i quit after "Asterix and the Magic Carpet".)

― fez (fez), Monday, 29 May 2006 12:37 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, reading about the aliens thing convinced me that I don't ever want to read the newer Asterix books. The first few post-Coscinny albums were pretty good though.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 29 May 2006 13:06 (nineteen years ago)

Though even worse was the latest Valerian album, which inserted parodies of real-life people in a bloody sci-fi comic! What a way to ruin the sense of wonder the series once had. It seems like Mezieres and Christin haven't really taken their work seriously for the last 15 years or so.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 29 May 2006 13:10 (nineteen years ago)

Sheeeyit, that's closer to twenty now. Or more.

Yeah, my math ability took the day off yesterday. I did read Nexus, Badger, Bacchus and a fair number of other indie titles through the late 80s to mid 90s, but Secret Wars soured me on Marvel in '84-85, and I never was a DC fan. By about '95-96, all I was reading was Cerebus and L&R.

― The Jazz Guide to Penguins on Compact Disc (Rock Hardy), Monday, 29 May 2006 13:12 (nineteen years ago)

Black Gold and Great Divide are great, the next two less so but still fun, the rest completely undefendable.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:00 (nineteen years ago)

A few things

A) the realization that there were more girls at the record store than the comic shop
B) the realization that I might someday want to be in the company of girls
C) the "General Glory" storyline in JLI was boring me, probably mostly because of the art - both Kevin Maguire and Adam Hughes had moved on.
D) the "Titans Hunt" storyline in Teen Titans was even worse
E) "War of the Gods" may have had Geo Perez art, but, YEESH!
F) I had written my own Third Robin saga that was a million times better than the Tim Drake bizz. He was visually based on the "Phantom of the Fair" character from the Sandman issue of Secret Origins, and he was actually the secret son of Two-Face!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

I stuck with Amazing Spiderman (funds permitting) from the Stern/Romita era, thru DeFalco/Frenz and the Black costume, up to Micheline/McFarlane and Micheline/Larsen. I was even ok with Bagley for a while, but then came a summer bi-weekly crossover (remember when Marvel did those?) called Round Robin guest-starring Moon Knight and the Punisher and Night Trasher and I couldn't take it anymore.

Knightfall soured me on Batman, Xtinction Agenda on X-Men...

― David N (David N.), Monday, 29 May 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

what Huk said re: chicks not being into dudes who know who Roy Thomas is.

what finally put me off Claremont was this scene in new Mutants where this native american couple had been possessed by something that made them get mohawks and and do ker-ay-zee fucking and sucking. the dialogue from the pair describes the aftermath (paraphrasing): "we did things I never thought, in my wildest dreams, we could do. and yet we wanted to do these things, in our heart of hearts." BLEEEEAARRGGHHH!!!!!

like, was it ATM?

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 22:20 (nineteen years ago)

Nostril piercing with a giant chain was on the list of THINGS as I remember.

― Vic F (Vic Fluro), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 22:28 (nineteen years ago)

but then came a summer bi-weekly crossover (remember when Marvel did those?) called Round Robin guest-starring Moon Knight and the Punisher and Night Trasher and I couldn't take it anymore.

Wow, that's exactly where I dropped off of Spider-Man also. I got half-way through that story, but it was too much for me.

― The Yellow Kid, Wednesday, 31 May 2006 03:18 (nineteen years ago)

like, was it ATM?

google 'clarem0nt domin@trix fist!ng'

― kit brash (kit brash), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 07:42 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.