So yesterday I gave you guys my Top 5 list of the least favorite Marvel Crossover events.
Today its DC's time to pay the piper.
5). Genesis(1997)
Basically this was John Byrne deciding that the source of all super powers in the universe was caused by the fallout of the Old World blowing up.
Apparently some energy force called the Godwave is what led to super-powered beings, hero and villain alike, to be created. Not to mention birthing the New Gods as well. Totally unnecessary ret-con that has been ignored by DC ever since. I guess I can see maybe Byrne was trying to make the DC universe more beholdened to Jack Kirby, like the Marvel U is. But Jack didn't create DC.
Stupid Byrne.
4). Final Night(1996)
Final Night was all about what happens when the Sun-Eater eats the DCU's sun. The heroes were powerless to stop the Earth from dying, which sounds like bullshit to me. You're telling after Superman and the JLA spent years saving the world and others worlds as well, they couldn't rig up something to fix this?
Nope, instead it all came down to one unlikely savior; Hal Jordan, a.k.a. Parallax. It looked like this was DC's way of putting Hal on the shelf for awhile after horribly destroying his character and fan base with his heel turn following the aftermath of Emerald Twilight two years earlier.
This was Hal's redemption and face turn, and he goes out like the hero he always was by using his life energies and powers to re-ignite the sun.
Sure Johns brought back Hal, but he did it in a hooky-ass manner, even for comics.
I give Ron Marz a shitload of credit for writing Hal like he did, trying to justify being a villain. That's better than the cope-out load of shit about being possessed by alien.
3). Infinite Crisis(2005)
Welcome to the official start of the hack side of Geoff Johns. All the unnecessary grimification/maturation of the DCU started here. Oh Identity Crisis definitely got the ball rolling, but it picked up steam in a big way with this one. Starting off with the unforgivable crime of killing off the real Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, to revealing that Batman had secretly become the very embodiment of George Wells novel 1984. Not to mention turning Superboy Prime into a raging, killing machine.
Yeah, no thanks.
2. Brightest Day(2010)
All this weekly did was bring back 12 various heroes and villains you see in the pic above.
Oh, then it killed 4 of them again, while Deadman tried to get his swerve on with Dove.
And something about Swamp Thing returning to the DCU proper. Yeah, fucking waste.
Nice action figures though.
1). War of the Light/Rise of the Third Army/Wrath of the First Lantern(2011-13)
Remember when this was actually exciting to think about?
What the hell happened!?
Surprise, surprise! Another Johns production makes the list. You know how most DC events never ever really have a satisfying ending? How they only really just continue on straight to the next big event?
Yeah that.
Well that annoying trend arguably got started and perfected here with Johns during his GL run. Everything from Blackest Night on(Maybe even earlier with the SCW) never officially ended. It just rushed on into the next big storyline without so much as a breather.
That may be you guy's cup of tea, but it damn sure isn't mine.
Plus it all further occurred as an excuse to keep Hal out in space way longer than he should've. It's like Johns was so into writing his big sci-fi space drama, that he forgot Hal's a human from Earth. And yet other than the first two arcs of his run, we didn't get see anymore of Hal's earthbound rogues gallery. Fuck that!
Anyhoo, all that rapid fire event stuff hits its prime here with all three of these lackluster "events". The only good or decent thing was seeing Simon Baz(not a bad character there in all honesty) the revealing of Volthoom from the Crime Syndikate, the Guardians FINALLY get their comeuppance, and the whole things stayed amongst the GL family of titles.
The War of Light was really the Guardians and the Corps infighting. Plus sneaky dick moves by the Guardians......
......Which leads to the Rise of the Third Army. This was the Guardians staging a coming out party as the evil blue dicks we all knew they were. I guess it was Johns' excuse to have the GLC fight the Borg from ST:TNG.
Borgs.
The Wraith of the First Lantern was basically how the Valthoom started out and got jobbed out to the guardians. He gets jobbed out again to Mogo(well, Mogo is badass)
Then Sinestro kills all the Guardians except Ganthet.
I don't know why, but it just seems to me that Johns was really pushing the patience of his readers. Almost like he was daring them to stop reading. Idk.
As always, feel free to tell me what makes your list as far as bad DC crossover events in the comments section.
Have a good weekend people,
Peace and Chicken Grease;)
9 comments:
Ahhh, now on to DC.
I started out a DC kid, grew up a Marvel kid- but went back to DC as an adult- because they are just the best!(Until the reboot, that is...)
So- unlike with the Marvel post: I'ma disagree with you here a bit. Starting with- I love Geoff Johns. I just do. What he does just works for me. Always has...
Now, I don't hate Genesis. It's not great. But I would not put it on a list of my least-favorites. By the way- props for calling it "least-favorite" and not 'most hated' or something like that. Even though I may have said the h-word in my comment on your Marvel Post a few times... it was a slip of the tongue. Hate is too strong of a word- I love comics, I can dislike comics... but internet rage/hate is sooo 2010. -Get over it, people. (I still HATE Bendis, though! ...old habits die hard.)
Anyways- my #5 would be: a tie. Cop-out, I know. But Armageddon 2001 because fuck them for not sticking to their guns and making it Captain Atom all along! I know they "fixed it" years later in Countdown or whatever but still.
And Bloodlines... good Gods did they have faith in Bloodlines for some reason. They shoved it down our throats and it tasted awful!
Like with Genesis, I'm okay with Final Night, too... I mean, it was whatever. I like Hal Jordan so...
For me- Joker: Last Laugh was just so unnecessary... and it was like a black-hole of fun. It was so unenjoyable- it's like they just did it in their sleep just to do it... Shut up- you'll buy it. -Because; Joker.
Infinite and Identity Crisis were some of my favorites. I love them. I love watching people flip-out with rabid hatred over them. To me they are just REALLY good and got me full-swing back into DC comics...
Now- where they started to lose me again was with my number three and two picks: Amazons Attack, and Countdown. WOW, were those bad. I could not believe my eyes each week with Countdown- at just HOW bad it continued to be.
Blackest night faltered a bit with them dragging it out a little too long. And I have yet to get to reading all of Brightest Day. So I can't speak on that.
And I can't pick any of the Nu52 Events because that's just cheating! They all suck ass! (Okay, okay- if you twist my arm: Rotworld, and Trinity War were pretty good.) But it would just be TOO EASY to pick The Culling, or Death of The Family as my #1...
My #1 least favorite is Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. That was... it was just too stupid, even for me.
For some reason I can't hit your email. Anyway, I'm looking for some customizing equipment I can't find.
email me to see if yours will show up.
I dismissed Armageddon all together, never read one page. I missed final Night and I have a love hate relationship with Blackest Night and Brightest Day.
Geoff needs to stop playing and tell a complete story, and finish strong.
@King: Not bad choices for your list man. Actually Googum and I talked yesterday about how bad Annual "events" like Bloodlines(at least we got Hitman out of it) and Planet DC were.
I can easily rip on NU52 stuff, so I won't. It'd be like making fun of special needs kids organizing the special Olympics; too easy.
I agree on the whole Captain Atom thing. Someone asshole leaked it, and DC panicked. Simple as that.
@Omega: customizing equipment? For figures or something else?
Genesis was such a hack-job to the memory of Jack Kirby and his Fourth World it was shameful. I really have no idea what it was meant to have amounted to. We had sub-standard artwork, not to mention sub-standard writing. I did buy Byrne's Fourth World series at the same time and it was interesting so from this I expected better.
Final Night? I only got it for the LSH tie-in and the proposed Ferro Lad sacrificing himself a la the same way he did against the Sun Eater back in the 60s, but no such luck, no. Obviously the whole thing was a set-up for bringing back Hal Jordan from the dregs of defeat a la Parrallax. It did that fine enough.
First thing I'm looking for is Scout. Tonto's horse from the new (suck fest) movie Lone Ranger. I saw a 1.9 I think that's the size that goes with 6 inch figures.
I know you were just at a toy convention, so I maybe you saw one or know where I can order one. There was no luck on E-bay.
@Omega: No, sorry man, can't say I have. Not even vintage stuff.
Have you looked at ebay, Amazon, and bing?
DC hmmm, I HATED Joker's Wild. DC's number one villain could've made an awesome tie in series of events but it was just shat over.
DC One Million was the same. That could've been really sweet on every level, but the writers who couldn't trip incredible with Morrison just couldn't write tie ins that were that different from the actual books.
Countdown. Yeah I'll leave that one there.. poor Donna Troy.
Never read Genesis or Final Night, Stopped reading Green Lantern after Brightest Day and like you say what the hell happened. Brightest Day chumped me because I brought it all, and you could tell the adventures of Manhunter and Hawkman were editorially stomped over and changed where Aquaman ran wild. MM coulda really done good there. The Captain Planet-ish revival of Swamp Thing had me cursing for months...
Like everything post DC 52 ;)
I loved DC post Identity Crisis leading into Infinite Crisis. That was the only time in too long a time the whole line of books seemed to row in the same direction. the OMAC threat, the secret, it really seemed like a cohesive universe then.
@Dan: DC One Million was definitely a Morrison experiment. I agree with you big time, that other writers should've been able to trip or attempt to fake trip like Morrison.
Nope. only one GM.
Didn't read the Last Laugh one, but other than the Jim lee covers, what really was the appeal?
BD.....Big let down as far as I'm concerned. What was that really about anyways? Just an excuse to bring back some characters and Swamp Thing. I guess the concept was dent, but as usual, the exectuion has a lot to be desired.
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