7 2010s DC Comics That Have Already Aged Poorly (#4 was Even Worse in the DCEU)

DC Comics has finally overtaken Marvel to become the top purveyor of superheroes in the United States, but it’s been a long road getting here. In fact, way back in 2020, the dawning of a new decade, it felt like the company was never going to get there. The 2010s were one of the worst decades in DC history, for a variety of reasons. They began the decade in a good place after the successes of the ’00s and 2011’s New 52 launch was a massive success for them. However, as the decade went on, the cracks that had been forming for years finally start to become more overstated, breaking apart the publisher and leading to some terrible missteps. There were still some amazing stories over those ten years, but they were mostly failures.

Things have changed a lot since then, both for the company and the comic industry in general. We’ve had several DC reboots since then and some things that we thought were okay back then aren’t. Many DC books of the ’10s have aged like milk, with some books especially suffering. Many of them weren’t good back then, but have gotten worse as the years went on, others have been affected by changing cultural mores, and some of them were beloved when they came out but completely dropped the ball, turning their former success to ashes of defeat. These seven ’10s DC comics have aged poorly, stories that have gotten worse in a variety of ways since their release.

7) Heroes in Crisis

Heroes in Crisis, by Tom King, Clay Mann, and Mitch Gerads, has been hated since it came out, so it’s hard to say it’s aged worse. However, it’s so bad and DC has gone so far in the other direction that it keeps making it look worse and worse in hindsight. This story introduced a good idea – the metahuman therapy facility called Sanctuary – and then welded it to a murder mystery that ended up ruining Wally West, revealing that he was the murderer and coming up with a complicated plan to blame it on Harley Quinn and Booster Gold and commit suicide. It was basically just another way for former DC head honcho Dan DiDio to mess with Wally, something that would prove to be completely shortsighted. Wally West became the Flash again, and creators have since retconned the entire story out of existence. Many of us still own copies of it, but that’s mostly because you can’t get anything for it on the after market.

6) DC Rebirth #1

DC Rebirth was an apology for the New 52 in a lot of ways and it all kicked off with this book. DC Rebirth #1, by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Phil Jimenez, Ethan Van Sciver, and Ivan Reis, was the beginning of a new age. It brought back numerous pre-Flashpoint ideas, with its biggest reveal being the return of Wally West, revealing that he had been removed from the universe by a mysterious being, one who was playing with the DC Multiverse like it was their favorite board game. This story was the beginning of the set-up for Doomsday Clock, melding the DC and Watchmen. Some fans were there for it (I unabashedly admit to being one of them), some hated the idea, but everyone bought this comic and was talking about it when it came out. However, DC Rebirth ended up being a failure in the long run – there was too much New 52 in the mix for fans who wanted it over and done with – and Doomsday Clock took much too long to come out once it started, forcing the story of the DC Multiverse to move on before it finished. This book is the ultimate representation of squandered potential.

5) Catwoman (Vol. 4) #1

The New 52 was only 15 years ago, but it feels like a lifetime. Comics have changed a lot since then and the New 52, in a lot of ways, was the return of edgy ’90s comics. You could tell that the publisher was trying to get attention right out of the gate and Catwoman (Vol. 4) #1, by Judd Winick and Guillem March, is a perfect example of this. The issue was pretty standard and then it ended with Batman and Catwoman meeting on a rooftop and having sex. It was such a shocking out of nowhere moment and it felt like the return of the old T&A that had defined female superheroes in the ’90s. The issue caused a minor controversy from the beginning and it feels like very creepy and male gave-y in 2026. Catwoman (Vol. 4) would be one of the “hot potato” books of the New 52, with numerous writers trying to find their voice on the book and few of them actually succeeding (although, it’s Catwoman, so the book still sold well).

4) Flashpoint

Flashpoint is one of DC’s darkest comics, and it presaged massive change for the publisher in the form of the New 52. Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert’s five-issue miniseries dropped readers in a very different DC Universe following a powerless Barry Allen as he tried to figure out what had happened, how to fix it, and who did it. This is the book that gave readers the most maligned DC status quo, which hasn’t helped it in the long run, but it’s also just been more incrementally revealed as a bad story the older it got. Sure, the art is fantastic, and there are some interesting ideas, but it’s still a story where we follow the villain the whole time and get no clues that it’s actually him until the very end. The way it unveils its actual plot is lousy, and any esteem the book had has been drained from it.

3) Justice League (Vol. 2) #12

Justice League (Vol. 2) was presented as the flagship book of the New 52, the book that was meant to move the overall plot of the new DC Multiverse forward. Its first two story arcs were standard Justice League fare, but then came the 12th issue with this cover. Geoff Johns and Jim Lee dealt with the fall out of the previous story and then at some point in the issue, Superman and Wonder Woman hook up. That’s right, the New 52 was home to the worst ship of them all. While Supes and Wondy seem to go well together, both of them are much better with their actual love interests, Lois Lane and Steve Trevor (especially Superman). Their relationship just isn’t interesting because they’re both perfect, which robs of it of any stakes whatsoever. It was a bad idea then and it was made even worse as the years went on, as their relationship had zero bearing on anything important and has been swept under the run completely.

2) Teen Titans (Vol. 4)

Once upon a time, the Teen Titans were one of the most popular and beloved superteams of all time. It’s been a while since we had a popular Teen Titans book and this terrible book is the beginning of that fall. Teen Titans (Vol. 4) was the New 52 version of the team, combining the current generation of young heroes – Tim Drake, Bart Allen, Cassie Sandsmark, and Conner Kent – with all new teen heroes. It ran for 30 issues from 2011 to 2014 and represents some of the worst Teen Titans stories ever. To begin with, the book was written by Scott Lobdell, one of the worst DC creators from the period. At the very least, he wasn’t trying to just copy the New Teen Titans, but he didn’t bring anything good to the table. The book had a soft reboot when artist Kenneth Rocafort came onboard, but he drew the female teen heroes way too sexy for their age, which is something that people don’t tolerate anymore. It’s just a bad comic, its humor and edginess marking it as a relic of a bygone era.

1) Red Hood and the Outsiders (Vol. 1) #1

There are a lot of problems with the New 52, and Scott Lobdell was one of the biggest. While he was one of the bestselling writers of all time, known for his work on Uncanny X-Men from 1992 to 1997, there are very few fans out there who would call him a good writer. He was friends with Bob Harras though and that got him a lot of jobs in the New 52. Red Hood and the Outlaws (Vol. 1) #1, with artist Kenneth Rocafort, is the first indication of what we were going to get from him – edgy heroes and basic action. And the worst Starfire ever. He made her into an empty headed sex doll and it just did not work for anyone, even back then. While they tried to explain it away saying this was a younger Starfire and this was closer to how she was when she just got to Earth, this is just cherry-picking something from a character’s history to do something that is technically correct but just gross in practice. 15 years later, it looks even worse than it did then, which is saying something.

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