Marvel and DC Comics have put out some of the coolest comics you can imagine. If you look at the best parts of their history, you’ll find all kinds of stories. Sure, a lot of them will be superhero-oriented, but you’ll see the concept of the superhero taken in every direction you can imagine. Sometimes, fans love groundbreaking stories, and they become a part of the overall canon. Other times, those same kinds of stories don’t get a lot of love at first, but are then looked at again. Then, of course, there are some stories that people hate, and they become despised by generations of fans.
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A lot of times, these hated stories are hated for the right reasons, having something majorly wrong with them. However, there are other times when these stories are way better than the hate they get. These seven comics have gotten a lot of flack, but they aren’t as terrible as they’re thought to be.
7) Doomsday Clock
Doomsday Clock is a story that gets a lot of negativity because of its status as a “sequel” to Watchmen. Watchmen fans are very much pro-Alan Moore, and Moore doesn’t want anything to do with the property, so they don’t either. That’s fine and respectable. However, there were a lot of people who were excited for the story, and it paid off, for the most part. It’s not perfect, but Geoff Johns and Gary Frank gave readers a thoughtful story about Doctor Manhattan and Superman that hit the nostalgia notes while also telling a cool DC story. It’s not a best of all time classic, but a pretty good story that works way better when you sit down and read the whole thing.
6) Spider-Man: Reign
People hate Spider-Man: Reign. Writer/artist Kaare Andrews gave readers The Dark Knight Returns for Spider-Man, and it got so much hate. The main reason for this, of course, was the Mary Jan reveal. We learned that Peter’s bodily fluids were radioactive, and years of being his wife gave her cancer. Yes, radioactive semen. However, if you look at the rest of the story, you’ll find a really good Spider-Man story that pays homage to the Batman classic, and has a lot of great moments. I don’t even think the Mary Jane reveal is that bad, honestly, because of how well it plays into the “Parker luck” thing. This is a legitimately good story, ruined by some people taking their disdain for something much too far.
5) Final Crisis
Final Crisis is iconic for many fans, but others hate it. The story by Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, and Doug Mahnke is an extremely complicated battle between good and evil as Darkseid attacks the Earth with the Anti-Life Equation, as the Monitors come face-to-face with the greatest threat to creation. The story is a hundred percent opaque and complex, but it’s also well worth diving into to see just what it all means. It’s not for every fan out there, but it’s the kind of event comic that works best for those willing to be taken in new directions.
4) Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths
Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths is underrated, but it isn’t amazing. Joshua Williamson and Daniel Sampere’s event series is basically a color by numbers “Crisis” event, but that’s its charm. If you love stories like Crisis on Infinite Earths or Infinite Crisis, this is just a fun popcorn movie of an event comic, and if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find a lot of cool tie-in comics that flesh out the story in cool directions. Too many fans think this is some kind of legendary stinker of an event book, but it’s actually not all that bad. It’s just very DC in a lot of cliche ways that some people might be tired of.
3) Identity Crisis
Identity Crisis, by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales, is a story that has become one of the most hated events from a period of DC Comics that was overall rather well-perceived. This story about the murders of the family of Justice League members committed two sins that can’t be made up for: the fridging and sexual assault of Sue Dibney. However, as far as it goes, the concept of the Justice League mindwipes was actually really cool, the Captain Boomerang and son stuff was great, the Robin stuff worked way better than it had any right to, the general DC-ness of the whole thing was on-point, and the art was fantastic (the murderer reveal wasn’t cool, but the last issue is still pretty great; fight me). There are a lot of bad things you can say about the story, but there’s also a lot of great things.
2) John Byrne’s Superman and Action Comics
Writer/artist John Byrne was given the reins to Superman after Crisis on Infinite Earths, rebooting the character and his history for the late ’80s. Byrne drew a perfect Superman, but he changed everything else. He changed Krypton completely into a cold, science-driven society. He wasn’t born until he got to Kansas, as he was launched in a “birthing matrix”, so he wasn’t an immigrant anymore. He was made into an all-American kid, there was no Superboy, no other Kryptonians, and he was a Reagan-era yuppie (that’s before we get to the disrespect he heaped on Jack Kirby with Superman/Big Barda porno story). It’s kind of a shockingly different character, with a lot of problems, but there are still a decent amount of great stories and ideas from this era.
1) The Amazing Spider-Man Since “One More Day”
Look, we all hate “One More Day”. Everyone knows that the story was bad and a bad idea. However, let’s be real: the hate for The Amazing Spider-Man after “One More Day” has always been overblown. The “Brand New Day” era saw the book come out three times a month, and fans loved it. No one really started to complain too much about the stories until Dan Slott took over the book, and people savaged his run for years, especially towards the end. The Zeb Wells run isn’t great, but it’s not nearly as terrible people pretend it is. The current Joe Kelly run is pretty good, as well, but most fans ignore it. Basically, the hate for the book is overstated; it’s just the cool comic to hate.
What comics do you think get more hate than they should? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
