For almost 90 years now, DC Comics has been putting out some of the greatest superhero comics of all time. DC has played a huge role in making superheroes an important part of pop culture. They’ve done this by not only establishing the tropes of superheroes, but also by pushing those tropes in entirely new directions. For my money, DC Comics has put out some of the greatest comics of all time, stories that have changed the way fans look at the superhero and the comic medium. DC made comics prestigious, and there are numerous brilliant stories with its logo on the cover.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Over the years, there have been some stories that fans loved and decreed to be among the best stories of all time. However, returning to these stories reveals that they don’t actually hold up. That doesn’t mean they’re bad stories; it just means that they aren’t as great as we all thought. These ten DC stories are overrated, and re-reading them reveals this unfortunate little nugget.
10) The Flash: Rebirth
The return of Barry Allen in Final Crisis #2 was a major moment in DC history, and it led to The Flash: Rebirth, by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. The Flash: Rebirth basically lifted the plot from the creative team’s Green Lantern: Rebirth and dropped it into the Flash mythos, down to the mysterious enemy attacking allies and enemies of the Flash. It’s a perfectly serviceable story, but it’s not as great as a lot of fans thought it was. On top of that, Van Sciver’s artwork is very, very weak. Van Sciver’s overly detailed style can make the pages too busy, and a lot of it looks bad. If you need to read a book with Rebirth in the title with this team, read Green Lantern: Rebirth or DC Rebirth #1 (which is honestly better in every way).
9) Dark Knights: Metal
Dark Knights: Metal, by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, is a good story, but it isn’t a great one. However, when it first came out, DC fans loved it. Dark Knights: Metal tells the story of the heroes battling the dark god Barbatos, the Dark Knights (alternate universe Batmen with the powers of the Justice League), and the forces of the Dark Multiverse. There’s a lot of fun craziness going on in this story, but there are some obvious deficiencies. A lot is going on in the story, and not all of it makes sense. On top of that, as far as villains go, Barbatos is almost a non-entity in the story. The tie-ins are fantastic, but the main story isn’t as amazing as readers once thought it was.
8) Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Killing Joke is the epitome of an overrated comic. Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s comic is a classic of the Batman books, but if you look at what it has wrought, it loses a lot of its luster. The Joker is a great character, but there was no need to give him an origin of any kind; as The Dark Knight taught us, it’s much more interesting not to know. Moore himself hates the story, owing to his own shoddy treatment of Barbara Gordon, and the story is dark to a fault. Finally, newer printings of the story change the coloring, and it really takes away from the gorgeous pencils. Batman: The Killing Joke is an important part of Batman history, but it’s not as amazing as we thought it was.
7) “The Judas Contract”
“The Judas Contract” is another story that is definitely good, but we’ve glazed it way too much over the years. It came at the height of New Teen Titans’ power, when Marv Wolfman and George Perez were doing amazing work on the team. “The Judas Contract” is an important story, giving us the origin of Deathstroke and Dick Grayson becoming Nightwing, but if you look at the story, it’s basically a standard superhero team story. It does everything this type of story should do, but that doesn’t mean it deserves its place among the greatest stories of all time. I’m sure it was shocking back in the day, but all of that shock is gone. Wolfman and Perez’s New Teen Titans is fantastic, and there are better stories than this one that deserve the spotlight more.
6) “Hush”
I think the best way to describe “Hush”, by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, is that it’s a Batman greatest hits album. You’ve read stories like this before and the art is beautiful, but it’s the most basic type of Batman story you can imagine, replaying the hits. Anyone who couldn’t guess who Hush was after part three of the story wasn’t paying attention, and there’s just nothing special going on besides the art. The ending is underwhelming, and future creators went out of their way to invalidate it in the months to come. “Hush” is a story that you can hand to new Batman readers and they’ll love it, but as they read more Batman, they’ll leave this story behind (although I’m not taking anything away from the art; it really is fantastic and some of Lee’s best work).
5) “The Death of Superman”
“The Death of Superman” is a beloved story, and it can’t be denied how important it is to DC history. The story, by Roger Stern, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Dan Jurgens, Butch Guise, Tom Grummet, Jon Bogdanove, and Brett Breeding, is an entertaining slugfest, but that’s part of the problem with it. Each issue follows the same formula, as Superman fights Doomsday, gets beaten down, and then chases the monster down again. The art is great, there are some cool moments, and it hits the right emotional notes, but you really only need to read the first issue and the last. “The Death of Superman” is a milestone, but it’s not an amazing story taken on its own merits.
4) “Court of Owls”
Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s run on Batman is a lot of fun. There are a lot of really cool stories, but their opening story, “The Court of Owls”, isn’t a best of all time Batman story, which is usually where it’s placed. “The Court of Owls” introduced a new aspect to the Batman mythos, but it’s still a pretty standard Batman story. Snyder and Capullo are a great team, and they definitely put out some amazing Batman stories (“Death in the Family” Zero Year”, “Endgame”, and their Black Label mini Batman: The Last Knight on Earth are all must-reads). However, “The Court of Owls” is just a taste of how great they’ll get as they they work together longer (I swear, I’m not picking on them; I love them both).
3) “Tower of Babel”
“Tower of Babel” was the first Justice League story for writer Mark Waid, after the blockbuster Morrison/Porter run on JLA. It’s gone down as one of the greatest Justice League stories ever, featuring the Justice League being defeated by Ra’s al Ghul using Batman’s own contingency plans. It’s an exciting story, and ends with a big change. However, it’s also the beginning of the “Batgod” idea, making Batman into this unstoppable hero-beating machine. So many of the problems with Batman and Justice League stories started here. It’s definitely a good story, and you should read it eventually, but there are lots of better Justice League stories you should read first.
2) Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s New 52 Wonder Woman Run
So, this isn’t a story, but an entire creative run. However, it’s one of the most overrated runs in the New 52. Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang worked together over their 35-issue run and redefined Wonder Woman for the New 52. They changed Wonder Woman’s origin, making her a daughter of Zeus, and made the Amazons into pirates who committed sexual assault to keep having babies. Beyond that, it tread familiar mythological ground of other Wonder Woman runs. In a lot of ways, it gets rid of a lot of the feminist ideas that have made Wonder Woman popular. There was a time when Azzarello and Chiang’s Wonder Woman was considered a bold new direction for Wonder Woman, but that has changed; there are many better Wonder Woman runs that do the same thing and do it better.
1) The Dark Knight Returns
The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller, is considered the most important Batman story of all time. It’s often talked about in the same breath as Watchmen and Maus, but looking at it all these years later, it doesn’t stand up with those two classics. The Dark Knight Returns is often pointed to as a return to dark Batman stories, but it’s not; there were dark Batman stories before this. It’s definitely a good book, but it also paints Batman as a fascist. It brought a lot of bad ideas into the Batman comics, and while it’s definitely one of those Batman comics fans should read at some point, it’s not this amazing, redefining superhero work, which is what it gets credit for being.
What do you think? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
Most Viewed
-
Sony Animation -
Image courtesy of Lucasfilm -
Image courtesy of DC Studios
