Worst Mini-Series of 2008

Fin Fang Doom says: DCU: Decisions!

What a cool idea for a mini-series timed to coincide with the election: how would a Presidential election go in the DC Universe? Clearly Americans in the DCU would have different concerns than actual Americans would (Homeland Security might understandably rank a little higher for them).

But DCU: Decisions didn’t turn out to be like that at all. It was just another standard superhero story where a bad guy tries to do something bad and the good guys try to stop him. The story was completely inconsequential, as was its connection to a Presidential election, real or imaginary. Plus the art was pretty terrible. And isn’t Jericho supposed to be mute?

Honorable Mention: Final Crisis

I rarely skip a mega-event, but I even more rarely give up on one mid-way through. Final Crisis was a special kind of bad that I was happy to stop buying when I had to drop a lot of comics back in late 2008.

Jim Doom says: Ultimatum!

I don’t care if it’s only two issues in by the end of 2008, this is absolutely terrible. I was even intrigued by the idea of destroying the Ultimate Universe, but I didn’t realize it would be done in such a low-brow way as disgusting, hands-on individual murders.

Honorable Mention: Death of the New Gods

Here’s another one that was only partly in 2008. This series was so useless that it not only didn’t include its own conclusion (that ended up in Countdown), but its conclusion was rendered irrelevant by Final Crisis. I once described it as “probably the dumbest comic that I keep buying.”

Honorable mention: Avengers / Invaders

This wasn’t actually bad at all, but I think it was just too drawn out. If I remember right, they were releasing four issues, taking a break, releasing the next four, taking another break, and then releasing the final four. I read the first four and could not justify the commitment, especially when very little was happening, it cost $3.99 an issue, and there wasn’t even an inker. It was a potentially good concept that would’ve probably worked better in half the books.

Doom DeLuise says: Logan!

I can’t think of a single storyline justification for this Brian K. Vaughn mini-series. Three issues long, this thing was published on the name of the author alone. Nothing even remotely interesting takes place in it, and the only stuff that actually does go down seems to only be in place to reaffirm Logan’s status as a mutant that is seemingly indestructible.

This was also the most flagrant example of a comic being sold at $3.99 for no good reason. The covers were a little bit thicker than your average cover, but the content inside wasn’t altered in any way.

I think Mr. Vaughn should stay out of comic books in 2009, and, rather, stick to writing a couple mediocre episodes of LOST per season. At least with those, the plots are already written out for him.

I’ve heard it for years now that Brian K. Vaughn is a super-star writer, and I just don’t see it. Aside from a few issues of Y: The Last Man, I’ve always found him to be a pretty dull writer. This mini-series did nothing to change my mind on that subject.

Here’s what we thought were the worst mini-series in years past:

2007:
Jim Doom: GAYO
Doominator: Ultimates 3
Fin Fang Doom: 24: Nightfall
Doom DeLuise: Countdown

2006:
Doom DeLuise: (tie) OMAC and Martian Manhunter
Doominator: X-Men: The End
Fin Fang Doom: Young Avengers/Runaways