Category: year in review – 2005

Legion of Doom’s Worst of 2005- Disappointments

Wow, April 1st and we’re just now finishing up the Best and Worst of 2005. Some may call me lazy for taking so long. Others may call me a visionary for stretching it out this far. Okay, so no one’s calling me a visionary. Sorry for being so lazy.

The first seven issues of House of M. The Internet did not break in half. It did, however, shrug its shoulders and move on to DC’s Infinite Crisis. -Jean-Claude Van Doom

The OtherThe Other: Evolve or Die. I’m a huge Spider-Man fan. And I love mega-crossovers. Yet this Spider-Man mega-crossover just didn’t do it for me. It had tons of momentum after three issues written by Peter David, the the whole thing came screeching to a halt as soon as Reggie Hudlin took over in November. J. Michael Stracynski wasn’t able to get me excited again when he took over halfway into the story. The crossover may have been able to survive single Hudlin issues in between David and JMS issues, but three in a row spelled disaster for The Other. And it didn’t help that the premise was iffy to begin with, and Spider-Man had already emerged from a cocoon (of sorts) with strange new powers a year earlier in Spectacular Spider-Man. -Fin Fang Doom

The Goon. The book has seemed half-hearted all year long. The storytelling that made this book so fascinating in 2004 is almost nonexistent. There’s so much filler – the last issue had pages and pages of letters and responses. And unlike Powers, which has managed to make the letters pages a selling point, The Goon’s was horribly unfunny, unenlightening, juvenile and in a horribly space-wasting format. -Jim Doom



Legion of Doom’s Worst of 2005- Events

All-Star BatmanDC’s All-Star Comics line. I just can’t believe the timing on that. DC didn’t need stunts – they had fantastic stories building. And one thing that Superman and Batman had over their Marvel counterparts was that new readers could pick up a high-numbered issue of either character’s titles and not be bogged down with continuity. Those characters have stayed reasonably pure, and so a DC equivalent of the Ultimate line just wasn’t necessary. The books themselves only proved that even more. -Jim Doom

The Other. It just didn’t work. Here’s a thought: Don’t have three writers combine on a single story arc. -Jean-Claude Van Doom

The launch of the DC All-Star line. DC advertised this as completely continuity-free stories of their icons using the most basic and well-known aspects of the characters as building blocks. It was supposed to be the Batman and Superman that folks who had seen the movies but had never laid hands on a comic would recognize. Instead, we get a Batman who curses randomly, murders police officers, and kidnaps and psychologically tortures young boys. We get a Superman who regularly hangs out in space with crazy characters. While that doesn’t necessarily make for bad stories (although it does), it’s not what DC themselves said the line was going to be about. These are not the characters that Joe Anybody knows, these are Ultimate Superman and Batman. If they would have just admitted that from the start, I would have no problem with the line. I still wouldn’t read it, but at least I wouldn’t have considered it a screw-up. -Fin Fang Doom



Legion of Doom’s Worst of 2005- Moments

House of MA flying horse poops on a lady’s head, Black Panther #3. Yes, that was actually an attempt at humor by Reggie Hudlin. Yes, John Romita Jr. had to draw horse feces falling from the sky. Yes, that was the moment I realized Reggie Hudlin was a complete hack. Yes, that’s when I stopped buying Black Panther. -Fin Fang Doom

The somewhat arbitrary and very convenient wrap-ups to Marvel’s big moments, like Avengers Disassembled and House of M. -Jim Doom

Anything from the issue of The Other previously mentioned. -Jean-Claude Van Doom



Legion of Doom’s Worst of 2005- Characters

RoninNick Fury. He got his ass kicked all year, then disappeared. -Jean-Claude Van Doom

Ronin. When Echo was revealed as the secret identity of Ronin, the comic book community let out a collective “Huh?” A super-cool mystery ninja turns out to be some deaf female Taskmaster from a dozen or so issues of Daredevil from 4 years ago. They should have just made him Daredevil. -Fin Fang Doom

The Sentry. You shouldn’t have to work so hard to make a character interesting. -Jim Doom



Legion of Doom’s Worst of 2005- Single Issue

MKSpiderman20I don’t recall being apalled by anything in particular. -Jim Doom

The issue of The Other in which Spider-Man decides to put Mary Jane and Aunt May into old Iron Man suits and run around Doctor Doom’s castle [Fin Fang’s note: That was Marvel Knights Spider-Man #20]. -Jean-Claude Van Doom

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #20. Just read this. -Fin Fang Doom



Legion of Doom’s Worst of 2005- New Series

All-Star BatmanAll-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. Has Frank Miller done anything good (other than Sin City) since he did Dark Knight Returns? Someone should tell him Batman does not terrorize children and murder cops. I can’t say anything bad about Jim Lee’s art, but I can’t say anything particularly good about it either. Two issues in it was already late, and it was already off my buying list. -Fin Fang Doom

Anything All-Star. -Jim Doom

Nick Fury’s Howling Commandoes. I don’t have to pick up an issue to know it sucks. By the way Marvel, thanks for shoving a few pages of it down my throat as an “added bonus” to other issues. -Jean-Cluade Van Doom



Legion of Doom’s Worst of 2005- Mini-Series

Rann/Thanagar War. In retrospect, it was almost completely irrelevant to Infinite Crisis, other than to say “Hey, weird stuff is going on in outer space.” It was easily the weakest of the IC lead-ins. -Jean-Cluade Van Doom

16021602: New World. Remember 1602? Great mini-series, right? Now take away every single interesting character, imagine the writing and artwork are half as good and make it about a fight between colonists and Indians instead of about the cosmic instablility of the universe. Doesn’t sound too good now, does it? No, it wasn’t. -Fin Fang Doom

Rann-Thanagar War. More like Rann-Thanagar BORE! CAUSE I WAS BORED!!!!! -Colonel Doom

Secret War. That kind of release schedule doomed Secret War, but those huge delays helped obscure the fact that nothing really happened. Was the point of the whole series to discredit Nick Fury and put him into hiding? Or was that simply an effect of the story? -Jim Doom



Legion of Doom’s Worst of 2005- Ongoing Series

UncannyAgain, I don’t read much unless I like it. But I did pick up a string of Uncanny X-Men last year and was consistently disappointed. -Jean-Claude Van Doom

Marvel Knights Spider-Man. Mark Millar’s run ended on a flat note after a great 2004, and it only got worse from there. Reggie Hudlin came onboard as writer and told a Fantastic Four story that treated Spider-Man as a supporting character in his own title. In the end, a Super Skrull was defeated by Aunt May because she called him “son,” and the alien became a faith healer. Pat Lee joined as artists for the last three issues of the year, which nullified any momentum the title might have gained due to Peter David and J. Michael Stracynski each writing an issue. Read this to truly understand my disdain for this title. -Fin Fang Doom

The last JLA arc. Wow, Green Arrow’s a prick? Thanks for dragging that revealing tidbit out for 5 goddamned issues, jerk off. Also, you draw lumpy heads. -Colonel Doom



Legion of Doom’s Worst of 2005- Artists

Pat Lee. See Reggie Hudlin. The worst qualities of Anime with none of the more sophisticated qualities, like school girls or tentacle rape. -Colonel Doom

Pat LeeI don’t really remember being horribly turned off by an artist this year. Though the news that Joe Madureira is coming to Ultimates has me geared up for the 2006 year in review. -Jim Doom

I typically don’t buy something unless I like the art. I remember flipping through Nick Fury’s Howling Commandoes and thinking the art in it sucked [Fing Fang’s note: that was Edu Francisco]. Also, one of the artists on The Other dropped a stinkbomb, though I didn’t buy the book so I can’t recall who it was [probably Pat Lee]. -Jean-Claude Van Doom

Pat Lee. I hear he draws some pretty sweet robots, but that must be the only thing he’s good at. His work on Marvel Knights Spider-Man was some of the stiffest, most emotionless art I’d ever seen. I guess that makes sense for robots. Too bad Spider-Man isn’t one. -Fin Fang Doom



Legion of Doom’s Worst of 2005- Writers

Reginald Hudlin. There’s few things in comics that piss me off more than a new writer with no regards for what’s come before him. His first six issues of Black Panther, which threw out nearly all of the character’s past and left it riddled with continuity gaffs, is about the worst example of this in recent memory. The man almost single-handedly ruined The Other. From flying horse poop to a Skrull gaining super-powers because he believes in Jesus to Aunt May and Mary Jane donning Iron Man suits and storming Castle Doom, Hudlin’s writing just got worse as the year went along. Plus, he calls you a racist if you criticize his work. -Fin Fang Doom

BET REGINALD HUDLINReggie Hudlin. What could make me hate Spider-Man? This guy. -Colonel Doom

I’d probably have to go with Peter Milligan. I had such high hopes when I heard he was going to take over X-Men after how much I enjoyed X-Statix. If I wouldn’t have known better, I’d have had no idea that Austen left the book. -Jim Doom

Reggie Hudlin. Amazingly, The Other actually could have been decent. Yeah, the Peter Parker metamorphosizing into a new creature has been covered before (as recently as a year ago). But there were some neat moments in the 12-parter. However, none of those came in the issues penned by Hudlin. His efforts were so groan-inducing they pretty well sunk the whole ship. -Jean-Claude Van Doom