Rant Post: What Event/Retcon/Whatever Pissed You Off the Most?

[punishermax]

This is an extension of the Identity Crisis conversation that is sort of derailing the discussion of costume choices and Robin asses in a post below this.

Essentially, this is a general hate thread. It can be an event, character, moment, retcon, or other annoyance that makes you annoyed or want to smack a passerby.

Let's get it started (on a saturday night, everybody's waitin for me to arrive-)



"Hi I'm Superboy Prime. I could have been an interesting character. I could have represented the eventual death and decay of a more innocent time and become a very powerful and interesting villain. But motherfucker I do not roll that way. I like to spend my days being a whiny prick who spouts off dialogue that you'd find in a Naruto/Harry Potter fanfic. I like long walks on the beach, being a dickbag, and annoying every single reader by being ultra powerful AND astonishingly badly written. Oh, and I'm also in your dimension! I live in my basement trolling comics forums. Hell yeah bitches, I'm so. fucking. Bad. Ass."




Let's just get it out of the way. One More Day and Brand New Day were bad ideas. Very bad ideas. They have turned out waves of people who hate Spider-Man and everything associated with him. They were badly written, badly thought out and are just generally the worst thing to happen to Spider-Man since Joe Quesada realized he hated that dang MJ lady.


Also Identity Crisis isn't that bad.

Comments

[jaybee3]

I motto the Superboy-Prime example, he could have been a vilian with pathos and sympathy but no he's just a one-note hateful brat.

For me there are too many to note. Top of the list goes to:

From DC: Identity Crisis - superheroes being douches and lying about it for years, Superman knowing about it but never saying anything and looking the other way, Sue Dibny being retro-actively raped, Batman being retrocactively mind-wiped by his friend, who covered it up and lied about it for years and only admitted it not because they felt actively guilty but because Dr. McRapey Rape showed their mind whammy was being uncovered. And then DC uses it to explain away why they have Batman acting like a dick to everyone.

From Marvel: OMD. Stop. Need I say more. Other people have gone into better rants about making their companies number #1 money maker and most visible hero into someone who makes deals with the devil and then turning into a bedhopping selfish douche all because some people apparently thing marriage "ages" people and divorce would make them look bad (but apparently making deals with the devil doesn't?).

Runners-Up:
1.Rogue sleeping with Sentry (apparently) although it would be 100% out of character and with the fact she lost her virginity (in canon) to Gambit after Sentry was married makes no sense chronologically and if it did would make Rogue look like a terrible hypocrite.

2.Cassandra Cain's behavior explained away simply by handwaving Deathstroke magic evil juice which apparently turns dyslexic near silent characters with a horror of killing into a Asian Dragon Lady stereotype who makes long James Bond villan speeches, enjoys killing and now can speak and write fluent Navajo. I give credit for Johns for trying to explain away Beechan's mess but it was a sloppy job.

3. Sam Lane, goes from a gruff veteran who really loves his daughter to a one-dimensional xenophobic genocidal maniac villain worse than Marvel's Thunderbolt Ross (and apparently now, according to Geoff Johns's new Superman Origins, was apparently that way from the beginning.

4. Speaking of General Ross, Loeb's entire backstory for the Red Hulk business, including new Red She-Hulk Betty. Give me a break.

5. Jason Todd was raised not by Ra's or some Bat-villain but by Superboy-Boy Prime punching a wall, something no one else in the DCU (including Jason) is aware of happening. What's the point then?

[kd_the_movie]

man everytime I think i've remembered every retcon i hate, i get reminded of another one...

yeah i hated the Sam Lane retcon as well. And the "Lex lived in Smallville as a kid!!!" retcon. With. A. Passion. Plus a few minor retcons in Superman: Secret Origin.

[darkknightjrk]

" And the "Lex lived in Smallville as a kid!!!" retcon."

That isn't really a retcon--more of a wiping away of a previous retcon.

[icon_uk]

To be as fair as I can be bothered being at this time on a Monday morning, Lex living in Smallville WAS the original origin of Lex, it was John Byrne's Man of Steel which removed any childhood connection between them.

[kd_the_movie]

Yea I knew it was a silver age thing originally. So I guess it's not technically a retcon.

I still fucking hate it tho. It was one of the many changes Byrne instituted that made Superman and his mythos better imo.

[fifthie]

Cassandra Cain's behavior explained away simply by handwaving Deathstroke magic evil juice which apparently turns dyslexic near silent characters with a horror of killing into a Asian Dragon Lady stereotype

The thing that kills me about Cass is that she was this really amazing example of someone taking this really shitty, stupid stereotype and making an actually great character out of it, and then Diddles and Beachie take this incredibly great character and turn her into a different shitty, stupid stereotype.

[neuhallidae]

Was there anything good in the Sentry funeral issue? Because between the Rogue retcon, the drivel about how he was such a good counselor (::snort:: Really, Marvel? You're expecting me to buy that?), and so forth, all it did for me was make me loathe the character more.

[big_daddy_d]

1.Rogue sleeping with Sentry (apparently) although it would be 100% out of character and with the fact she lost her virginity (in canon) to Gambit after Sentry was married makes no sense chronologically and if it did would make Rogue look like a terrible hypocrite.

Rogue has been a definite fav. Hell I'd put her in my top 2 when it comes to favorite X-Men, but good god...that damn near ruined her for me. Just no.. I stick to my Rogue/Gambit shit, not that Rogue/Sentry crap.

2.Cassandra Cain's behavior explained away simply by handwaving Deathstroke magic evil juice which apparently turns dyslexic near silent characters with a horror of killing into a Asian Dragon Lady stereotype who makes long James Bond villan speeches, enjoys killing and now can speak and write fluent Navajo. I give credit for Johns for trying to explain away Beechan's mess but it was a sloppy job.

I gotta be honest, at least he tried. At this point, I'm willing to take a crappy explanation if it can retcon and get rid of something horrible to begin with, so I'm gonna take what I can get. For example, idk how nor care how, but if they can fix the mess Cry for Justice created, and on the Marvel side fixing up this OMD/BND (and additionally Sins Past) shit, even if it takes a crap way of doing it, as long as it's fixed and gone.. I'm good. I'm taking what I can get at this point because my patience has just worn thin for these stories.

3. Sam Lane, goes from a gruff veteran who really loves his daughter to a one-dimensional xenophobic genocidal maniac villain worse than Marvel's Thunderbolt Ross (and apparently now, according to Geoff Johns's new Superman Origins, was apparently that way from the beginning.

4. Speaking of General Ross, Loeb's entire backstory for the Red Hulk business, including new Red She-Hulk Betty. Give me a break.

These two, I'm gonna group together. Sam, Sam, Sam....Gen. Thunderbolt Clone. I never liked Gen. Ross. I thought he was a stereotypical general portrayed as a war hungry asshole whose level of paranoia makes him a "my way or the high way" type and would spare no expense to fight his war, in Ross' case, that war being with the Hulk and the highest expense, using his own daughter...wow.. I remember back when I compared him to Sam Lane, I said "At least he never experimented on his daughter and used her"...wow how I eat my words now... Sam... I have nothing to say except that I wished so badly that he didn't get the easy way out.. I wanted him and everyone involved in that massacre to pay and answer for what they did.. and While on the subject..War of the Supermen.. like Civil War..one sided affair that had me rooting for Zod's side more. They slaughtered and got rid of any Kryptonian who wasn't Superman, Supergirl, or Superboy. For what? To get back to a stat quo? New Krypton was a stat quo that I hoped to god would stick and give birth to new stories, but noooo DC just had to throwaway a potential gold mine because creators just love trying to relive the old days.

5. Jason Todd was raised not by Ra's or some Bat-villain but by Superboy-Boy Prime punching a wall, something no one else in the DCU (including Jason) is aware of happening. What's the point then?

Yea..at this point I'm gonna choose to go with the Under the Red Hood animated movie on this one.

[jaybee3]

Oh I had forgotten about Sins Past (thank god!) but yeah that would have to be on my list. It's not even a matter of what what was the writer thinking since we know - JMS wanted it to be Peter (i.e. the idea of Gwen having sex with her actual boyfriend and love of her life would make sense - giving up her virginity in a pity screw to her friend's dead when she wouldn't let said love of her life get beyond second base does not) but Joe Q said "Osborn". JMS wanted it retconned with OMD but again Joe Q for some reason (he must have known how everyone hated the story) still said no.

As for New Krypton. Yeah. Earth wipes out the Krpytonians (and they didn't whitewash Robinson and Gates called it genocide in interviews, Lois called it genocide in the story, heck even Codename: Assassin called it genocide and he was one of the villains) and what happens at the end? Nothing. Lane shoots himself and apparently that's the end. Lex who planted the bomb gets his company back and Superman, rather than being angry, becomes a hobo. Supergirl, rather than being angry, disdains her Kryptonian side and now is all up in Lana's face about how she wants to be Linda Lang again. No anger from either. Superman is apathetic throughout the entire storyline, even when the troops he had just spent the year with in New Krypton are suffocated to death in space. He doesn't go after Lane or try to stop the war (Lois does), he waits in Metropolis for Zod (who has the general of a nation who has been attacked and are fighting for there very existence has a right to attack back), in the end Superboy (who wasn't even a factor in the story) saves the day by shoving the handful of K survivors left into the Phantom Zone as if they are criminals where they suffer in limbo for who knows how long (goodness knows Kal or Kara aren't trying to find a solution for them), Superman wouldn't put his worst enemies in the PZ but Kryptonians fighting for their lives (and they were, in the story they were easy to kill all of a sudden) he has no problem with. I wrote a twitter message to James Robinson on how its hard to root against Zod in this supposed war. Earth were the villains (heck, Lane even had Zor-El killed so there would be no voices for peace on New Krypton) and nobody paid for anything. And now Superman and Supergirl seemingly could care less than their "adopted" planet and its government (the DCU President gave Lane the OK) just killed off 98% of their remaining species. One of the worst Superman stories ever.

[big_daddy_d]

Joe Q for some reason (he must have known how everyone hated the story) still said no.

That's another thing that just irks me to no end. It's how Joe Q seems to love enraging fans that disagree with his work. Sins Past was an epic fail and one of the biggest examples of character assassination ever. He said having kids would age Peter? Come on they're already adults! What, did Marvel plan to deage them to become infants at a certain point? Peter Parker has been one of the most naturally developed characters in comics. From high school, to college, and even to moving out of his aunt's place and having his own with MJ. Natural next step is children (to which I still think Marvel should just put in a 616 version of Mayday and I even have an idea how they can pull it off), or if they didn't want him having kids so bad, then just don't plain go for it. And then something I gotta point out..Gabriel Stacy looked like Peter's twin...seriously.. so how to retcon? I say hey, Osborn simply tampered with their DNA. Bam. Easy. Retcon out him having sex with Gwen. Her character is once again saved and people can like her again instead of hating her. While on the subject of Osborn screwing a guy's g/f...him and Harry's g/f...yea...oh and oh joy, he impregnates her too...so..wow..just...fucking..wow. Need I say more? At this point, I just get fed up with even hearing about Osborn getting laid.

Anyway, back to Quesada. I often said, he acts like a wrestling heel, purposely trying to push fans buttons, but difference is, fans actually like wrestling heels. Hell I happen to be a Miz and Jericho fan. Heels are still entertaining. This guy, is not a pro wrestler who has the job of angering fans. Quick way to lose costumers. I often said I respected him for sticking to his guns before he started taking shots at anyone who was anti-OMD/BND, or Sins Past for that matter. It's stupid and not smart at all. In fact, other than a heel wrestler, he reminds me of TNA Wrestling. Too stubborn to admit when something is a bad idea and won't acknowledge it. Instead, he'll just keep rolling with it. He might have some hits, but definitely have more misses in my humble opinion.

As for DC..seriously..they need to stop ignoring the outcome of War of the Superman..we all want to treat it like a bad memory but seeing how every one is acting now appalls me. Where's the righteous anger?

[kd_the_movie]

Y'know the worst part? New Krypton had potential to be GREAT.

Aside from the Nightwing and Flamebird stories (which weren't even that bad), I though the Superman franchise was in a good place during New Krypton.

Mon-El, whose spent the better part of 20 years in creative limbo, was back, apart of the Superman family again, and in the mainstream, present day DCU.

Clark after years of (justified) angst due to the loss of Krypton now gets the chance to live among his fellow Kryptonians and learn more about his history and culture. That and you felt a genuine sense of peril and sort of military/political intrigue during Clark's stay on NK since he was surrounded by beings just as powerful as he is and stood a significant threat to the Earth.

And while I didn't read Kara's book at the time, I heard really good things about it.

Basically, yeah, WHY did we have to put all this good shit back in the toybox? And as you mentioned, with no proper fallout whatsoever?