Classifying Bad Comics: Devalued Continuity

Continuing my posts on different types of bad comics. Today I'll introduce one the types that usually cause the most uproar - those wherein the writer has played havoc with established continuity.

Again, I'm not one of those people who feels all comics should be slaves to continuity. One of my favorite comic writers (Bob Haney) was notorious for not caring about continuity.


The saving grace in Haney's stories (and for most comics of that era) was they didn't rely on you knowing what happened in the last issue. Still, once you've decided to tell an ongoing story in serial form, then you have pretty much agreed to obey some laws of continuity, or put another way, the more you are relying on continuity to give your story gravitas, the more important continuity becomes.

Modern comics rely (overly much I think) on wanting the reader to be invested in ongoing storylines - which results in continuity having a greated influence than it didn in the Silver Age. As a result, there have arisen two types of Continuity contagions that can ruin a comic.

Today, I'll tackle what I see as the most comic problem: Devalued Continuity.

Over time, as writers and editors come and go on a series, it's not uncommon for some editorial mandate to force a writer to come up with a contrivance that basically oblivates established story lines. When doing this, if the events that the writer serves up are too far fetched, it runs the risk of diminishing the story line's continuity in a way a ignored plot hole never could.

Probably the beginning of this problem was the return of Jean Grey in X Factor 1 from the 90's.

The original premise of the series was that the four original male X-men would be joined by an undetermied female. This unused cover actually shows how far the series got in production without a decided upon fifth member.

However, an editorial decree made it necessary for Marvel to find a way to bring Jean Grey the dead. The solution? Well, that came from a fan letter from Kurt Busiek. He suggested that the Dark Phoenixed Jean Grey who died in X-men 137 was an alien who had assumed the original Marvel Girl's identity. Kurt had this idea that the Phoenix had duplicated Jean and left her in a pod on the bottom of Jamaica Bay. The actual story in which this all was explained was in Fantastic Four 286.

And while Kurt's explanation is plausable (as these go in comic book land) it sort of feels like a continuity cheat. (Especially when you take into account Cyclop's Jean Grey looking wife. Nothing awkward about that, aye? )


All these events may be "in continuity," but hasn't the writer undermined the value of the Marvel Universe with these type of shenanigans? I think so. And I think we see more of that now than we have ever seen before (partly because writers have gotten lazy) but mostly because editorial is driven by a need to satisfy the capricious demands of a superficial fan base. Instead of thinking about whether a story will be good, it's become more about putting the old toys back in the box. Whatever gets Hal Jordan back as Green Lantern is good enough to make the cut. As a result ,we've been getting some really bad stories.

In other words, all the Superboy Prime Reality Punches in the world...



...don't satisfactorily explain to me how Jason Todd came back to life.



Ultimately, if continuity is the coin of the realm, you run the risk of becoming penniless overnight when you do things like have an Editor in Chief Joe Quesada explain away a 20 year marriage of Spider-man and Mary Jane with words like, "It's Magic. We don't have to explain it."



Perhaps the big two can use Magic to make us care about their universes again.

- Jim

Classifying Bad Comics 2: Jarring Outlandish Ideas

Continuing my discussion of bad comics from last week -
Last week I introduced my series on classifying bad comics by giving examples when a writer doesn't care about the character. Today, I'll bring another group into the classification: Jarring Outlandishness Ideas.

Now, let me just say for the record, I AM a fan of outlandishness in comics - when the context supports it. That is to say, in a continuity where the Flash can be turned into a human puppet...

...I'm pretty much cool with whatever you're gonna hit me with.

What I (and other readers) object to, is when the outlandishness of an idea is so poorly executed that it disrupts the tone of a series. That is to say, while it would be disconcerting to see aliens from X-Files show up on an episode of CSI, it is possible to incorporate those elements into CSI in a way that might work. However, if you are just throwing in aliens without any thought to how they should work in the CSI framework,, then you are creating a story no one will ever take serious.

Case in point Spider-man vol 2 and the entire Gathering of Five storyline

• Undoes the death of Aunt May (who readers had accepted as dead for 3 years at the time of the story.)
• Mary Jane has a still born pregnancy
• Norman Osborn becomes obsessed with magic

On their own and given some natural build up, there is nothing wrong with any of these plot points. However, all of the above was hastily dumped on readers in the course of a month in 4 separate Spider-man comics. So, what should have come across as powerful moments in Spider-man's life instead feels more like a bad imaginary story.

Let me be clear, it wasn't the haste that made the Gathering of the Five a bad storyline - It was the execution. In Anatomy Lesson Alan Moore was able to find a way to tell us everything we knew about Swamp Thing was a lie while organically incorporating his new truth into the story. Also Moore's changes didn't violate the intrinsic nature of the character (he is still a moody swamp creature.) The Alec Holland side of the character was always more of a story pivot than a character focus, IMO.

However, since then, many writers have tried to duplicate the success of Anatomy Lesson with dismal results. Case in point: when Jeph Loeb in the pages of Wolverine 55 tries to explain to readers how Wolverine isn't a mutant, but rather was descended from Maximus Lobo a wolf-like race also known as Lupines. This story was met with great deal of backlash and has been pretty much resigned to the Continuity Penalty Box.


In the hands of a better writer, it's possible that readers might have taken to this concept. I could see an Alan Mooresque approach with callbacks to Werewolf by Night, the Darkhold, Moonknight and Man-wolf. That is to say, if Loeb had found a way to weave Wolverine's new origin into an existing fabric of continuity, readers might have taken to the idea. As it was, the Lupine origins were met with the same sort of dismay you might expect if you were to suddenly say Batman is actually a mutant.

Speaking of Batman, just so you don't think I'm picking on Marvel here, DC has their fair share of jarring cringe worthy moments. Check out this clumsy bit of outlandish behavior from the Batman in Justice League vol 1 #84 




Not one of Batman's better moments.
Sadly, 40 years later, it seems history would repeat itself with another instance of this scene that was just as jarring:



As with the Spider-man plot points mentioned at the beginning of this post, there is nothing wrong with a Batman/Black Canary love connection in a story - as long as it is introduced with some care and consideration. However, modern writers seem less inclined (less patient?) or maybe are given less time to develop their stories appropriately.

Which means we will probably see more jarring outlandishness the future.

- Jim

Classifying Bad Comics: Part 1

Today's post was originally going to be about the worst comic I've ever read, but as I put thought into it, I realized that trying to nail down one singular comic as the all time worst was not possible. The truth is, there are many reasons why comics might be classified as BAD. So, instead, I present the first in a series where I examine the reasons comics go bad.

Comics where the writer doesn't care about the character

The first really bad comic I remember reading was the black and white Rampaging Hulk number 8.



However, it wasn't the Hulk story that I disliked, but rather the dismal treatment of main character in the back up story in that magazine - a character by the name of Ulysses Bloodstone.



For those of you not familiar with the man with the ruby studded chest, Bloodstone was a immortal monster hunter - sort of a mix between Doc Savage and Vandal Savage. While the character first appeared in the pages of Marvel Presents 1, I only knew him from Rampaging Hulk. With his arcane origin and mythic history this shotgun weilding monster slayer seemed new and exciting to me.



The b/w series was written by John Warner, who along with Len Wein and Marv Wolfman helped create the character. As one of the creators, Warner had a vested interest in the series, but somewhere around issue 6 of Rampaging Hulk, Warner left Marvel to write Flash Gordon for Gold Key.

This left the Bloodstone storyline dangling, so for two issues of Rampaging Hulk, Bloodstone didn't appear. When he finally did return in issue 8 in a story penned by Steve Gerber, the results were...ahem...not to my liking.

For whatever reason, by the end of Gerber's first Bloodstone story, the character in a left in a rather unusable state:



I remember reading that ending and being devastated to the very core of my being. I can only think that Gerber was brought in to wrap up the story in some fashion and given his affection for morbid themes, he choose to kill Bloodstone in the finale. That the last line of dialogue is a groaner didn't help sell it either.

Sadly, we've seen a lot of characters revived over the years in comics, but alas, the savage Bloodstone has not been one of them. 

Another classic example of this type of story is the ending of Warren Ellis' Dr. Druid series from the 90's.



Apparently this was supposed to be a series which would help Marvel build their version of Vertigo. Yet, from what I can gather, Marvel was a bit afraid of what Ellis was putting into the series and on that, all I can say is if this is the guy you've hired to write your D-list superhero story...



...then you sort of get what you deserve, don't you?

 Unfortunately, sales were so low that Marvel downgraded the run to a 4 issue mini-series. This prompted the ever classy Ellis to take out his ire on the character. In the final issue (with the subtle title of Sick Of It All) Dr. Druid is beaten, depowered, shot, killed, burned and finally shoved into a garbage can.

If you were a fan of Dr. Druid (and I'm sure they exist) it's hard to imagine that comic not ending up on one of your All Time Worst list. ;)

I'll pick this up next week with the next category, but until then, can you think of a time when a series went bad because writer stopped caring?

- Jim