THe worst Superman story...ever

[Random Axe]

Until about six months or so ago, I was out of the comics loop for nearly ten years. I'm catching up with trades. I'm a die-hard Superman fan and thought there really wouldn't be a bad book out there. Wrong.

Superman - Shadows Linger by Kurt Busiek and a couple of hack artists

THis just came out, so I'm guessing this collected story was sometime in 2008. Wow this is just bad storytelling. Superman versus bug people. Yes, bug people from another planet have come to conquer Earth. Busiek made them much more annoying by having their speech replace s with z making it almost unreadable. I skipped many pages of text and exposition. It had a back-up plot about some kid living with the Clarks that didn't help matters. This stuff is just horrible and a wasted twelve dollars. I want my money back.

NOw, I'm reconsidering buying the other trades like Calmelot falls and a few others. I also just got Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes which was alright and will be a separate post and All-Star Superman pt 2which I haven't begun.

Terrible writing, amateur artwork and horrible purchase.

Scott

[BlackKnight]

Sounds like A Better Plot than the Entire Lois & Clark TV Show.

.. I have been picking up a few things Superman recently... I do not know about what you bought, & Have just found out about it. lol... But Recent stuff I have read & have enjoyed...

The McGuinness Run of Superman .. 154 to 183 Roughly...
Jeph Loeb Writes most of it,.. & I personally like the guys writing.

The Brainiac Story from Action Comics... like ahhh, 866 to 870 or something... Written by John's,.. & Gray Frank Draws the Big S as if he looked like Chris Reeves,.. very neat stuff.

& Superman Batman VS Vampires & WereWolves.
Although with this one,.. Batman is more so the main character,.. with Superman & a Who's Who of the DC Hero's showing up to lend a Hand..

I just picked up the Superman New Krypton Special & the 2 Issue Superman Beyond book,.. However have no comments on either,.. have yet to read them.

BTW..., BK also has 2 versions of Custom Superman's still Avalible as well, that are pretty cool.

[Vortigern99]

$12? Ugh. I spent $30 on the 10-issue New Krypton series, based on the excellent concept that 100,000 Kryptonians (from Supergirl's Kandor) are now residents of Earth. Well, long story short: Great concept, wretched execution. The writing is so poor as to be borderline nonsensical, with events happening with no explanation and no grounding in any kind of believable reality. The characterizations and dialogue are riddled with bad cliches and one-dimensional plug-ins. The artwork alternates between excellent and "WTH were they thinking when they hired THAT guy?" Maybe I'm getting old and crabby or something, but man, this series stinks.

[thunderbolt]

Seems like the only writer to get Supes lately is Grant Morrison, and Ross's Kingdom one shot was pretty good, too. Morrison's All Star Superman and the Superman Beyond 3D mini both stretched the fantasy/SF aspect of Superman to the limit.

[palitoy]

I've been grabbing a lot of the trades at the library, I take more risks when it's free.While I do read some good pieces here and there, the majority of what I find is largely forgettable.

I haven't said "Glad I didn't pay for this" so much in my life!

[kryptosmaster]

There's no such thing as a bad Superman story...or tv series.
Just kidding. I'm a diehard Supes fan, through thick & thin and there has definitely been some "thin" in recent years.
I don't completely recall the specific story in question but don't remember it being that horrible.
The absolute worst criticism I can make on a Superman story happened a few years back when they let some HACK draw an issue. I remember thinking that if this guy became the regular artist I might actually have to drop the title (was either Action or Superman). The story wasn't bad but the art was so horrendous that I couldn't enjoy it AT ALL!
artists name was Eric Canete (or something like that)


Rich

[BlackKnight]

I actually gave up on reading the New JLA Ongoing book...like 8 or 9 issues in. I thought the writing was Horrible,.. Hated the Direction of the Book,.. & wanted to more so see a Super Hero JLA Book, with the Big S more so being the main character,.. & everyone else being around him. It's a shame,.. because I really dig Benes' art work too...

[kryptosmaster]

I actually gave up on reading the New JLA Ongoing book...like 8 or 9 issues in. I thought the writing was Horrible,.. Hated the Direction of the Book,.. & wanted to more so see a Super Hero JLA Book, with the Big S more so being the main character,.. & everyone else being around him. It's a shame,.. because I really dig Benes' art work too...

What? You didn't like JLV? (Justice League of Vixen)
I dumped it at issue #25 and had the same feelings (love the artist).
If you knew me you'd know that says something since I have all the JLA series back to the original one and even quite a few of the offshoots(JLE, JLQ, JL Task Force, Extreme Justice, etc). Took a lot for me to dump that series.

Rich

[Random Axe]

I'll stick with the JLA since I really don't pick up many titles on a monthly basis. THe art is superb, and the fill in guy, Jose Luis, isn't too shabby. THe stories vary between pretty good and questionable.

I also get Superman/batman each month. I like those stories that don't necessarily follow current continuity. I also dig the interaction between the two and getting insight into their thoughts regarding each other. The creators have had varying levels of quality, but overall a book I look forward to each month.

I'll have to see where this new direction goes for Superman as he leaves Earth to go do whatever. I may try a few issues to decide.

Scott

[philski]

Unfortunately of late, there hasn't been a "worst" because they've all been pretty bad. I am first and foremost a fan of Superman. I remember a time when DC had good writers, Elliot S! Maggin and a good team of artists, Neal Adams, Curt Swan, who turned out some pretty decent stories. Back then, they didn't have fancy story arcs or other gimmicks to get you to read the book. They did something novel--they actually created a book you wanted to read. For me, I always checked out the cover. If it had an interesting cover, then I'd pick it up and thumb through it. More than likely, the story was pretty decent and I'd end up buying it. I really think DC is caught up trying to figure out what gimmick will attract readers. Here's some free advice: tell a good story with some good artwork--please, no more cartoony stuff from Guinness! While you're at it please Kick Dan Diddio out of an upper story office window before he does any more damage to the brand. Grant Morrison--Batman??! Need I say more?

[MegoSteve]

I have a hard time picking the worst, but I'm not a fan of New Krypton at all. Superman the comic has been pretty bad lately in spite of my love for Renato Guedes' artwork. It just seems like the writer's treading water... the Atlas fight was lame, and New Krypton is terrible. Action's been kind of uneven, too, dependong on whether Gary Frank's on it or not.