The Litany Of Poor Choices March On

What the hell, I'm going to continue looking back over series I dropped. I've taken this idea this far, I might as well keep going. Moving into 2009 and beyond.

Booster Gold: Let's see, started buying this with issue #0, which came between issues 6 and 7, because it was a Zero Hour tie-in. So Booster and the Beetles ran into Parallax Hal and Extant (ugh) in the Time Stream. I ultimately gave up on the book at issue #22, partway through a story about a dagger that was connected to the Beetle scarab somehow. I dunno.

Geoff Johns wrote the book up through #1 Million, which came after 10 but before 11. Then Chuck Dixon did a two-parter that seemed set in the '60s Batman era, and involved Booster dressing up as Killer Moth. Than Dan Jurgens started writing the book, as well as drawing it.

I mentioned this in my solicitations post a couple months ago, but Jurgens' work as a writer has never worked for me. Stuff happens, but it fails to connect. The ideas aren't bad in theory, but the execution is off. So the best idea would have been to jump ship after issue 12, when Dixon's story ended.

How many issues too many: 10

Deadpool: The Daniel Way-written series that started during Secret Invasion. Cable/Deadpool had ended about 6 months prior, and at the time this series started, I think it was the only Deadpool series going. That certainly didn't last. The book scrapped all the progress Wade had made by the end of C/D, along with his supporting cast. In return, Wade got to argue with his caption boxes and hallucinate. Some of which were good, but the lack of a consistent group for Wade to play off contributed to the aimlessness of the book, which Way at least tried to run with in the second year, having Wade drift from place to place, looking for somewhere to fit in, but usually ruining everything.

I dropped the book at issue 24, partway through a story where he ruined a gig Weasel had being the mech-suited muscle for a casino in Vegas. The book was on a fast train to nowhere, and the funny parts were getting thinner and thinner on the ground. I did enjoy the one-off #22, but I should have bailed before the Hit-Monkey story. Issue 22 introduced some redneck moonshiner with electricity powers called White Lightnin', but Wade mocked him, as he should. But the series played the kung-fu assassin monkey completely straight, which was a terrible idea.

Before that, he tried joining the X-Men, and they turned him away, which, what the hell? Let Mystique on the team even though she betrays them every time, won't let Deadpool on. Boo, X-Men. Before that, he tried being a pirate for two issues. That was good. So there's at least three places I could have dropped it.

How many issues too many: 6. The X-Men story at least had Wade puking in Colossus' face and Cyclops being forced to admit he was wrong. Just like he was wrong to have Hope use the Phoenix Force to make people into mutants. I will never stop bringing that up, because to hell with all Cyclops' apologists.

Power Girl: Like Deadpool, I started buying this when it first began. I dropped it at #17. Conner, Palmiotti, and Gray had left the book after 12 issues, and the Winick/Sami Basri team wasn't getting it done. Winick was bringing in a bunch of the Max Lord stuff that was running in Justice League Generation Lost, and Basri's art combined with the coloring had made the book look much colder and unfriendly. Tonally, the book was very different, everything was falling apart for Peej, and it wasn't what I was looking for.

Would have been better to bail when the original creative team did. Sometimes it's really easy.

How many issues too many: 5.

That gets us through 2010. Weren't many chances for me to drop books, since Marvel kept canceling everything so quickly. And then in 2011, DC rebooted their entire line, which killed ultimately four books I was buying at the time. Still, 52 new titles provided new opportunities to try books and grow disgusted with them.

Suicide Squad: I'm not sure this should even count. I bought it for 3 issues, when it first started. The first issue spent half its pages on the prospective Squad being tortured by Waller's people to see if they were cut out for the Squad. Then dumped into a mission without any treatment for the injuries sustained from the torture. Which I'm sure was meant to make Waller seem hardass, but really just makes her look stupid. Nothing like damaging the people you're counting on to save the day ahead of time.

A mistake on my part, but at least one I corrected fairly quickly.

How many issues too many: 3.

Grifter: I have no particular attachment to the character, but they were basically taking the idea behind that movie with Roddy Piper (or the concept of ROM SpaceKnight), and using it here. That seemed like it might be an exciting read. Eh, not so much. After four issues, I had no idea why the aliens were there, and hadn't been given any real reason to care about the characters. Grifter had a lady that was his partner in a series of cons, who wound up in trouble, and not only could I not be bothered to care, I couldn't even remember her name. Still can't. Dropped it after 4 issues.

How many issues too many: 4. Hey, maybe I'm really starting to learn! Or these books were so bad they were the equivalent of a brick to the face.

Avengers Academy: Started this around #6, at a time when I had exactly zero Marvel ongoing series on my pull after the cancelation of Hawkeye and Mockingbird the month before (which I would have dropped if it hadn't ended). Dropped it at #21, after Fear Itself had wrapped up, as a whole new crop of students and teachers were coming in.

Christos Gage was trying to use some of the rough treatment the teachers had gotten in recent years, and I suppose I should have appreciated that. But I frankly would have been fine if Tigra being pistol-whipped by the Hood had been allowed to sink quietly into the dustbin of history, or if we forgot about Speedball as Penance entirely. Then he followed that up by bringing in Korvac, who is one big Avengers foe I have never given a crap about. Glowing, whiny, naked neon purple guy is hard to take seriously.

I intended to drop the book before Fear Itself, since that seemed like a good jumping off point, but Jack kind of goofed and kept sending it. And I wound up enjoying the horror vibe of the cadets being trapped in the mansion in the Microverse with a possessed Titania and Absorbing Man. Not enough to stick around after it was over.

How many issues too many: Enjoyment of the Fear Itself tie-ins aside, I wouldn't have been that bad off dropping it after the Korvac story. So, 9 issues. It wasn't my fault, though! There was a mix up at the shop, a mix up at the shop!

Damn, there was not a single ongoing in 2012 that I dropped. I should have dropped Resurrection Man, but stuck it out to the bitter end. Ditto the Matt Fraction-written Defenders. What a couple of disappointments those were. Let's see 2013.

X-Men: This was the book written initially by Brian Wood, that was notable initially for its team roster consisting entirely of female characters. But I liked all the characters, liked Coipel's art, while knowing he'd never be able to maintain a monthly schedule, and didn't have anything against Wood's writing (or know anything about him as a person).

But then I'd finish his stories, and not be able to tell if he was trying to set things up for future stories, or was just leaving big holes in his stories. And the book was on its third artist by issue 8, and the current one was Terry Dodson. I generally like Dodson's work, but he is going to give all the female characters extremely similar body types, which is not great, especially in this scenario. I was having real difficulty distinguishing characters from each other. And the book wasted two or three issues on some crossover event involving multiple groups of time-traveling X-teams, and yeesh.

Anyway, the first 3 or 4 issues should have been sufficient. Once crossovers and artist shifts started, it was definitely time to go. Although skipping the entire thing would have been fine, too. None of it gained purchase in my collection.

How many issues too many? Call it 8. Just ignore it entirely.

Fearless Defenders: So the moral here is, don't be the chump who gets excited about books consisting entirely of fictional female characters, unless you really trust the creative team to do something good with it. In this case, I gave up after 4 issues, because the book felt lifeless. Nothing about Bunn's writing or Sliney's art felt inspired or had any impact. It was the kind of terrible that smacks you across the face, it was just dull. Mark Brooks' covers were the best thing about the series.

How many issues too many? 4. So maybe I'm getting better at bailing on books. Now I just need to get better at avoiding some of them altogether.

Green Arrow: I started buying this because Ann Nocenti was writing it. It was a bit of a mess, but like most of Nocenti's stuff, I found things in there that interested me. It always feels like there's something going on in her writing. How clearly it's conveyed can be another matter. And unfortunately, she didn't exactly get spectacular art teams. Harvey Tolibao seemed to fail repeatedly at panel-to-panel continuity, and presenting things clearly. Freddie Williams was an upgrade, but not by that much. Anyway, Nocenti left the book after issue 16, and so did I. Which I think put me in the distinct minority, since most everyone else I saw online hated her run and bailed sooner. But people on the Internet are notoriously imbeciles, so who cares what they think?

How many issues too soon: 0. I wouldn't list it as a favorite run of Nocenti's but I was at least entertained by it, and I left the book when she did, so I got what I wanted out of it. I can't think of any other way you're going to get me to buy Green Arrow.

Batman Beyond Unlimited: I don't know if this should even count. A collection of digital-first released stories in an anthology comic? What the hell, why not? Let's see, I bought it when it started, and gave up at issue 17. By that point, Norm Breyfogle, who had been drawing the Batman Beyond story, had left a month or two earlier. And so had Dustin Nguyen, who had been drawing the Justice League stuff. Which left a rotating cast of artists on that, Adam Archer on Batman (good but not Breyfogle), and the JT Krul/Howard Porter Superman stuff, which was the millstone around the neck of the book, as far as I was concerned.

If you had told me at the start the Batman story would be collected in a trade all by itself, I'd have bought that and ignored the book entirely.

How many issues too many: But I didn't know that would be the case, so let's say 4. Breyfogle left after #13, that was the point I should have jumped off.

Captain America: OK, last one. This was the Rick Remender-written series. I bought it because he was going to dump Cap in Dimension Z, and I anticipated lots of cool stuff of Cap encountering strange new enemies and allies, trying to hold onto himself in a hostile alien environment, all drawn by John Romita Jr. Captain America Beyond Thunderdome, or something. Instead it was about Cap raising some baby he rescued from Zola, and fighting Zola and his creations mostly. The alien setting was mostly dealt with in an issue or two, then a big time-jump and back into the battle against The Man With a TV in His Chest.

And by the last few issues, Romita was only doing breakdowns, and so the art was pretty reliant on whether it was Scott Hanna or Klaus Janson finishing things up. And then Carlos Pacheco took over starting with issue 10. Cap was back on Earth, and I bailed.

How many issues too many: 10. Probably would have been best to avoid it entirely. It was never going to be what I wanted it to be.

Of the series listed here, 4 would seem to fall into a category of series I enjoyed because of a particular writer, artist, or combination thereof. Conner/Palmiotti/Gray, Nocenti, Geoff Johns (strange to type that now), Norm Breyfogle. And once they left, it was time for me to mosey on as well. A couple of times I did that pretty swiftly. A couple of other times it took a little longer.

The majority of the series, 7 of the 11, were books I simply shouldn't have bothered with at all. They weren't what I was hoping for, even if I did buy some of them because of the presence of creators I enjoyed (Romita Jr.). In those cases, I shouldn't have ever bothered. I probably would have eventually forgotten I ever considered buying them anyway. I know there have been Marvel series among the flood of titles in the last few years I didn't pick up at the time that I never got around to later, and can't remember now. Which is a sign I wasn't that into it in the first place, just hoping it would be worth the time.

Anyway, that's up through 2013. Hey, we covered 5 years, all right!