Biggest Disappointment of 2009
Jim Doom: the “real” conclusion to Batman R.I.P.
The thread uniting Batman RIP to that two-part story that led into Final Crisis #6 was pathetic. At best, I’d call it weak and underwhelming. At worst, I would call it a dishonestly hyped, poorly executed rip-off.
Honorable mention: Bigshot writers swinging and missing: I have tons of respect for Ed Brubaker and Geoff Johns, but man, Captain America Reborn and Flash Rebirth stunk. It’s kind of weird when creative talent like that stumble in such a huge public fashion. And then it’s especially unfortunate when these stumbles botch the returns of such important characters.
Fin Fang Doom: the Millar/Hitch Fantastic Four finale.
Remember a couple of years ago when it was announced that Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, the creative team behind the two great Ultimates series, was going to take over Fantastic Four for twelve issues? Marvel had guaranteed that every issue would ship on time, because they were giving Hitch plenty of lead time to get several issues in the can before the first issue even came out.
Many more than 12 months later, the “Millar/Hitch run” was finally over. And it ended with an issue not drawn by Hitch, who was too busy ensuring Captain America: Reborn would ship late. The last two issues weren’t even scripted by Millar. He was too busy writing comics that he could sell as movies, I guess.
C’mon guys, where is your sense of responsibility? Start what you finish. We were promised a run by two creators, and that’s why we were buying the comic. You couldn’t even be bothered to finish the story you began? That’s just disrespectful to the fans.
Here’s what bummed us out in previous years:
2008:
Jim Doom: Legion of Super-Heroes
Doom DeLuise: Green Lantern
Fin Fang Doom: Millar / Hitch on Fantastic Four
Doominator: Not having any money2007:
Jim Doom: The Fall of the Super-Writers
Doominator: X-Men
Fin Fang Doom: X-Men: Endangered Species
Doom DeLuise: Countdown2006:
Jim Doom: Artists who don’t draw their own backgrounds
Doominator: X-Men: The Last Stand
Fin Fang Doom: Civil War
Doom DeLuise: Nightwing, Flash, and Ion2005:
Jean-Claude Van Doom: House of M
Fin Fang Doom: The Other
Jim Doom: The Goon
The Batman thing was laughably bad as DC desperately tried to reconcile the two, only settling on a dumbed down excuse. Much like Morrison bringing back Aquaman in Final Crisis only to have Didio later claim it was a alternate universe and didn’t count. Obviously trying to save face for what Johns had planned for Aquaman.
Flash Rebirth is a strange one. It looks like they wanted it to be as big and cool as Hal Jordan’s return. But they seemed to miss the most obvious fact that the Flash doesn’t have all the wealth of characters Green Lantern has and the big one being people genuinely like Wally and were not desperate for Barry to return unlike how many hated Kyle and wanted Hal back (not to mention all the other Corps members). In hindsight Flash Rebirth never stood a chance and then they seemed to second guess themselves left and right on things like the costume changes. I know for me I actually prefer Barry as a Blue Lantern then a Flash.
I’ve said this before, but I’ve read the issues where Batman “dies,” and I still don’t understand what happened. Since I like to think I’m not a complete moron (an assumption, sure), I’m going to call that crappy writing/editing.