# Worst. Comicbook. Ever. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 13, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976 "2003-11-13T04:48:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/61 "2003-11-15T11:32:04Z")
Starbrand. Actually the whole New Universe thing was pretty awful, but Starbrand took the award. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/62 "2003-11-15T22:17:10Z")
> [@](#): > > You know, we have had Philly Dopefests. Yeah, I’ve been on the lookout for those. I’ve only moved back to Philly a few months ago, and I was studying for the bar exam all summer. I haven’t seen notice of a new Philly fest yet, and if there were any, I missed them. I’ll keep my eyes peeled. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/63 "2003-11-16T12:30:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dogface \* > \*\*What’s sad is that I could name all the characters on that cover. \*\* You mean: Rubberduck, Fastback, Alley-Kat-Abra, Captain Carrot, Yankee Poodle, and Pig Iron? (and our Earth’s Superman, of course). I’ve got every issue of Captain Carrot, and it’s what got me interested in comic books. As to the OP, I know that there are worse ones, and to be honest I’ve even _seen_ worse ones, but I still have to give my vote to _Blade of the Immortal_. I’d heard good things about it, and you can set just about any story in medieval/early-modern Japan and I’ll go nuts over it. But this had bad art, tired concepts, cheesy “edgy” dialogue, insipid over the top gore, and a horribly misogynistic tone throughout. I just felt gross after reading it, and threw it in the trash immediately. (And this was a TPB – I _never_ throw away books!) ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/64 "2003-11-16T18:09:38Z")
For recent examples, there’s the one issue of Powers I couldn’t finish. The 2001 Homage. Naked. Rear-presenting. Caveman. Sex. Not tastefully obscured. Yes, I understood the point. It _still_ burnt my eyes. Justice League Task Force’s updating of the Wonder Twins? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/65 "2003-11-16T21:31:36Z")
What about the Lobo Christmas special where he killed an obnoxious version of Santa Claus? A comic I actually felt I had to destroy my copy of! As for its effect on the industry, _Crisis on Infinite Earths_ was probably the most ruinous. I saw it as a bad idea when I was 12, & don’t have a much better opinion of it now. Stupid, stupid DC! ---
**Author:** ![commie\_sho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/db5fbb/32.png) [@commie\_sho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commie_sho)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/66 "2003-11-17T05:36:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Odinoneeye \* > \*\*Starbrand. Actually the whole New Universe thing was pretty awful, but Starbrand took the award. \*\* I actually really enjoyed Starbrand and DP7. When I was reading them I was about ten years old though, I dunno what I’d think of them nowadays. I will agree that the DDTeens was one of the worst comicbooks ever. Another suggestion: Darkhawk after the writers started concentrating on his messed up home life. He was the coolest superhero, and then they suddenly started focusing on what a nag his mom was. Ugh. Wizard called Archer and Armstrong one of the worst comics ever, but I really really enjoyed it. Maybe I just like bad comics, heh. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/67 "2003-11-17T11:52:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by commie\_sho \* > \*\*Wizard called Archer and Armstrong one of the worst comics ever, but I really really enjoyed it. Maybe I just like bad comics, heh. \*\* 😕 “Archer and Armstrong” with art by Barry Windsor Smith? Um…if it’s got at least decent (and this was far better than decent) art, it can’t be a “worst comic ever”. You need bad art (which this didn’t have) _and_ bad story (which this didn’t have either…it was pretty funny, IMO) to be a “worst comic ever”. Once again, Wizard continues to astound. Sheesh. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![commie\_sho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/db5fbb/32.png) [@commie\_sho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commie_sho)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/68 "2003-11-17T15:02:53Z")
It was the best comic Valiant ever published by far, IMO. I’m not a Wizard Reader, and I estimate that I read Wizard dissing Archer and Armstrong about 8 years ago, so what they say really doesn’t mean anything to me. I liked it a lot! ---
**Author:** ![Selkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/69 "2003-11-17T17:08:18Z")
I’ve noticed very few references to Howard Mackie’s writing on this thread, so let me nominate the **Rogue** limited series. Bad art, horrible dialogue, creative suspension of logic, and, oh yeah - it wasn’t about the title character. For a wonderfully entertaining evisceration of another Howard Mackie “classic”, **Mutant X** , I highly recommend [Paul O’Brien’s ‘The X Axis’ review of the 2001 Annual](http://www.thexaxis.com/reviews/010401.html#mutant-x). ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/70 "2003-11-18T06:28:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Selkie \* > \*\*I’ve noticed very few references to Howard Mackie’s writing on this thread, so let me nominate the **Rogue** limited series. Bad art, horrible dialogue, creative suspension of logic, and, oh yeah - it wasn’t about the title character. > \*\* Really? If it wasn’t about Rogue herself, who the hell _did_ they showcase? Dum Dum Dugan? ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/71 "2003-11-18T14:33:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\*😕 > > “Archer and Armstrong” with art by Barry Windsor Smith? Um…if it’s got at least decent (and this was far better than decent) art, it can’t be a “worst comic ever”. You need bad art (which this didn’t have) _and_ bad story (which this didn’t have either…it was pretty funny, IMO) to be a “worst comic ever”. Once again, Wizard continues to astound. > > Sheesh. > > Fenris \*\* I remember A&A as oemwhat enjoyable, but thoroughly unremarkable. Not the best thing Valiant published, but far from the worst comic out there. I don’t remember BWS drawing it, though. Did he do the whole run or just launch the book? Anyway, good art doesn’t save a book from being the “worst comic ever”. I stand by Skateman as being one of the worst comics ever, and easily the worst comic I ever paid cover price for, even with Neal Adams art. Quality art and production values imply that the people involved are professionals, who should know better (especially in Skateman’s case, since Adams was also the publisher), as opposed to comics produced by [teenagers](http://ape-law.com/GAF/Page05/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/72 "2003-11-18T15:32:50Z")
Going back to the 60s, you could look at the superhero boom that sprung up in response to Marvel’s success, with smaller publishers jumping on the Mighty Marvel bandwagon. -[Mighty Comics](http://ape-law.com/GAF/Page235/index.html)brought back the Archie superheroes for one of their many revivals. Shamelessly over the top in aping Marvel, they read more like a bad parody. Archie also revived the Shadow, as a super-powered crimefighter in a green and blue costume. -Myron Fass came up with the brilliant idea of borrowing characters from others and recreating them as superheroes, giving us the superhero Frankenstein, Dracula and the “new” [Captain Marvel](http://ape-law.com/GAF/Page21), who had the amazing ability to split off his body parts.\ -[Harvey](http://ape-law.com/GAF/Page23/) had a short lived flirtation with superheroes, thankfully. -Dell also got in the act, publishing a team book called “Super-Heroes”, featuring the likes of Polymer Polly and Crispy (who had ice powers). Can’t forget the superhero Blackhawks either. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/73 "2003-11-18T15:35:00Z")
Mighty Comics link is [www.ape-law.com/GAF/Page](http://www.ape-law.com/GAF/Page) 25/index.html ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/74 "2003-11-18T15:58:25Z")
Mighty Comics link is [www.ape-law.com/GAF/Page](http://www.ape-law.com/GAF/Page) 25/index.html ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/75 "2003-11-18T16:49:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sweetums \* > **How could anyone forget “U.S. 1” a Marvel comic about a trucker with a CB reciever in his head. During the CB craze of the 70s this might have made sense, but this was the 80s. It was also, IIRC the comic that introduced Razorback, the hero in a pig suit, and his truck, the "Big Pig"** I’m sure this must have been a tie-in to the _U.S. 1 Electric Trucking_ set, put out by Tyco (the toy train company). Although I don’t think any of the toys had a CB receiver implanted in their skulls. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/76 "2003-11-18T16:51:16Z")
[www.ape-law.com/GAF/Page](http://www.ape-law.com/GAF/Page) 25/index.html ---
**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/77 "2003-11-18T16:57:06Z")
I have a friend who owns a comic store. Back when I was taking store inventory for a living, I would borrow the machines for a weekend and do his inventory for him in return for store credit. You come across a lot of strange things in the junkboxes at a comic store. I found a lot of really cool things that I wouldn’t have otherwise have ever seen (and bought them with my shiny new credit!) like The Dreamery, Stanley and His Monster and The Pervert Club. But then, there are the others. Zorro Vs. Dracula springs to mind. Not for the art or the writing so much as for the very concept itself. I mean, c’mon. **Zorro** … versus **Dracula**. What on earth were they on? Can we do GI Joe vs. the Mummy’s Curse next? ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/78 "2003-11-18T18:31:23Z")
Archer and Armstrong was the only thing I found remotely interesting from Valiant (aside from Hard Corps, which was interesting in a bland action movie sort of way). I still laugh when I reread the issue about them getting kidnapped by a posse of Ivar’s ‘victims’ misplaced through time. Just goes to prove that Wizard is staffed with idiots. Or were they talking about the Mike Baron issues after Barry Winsdor-Smith left. _Those_ were horrendous. Of course what do I know, I bought Zorro vs. Dracula. To this day I have no idea why. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/79 "2003-11-19T00:19:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gravity \* > \*\* > You come across a lot of strange things in the junkboxes at a comic store. I found a lot of really cool things that I wouldn’t have otherwise have ever seen (and bought them with my shiny new credit!) like The Dreamery, Stanley and His Monster and The Pervert Club. > \*\* I strongly reccomend the Dreamery. It was an anthology including bits of Alice In Wonderland, an adaptation of the Russian folktale Koschei The Undying, and the first appearance of Donna Barr’s centaurs (imagine a village of Catholic centaurs, living in Germany on the eve of world war 1. Now imagine it’s well drawn, well written, and has very well developed characters. Now go buy a copy). I read a friend’s copy of the Pervert Club miniseries. IIRC it contains no nudity or sex. Rather than a sex comic, it’s a teen soap opera. The protagonist is a boy dealing with all the usual high school problems. He also likes to cross dress. He becomes torn between a growing romantic attraction to the girl who’s been his best friend for years, and the evil, scheming leader of the school’s pervert club. Stanley and the Monster is IMHO, well known enough that I shouldn’t have to describe it. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2003, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976/80 "2003-11-19T02:37:56Z")
Ok, I doubt anyone will agree with me that it’s the worst but can someone at least help me out here and say that **Kingdom Come** is the most overrated comic of all time? I personally had to seriously discipline myself to get through it. Probably the only graphic novel/tpb that I ever really “hated.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-comicbook-ever/212976.md?page=5)