Why? I’m in no way the biggest fan of Kingdom Come but I can think of dozens of cruddy DC Elseworlds that I’ve enjoyed less.
I agree that it is very, very overrated. There is almost literally nothing original in the entire book - although I do like the concept behind I’bn Al Xu’Ffasch (or whatever his name was).
Thanks for fixing the link, Borsa.
Here’s a link to when TPTB decided to turn the Blackhawks into a bunch of campy superheroes. (I think the Listener wins hands-down for worst superhero costume EVAH!)
Moving on to the 80s, Marvel did a LOT of toy and licensed property comics that made G.I. Joe, Micronauts, and ROM look like Watchmen, Maus, and Sandman in terms of quality.
U.S.1 and NFL SuperPro have already been mentioned. But there were also gems like Team America, Crystar: Crystal Warrior, Sectaurs, and M.A.S.K.
Of course, there are a lot of small time publisher books and self-published books from the 80s and 90s that came and went and left behind piles of crapulence. Normally, I wouldn’t pick on them, but Zwanna, Son of Zulu deserves special mention.
A lot of Micronauts issues were very high quality. The last issue of the first Micronauts series is excellent. Biotron listens to a tape of a speech Arcturus made. Lacking the emotions of the original model, Biotron wants clarification on several concepts used in the speech. He asks Bug what beauty is, Marionette to explain fear, and I can’t remember the rest. Each Micronaut explains using an event from their lives. Each ends up writing a poem about it. And the whole thing is written so that it flows naturally instead of being cheezy and manipulative.
Doc, I didn’t say that Micronauts was bad, just that other licensed property comics of that era were incredibly bad compared to it. It was probably Bill Mantlo’s best work by a longshot (much as G.I. Joe was Larry Hama’s), and when Mike Golden was around, it was a good title. However, it’s still no Maus, Watchmen, or Sandman.