If comics will break your heart (Thanks, Matt), then this Byrne Board thread helps pinpoint just where some of those hearts were broken in the past:
“Back in ASM 181 (for those of us who remember back that far), during a visit to his Uncle Ben’s grave, Peter (in a moment of reflection) leaves the microscope Ben gave him as a teenager at the foot of his grave. Later, a groundskeeper (Worried about what he’ll get his son for his Birthday) comes across the telescope and takes is home to his kid. (Somehow whether it was through the writing or the art (or maybe both) you saw this more as a sentimental moment than a act of theft.) Fast forward to ASM 290, at the end of the issue, Peter returns to Aunt May’s house (again after a moment of reflection) to reclaim the same microscope before she can sell it at her garage sale. Now (at the risk of sounding like COMIC BOOK GUY from the SIMPSONS), this is the moment things changed for me as a fan, if not a collector. No longer were comic books the creation of the COMIC GODS. No longer did I believe that EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of their craft was meticulously slaved over until they achieved SHEER PERFECTION. The whole medium was now somehow flawed!”
“I think maybe when Byrne & Austin left the X-Men together. That was by far my favorite book of the time and I sort of felt like the Beatles had broken up. I was also at the age where you start to see the world’s fallacies for the first time, as a semi adult. Plus before that throughout the 60s and 70s, you could always explain things away with a no-prize.”
“When George Perez left the Teen Titans ‘temporarily’ (or so they said in the letters pages) while he got caught up on Crisis, History of the DC Universe, Who’s Who covers, etc, it was really the first nail in the coffin for the Titans as far as I was concerned. Despite some stellar art by Garcia Lopez, Eduardo Baretto and Tom Grummet, the series just lost that little extra magic that was unique to the combination of Wolfman and Perez’s united talents. Even by the time Perez eventually did return to the title to do layouts or finishes, much of the magic was gone, and a lot of bad editorial decisions killed a lot of what was left.”
“When Bill the Sink took over the art chores of New Mutants from Sal Buscema. I like ‘em both, but you have to admit the effect is somewhat jarring.”
I have to admit being fascinated by this kind of thing… When did your disillusionment first set in?
January 15th, 2008 at 8:48 am
When the x-force plot with Reignfire (Sunspots alter ego) that had been building for two years finally came to a head it was interrupted by four months of the AoA crossover and when the universe returned to normal the title was given a new writer and artist and the plot that was in it’s climax was swept away. I was still just a kid and didn’t realize that this happened in comics all the time.
January 15th, 2008 at 8:54 am
I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who felt the complete opposite, but as a young teenager I was crushed when Nicieza and Tony Daniel were taken off of X-Force for Adam Pollina and Jeph Loeb. Or at least I was crushed within a few issues when I realized how much I despised the at and the writing.
Warren Ellis’ Thor run was also really jarring as a kid.
I think the worst single thing was the fact that Ravage 2099 was a terrible comic.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:03 am
For me it was after an issue of Showcase (I think it was ‘94) in DC comics. It was a 12 issue maxi showcasing Superman’s “family”. There was an issue that revealed Metallo had a brain tumor and only had a short time to live. I thought this was tragic and compelling, a great twist on his Underworld Unleashed deal with Neron. It could havelead to some great “go out with a bang” stories. That story thread was never heard from again.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:26 am
It was when Dan Slott dared to question Graeme’s integrity.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:52 am
I always am amazed to see how intensely personal (well, maybe until the last few years) this kind of thing is - some of those examples up there where things that I had exactly the opposite reaction to, or that pulled me back in a little - tighter than I had been for a while. I’m kinda old school - one of ‘em for me was Robin’s “graduation” to Nightwing…didn’t break my heart per se, but it was clear that this was a change, and nothing was gong to be the same.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:16 am
What disillusionment?
January 15th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Good thought, Matt, couldn’t agree more. My first comic was the Death of Superman trade. Only knowing Superman from other media, it was mind blowing to find out that not only did Lois know Clark’s secret, but they got married. It made me want to go back through back issues to learn what happened and delve the whole rich development of an outwardly stagnant and boring character.
Fandom would react the same way if Dick Grayson went back to being Robin. Sure the original integrity of the character is restored, but at the cost of 20 years of development.
I’m sure Joe Q’s intentions with reversing the marriage were the same as Dan D’s desire to kill Nightwing in IC. Sure, such development ages a character, but it’s a big reason we fans are so passionate for the characters - we have seen them grow and change. Fortunately, Dan listened to fans before making such a mistake. Joe on the other hand…
January 15th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Yeah mine us when it became clear the marriage was going away, come hell or bad reviews! Good thing I have better things to do then pay Joe for this crap.
January 15th, 2008 at 11:18 am
The day I read my first Byrne Forum post.
January 15th, 2008 at 11:21 am
When I discovered the internet.
January 15th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I’m with Matthew E. Seriously, what disillusionment?
Comics are better than they have ever been, in my opinion. And I mean ALL comics, not just DC and Marvel. When you just consider those two, yeah, things haven’t been the same since the 80’s. But there are still great things being produced by each company, plus you have Image, Dark Horse, Oni, Red 5, IDW, Top Shelf, etc. etc. etc. producing great work that crosses genre boundaries, there are archival or cheap collections of things that have been out of print for a long time, comic books being looked at by so many different other forms of media as a blueprint for designs, storytelling and characters.
I have no disillusionment. It’s a great time to be a comic fan.
January 15th, 2008 at 11:53 am
First disillusionment was early: I vividly remember SUPERBOY #225 not having Mike Grell art on the inside. How could they do that? I hated Jim Sherman for a long time, not because his art was bad(which it wasn’t), but because he wasn’t Mike Grell.
Currently, that’s what I read the Internet for.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
That day when I said to myself as I opened the door of the comics shop, “You know, I bet D’Arc Tangent #2 is out.”
January 15th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
For me, it was in the early to mid-nineties when all the specialty covers with inflated prices flooded the market. It took me a few months to realize I was being made a fool of, then promptly quit a specific brand of comics who seemed especially guilty of this tactic as my own form of protest.
I returned a few years later with the spread of the trade paperback.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
The return of Jean Grey. (the first time, for X-factor)
The character who’s sacrifice had been a rallying cry for the Xmen in the previous 4-5 years…oh, never mind…
January 15th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
forget what I said about personal - I’ll buy what you’re selling Billy Ray (last time I said that - whooo– world of trouble). The return of Jean there in Avengers and FF felt…I mean, to me, it was a good story, but it felt more…manufactured I guess is as good a way to put it as any. Not to mention it was a different character, really, which led my young teen brain to wonder, “What had Scott Summers been having sex with in X-Men back when Phoenix was around?”
January 15th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
There’s a moment in Daredevil Target (Yeah, the FIRST issue…)where Daredevil is so mad at Bullseye, that he’s punching a photograph of Bullseye taped to his punching bag. Which would be just lazy writing if not for the character being f***** blind. Yeah, I know D.D. can feel the texture of newsprint, but a photo… through boxing gloves? Stay away from my comic books Mr.Smith.
January 15th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Somewhere around month six of working in the darkroom at DC Comics, having to reproduce yet one more Bat-logo for the movie.
January 15th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
When I was 14 my favourite superhero began acting completely out of character all of a sudden, left his trainees for dead, and killed one of his best friends. Disillusionment since.
January 15th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Uncanny X-Men #165 — my first issue.
Because it was bad? No– because it was very, very good. Unfortunately, it was the comic that made me realize that actual people made these things, and the persistent negativity integral to my character told me there would be trouble from this realization somewhere down the line.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I’m 21, and although I’ve had comics in my life from an early age I didn’t become a crazed comic book geek until three and a half years ago.
I fell in love with House of M, I thought it was a strong story that dealt with one of the most important think in any art, the human condition. Since reading House of M I’ve mostly been a Marvel fanboy reading almost everything they publish in their main universe and in their Ultimate Universe.
For the last year I’ve been having trouble keeping up because Marvel publishes man, many titles, and especially over the last year with WWH and this Invasion, and Annihilation, and Civil War, I have found it impossible to keep up. I actually did read Civil War through to its conclusion. In and of itself it was a fantastic story–again because it dealt with the humanity of the characters, and the way their personality flaws which are part of their “superness” are also part of their being hugely imperfect, and thus still human.
Long story short, about two days ago I was reading Jeff Lester’s interview with Ian Brill over at the http://www.savagecritic.com about comic books, event fatique, crossovers and bad writing. I can’t really pinpoint it right now but by the end of that interview I made the decision to drop almost all of my Marvel titles. Most of them just aren’t that good. I’ve had a lot of fun She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Uncanny X-Men, New Avengers, Cable&Deadpool which all blow crap like New X-Men, X-men, Initiative, Wolverine and other titles out of the water, but the truth is they aren’t that good. And when there are publishers out there willing to produce a title at the same consistences month after month why should I allow my “loyalty” to someone who only wants my money get in the way of having an honest to god good reading experience?
Comic are the most important hobby in my life and I feel like I’ve wasted so much time trying to play catch up with Joe Quesada and the House of Shitty Ideas. I’ll still read some of their titles, but just like DC, I’ll only bother with it when I have reason to believe their good. I’ve enjoyed Kirkman’s run on Ultimate X-Men, Nextwave was genius, New Avengers was good until Bendis forgot how to write, the list goes on and on.
Marvel doesn’t care about my opinion, of course, but they’ve ruined my second childhood. Following comic books again was a way to relive the excitement I had as a younger child reading the occasional Uncanny X-Men, or how crazy I thought the Death of Superman and Knightfall were. Marvel has ruined a part of me. (I won’t even get started on DC because I tried really hard to become a fan boy of theirs but the timing just wasn’t right, I showed up in the middle of Infinite Crisis and there was no way to jump into that)
Yeah, so for me it all went wrong two days ago, and I feel better for it.
Now I can catch up on DMZ and Ex Machina, and other usually GOOD titles that I’d been putting off to try and read everything Marvel puts out.
Shame on my for falling into the trap in the first place, but it’s over now.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
The X-Ecutioner’s song crossover. I realized I had no desire to keep reading Uncanny X-men which was the first superhero title I collected.
January 15th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
when I realized that the ONLY way to fully understand what was happening in the phalanx saga was to read each and every x-men family title. That’s when I dropped the x-men.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
My first San Diego Comic-Con in the mid-90s. The first creator I approached was Chris Claremont, who was doing Sovereign Seven at the time, and before I could even tell him how much of a fan I was, he said, “I hope that’s an issue of Sovereign Seven for me to sign.” He wasn’t happy when I pulled out Wolverine #1, and let me know it.
The sad thing was, I actually did buy Sovereign Seven at the time, but I removed it from my pull list when I got back home.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
When I realized Dorkin was never gonna put out another issue of Hectic Planet in this lifetime.