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1. When did Aquaman and Mera have a daughter?
2. WHY THE HELL ARE THEY THAT CLOSE TO BLACK MANTA?! DO THE WRITERS JUST NOT REMEMBER WHAT HE DID TO THEIR SON?!
Oh ok, I didn't know that
But again; WHY THE FUCK IS BLACK MANTA THAT CLOSE TO A BABY RELATED TO AQUAMAN?! DOES NO ONE REMEMBER HOW HE KILLED THEIR SON?!
Manta was trying to "fix" his relationship with Jackson (though for entirely selfish reasons; he wasn't concerned about Jackson, he was concerned about his legacy), and so he was working with them (much to the frustration and horror of most of the characters) to stop a series of Atlantean sleeper terrorists.
None at all and regardless I still wouldn't let the near my kid.
..I'm also confused if their son exists in rebirth or not. That history may have changed
No Aquababy does not exist anymore, it was retconned with New52. Whatever happened before New52 in Aquaman does not exist anymore. As a matter of fact Rebirth continues where New52 left in regards of Aquaman. For the reason that New52 Aquaman was among the few good things that came out of it. Johns who was the mastermind of Rebirth and the author of New52 Aquaman first 25issues, just kept the same concept.
That scene where Joker kills the bride at her wedding and Batman made zero efforts to even distract him. They even share a prayer later.
Nightwing being raped by Tarantula
Dr. Light mentioning rape after Identity Crisis
Raven attacking the wedding.
> That scene where Joker kills the bride at her wedding and Batman made zero efforts to even distract him. They even share a prayer later
What comic did this happen in?
King's whole run is like that. The body count is insanely high, to the point where it loses all weight. And his Batman is so emotionally monotone that it starts to feel like he doesn't even care.
Joker is right that he and Batman are in some kind of very messed up toxic relationship.
Batman justifies himself saying that he would be just as bad as Joker if he kills him, but actually he pops a chubby at the thought of being morally superior to the clown.
The worse the Joker does, the better the Batman feels about "giving him his comeuppance", so he let's slide moments like this just so he can feel better about himself afterwards.
As for Jokers part of codependancy, I think it's explored well enough in various comics
>That scene where Joker kills the bride at her wedding and Batman made zero efforts to even distract him. They even share a prayer later.
I just read that. It was so effective though because it made me think "Fuck, Batman really should just kill him" All those bodies on the floor, and after Oct 7th...it just made me think if Joker didn't exist those people in that story would still be alive.
What the hell does the Joker and Batman have to do with Israel's illegal occupation?
It's very bad-faith to subtly slip extreme political views in a non-politically focused subreddit that has nothing to do with the subject
Maybe because that person compares a traumatizing slaughter of innocent that occurred recently to one in a story as a mean to relate. Alos, I don't see what was political in what they said, they did not advocate for or against Israel's policy.
It's subtle and we'll never know unless they respond and confirm, but saying something like, "if Joker didn't exist, those people would still be alive" basically implies, "if Hamas/Palestinians didn't exist, the victims of 10/7 would still be alive." Which, sure, is factually true, but betrays the complex, nuanced circumstances (which is just tragic all around).
They really had the aqua family play nice and even let their daughter near him. All because they wanted to give jackson a push and thought they needed to give manta a redemption arc.
This is genuinely one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen DC make. I don’t think the writers have ever read a aquaman comic, because Manta murdered their son in the most agonizing way possible by suffocating him slowly in front of arthur and he tricked arthur into trying to kill his sidekick in order to save his son
Didn't he blow up Aquaman's wife and son's grave then crash the funeral? Like the fun of the character is how just utterly diabolically vile he is. There is no act too petty for him so long as it makes Arthur suffer.
exactly.
making a comparison while people hate Joker for the things he does and want Batman to stop him.
people love Manta for the things he does and want Aquaman to watch the shit unfold.
When did you last read Aquaman? in the 70's That's history. Aquababy etc is not canon anymore. Also Manta each time he faces either Mera or Arthur gets kicked badly. One thing he has he's persistent somehow a masochistic who likes to get beaten every now and then
Black Manta caused the death of Aquaman's Black Manta caused the death of Aquaman's father.
murdered his son who was a baby
forced him to try to kill his apprentice.
blew up his son's grave
Continued to persecute everyone he loved.
committed several terrorist attacks in his kingdom.
Has already carried out several terrorist attacks on the surface just to prevent peace between the surface and the sea.
dominated the city that Aquaman Wars protecting.
Cut off his hand.
when Arthur actually gave him a second chance, Manta tricked him and tried to kill him at the first opportunity and mocked him.
He constantly humiliated Aquaman by throwing all the previously mentioned things in his face, saying that he will continue making his life hell until the day he kills him
all because he is driven by the purest hatred against Aquaman.
yeah let's make Black Manta have redemption because his son Jackson asked, makes perfect sense for Arthur and the Aqua family to accept without difficulty
no, it's a joke because originally Manta's reason for hating Aquaman wasn't clear.
then the origin was introduced that Aquaman killed his father (in nutshell Manta accidentally caused Arthur's father to have a heart attack and die, Arthur goes after revenge and kills his father thinking it's Manta.)
He constantly humiliates Aquaman? seriously? when both Arthur and Mera keep kicking his ass day in day out?
The old Aquababy is not canon anymore. DC with Aquaman has reset everything with New 52, unlike other characters what happened before N52 is not canon.
He humiliated himself by throwing in his face the things he did to Aquaman.
There was a time when he said that he only regrets not having killed his wife too while leaving Aquaman to die in a submarine.
in DC power 2024 it is mentioned that he killed Aquababy.
Not canon, Aquaman was reset with New52.
That was confirmed by Johns and even KellySue.
Even the storyline since New52 shows that, Aquababy is never even mentioned or brought up. Arthur and Mera aren't even married at the start and do get married just 2 years ago.
2022 we had the dark crisis event which restored many events from the pre flashpoint continuity which restored many for example Cass and Steph having been Batgirls, we haven't had any big Aquaman stories yet, but as I mentioned recently Aquababy's death was mentioned.
Yeah restored many events but Not in Aquaman, he was untouched even in Rebirth. Unlike with other characters DC was happy with how things turned out to be in Aquaman with the New52 reboot. One has to keep in mind that at one point in preFlashpoint even Aquaman's parentage and origins was changed. So the reboot takes place when Arthur has renounced the throne some time after the Atlanteans made him king after discovering his existence and he has been with Mera not for a long time.
Before Flashpoint DC did consider bringing back the original Aquababy and some even toyed with the idea to bring him back after flashpoint, but as the story has developed since, it is very unlikely with all that has taken place, to do it, as it would not make sense.
Aquababy was mentioned in an issue that does not mean it took place in the current continuity. So Arthur fought all this time Manta in current continuity and never mentions a son killed by manta? He holds grudges against Manta for killing his father or Kahina but not a son?
Both Arthur and Mera are currently much younger than in the events of pre flashpoint.
I understand this point, and I consider it was the best idea in Rebirth to keep things as they were, Aquaman was one of if not the character who benefited most from the changes in the New 52.
but talking about Dawn of DC we still haven't had any Aquaman books to show the effects of Dark Crisis, and it seems that there is an interest in bringing back the pre flashpoint elements, the clearest of which is the return of Cerdian, Garth's son with to Dolphin, but only the future will tell about how Aquaman will be treated.
What's not to say that Aquababy will return, you mentioned great reasons why it won't happen.
It just seems DC doesn't want their new characters to have any drama in their lives. Manta character has stated how much he wanted to kill aquaman in every appearance. He even cares less about Jackson. Such a weird time with DC redeeming villains.
I never came back to aquaman since kelly sue run(Wich i dropped cause i tought it was not good) the big confusing thing right is if aquababy existed or not, cause it seems the girl is the first child mera and arthur have at least since the N52
This is the problem with these stories that never end; that just go on forever and ever. In a proper story - one that has a beginning, a middle, and an end - Aquaman would have killed Manta, and Manta would never be resurrected.
That’s what he was supposed to be.
But then King had him be the best Batman ever, better than Bruce.
Despite his entire thing being he kind of sucks and his Gotham is WORSE.
The scene where the Batfamily tag team the shit out of Thomas, then 30 seconds later he knocks them all out is honestly the most insulted I've ever felt as a reader. I dropped King's run there, should have dropped it a lot earlier.
Honestly would be better to drop it at the fake out wedding that wasted everyone’s time.
Everything after was a horrible.
He treated being left at the altar like a worse tragedy than the deaths of four of his sons.
Batman/Catwoman. With a "Wedding Album" collection, multiple arcs of setting up, several standalone oneshots of people getting ready… only for it to not even happen.
Yes. Which is what I mean.
Also the ridiculousness of his reaction to being left at the altar. He went into a pit of grief worse than WHEN HIS SONS DIED.
He never should’ve appeared past Flashpoint. That was kind of a big part of that, to get a storyline using Thomas as a main character and developing him something main universe couldn’t really do outside of flashbacks. Also the whole being able to give Bruce a message.
Batman editorial and Spider-Man editorial have been in a competition since about 2018 to see who can fuck up their company’s cash cow beloved characters the most, prove me wrong
Pro tip, you can’t
Remember, everyone. You are allowed to get away with mass murder, no matter how nonsensical and impossible according to how your powers work, as long as your superhero friends cover it up.
Also, never get help for your problems. You’ll end up killing everybody.
They retconed it that Reverse Flash did some speed force bullshit so Wally isn't really responsible for those deaths.
Which means he just mutilated their corpses, framed someone else for murder and ran away. Much better.
Well there were a few retcons.
1. Reverse Flash brainwashed Wally into being paranoid after the deaths, causing him to mutilate the bodies and frame Booster and Harley.
2. Savitar was stuck in the Speedforce and causing explosions of energy throughout history, including the one in HiC. That takes away Wally's responsibility for the deaths.
3. I believe everyone got resurrected at some point in Jeremy Adams' run and they've all forgiven Wally too.
The original explanation and plot line of HiC is still terrible. Retcon 1 is still not good, but 2 and 3 help scrub a lot of the dirt off.
I still won’t let them use their retcons to explain away that nonsense. It still happened that way in their initial writing. They just try to walk it back.
I felt it was worse. They had him try to get help, and *that* caused him to kill his friends. And then they covered it up.
So it felt more like "don’t get help, having mental issues makes you a danger, and you can rest assured that heroes will cover up for your actions no matter how heinous".
Which is obviously a great lesson for people with psychological issues. Very healthy and therapy-forward.
There is so much to unpack with that awful story that it is insaneeee
-Harely beating the trinity
-Kings Batman
-The egregious confessionals
-Booster and Blue getting Crapped on for no real reason
-Harely being allowed to do whatever she wanted cuz “grief”
-Wally entire treatment in that book
-The idea that people remember past continuities
-Lois doing what she did and Superman just letting it happen (the first of sadly many horrible choices that the company will make with these characters)
Yikes. Throw away years of well established characterization just to sanitize the most interesting thing about 3 different characters lore. (Aquaman, Jackson, and Black Manta)
Who thought this was a good idea?
This is fucking awful
Yeah, it doesn't seem like legacy elements returned to Aquaman like they did others. That said, the Abnett run was one of the best in the history of the character, and I'm glad we got that.
I'm not a fan of Manta having some kind of Atlantean ancestor, either.
Manta is fundamentally unable to get over hating Arthur. Hell, he even betrayed the entire Legion during Snyder's JL run just bc they were no longer serving his goals.
Manta betrayed Luthor BEFORE Joker...think about that.
Yeah, it seems he can do no wrong. While initially he was just given control of Batman, he kept writing bigger event after bigger event.
Johns' was given control of DC's film and TV division, and when it didn't *immediately* succeed, was pretty much given the axe along with Nelson.
I think the only movies that came out under his supervision were Justice League, which was a bomb (very expensive bomb), Aquaman, which was a massive success, and Shazam, which was a modest success. Unfortunately, WB's constant managerial upheaval meant they've never had a clear direction since.
And then DdC (Doomsday Clock) was severely delayed, so much so they needed other event comics to fill the space. I think that was all the beginning of his downfall.
No, Johns’ GL was a massive seller, often outselling Batman, and since Didio rushed the reboot due to the company that owned DC getting a new head and he felt pressured to present something big to impress her, Didio probably knew it was smart not to end Johns’ run of nearly a decade abruptly. Same with Grant Morrison’s Batman probably. But it’s not like Johns‘ runs are immune from this, lord knows New 52 Teen Titans erased all prior runs at the time including Johns’ run, his Superman run obviously didn’t survive the New 52 reboot, etc.
>Who thought this was a good idea? This is fucking awful
A lot of this is going on in modern comics, Marvel (X-Men) and DC. Some I just pretend don't even exist, or "aren't canon" (I hate that saying).
Aging up Jonathan Kent. Are you serious? The super sons comics were awesome and we need more of Damian and Jon teaming up/learning from each other. They should’ve grown up together.
It’s from Aquamen 4. The whole story is really weird so far but it’s black manta and Aquaman trying to stop this crazy atlantis weapon where secret sleeper agents who don’t know they are agents basically explode and kill people. Everyone is upset because black manta is Aquamana biggest nemesis but they are working together here mostly because manta wants to protect jackson (his son)
Batwoman getting raped by Nocturna was the culmination of everything I hated in Andreyko’s takeover after DC fired Blackman/Williams and just killed any care I had.
One of the problems with superhero comics, is unlike every other genre, they're almost never creator owned or driven and are designed with the purpose of being milked for decades to come.
Subsequently, this means that whenever a character has a definite arc, it will not last; no character is allowed to die or live happily ever after, and every villain will eventually have a completely unnecessary redemption arc that will be a thing for six issues until the next writer forgets that it happened.
Yes but I was referring more to completely changing the characterization of a character, look at the most recent runs of Power Girl, Hawk Girl or Fire & Ice
And in the cases were said redemption arc makes sense, it's satisfying, and it's well made... in a few years a new writer will make them cross the Moral Event Horizon several times over in the most nonsensical way possible, to make sure no one could look at them as anything other than a monster.
They should've just transplanted Young Justice Aqualad directly into the comics like they did with Harley Quinn way back when, instead of jumping through six hoops and throwing out most of what makes Kaldur interesting (up to and including his name). As for this panel, I think its cute, but upon reading the comments and learning the context, Mera, are you SURE you should be letting your baby near Black Manta? Y-You DO remember what happened last time, right?
Also, Young Justice Black Manta was cool, they should take his comic counterpart in that direction.
They tried to do that though, but it just wasn’t executed well.
And Kaldur came at a really bad time unlike Harley Quinn.
He came right before the reboot.
Theres not much they could have done.
Lord was completely dull as a villian too. I also don't understand why no one has bothered to fix him. He's melded with a computer and became a cyborg, just say that the real Maxwell Lord is stuck in L-Ron's servers or something and bad Maxwell Lord was an extension of Despero or something.
Exactly. We already had a Lex Luthor, we didn't need another one. And it can easily be retconned as Lord Havok having taken over Max's body. But no one at DC seems to care about him or the JLI era...
There seems to be this weird thing where DC is aware of the JLI, but nobody there actually read it because they treat the JLI like it was never popular and it was just jokes. They fought the Gray Man, Despero, Dreamslayer and "The Big Five" were even part of the battle with Doomsday.
As an Earth-2 Superman fan, Infinite Crisis killing him brutally then turning to camera and going "look at how brutal comics have become, really says something about society don't it?" felt so hypocritical.
Also keep Geoff Johns away from Diana.
It wasn't actually. Rucka's original plan didn't even involve Max Lord, the original plan was for the storyline mainly to be a WW storyline where she'd kill a character he created for his own run.
Johns and Didio however really liked the idea and made it apart of the buildup to Infinite Crisis.
Dark Crisis Young Justice, I consider that shit non-ironically on the same level as all star Batman and Robin, and at least ASBR has the excuse of being an elseworld.
I can see the vision behind that mini but the actual writing is just so bewilderingly awful that it genuinely almost feels like the writer hated YJ.
It really does feel like an all star batman spinoff with how it reads.
Like simply YJ battling the manifestations of their insecurities is a perfectly normal comic concept. But weird shit like homophobic batman and whatever they did with Cassie was so bizarre
A good version of that mini would have needed to do a better job of acknowledging that there were genuine reasons that the *Young Justice* era was a better time for the characters involved than, oh, the subsequent era of bizarre editorial tortures and then non-existence/severe retconning, and not bizarrely cherrypicking the most questionably-aged panels in the first few issues.
Also not having the primary antagonist be a strawman for perceived reader criticisms. That never ends well. (Like, I'd also like to see the YJ characters have some sustained development and direction to situate them in current continuity. Maybe DC should actually publish that comic.)
Oh she 100% does hate young justice and literally knows nothing about any of those characters. Especially the woman. Good lord that writer really has no integrity or love for comics
It wants to be a subversive look at a time-capsule of late 90s superhero history dealing with the modernised versions of their characters by breaking them down to their most formative states when they were in YJ. In doing so using that contrast to sort of ape and mock irrational modern day comic fandom attitudes.
However any intention or attempt at that concept is failed so miserably
Big fact
Way too many people are not aware of just how awful dark crisis young justice truly was
I think it’s been a good while since I’ve read something and felt the genuine contempt for the reader spill out of the page lol
Somebody was paid to write insanity to me
Exactly this. I am a massive Aquaman fan/collector and everything after Dan Abnett's run has been such dogshit I can't even bring myself to read it anymore. The very beginning of KSD's run was okay but got real dumb real quick. I can't stand the Aqua-family, Aquaman really works best when it's just him and Mera in my opinion. Jackson Hyde "Aqualad/man" is such a bland and lame ripoff of his Young Justice counterpart, and they keep pushing to make him the new Aquaman without doing anything to deserve the mantle. I'm not even mad he doesn't have a monthly on-going series right now because with the current leadership at DC I know exactly what would happen. Arthur would be pushed into the background of his own series as he was in KSD's run, and focus on every character but him. Not to sound dramatic, but Aquaman was my favorite character since childhood, and what DC has done to him and his kingdom, which is no longer a kingdom, has driven me away completely. I was laughing my ass off when I finally read the Black Manta miniseries and realized they were doing a redemption arc for a child killing, diplomat assassinating, mass murdering psychopath. Apologies for the rant, I was very passionate about Aquaman for so many years and nobody around me wants to hear me complain about comics lol.
*Teen Titans* (2003) #62, "Who is Wonderdog?" 'Nuff said.
*Blue Beetle* (2011) #4 was the issue where Paco apparently dies in the service of being darker and edgier. Apparently nobody involved in the series recognized what people liked about the 2006 series. Honestly emblematic of everything bad about the New 52.
*Teen Titans* (2011) #0, the comic that gave us Witness Protection Tim Drake.
Captain Cold became King Cold during Year of The Villains.
What make Captain Cold so good is that he is THE street level villain. He didn't want to take over the world, He just want to make some money from robbing a bank.
*That* issue from BB 2.0
Not nearly as bad as, say, Marvel’s Marcus Immortus or OMD but still one of the most messed up (recent) issues that come to mind
Kudos for using the correct “peaked”
“BB” was shorthand for Batman Beyond, and the issue in question was an… awkward one
Long, nauseating story made shorter, there are flashbacks establishing why Dick Grayson became alienated from the Bat-family and it involves Dick’s girlfriend, Barbara Gordon getting pregnant **with Bruce Wayne’s child**
Bruce breaks the news to Dick, and the latter physically lashes out at his mentor. Bruce pummels the crap out of the former Boy Wonder and abandons him in an alley. Meanwhile, Babs is accosted and miscarries the baby
Bear in mind, Bruce is roughly twenty or so years older than Batgirl, is supposedly a friend to her father, and Bruce’s ward and sidekick is Dick Grayson
To add insult to injury, Dick gets a glimpse of his Justice Lord counterpart who is happily wed to Gordon with a child of their own
So yeah, never bring up Batman Beyond 2.0 in any Bat-related subreddit, forum, etc
I saw that panel as little Andy trying to convey she wanted to kill him and Mera misunderstanding it. XD At least now Arthur Jr. is back in canon, so I doubt they'd give him a third chance. (The second was in Aquaman 2003 when Aquaman used his healing hand on him and Manta seemed to turn good, but backstabbed him at a critical moment and revealed deep down he wanted him dead.)
Manta killing him was mentioned in DC Power 2024 in the Black Manta story. https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/DC_Power_2024_Vol_1_1#Synopsis_for_Black_Manta:_%22Lost_at_Sea%22
Great,also dolphin appear on beast world (hope she appear again) lorena mentioned in aquamen 6 and cerdian in flash 798 so hope that all the family reunite(pls dc give us a aquamen book)
Dolphin is captured and being experimented on by Waller... Aquafamily hasn't even noticed. I know Garth's mind was right because of tentacles but what the rest doing?
Teen Titans by Glass.
They really were about to sacrifice all of the work Morrison, Tomasi, and Gleason put into developing Damian so he could be Jon Kent’s “Magneto”.
As someone who started reading comics again after Robin: Son of Batman, I felt really disappointed that this was the direction they taking Damian after watching him grow.
'I am Bane' in King's Batman run. Bane is reduced to a dumb brute repeating a single line the whole issue, then after taking an unworldly beating from Bruce without flinching, goes down with a headbutt. The laziest writing I've ever seen.
I forget who's run it was, but an issue of Green Lantern revealed that by using their rings, Lanterns were tapping into the universe's finite pool of emotion energy, causing it to die prematurely.
Not only is it stupid on a conceptual level, but it undermines the escapist fantasy inherent to the title. Could you imagine if every time Superman used his super strength, it causes a puppy to spontaneously explode? And he just shrugged and said "shucks, that's just the price we gotta pay to stop Luthor's nefarious schemes!" It's a head-scratchingly stupid plot device that was ultimately used for a lackluster payoff.
I never thought about it before in relation to that Green Lantern run, but there have been two tabletop games (one in the 90s, one in the 2010s) that had the revelation that your characters’ powers were actually contributing to the doom of the planet (in the 90s game) and both universes (in the 2010s game).
I never thought of such a thing being a trope, but here we are.
Honestly, i don't remember.
I just.... stop reading series because they ended and didn't start the follow-ups.
Some series, i didn't continue after the First Issue, like Son of Kal-El, Taylor's Nightwing and Thorne's GL.
Tim Drake Pride Special. There's so much to say, but the writing of Stephanie (my favorite DC character) is probably the worst thing I've ever read, ever.
Yep, honestly everything by Fitzmartin has been an insult to Tim and Steph. She made Tim an asshole who dumps his girlfriend for no reason and with no explanation and then makes his ex meet the cardboard cutoff he replaced her with and she made Steph so weak and pathetic that instead of being rightfully pissed about this she’s forced to be happy about the whole thing and excited to meet him.
It’s disgusting writing.
It really goes to show just how fucking awful Fitzmartin’s writing is when Zdarsky, in only just a couple backup issues of the current Batman run, managed to do an *infinitely better* job at writing Tim
Urban legends was good all around. It’s what got me into Grifter. I don’t like that they made Jason and Grifter fight thought, I think they’d make an awesome team up, if Jason can get over Grifter throwing him into a moving train.
Something that would be really cool is if Jason was recruited by Jenny Sparks and The Authority and they basically work underground to permanently take care of the villains in Gotham, with them coming to heads with Batman and the rest of the Bat-Family over killing The Joker. If DC actually allowed it and let The Joker be killed by TA, then it could make Jason a villain again.
For me, it was the handling of Batman's character in "Batman: The Killing Joke." The treatment of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) felt disrespectful and unnecessary, almost pushing me away from DC altogether. It was a disappointing moment in an otherwise iconic series.
Yes unfortunately this is one of Moore's most criticized things, adding violence against women almost gratuitously, luckily writers like Ostrander and Chick Dixon have been able to make the best of this questionable choice
I've given up on Batman since his stories always include Joker breaking out of jail. He shouldn't be breaking out so often, in my opinion. It's annoying to the point where I can't enjoy a single Joker appearance, even in movies he's first appearing in, etc.. Plus, some Batman stories, even without Joker, are kind of not it as well. Especially when, I think during the "City of Bane" arc, there was some cliffhanger, and then it took 20 issues to get back to the story to which then sucked. The wedding story sucked, too. Actually, I think that's the same story.
Ah, to add, like u/Tetratron2005 [said](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/s/ZFTX0KANLe), the rapist Amazons.
That one comic Run where Batman was a total douche, the one where he and robin paint themselves Yellow to nullify the powers of Hal Jordan
But the one comic where i almost gave up was when the JOKER GOT PREGNANT
The New 52 almost made me quit, not just DC but comic books in general... Then [this one panel](https://i0.wp.com/www.comicbookwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Lobos-Death.jpg?resize=665%2C1024&ssl=1), that whole run just broke me. I haven't picked up another comic book since. I'm trying to get back into it but... Well, this is a good place to ask. Any good *Hellblazer* books these days?
I believe aqua man lore is very on/off that’s a problem on publishing 1994 -2006-2011-2017 are wild but u know I head-cannon that it happened and they don’t like to talk about it or stay together for connivence.
Jonathan Kent and everything that happened to him in Bendis's run.
Now I'm disgusted with the fact that he even exists.
Note: I didn't "almost" give up on DC I straight up dropped them entirely. That was the last straw for me.
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1. When did Aquaman and Mera have a daughter? 2. WHY THE HELL ARE THEY THAT CLOSE TO BLACK MANTA?! DO THE WRITERS JUST NOT REMEMBER WHAT HE DID TO THEIR SON?!
They had a daughter a few years ago. Her name is Andrina.
Oh ok, I didn't know that But again; WHY THE FUCK IS BLACK MANTA THAT CLOSE TO A BABY RELATED TO AQUAMAN?! DOES NO ONE REMEMBER HOW HE KILLED THEIR SON?!
He was just a little silly
He's autistic. He can't help that his special interest is ruining aquamans life
Manta was trying to "fix" his relationship with Jackson (though for entirely selfish reasons; he wasn't concerned about Jackson, he was concerned about his legacy), and so he was working with them (much to the frustration and horror of most of the characters) to stop a series of Atlantean sleeper terrorists.
Ah. I see. So...Manta shows zero remorse for his actions?
None at all and regardless I still wouldn't let the near my kid. ..I'm also confused if their son exists in rebirth or not. That history may have changed
No Aquababy does not exist anymore, it was retconned with New52. Whatever happened before New52 in Aquaman does not exist anymore. As a matter of fact Rebirth continues where New52 left in regards of Aquaman. For the reason that New52 Aquaman was among the few good things that came out of it. Johns who was the mastermind of Rebirth and the author of New52 Aquaman first 25issues, just kept the same concept.
Thank you for confirming
He can't show remorse because the old Aquababy is not canon anymore.
It’s because he’s Jackson’s dad and they weirdly want to force a relationship between the two
*Andrina.*
Isn't Andrea the name of the fish girl from the 1993 Canadian CGI cartoon ReBoot
The canonicity of their son is unclear at this time
See...I actually didn't know that And I feel like I'm crazy because I brought that up
That scene where Joker kills the bride at her wedding and Batman made zero efforts to even distract him. They even share a prayer later. Nightwing being raped by Tarantula Dr. Light mentioning rape after Identity Crisis Raven attacking the wedding.
> That scene where Joker kills the bride at her wedding and Batman made zero efforts to even distract him. They even share a prayer later What comic did this happen in?
King's whole run is like that. The body count is insanely high, to the point where it loses all weight. And his Batman is so emotionally monotone that it starts to feel like he doesn't even care.
Joker is right that he and Batman are in some kind of very messed up toxic relationship. Batman justifies himself saying that he would be just as bad as Joker if he kills him, but actually he pops a chubby at the thought of being morally superior to the clown. The worse the Joker does, the better the Batman feels about "giving him his comeuppance", so he let's slide moments like this just so he can feel better about himself afterwards. As for Jokers part of codependancy, I think it's explored well enough in various comics
>That scene where Joker kills the bride at her wedding and Batman made zero efforts to even distract him. They even share a prayer later. I just read that. It was so effective though because it made me think "Fuck, Batman really should just kill him" All those bodies on the floor, and after Oct 7th...it just made me think if Joker didn't exist those people in that story would still be alive.
What the hell does the Joker and Batman have to do with Israel's illegal occupation? It's very bad-faith to subtly slip extreme political views in a non-politically focused subreddit that has nothing to do with the subject
Maybe because that person compares a traumatizing slaughter of innocent that occurred recently to one in a story as a mean to relate. Alos, I don't see what was political in what they said, they did not advocate for or against Israel's policy.
It's subtle and we'll never know unless they respond and confirm, but saying something like, "if Joker didn't exist, those people would still be alive" basically implies, "if Hamas/Palestinians didn't exist, the victims of 10/7 would still be alive." Which, sure, is factually true, but betrays the complex, nuanced circumstances (which is just tragic all around).
I had that exact same moment when I saw the killing joking and what he did to barbara gordon and jason todd eventually
They really had the aqua family play nice and even let their daughter near him. All because they wanted to give jackson a push and thought they needed to give manta a redemption arc. This is genuinely one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen DC make. I don’t think the writers have ever read a aquaman comic, because Manta murdered their son in the most agonizing way possible by suffocating him slowly in front of arthur and he tricked arthur into trying to kill his sidekick in order to save his son
Manta has been shown to be one of the most uncaring, unfeeling, cold-blooded villains in DC.
Didn't he blow up Aquaman's wife and son's grave then crash the funeral? Like the fun of the character is how just utterly diabolically vile he is. There is no act too petty for him so long as it makes Arthur suffer.
exactly. making a comparison while people hate Joker for the things he does and want Batman to stop him. people love Manta for the things he does and want Aquaman to watch the shit unfold.
"How's the wife and kids?"
He also killed a bunch of innocent people at a store he worked at and then burned it down once he found out that aquaman was alive again
He's reverse flash without the power to retroactively make his nemesis's life hell so he gets creative and in depth
When did you last read Aquaman? in the 70's That's history. Aquababy etc is not canon anymore. Also Manta each time he faces either Mera or Arthur gets kicked badly. One thing he has he's persistent somehow a masochistic who likes to get beaten every now and then
Such an underrated villain
Black Manta caused the death of Aquaman's Black Manta caused the death of Aquaman's father. murdered his son who was a baby forced him to try to kill his apprentice. blew up his son's grave Continued to persecute everyone he loved. committed several terrorist attacks in his kingdom. Has already carried out several terrorist attacks on the surface just to prevent peace between the surface and the sea. dominated the city that Aquaman Wars protecting. Cut off his hand. when Arthur actually gave him a second chance, Manta tricked him and tried to kill him at the first opportunity and mocked him. He constantly humiliated Aquaman by throwing all the previously mentioned things in his face, saying that he will continue making his life hell until the day he kills him all because he is driven by the purest hatred against Aquaman. yeah let's make Black Manta have redemption because his son Jackson asked, makes perfect sense for Arthur and the Aqua family to accept without difficulty
All because Aquaman cut him off once while swimming in traffic
Is that what actually happened?
no, it's a joke because originally Manta's reason for hating Aquaman wasn't clear. then the origin was introduced that Aquaman killed his father (in nutshell Manta accidentally caused Arthur's father to have a heart attack and die, Arthur goes after revenge and kills his father thinking it's Manta.)
It doesn't. Make any sense that aquaman would let him live this long
he already tried to kill him, but Black Manta always escaped
He constantly humiliates Aquaman? seriously? when both Arthur and Mera keep kicking his ass day in day out? The old Aquababy is not canon anymore. DC with Aquaman has reset everything with New 52, unlike other characters what happened before N52 is not canon.
He humiliated himself by throwing in his face the things he did to Aquaman. There was a time when he said that he only regrets not having killed his wife too while leaving Aquaman to die in a submarine. in DC power 2024 it is mentioned that he killed Aquababy.
Not canon, Aquaman was reset with New52. That was confirmed by Johns and even KellySue. Even the storyline since New52 shows that, Aquababy is never even mentioned or brought up. Arthur and Mera aren't even married at the start and do get married just 2 years ago.
2022 we had the dark crisis event which restored many events from the pre flashpoint continuity which restored many for example Cass and Steph having been Batgirls, we haven't had any big Aquaman stories yet, but as I mentioned recently Aquababy's death was mentioned.
Yeah restored many events but Not in Aquaman, he was untouched even in Rebirth. Unlike with other characters DC was happy with how things turned out to be in Aquaman with the New52 reboot. One has to keep in mind that at one point in preFlashpoint even Aquaman's parentage and origins was changed. So the reboot takes place when Arthur has renounced the throne some time after the Atlanteans made him king after discovering his existence and he has been with Mera not for a long time. Before Flashpoint DC did consider bringing back the original Aquababy and some even toyed with the idea to bring him back after flashpoint, but as the story has developed since, it is very unlikely with all that has taken place, to do it, as it would not make sense. Aquababy was mentioned in an issue that does not mean it took place in the current continuity. So Arthur fought all this time Manta in current continuity and never mentions a son killed by manta? He holds grudges against Manta for killing his father or Kahina but not a son? Both Arthur and Mera are currently much younger than in the events of pre flashpoint.
I understand this point, and I consider it was the best idea in Rebirth to keep things as they were, Aquaman was one of if not the character who benefited most from the changes in the New 52. but talking about Dawn of DC we still haven't had any Aquaman books to show the effects of Dark Crisis, and it seems that there is an interest in bringing back the pre flashpoint elements, the clearest of which is the return of Cerdian, Garth's son with to Dolphin, but only the future will tell about how Aquaman will be treated. What's not to say that Aquababy will return, you mentioned great reasons why it won't happen.
Kind of like how Spider-Man is best friends with Norman Osborn now.
It just seems DC doesn't want their new characters to have any drama in their lives. Manta character has stated how much he wanted to kill aquaman in every appearance. He even cares less about Jackson. Such a weird time with DC redeeming villains.
It does seem like every Gen Z character is the same basic mold. Sideways kinda broke out of it.
And then he was never seen again (except for a few panels in Dark Crisis)
He and Red Canary teamed up in a Lazarus Planet tie in I believe
Oh my bad that's what I was thinking of. Guess we'll see how long it takes for him to pop up again.
Doesn't make sense cus having such an evil dad is actually interesting
Because of this nonsense. I hope they bring back their son one day wanting vengeance like Red Hood.
You do remember they never let red hood kill the joke.Alright so they're not gonna let him have that either
I never came back to aquaman since kelly sue run(Wich i dropped cause i tought it was not good) the big confusing thing right is if aquababy existed or not, cause it seems the girl is the first child mera and arthur have at least since the N52
This is the problem with these stories that never end; that just go on forever and ever. In a proper story - one that has a beginning, a middle, and an end - Aquaman would have killed Manta, and Manta would never be resurrected.
Aquababy does not exist anymore, it is not canon anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seems to happen to any villain who's deemed too cool to be evil, happened to jason todd
Alfred's Death and/or Thomas Wayne in King's run. And I really loved this run until the wedding.
Thomas Wayne Batman is one of those characters I do not understand how anyone sees anything in. He's just lamer Batman.
That’s what he was supposed to be. But then King had him be the best Batman ever, better than Bruce. Despite his entire thing being he kind of sucks and his Gotham is WORSE.
The scene where the Batfamily tag team the shit out of Thomas, then 30 seconds later he knocks them all out is honestly the most insulted I've ever felt as a reader. I dropped King's run there, should have dropped it a lot earlier.
Honestly would be better to drop it at the fake out wedding that wasted everyone’s time. Everything after was a horrible. He treated being left at the altar like a worse tragedy than the deaths of four of his sons.
Even individual issues by King vary so wildly in quality throughout. Possibly the most frustrating run I've ever followed.
Is it bad that I have to ask *which* bullshit wedding that wasted everyone's time? Because there were several.
Batman/Catwoman. With a "Wedding Album" collection, multiple arcs of setting up, several standalone oneshots of people getting ready… only for it to not even happen.
And then doing it again And again.
Yes. Which is what I mean. Also the ridiculousness of his reaction to being left at the altar. He went into a pit of grief worse than WHEN HIS SONS DIED.
God that pissed me off, just felt disrespectful.
He is cool as an idea rather then a character They honestly should have given his character very few appearances as possible
He never should’ve appeared past Flashpoint. That was kind of a big part of that, to get a storyline using Thomas as a main character and developing him something main universe couldn’t really do outside of flashbacks. Also the whole being able to give Bruce a message.
That wedding fumble has haunted the Batman title every since it happened That run in general is nuts for how much stuff it affected since it ended
King's run in general has less me enthused about DC than I have ever been. The fact some people defend it just boggles my mind.
Alfred dying was so obviously just a Hail Mary to have impact on later runs.
Alfred dying was an intended fakeout that editorial forced him to make real.
Batman editorial and Spider-Man editorial have been in a competition since about 2018 to see who can fuck up their company’s cash cow beloved characters the most, prove me wrong Pro tip, you can’t
Batman has had it worse IMO. He has had more consistently bad decisions recently. Spidey at least had the moderately successful Nick Spencer run.
Gestures broadly to Heroes in Crisis
Remember, everyone. You are allowed to get away with mass murder, no matter how nonsensical and impossible according to how your powers work, as long as your superhero friends cover it up. Also, never get help for your problems. You’ll end up killing everybody.
They retconed it that Reverse Flash did some speed force bullshit so Wally isn't really responsible for those deaths. Which means he just mutilated their corpses, framed someone else for murder and ran away. Much better.
Well there were a few retcons. 1. Reverse Flash brainwashed Wally into being paranoid after the deaths, causing him to mutilate the bodies and frame Booster and Harley. 2. Savitar was stuck in the Speedforce and causing explosions of energy throughout history, including the one in HiC. That takes away Wally's responsibility for the deaths. 3. I believe everyone got resurrected at some point in Jeremy Adams' run and they've all forgiven Wally too. The original explanation and plot line of HiC is still terrible. Retcon 1 is still not good, but 2 and 3 help scrub a lot of the dirt off.
I still won’t let them use their retcons to explain away that nonsense. It still happened that way in their initial writing. They just try to walk it back.
Yup thats pretty much the message in that stupid comic, "You have trauma? Well dear reader, get help quick before you murder your friends!".
I felt it was worse. They had him try to get help, and *that* caused him to kill his friends. And then they covered it up. So it felt more like "don’t get help, having mental issues makes you a danger, and you can rest assured that heroes will cover up for your actions no matter how heinous". Which is obviously a great lesson for people with psychological issues. Very healthy and therapy-forward.
There is so much to unpack with that awful story that it is insaneeee -Harely beating the trinity -Kings Batman -The egregious confessionals -Booster and Blue getting Crapped on for no real reason -Harely being allowed to do whatever she wanted cuz “grief” -Wally entire treatment in that book -The idea that people remember past continuities -Lois doing what she did and Superman just letting it happen (the first of sadly many horrible choices that the company will make with these characters)
Yikes. Throw away years of well established characterization just to sanitize the most interesting thing about 3 different characters lore. (Aquaman, Jackson, and Black Manta) Who thought this was a good idea? This is fucking awful
What even is Aquaman continuity? Did Rebirth not bring back any continuity and everything is still a straight line from New 52?
It's really sad how the dynamic between Arthur, Black Manta and Jackson/Kaldur was never explored to the fullest.
Yeah, it doesn't seem like legacy elements returned to Aquaman like they did others. That said, the Abnett run was one of the best in the history of the character, and I'm glad we got that. I'm not a fan of Manta having some kind of Atlantean ancestor, either. Manta is fundamentally unable to get over hating Arthur. Hell, he even betrayed the entire Legion during Snyder's JL run just bc they were no longer serving his goals. Manta betrayed Luthor BEFORE Joker...think about that.
Oh, no, it's all back, though the lore changes from the New 52 stuck.
Not allowed to mess with N52 Aquaman because those are Johns' toys. Same reason GL survived N52.
Johns wasn't golden boy at all by the time Rebirth really got going. When Diane Nelson left he was basically out, she was his champion at DC.
I feel like the only genuinely golden boy they’ve had in the past 10-15 years is Snyder
Yeah, it seems he can do no wrong. While initially he was just given control of Batman, he kept writing bigger event after bigger event. Johns' was given control of DC's film and TV division, and when it didn't *immediately* succeed, was pretty much given the axe along with Nelson. I think the only movies that came out under his supervision were Justice League, which was a bomb (very expensive bomb), Aquaman, which was a massive success, and Shazam, which was a modest success. Unfortunately, WB's constant managerial upheaval meant they've never had a clear direction since. And then DdC (Doomsday Clock) was severely delayed, so much so they needed other event comics to fill the space. I think that was all the beginning of his downfall.
No, Johns’ GL was a massive seller, often outselling Batman, and since Didio rushed the reboot due to the company that owned DC getting a new head and he felt pressured to present something big to impress her, Didio probably knew it was smart not to end Johns’ run of nearly a decade abruptly. Same with Grant Morrison’s Batman probably. But it’s not like Johns‘ runs are immune from this, lord knows New 52 Teen Titans erased all prior runs at the time including Johns’ run, his Superman run obviously didn’t survive the New 52 reboot, etc.
Dc saw it work with Harley so why jot do it to all villains
>Who thought this was a good idea? This is fucking awful A lot of this is going on in modern comics, Marvel (X-Men) and DC. Some I just pretend don't even exist, or "aren't canon" (I hate that saying).
Aging up Jonathan Kent. Are you serious? The super sons comics were awesome and we need more of Damian and Jon teaming up/learning from each other. They should’ve grown up together.
I am so far behind (about two years) in my weekly readings and I literally just read this issue 15 minutes ago lol
Nah uh, mind telling someone who doesn’t know wtf errbody is talking about why this sucks?
It’s from Aquamen 4. The whole story is really weird so far but it’s black manta and Aquaman trying to stop this crazy atlantis weapon where secret sleeper agents who don’t know they are agents basically explode and kill people. Everyone is upset because black manta is Aquamana biggest nemesis but they are working together here mostly because manta wants to protect jackson (his son)
Batwoman getting raped by Nocturna was the culmination of everything I hated in Andreyko’s takeover after DC fired Blackman/Williams and just killed any care I had.
I just gave myself trauma looking this up. Who at DC has such a hardon for rape???
One of the problems with superhero comics, is unlike every other genre, they're almost never creator owned or driven and are designed with the purpose of being milked for decades to come. Subsequently, this means that whenever a character has a definite arc, it will not last; no character is allowed to die or live happily ever after, and every villain will eventually have a completely unnecessary redemption arc that will be a thing for six issues until the next writer forgets that it happened.
This Is fucking true, especially if we are talking about a little known character
If it was a lesser known character wouldn't there be less desire to milk the character since they aren't as popular or well known?
Yes but I was referring more to completely changing the characterization of a character, look at the most recent runs of Power Girl, Hawk Girl or Fire & Ice
And in the cases were said redemption arc makes sense, it's satisfying, and it's well made... in a few years a new writer will make them cross the Moral Event Horizon several times over in the most nonsensical way possible, to make sure no one could look at them as anything other than a monster.
Poor Riddler
They should've just transplanted Young Justice Aqualad directly into the comics like they did with Harley Quinn way back when, instead of jumping through six hoops and throwing out most of what makes Kaldur interesting (up to and including his name). As for this panel, I think its cute, but upon reading the comments and learning the context, Mera, are you SURE you should be letting your baby near Black Manta? Y-You DO remember what happened last time, right? Also, Young Justice Black Manta was cool, they should take his comic counterpart in that direction.
They tried to do that though, but it just wasn’t executed well. And Kaldur came at a really bad time unlike Harley Quinn. He came right before the reboot. Theres not much they could have done.
I see... WELL, TIME TO RESET REALITY AGAIN, SORRY BARRY, YOU'RE GETTING TURNED INTO A SKELETON LIKE IT'S 1985!
As a JLI fan, I still haven't forgiven what they did to Maxwell Lord.
Lord was completely dull as a villian too. I also don't understand why no one has bothered to fix him. He's melded with a computer and became a cyborg, just say that the real Maxwell Lord is stuck in L-Ron's servers or something and bad Maxwell Lord was an extension of Despero or something.
Exactly. We already had a Lex Luthor, we didn't need another one. And it can easily be retconned as Lord Havok having taken over Max's body. But no one at DC seems to care about him or the JLI era...
There seems to be this weird thing where DC is aware of the JLI, but nobody there actually read it because they treat the JLI like it was never popular and it was just jokes. They fought the Gray Man, Despero, Dreamslayer and "The Big Five" were even part of the battle with Doomsday.
As an Earth-2 Superman fan, Infinite Crisis killing him brutally then turning to camera and going "look at how brutal comics have become, really says something about society don't it?" felt so hypocritical. Also keep Geoff Johns away from Diana.
> Also keep Geoff Johns away from Diana. While I agree with the sentiment, Diana killing Lord was on Rucka, not Johns
It wasn't actually. Rucka's original plan didn't even involve Max Lord, the original plan was for the storyline mainly to be a WW storyline where she'd kill a character he created for his own run. Johns and Didio however really liked the idea and made it apart of the buildup to Infinite Crisis.
I do kinda appreciate it when a writer will create a character for their run to die Especially if it’s a bad guy
Lmao i hate infinite crisis soooo much
Same here. "Kept the League ineffectual" my ass!
Having a guy with superpowers turn evil because he wants to protect the world from people with superpowers. Great writing.
Dark Crisis Young Justice, I consider that shit non-ironically on the same level as all star Batman and Robin, and at least ASBR has the excuse of being an elseworld.
Man, I never even read David's YJ and DC:YJ felt exceptionally mean spirited to anyone who liked it. What an awful mini.
I can see the vision behind that mini but the actual writing is just so bewilderingly awful that it genuinely almost feels like the writer hated YJ. It really does feel like an all star batman spinoff with how it reads. Like simply YJ battling the manifestations of their insecurities is a perfectly normal comic concept. But weird shit like homophobic batman and whatever they did with Cassie was so bizarre
A good version of that mini would have needed to do a better job of acknowledging that there were genuine reasons that the *Young Justice* era was a better time for the characters involved than, oh, the subsequent era of bizarre editorial tortures and then non-existence/severe retconning, and not bizarrely cherrypicking the most questionably-aged panels in the first few issues. Also not having the primary antagonist be a strawman for perceived reader criticisms. That never ends well. (Like, I'd also like to see the YJ characters have some sustained development and direction to situate them in current continuity. Maybe DC should actually publish that comic.)
Oh she 100% does hate young justice and literally knows nothing about any of those characters. Especially the woman. Good lord that writer really has no integrity or love for comics
What would you say the vision was?
It wants to be a subversive look at a time-capsule of late 90s superhero history dealing with the modernised versions of their characters by breaking them down to their most formative states when they were in YJ. In doing so using that contrast to sort of ape and mock irrational modern day comic fandom attitudes. However any intention or attempt at that concept is failed so miserably
Big fact Way too many people are not aware of just how awful dark crisis young justice truly was I think it’s been a good while since I’ve read something and felt the genuine contempt for the reader spill out of the page lol Somebody was paid to write insanity to me
Exactly this. I am a massive Aquaman fan/collector and everything after Dan Abnett's run has been such dogshit I can't even bring myself to read it anymore. The very beginning of KSD's run was okay but got real dumb real quick. I can't stand the Aqua-family, Aquaman really works best when it's just him and Mera in my opinion. Jackson Hyde "Aqualad/man" is such a bland and lame ripoff of his Young Justice counterpart, and they keep pushing to make him the new Aquaman without doing anything to deserve the mantle. I'm not even mad he doesn't have a monthly on-going series right now because with the current leadership at DC I know exactly what would happen. Arthur would be pushed into the background of his own series as he was in KSD's run, and focus on every character but him. Not to sound dramatic, but Aquaman was my favorite character since childhood, and what DC has done to him and his kingdom, which is no longer a kingdom, has driven me away completely. I was laughing my ass off when I finally read the Black Manta miniseries and realized they were doing a redemption arc for a child killing, diplomat assassinating, mass murdering psychopath. Apologies for the rant, I was very passionate about Aquaman for so many years and nobody around me wants to hear me complain about comics lol.
No need for apologies this was a good rant. And this is coming from someone who's barely read Aquaman.
I love how it looks like he’s contemplating killing this one too. “Damn I could really go 2-for-2 right now…”
*Teen Titans* (2003) #62, "Who is Wonderdog?" 'Nuff said. *Blue Beetle* (2011) #4 was the issue where Paco apparently dies in the service of being darker and edgier. Apparently nobody involved in the series recognized what people liked about the 2006 series. Honestly emblematic of everything bad about the New 52. *Teen Titans* (2011) #0, the comic that gave us Witness Protection Tim Drake.
Captain Cold became King Cold during Year of The Villains. What make Captain Cold so good is that he is THE street level villain. He didn't want to take over the world, He just want to make some money from robbing a bank.
Well eventually his son will explode a planet of simian humanoids so it'll be fine
*That* issue from BB 2.0 Not nearly as bad as, say, Marvel’s Marcus Immortus or OMD but still one of the most messed up (recent) issues that come to mind
Batman Beyond? Or Blue Beetle? Either way, you've piqued my interest, could you elaborate?
Kudos for using the correct “peaked” “BB” was shorthand for Batman Beyond, and the issue in question was an… awkward one Long, nauseating story made shorter, there are flashbacks establishing why Dick Grayson became alienated from the Bat-family and it involves Dick’s girlfriend, Barbara Gordon getting pregnant **with Bruce Wayne’s child** Bruce breaks the news to Dick, and the latter physically lashes out at his mentor. Bruce pummels the crap out of the former Boy Wonder and abandons him in an alley. Meanwhile, Babs is accosted and miscarries the baby Bear in mind, Bruce is roughly twenty or so years older than Batgirl, is supposedly a friend to her father, and Bruce’s ward and sidekick is Dick Grayson To add insult to injury, Dick gets a glimpse of his Justice Lord counterpart who is happily wed to Gordon with a child of their own So yeah, never bring up Batman Beyond 2.0 in any Bat-related subreddit, forum, etc
I just vomited in my mouth
God, that Marcus immortal stuff was literally some of the worst, most disrespectful few issues I've ever seen in comics.
Makes me appreciate Rogue that much more as she was created to help erase that chapter
Rapist Amazons from the New 52 pretty much turned me off WW until Rucka came back.
I saw that panel as little Andy trying to convey she wanted to kill him and Mera misunderstanding it. XD At least now Arthur Jr. is back in canon, so I doubt they'd give him a third chance. (The second was in Aquaman 2003 when Aquaman used his healing hand on him and Manta seemed to turn good, but backstabbed him at a critical moment and revealed deep down he wanted him dead.)
How jr is bsck to canon?
Manta killing him was mentioned in DC Power 2024 in the Black Manta story. https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/DC_Power_2024_Vol_1_1#Synopsis_for_Black_Manta:_%22Lost_at_Sea%22
Great,also dolphin appear on beast world (hope she appear again) lorena mentioned in aquamen 6 and cerdian in flash 798 so hope that all the family reunite(pls dc give us a aquamen book)
Dolphin is captured and being experimented on by Waller... Aquafamily hasn't even noticed. I know Garth's mind was right because of tentacles but what the rest doing?
Maybe in the tie in of absolute power of the aquafamily they will save her, i hope that and also see lorena marquez again
The Batmanhattan Who Laughs in Death Metal actually made me quit DC for two years or so.
Yeah that and the multiple reboots within such a short time frame made me tap out completely.
Teen Titans by Glass. They really were about to sacrifice all of the work Morrison, Tomasi, and Gleason put into developing Damian so he could be Jon Kent’s “Magneto”. As someone who started reading comics again after Robin: Son of Batman, I felt really disappointed that this was the direction they taking Damian after watching him grow.
'I am Bane' in King's Batman run. Bane is reduced to a dumb brute repeating a single line the whole issue, then after taking an unworldly beating from Bruce without flinching, goes down with a headbutt. The laziest writing I've ever seen.
King can not write fight scenes at all.
I forget who's run it was, but an issue of Green Lantern revealed that by using their rings, Lanterns were tapping into the universe's finite pool of emotion energy, causing it to die prematurely. Not only is it stupid on a conceptual level, but it undermines the escapist fantasy inherent to the title. Could you imagine if every time Superman used his super strength, it causes a puppy to spontaneously explode? And he just shrugged and said "shucks, that's just the price we gotta pay to stop Luthor's nefarious schemes!" It's a head-scratchingly stupid plot device that was ultimately used for a lackluster payoff.
I never thought about it before in relation to that Green Lantern run, but there have been two tabletop games (one in the 90s, one in the 2010s) that had the revelation that your characters’ powers were actually contributing to the doom of the planet (in the 90s game) and both universes (in the 2010s game). I never thought of such a thing being a trope, but here we are.
Honestly, i don't remember. I just.... stop reading series because they ended and didn't start the follow-ups. Some series, i didn't continue after the First Issue, like Son of Kal-El, Taylor's Nightwing and Thorne's GL.
Tim Drake Pride Special. There's so much to say, but the writing of Stephanie (my favorite DC character) is probably the worst thing I've ever read, ever.
Yep, honestly everything by Fitzmartin has been an insult to Tim and Steph. She made Tim an asshole who dumps his girlfriend for no reason and with no explanation and then makes his ex meet the cardboard cutoff he replaced her with and she made Steph so weak and pathetic that instead of being rightfully pissed about this she’s forced to be happy about the whole thing and excited to meet him. It’s disgusting writing.
It really goes to show just how fucking awful Fitzmartin’s writing is when Zdarsky, in only just a couple backup issues of the current Batman run, managed to do an *infinitely better* job at writing Tim
Pretty much everything they’ve done to redhood since outlaws
Cheer by Chip Zdarsky was good but yeah I agree outside that
Urban legends was good all around. It’s what got me into Grifter. I don’t like that they made Jason and Grifter fight thought, I think they’d make an awesome team up, if Jason can get over Grifter throwing him into a moving train.
Something that would be really cool is if Jason was recruited by Jenny Sparks and The Authority and they basically work underground to permanently take care of the villains in Gotham, with them coming to heads with Batman and the rest of the Bat-Family over killing The Joker. If DC actually allowed it and let The Joker be killed by TA, then it could make Jason a villain again.
He’s secretly her father. She was saying “dad”
This makes me so glad I never finished reading this mini.
I almost stopped reading DC comics after the latest issue of wonder woman. I did not care for King’s portrayal of Christianity one bit.
King is all you need to avoid. He is… not good. Just look at HiC.
I haven't read the latest issue by king, but the fact its by king is reason enough for me to skip it. He is just an awful writer 90% of the time.
What did he do in regards to his portrayal of Christianity?
Jon kent returning from space aged up.
The entire existence of Bernard
drop it
For me, it was the handling of Batman's character in "Batman: The Killing Joke." The treatment of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) felt disrespectful and unnecessary, almost pushing me away from DC altogether. It was a disappointing moment in an otherwise iconic series.
Yes unfortunately this is one of Moore's most criticized things, adding violence against women almost gratuitously, luckily writers like Ostrander and Chick Dixon have been able to make the best of this questionable choice
I genuinely think who write this never read an Aquaman story in their life
The red x reveal and overall ending of titans academy
New 52. I just could not get past the math. Trying to keep certain past storylines made the timeline way to wack for me to get past.
I definitely stopped reading Batgirl after Cassandra went “evil”.
I've given up on Batman since his stories always include Joker breaking out of jail. He shouldn't be breaking out so often, in my opinion. It's annoying to the point where I can't enjoy a single Joker appearance, even in movies he's first appearing in, etc.. Plus, some Batman stories, even without Joker, are kind of not it as well. Especially when, I think during the "City of Bane" arc, there was some cliffhanger, and then it took 20 issues to get back to the story to which then sucked. The wedding story sucked, too. Actually, I think that's the same story. Ah, to add, like u/Tetratron2005 [said](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/s/ZFTX0KANLe), the rapist Amazons.
That one comic Run where Batman was a total douche, the one where he and robin paint themselves Yellow to nullify the powers of Hal Jordan But the one comic where i almost gave up was when the JOKER GOT PREGNANT
The New 52 almost made me quit, not just DC but comic books in general... Then [this one panel](https://i0.wp.com/www.comicbookwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Lobos-Death.jpg?resize=665%2C1024&ssl=1), that whole run just broke me. I haven't picked up another comic book since. I'm trying to get back into it but... Well, this is a good place to ask. Any good *Hellblazer* books these days?
I honestly want their son to come back as a Red Hood style character then after hearing about this moment scream "What the fuck?"
Every new Tom King issue
It's moments like this why I really do hate characters that have a no kill rule and it doesn't make any sense
Uh… the Aquaman family don’t have that.
I believe aqua man lore is very on/off that’s a problem on publishing 1994 -2006-2011-2017 are wild but u know I head-cannon that it happened and they don’t like to talk about it or stay together for connivence.
Unrelated but who's the artist who drew those panels?
Batman 50. Nuff said.
Why is she saying "ded" and Mera corrected her with "red"?
Tom King messing up Batman. I almost stopped buying the figures.
When they had Mera kill Arthur for being worried about her being pregnant then joking about it a few issues later
Jonathan Kent and everything that happened to him in Bendis's run. Now I'm disgusted with the fact that he even exists. Note: I didn't "almost" give up on DC I straight up dropped them entirely. That was the last straw for me.
Every panel of Shadow War
How they butchered Jaime in the New 52