worst comic purchase

[Dandontdare]

I'm inspired by the "worst batman Comic" thread.

With Batman I only tend to shell out for what i know is quality (libraries are there for the rest!)
But I did buy "Superman True Brit" - in snecking hardback! Damn you John Cleese!

What's been your greatest waste of money?

[Buddy]

the first xcalliber that came out.. lovley alan davis art but i just couldnt finish the bloody this the story was so shyte!

[Dandontdare]

if it's got an X in front of it, it's designed to cash in on your loyalty in some way.

[Bongo Jack]

The problem with 'the worst of' lists is that anything truly bad at least engenders some kind of emotional response on the part of the consumer in order for it to be judged terrible, thus even monumentally-awful books can be justified as a purchase as they provide food for thought and rumination on the part of the consumer.  What is better is to ask about the kind of thing that engenders no emotional response whatsoever on the part of the reader to the point that he/she can simply dispose of it without complaint or a second thought, and - if asked - can muster no criticism beyond "I just couldn't be bothered so I stopped reading it and went and ate some cornflakes.  I feel no malice or disappointment towards those who created such a thing, only emptiness."

To this end, I nominate post-Mark Miller Ultimate X-Men.  Miller's stuff was juvenile, but it was at least entertaining and eventful in a way that the normal X-books weren't at the time (and the regular Marvel X-books have taken a great deal of inspiration from Miller's UXM run), but the book since has been pure drudgery that simply uses post-millenial comic storytelling (decompression, aimless plotting, no standalone issues, all stories written with the trade collection in mind instead of the monthlies) to retread the most boring elements of the kind of navel-gazing 1990s X-men stories that led directly to Marvel's bankruptcy and subsequent purchasing by a toy company.  I can't even say "these books are pure shit!" because I find myself incapable of viewing them as anything other than subsistence literature aimed at people used to buying and reading comics out of habit and making no critical judgement on their quality beyond that they feature Wolverine with a goatee.

I have absolutely no gut-response to UXM, and that to me is more damning than loving or hating it with a passion.

[Dandontdare]

"even monumentally-awful books can be justified as a purchase"
I disagree! Unless you're Bruce Wayne/Tony Stark wealthy, it's impossible to own it all. We need to choose the good stuff we want on our shelves.
Sometimes we shell out £10+ and end up with something very disappointing.
If you want another example of "lured into spending cash for crap", I give you DC's "countdown to infinite crisis" - Identity Crisis & OMAC project were excellent, so I bought another forty quides worth of kak!

[ThryllSeekyr]

I have been pretty happy with my comic book purchases.

I couldn't really say. As I've been neither anticipating purchases I've made.

Though, if I was forced to choose.

It would be '13th Floor', 'DoomLord', 'MetaZoic'.

Still they are of good standard, yet not quite as manificient as they were described.

[Jim_Campbell]

With apologies for the delay posting the results (impromptu all day pub crawl yesterday kind of disrupted any other plans), here are the winners of the April Art Competition.

Once again, congrats to everyone who entered - this was the most voted Compo, and the tightest result yet, with only a single vote between each of the top three places!

In third place:

JohnnyStress

http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/bb36/jimcampbell2000/?action=view¤t=JohnnyStress01.jpg" target="_blank">http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb36/jimcampbell2000/JohnnyStress01.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">

[Adrian Bamforth]

Yeah I read True Brit as well. It was crap. I didn't even like the art and he's supposed to be a legendary artist.

[Buttonman]

What a great excuse to post up this old favourite. In truth it can't really be described as worst as it does what it says on the tin - non stop pope action!

http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c118/button71/?action=view¤t=pope.gif" target="_blank">http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c118/button71/pope.gif" border="0" alt="pope">

[The Monarch]

I know its recent and all but I have to vote countdown....like many others I was sucked in by the awesomeness of 52 and then this came out...

when a story only gets going in the 26th issue you know you are in trouble....

saying that there have been times in the far distant past where our very own 2000ad has been a waste of money

[The Adventurer]

In recent memory the worst comic series I got stuck buying was Dino-Wars: The Jurassic War of the Worlds from Antarctic Press.

On paper it sounds good (Intelligence Dinosaurs from before the asteroid hit 65 million years ago return to Earth to reclaim their world) unfortunatly its the worst piece of trash ever published IMO. Most of it is cribbed wholesale from Independence Day. The main character is a squarjawed cardboard cut out (who, get this, is on the Moon when the Dinosaurs return. The lunar lander he arrived in gets totaled. So how does he escape? He LEAPS from the Lunar Surface and GRABS the orbiting return capsule. Then returns to Earth in a little under 10 minutes.) the Female lead is just as bad. And packaged with the most cliche "manga" art ever (I don't blanket hate Manga/Anime mind you, but this was basically every art cliche rolled into one) The whole thing is a train wreck.

And me stuck with it because I preordered the whole thing.

[ThryllSeekyr]

I didn't really mean those comics were bad.

I just thought they could have been better.

It's all about comparison, really.

Though, my worst purchases are also one of my best.

[opaque]

This is why I only tend to buy compliations or collections. That and the fact I whizz through single comics so quickly and don't have any patience.

[IndigoPrime]

Hellboy Junior. Utter, utter shit, bar the six or so pages by Mignola.

[Buddy]

Hey, that Pope comic is a classic!