I don't like superheroes anymore. Do you like superheroes?

[Frank]

And they all agreed that 2000AD was the bestest comic there ever was, and lived happily ever after.

This nerd fight is hilarious. Imagine if someone from the real world stumbled in here by mistake and saw this furious debate about whether body builder soap operas are more mature, cool and literary than comics by sexy Japanese robots with big eyes. This is bound to get a mention in a future Damage Report.

[Spikes]

I like comics about superheroes. My favourite is Judge Dredd.

[Spaceghost]

Ha! Sauchie, I was just reading the prog and thought the very same thing.

Oh, the shame of it all.

[Mabs]

@sauchie: Yeah, just like 'sugar teats' did the other week due to its discussion on the board a little while back.

Personally I love and loathe superhero comics in equal measure. There's no denying there are some real gems out there, for e.g, Ennis' run on The Punisher which is some of the best stuff Ennis has done in my opinion (although it could be argued that The Punisher is not a superhero in the traditional sense), Batman - Millers run is terrific fun as is his work on Daredevil. If I had to choose my favourite Superheroes it would be Batman, Daredevil and The Punisher (I love the vigilante characters!). But I cannot stand X-Men: I've read so many different series' over the years, whether Claremont's stuff, Whedon or Grant, and didn't enjoy any of it frankly (although Wolverine's solo stuff is a different matter). Not too keen on Spiderman or Superman either.

Recently I've found myself veering towards the more indie and non-Superhero stuff, there's 2000AD/ Megazine of course, but  also works from Dark Horse (whose Hellboy and B.P.R.D series I absolutely love), Image (Prophet, Saga etc) and IDW. Not to mention Cinebook: I've been a big fan of European comics since childhood, and you could say my tastes are more tailored towards it than the American stuff.

[Bat King]

I used to read quite a lot of Superhero stuff in the early '90s, I was a married man with one child. The comics were DC & Marvel. They were simple escapist fun and I enjoyed them. Please note I started reading comics very young... but 'seriously' in February 1977 with 2000AD when I was 9. That was also when I got in to Marvel, my brother read some DC and I'd read his. From sometime around 14 I slacked off everything except 2000AD & Dr Who Monthly (which isn't a comic anymore of course...) I would dabble now & then but somewhere in early '90s is when my reading of DC & Marvel peaked.

It isn't the simple escapist fun that stopped me reading so many. It was the Company wide reboots. I was used to them not aging - what with Batman, Superman, lots of superfolks being way older than me as a publication. That didn't bother me, it was the half cocked idea of doing a huge reset but then slowly saying 'oh that thing we kinda wrote out by doing that other thing, it happened really'.

But I dipped my toe in on a few of the Villains Week and I had fun. Now reading the Forever Evil mini & Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion. They are fun but not as much as I recall from '90s. Also reading Mighty Avengers (but haven't reserved that yet, just pick it up).

I guess things have both changed and not changed. I read YA fiction to fill the Marvel & DC gap probably...

I'm enjoying several US & Canadian comics though that some would say are Superhero, though I wouldn't. Department Monsterology for example. Pretty Deadly for another. I enjoyed Kick Ass but not read Kick Ass 2 or Hit Girl yet.

I'll keep trying the odd Superhero one out now and then I guess. But I am kinda bummed that I liked Wally West so much and missed Barry but what they did with Barry made things 'real' and they went and brought Barry back & now no Wally and all that.... (I guess minor 'entitlement' issues on that one...)

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

When reading this thread title, the word anymore jumped out at me.

Superheroes used to be fun.

Criticizing them for being childish strikes me as a bit of a fallacy. I count many a "kids" movie/book in my all time favourites. I don't like slagging something off because it's for kids, because that presumes that kids are tasteless idiots. I like to think that when people discount something based on childishness, what they're really railing against is the pandering, patronizing elements of the work.

Why do I not like superheroes anymore? Let me count the ways

1) They're pandering and patronizing. Like I said above.

2) The pervasive idea that being "darker" and/or "grittier" is better. Creator's seem to strive for realism now, because fun is somehow beneath them

3) Continuity. Conti-fucking-nuity. Why can't they just make a comic about a science-ninja in a batsuit, fighting colourful gimmicky supervillains? It worked for Adam West. Instead, we have a grumpy fucker who lives in a world of superbeings. Don't get me started on Marvel, with all those superheroes living in and around the same in-universe New York, it's a wonder anyone is stupid enough to commit any sort of crime.

4!!!!!!)The Internet. Internet comic pundits are terible. Not quite as bad as the videogame crowd, but pretty damn awful. How often have we seen Racism, Feminism and all manor of Social issues trotted out in click baiting headlines? Any eejit can do that.

WHY DOES ALAN MOORE MAKE EVERYONE THINK ABOUT RAPE?

See?

Aye. Ranting and what?

[The Adventurer]

3)Don't get me started on Dreddworld, with all those Judges living in and around the same in-universe Mega City-One, it's a wonder anyone is stupid enough to commit any sort of crime.

FTFY

People getting pissed about community baffle me. How can you have a story without some kind of acknowledgment of past events?

[Silent_Bomber]

I still somewhat like superheroes, though I do it on my own terms now, I tend to just read runs by specific writers and discount those from writers I don't like.

So as far as I'm concerned Norman Osborn & Jason Todd are still dead 

Peter Parker is happily married and gave up being Spider-Man some time during the early 90s. Dan Slott's stories are about an "alternate version" of Peter Parker who has a different story that is wholly separate from the original.

I don't think I could ever read "Essentials" volumes any more, I just read singular stories.

Whilst the Marvel/DC comics don't really ever have an end, and nothing ever happens to change the status quo, if you just read a singular story as an island in itself then it often does have all of those. Reading J.M Dematteis' Harry Osborn story gives you a beginning, and an end, and big stuff happens along the way.

Manga I also like, but I disagree about it being more original than US superhero comics. Manga is painfully unoriginal most of the time, I don't remember the last time I sat down to watch an Anime or read a Manga when I didn't spend the whole time thinking of it as a mix and match or other Manga's.

Of course there is stuff like Berserk & Akira which break the mold and are very interesting to read, but US superhero comics have just as many, if not more exceptions which break the rules.

[Colin YNWA]

This nerd fight is hilarious. Imagine if someone from the real world stumbled in here by mistake and saw this furious debate about whether body builder soap operas are more mature, cool and literary than comics by sexy Japanese robots with big eyes. This is bound to get a mention in a future Damage Report.

And there we have it.

It was bound to happen.

This is why I didn't want to be the 'superhero' guy as the points I was making would be simplified to this kinda dismissive statement that reduces everything I said to 'Superman could beat Godzilla'. Can I make something quite clear again (I've tried to do it in every post).

I don't care if people don't like superheroes - I actually fully understand why they might not.

What I do care about (more than is sensible it would seem) is people judging others negatively based on what forms of entertainment they go for and people still feeling judged for reading comics.

There said and done.

[Frank]

Oh, be nice.

[Spaceghost]

What I do care about (more than is sensible it would seem) is people judging others negatively based on what forms of entertainment they go for and people still feeling judged for reading comics.

For which I have now apologised and repented. I will try my very best to practice tolerance and understanding in future.

Give us a cuddle and let's forget all about it.

[dweezil2]

2000AD was my first love, it'll be my last!
Can't say I've ever really been a fan of the spandex brigade, aside from post modernist stuff like Zenith and to some degree Watchmen.
I enjoyed the early Ultimates stuff, but the rest leaves me cold to be honest.
None of my U.S comic subscriptions are superhero comics, as the genre just doesn't interest me and I can't see that changing any time soon.
The whole utopian ideals and rather black and white moralising of superhero comics just doesn't resonate with me. Probably because I'm such a cynical git!   

[JamesC]

3)Don't get me started on Dreddworld, with all those Judges living in and around the same in-universe Mega City-One, it's a wonder anyone is stupid enough to commit any sort of crime.

FTFY

People getting pissed about community baffle me. How can you have a story without some kind of acknowledgment of past events?

Tom and Jerry manage it. As do Laurel and Hardy, Ren and Stimpy, Scooby Doo etc, etc.
There's no reason you can't do self contained stories about Batman and Robin fighting crime.

[Colin YNWA]

Oh, be nice.

Nah I've been treating myself today and yesterday to not trying to act here as I do in normal life and act more like many people do on the internet (not being specific to anyone here just generally) and having the false courage of anonymity and distance to mean you (general not specific again) act more aggressive and forceful than normal and argue points past the point you should.

Have to say its been very fun and liberating and I might do it again sometime.

For which I have now apologised and repented. I will try my very best to practice tolerance and understanding in future.

Give us a cuddle and let's forget all about it.

Promise the last one wasn't about you (per-say) it was just summarising my stand in the face of it being misconstrued, as things so often are on this here internet, to allow people to make self aggrandising points.

All that said I've in a very chipper mood today and all that grumpy, ranting, over passionate and probably ill in formed internet courage fuelled blather seems to have been very cathartic. Mind I'm sorry for dragging things out so long, so needlessly and being such a grumpy puss (however deliberately).

I love this place I does and all you folk that make it what it is with a love that only the internet can make.

Getting things back on topic.

I love me superheroes I does, even when they are being silly and daft almost without equal in the world of fiction.

Hugs

[Radbacker]

Well I got into comics pretty late  (I wasn't interested in non moving pictures when I was a kid, it had to be a cartoon or nothing) however I got an appreciation of 2000AD in my late teens and started collecting it.  Then I followed a couple of writers over into that Vertigo line, then I started to check out some of their main stream DC and Marvel stuff and then general superhero stuff not written by them, that was it the crack that is collecting had got me and I now have box's of useless boring immature shit that im never going to read again (unlike my 2000AD's which get a re-read every few years).  HOw ever I haven't let that put me off Supes comics completely I'm just way more selective with what I purchase now and believe me among the genre there have been some of the best comics from the last 10 years, yes most of the big two's stuff is stuck in a never ending never changing cycle but as mentioned earlier in the thread you can still tell a good rollicking story even if someone comes in and re-sets it at the end it doesn't change the story  told (I suppose except when they go back and ret-con stuff that actually does change the story  ).

So yes I still like Super Hero comics I'm just much more picky on what I pick up now.
Oh and anyone who thinks all supes comics are the same and never change and are just for kids has never read an issue of Invincible, do your self a favour and change that you just might have some fun.

CU Radbacker