Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,566 
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Post by Confessor on Jul 26, 2016 7:57:55 GMT -5
I've been thinking about the OP's question for a while and I don't think there are any characters that I used to love, but don't anymore. I mean, I recently dropped all the Spider-Man titles and sold off my back issues dating back to 2008, but I still love Spider-Man as a character. I just dislike what Marvel have done with him over the past 8 or so years. Even thinking back to the strips I liked as a young kid, they were either classic Silver or Bronze Age Marvel, which I still adore, or high quality British fare like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Monster and The Thirteenth Floor. I will say that the British war comic Commando hasn't aged well, but since those comics featured different characters in every issue, they don't really count. I'm the same way with music too; people often ask me "what embarrassing stuff did you listen to as a kid?" The honest answer is that the stuff I listened to and bought as a pre-teen was either New Wave fare like Adam & the Ants, Duran Duran and The Police, movie soundtracks by John Williams (i.e. Star Wars or Superman), or classic '60s recordings like The Beatles and various Motown soul -- all of which I still listen to and love today. I don't know, I guess I've just always had good taste.  |
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Post by Warmonger on Jul 26, 2016 8:09:44 GMT -5
I didn't think I'd have anything to contribute here, but then I remembered Moon Knight. Now, I loved the Moench/Sienkiewicz version of the character; it was my introduction to Marc Spector and his supporting cast, but no version before or since has captured my imagination the way that creative team did. I've concluded that it was a fluke. I don't really care for Moon Knight; I just really dug what those two masters achieved, briefly, three-plus decades ago.  Lemire's current run on Moon Knight has been outstanding. Best book Marvel is putting out right now by far IMO. Really explores the psyche of Spector and is taking the character in some really new and creative directions. I've always loved the character since first reading the Moench/Sienkiewicz run, but he's never been put in capable hands again until recently. The time that Ellis spent on the character was entertaining at least, but nothing on par with this. |
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Post by tolworthy on Jul 26, 2016 10:16:39 GMT -5
Dennis the Menace. The British one. He was an icon, the symbol of all that was wonderful about British comics. But now I just see him as Dennis the Bully. A thoroughly unpleasant character. Maybe he was innocent in those early stories by Davy Law, but now I even wonder about that.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 10:50:40 GMT -5
I still love the characters I just don't like some of the modern updates that have been done to them.
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 26, 2016 12:40:13 GMT -5
You can pretty much say this about all of the current Marvel and/or DC characters. The characters have either been changed so drastically or their concepts corroded by what the recent crop of "writers" consider to be cool ideas or they have been replaced. Gone are our hero's, replaced with corrupted, faithless, hopeless copies of themselves. They have all become like degraded Xerox copies of what they were, each successive copy becoming distorted and visibly worse with every issue. The biggest travesty was probably Martian Manhunter. He went from being this really novel concept of a alien sleuth with a unique set of powers to fight and solve crime to just little more than clone of Superman. I guess they figured he was too similar to Green Lantern, who I'm assuming at the time was already far more popular, and just went in a completely different and overall less interesting direction |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 26, 2016 12:40:57 GMT -5
While I do still like the concept and read the comic, I liked Tony Stark alot more when he was Howard Hughes without the OCD, instead of today's needy, neurotic genious/slacker.
I liked Excalibur as 'X-Men: Muir Island', not whatever it was later. I agree Moon Knight is better when they emphasize why he's NOT Batman, rather than when they try to make him BE Batman.
I'd say Troublemakers was more Power Pack than Runaways (good series, though)
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,566
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Post by Confessor on Jul 26, 2016 12:48:39 GMT -5
Dennis the Menace. The British one. He was an icon, the symbol of all that was wonderful about British comics. But now I just see him as Dennis the Bully. A thoroughly unpleasant character. Maybe he was innocent in those early stories by Davy Law, but now I even wonder about that. Even as a little kid, I never like Dennis the Menace and Gnasher. They just seemed too "yobby" for want of a better word. I enjoyed the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Lord Snooty and, over in Dandy, the likes of Desperate Dan and the Numskulls, but Dennis the Menace never did it for me. I always thought the Dennis the Menace Fan Club badges you could send away for looked pretty cool -- especially the furry Gnasher one. There was a kid at my middle school who had these back in the day...  |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 26, 2016 12:55:39 GMT -5
None of them...and all of them.
I have come to recognize that any character is only as good as the creators working on the book. Good creators can make most characters interesting (not all...see e.g., Superman). Contrary, bad creators make any character unreadable.
So I've pretty much given up on following characters.
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 26, 2016 14:40:13 GMT -5
I have come to recognize that any character is only as good as the creators working on the book. Good creators can make most characters interesting (not all...see e.g., Superman). Contrary, bad creators make any character unreadable. Denny O'Neil and Mike Grell are probably the only two people who have ever made me interested in reading the escapades of Green Arrow, so I more than understand your sentiment |
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Post by brutalis on Jul 26, 2016 17:27:11 GMT -5
None of them...and all of them. I have come to recognize that any character is only as good as the creators working on the book. Good creators can make most characters interesting (not all...see e.g., Superman). Contrary, bad creators make any character unreadable. So I've pretty much given up on following characters. Feeling your pain as i totally agree about characters being as good as their creators. I have learned to skim through comics at the shop and if i think a character i once liked seems more on character then i may grab an issue or two and see if they recapture my interest. More often than not it doesn't happen. So i avoid said character again for awhile until a new writer or artist may redeem my desire and curiosity to explore him/her again. These means many a gap but better than reading what i consider to be stories that ruin a character i once derived pleasure from reading about. |
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Jul 26, 2016 19:57:56 GMT -5
Batman would be the main one for me. Since that godawful Knightfall, his omnipotence has been a total drag for me.
Superman in the Nu52, not even close to being the Man of Steel I used to like(while conversely the Nu52 Wonder Woman being completely unlike the one I remember made for a much better book).
At Marvel Im of the opinion that the Avengers(any team you want to pick) post Secret Wars are without any redeeming qualities at all. Im probably in the minority here, in that Ive liked the team since Bendis took over, and I really liked what Hickman did with the team, but Marvels total dismantling of his team, structure, and mandate, has me utterly uninterested in what remains. Ultimates is kind of ok, mainly because I like Ewings dialogue and the inclusion of Spectrum and America Chavez.
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Post by berkley on Jul 26, 2016 20:44:33 GMT -5
None of them...and all of them. I have come to recognize that any character is only as good as the creators working on the book. Good creators can make most characters interesting (not all...see e.g., Superman). Contrary, bad creators make any character unreadable. So I've pretty much given up on following characters. Feeling your pain as i totally agree about characters being as good as their creators. I have learned to skim through comics at the shop and if i think a character i once liked seems more on character then i may grab an issue or two and see if they recapture my interest. More often than not it doesn't happen. So i avoid said character again for awhile until a new writer or artist may redeem my desire and curiosity to explore him/her again. These means many a gap but better than reading what i consider to be stories that ruin a character i once derived pleasure from reading about. Pretty much this, for me too. Except that I'm so out of tune with today's Marvel that I find I don't even skim much any more; and since Classics left CBR I rarely even look at the previews, which for a few years was the main way I kept up with what was going on. The trouble of taking that one miniscule extra step of a mouse-click or two is enough for me not to bother. Every now and then I'll hear about something specific, like the Ellis Moon Knight, and look at the previews for it, and then pick up the TPB collection if I still think it has potential. I'll probably take a chance on the Lemire MK run as well when that comes out. But most of what I see of characters I still think of as favourites either doesn't catch my interest (e.g. the Black Panther) or is even an actual turn-off (e.g. the Inhumans, Doctor Strange). |
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Post by dupersuper on Jul 26, 2016 22:42:03 GMT -5
Superman.
Ha! Kidding! Can you imagine?
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