10 Iconic DC Comics That Aged Poorly

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The DC Universe has produced some amazing, memorable comics over the years. It’s impossible to discuss superhero comics without discussing DC Comics, which developed the medium just as much as Marvel Comics did. Many of these comics are timeless in their quality, and readers can instantly see why they’ve attained the status they have.

Yet, not every story has the benefit of aging well. It isn’t just changing societal standards that make stories age poorly, but also the benefit of hindsight. Sometimes comics were meant to achieve one thing, but looking back, they either failed or caused something entirely different. Many of these stories are still great when read with the right context, but that doesn’t mean they’ve aged well.

10

The Killing Joke Used Barbara Gordon As A Prop

Batman: The Killing Joke By Alan Moore and Brian Bolland

Fans have considered The Killing Joke a must-read Batman story. Yet The Killing Joke was arguably a problem from the beginning, which is probably why writer Alan Moore regrets writing the comic himself. In his eyes, it just resulted in many people emulating his work by telling really grim superhero stories, which was never his goal.

Worse than that though, The Killing Joke used Barbara Gordon as less of a character and more of a tool to show how dangerous Joker was. Though she had already retired from her job as Batgirl, the comic victimizing one of the most visible superheroines in comic books at the time wasn’t a good look. Fortunately, the Birds of Prey comic reformed her image, transforming her into a force for good as Oracle, but that was several years after The Killing Joke.

9

Identity Crisis Aimed To Destroy The Innocence Of An Older Era

Identity Crisis Vol. 1-7 By Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales, and Michael Bair

Identity Crisis had its detractors in the early 2000s, but it was mostly regarded as an epic mystery story that brought a sense of community to the DC Universe. While that’s still true today, Identity Crisis has aged worse than perhaps any other DC story from the 2000s. Centered around a whodunnit after Ralph Dibny’s wife Sue is murdered, Identity Crisis offers some shocking reveals that left fans rethinking whether the “good old days” of the Silver Age were ever really all that good.

Identity Crisis‘ big reveal wasn’t about who actually killed Sue Dibny, but instead that during the Justice League’s Satellite Era, Sue had been sexually assaulted by the villain Doctor Light. In response, the Justice League not only had his memory of their secret identities erased but effectively lobotomized him. The story was meant to question if the Justice League went too far, yet it had further reaching effects. Identity Crisis’ casually murdering Sue, then later revealing she was an assault survivor felt bad then, but feels especially tasteless now.

8

JLA: Tower of Babel Estranged Batman From The Justice League

JLA (Vol. 1) #43-46 By Mark Waid and Howard Porter

Mark Waid is perhaps one of the greatest superhero writers of all time. Yet his first run with the JLA gave us the Tower of Babel storyline, and DC’s never truly recovered from its effects. The story reveals Batman has been keeping secret contingency plans in case the Justice League ever goes out of control. Worse, the League learns about these plans after they’re used to shut the team down by Ra’s Al Ghul in his latest plan.

This story has given power scalers endless evidence to argue that Batman is the greatest hero ever, thanks to the “prep time” argument. Following “Tower of Babel,” it became nearly impossible to square Batman away as a true ally to the JLA. It went a long way toward making him seem paranoid and untrusting of the entire team, thus making it impossible for the rest of the team to trust him. Even when writers want to make Batman seem like someone who cares about the Justice League, there’s still the paranoid aspect that resulted from this story.

7

Flashpoint Locked DC Into A Cycle Of Reboots

Flashpoint (Vol. 2) #1-5 By Geoff Johns, Andy Kubert, and Sandra Hope

What started as a simple battle between the Flash and the Reverse Flash became much more. When Barry Allen went back in time to correct the timeline and stop the Reverse Flash from killing his mother, he instead caused massive damage to the timeline. Even after traveling back in time again to undo his mistakes, his actions caused irreversible damage, helping to create the New 52 timeline.

Flashpoint, on its own, is great for people who love Flash, and instead, it’s what happened afterward that caused the issue. While the New 52 offered a necessary sales boost to DC Comics’ flagging sales, it also created another reboot for DC’s timeline. When the New 52 inevitably ran its course, and fans began calling for some of their favorites to return, it forced DC to create even more retcons to fix everything. These days, DC’s continuity is a barely intelligible mess for everyone but the most hardcore fan.

6

DC Is Responsible For A Terrible Trope

Green Lantern (Vol. 3) #54 By Ron Marz, Steve Carr, Derec Aucoin, Darryl Banks, and Romeo Tanghal

Early into Kyle Rayner’s career as a superhero, he found his girlfriend Alexandra DeWitt murdered by the super villain Major Force and shoved inside his apartment refrigerator. It was a shocking moment for the hero, but it represented a level of violence that comic book fans had come to expect over the years. It was an iconic scene meant to bring more readers into the book to see what would happen in Green Lantern next…but in hindsight, it’s probably one of the biggest mistakes DC made during that era.

The scene is the genesis of the term “fridging,” the idea of female characters being killed to motivate male characters. Alex was robbed entirely of her agency as a character and killed off purely to help Kyle Rayner take his job seriously. Given there were better ways of achieving that same goal, this is one of the harshest realities of reading old Green Lantern comics.

5

An Event That Nearly Destroyed One Of DC’s Fan-Favorite Characters

Heroes in Crisis by Tom King, Clay Mann, & Tomeu Morey

Heroes in Crisis was one of DC’s biggest comics of the 2010s, and it’s only gotten bigger now that Tom King will contribute heavily to the movie DCU. The series revealed heroes often spent time at Sanctuary, where they could discuss their mental health issues and seek help. Sanctuary was kept secret until it was attacked by someone who destroyed it, killing several people present and forcing the heroes to discover the culprit as quickly as possible.

Heroes in Crisis was controversial then, and it hasn’t aged any better. Many of the characters who received the spotlight during the comic’s psychological profiles were written wildly out of character. Worse, the attempt to transform Wally West into a repentant murderer didn’t go over well. By 2022, Wally’s involvement in Sanctuary was retconned entirely, allowing the hero to return to his old heroic life.

4

Superman Showing The Youth How It Should Be Done Feels Condescending

Kingdom Come By Mark Waid and Alex Ross

Kingdom Come‘s placement might be one of the more controversial choices. After all, most people view Kingdom Come as one of DC’s greatest comics ever. After leaving the superhero society when humanity turned their backs on him, a deadly incident forces Superman to come out of retirement. Seeing the heroes have become nearly as bad as the villains, Superman collects the allies from his generation to forcibly bring peace back to the world. As they try to restore order, a villain group seeks to take advantage of Superman’s return to claim control over Earth for good.

Kingdom Come‘s major problem is that it reads as far too preachy. Superman abandons society for over a decade and only chooses to return after things seem utterly hopeless. The patriarchal attitude of Superman and the older heroes feels particularly condescending. It also feels weird to have them come back and enforce change, seemingly just because they have more power than all the younger heroes.

3

Jason’s Story Being Decided Via Phone Number Was Tacky

Batman Vol. 1 #426-429 By Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, and Mike DeCarlo

Batman: Death in the Family was a bold choice at the time. Jason Todd’s search for his mother leads him to ignore Batman’s instructions and puts him squarely in the hands of the Joker. Batman’s failure to save him haunts him for years and still counts as one of Bruce’s biggest regrets. Death in the Family was fine but controversial because Jason Todd’s survival came down to a fan vote.

DC allowed fans to call a specific number to decide if Jason lived or died, which feels incredibly tacky in hindsight. It also makes Bruce taking on any future Robins even more irresponsible than ever, given how Todd’s story turned out. While this story did elevate the Joker into Batman’s true worst enemy, it also turned him into a character that has to get more disturbing in each new appearance in an attempt to top this moment, all while Batman still can’t violate his “no kill rule”.

2

Countdown to Infinite Crisis Aimed To Destroy Another Era Of DC History

Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1 By Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Judd Winick, Ed Benes, Phil Jimenez, Rags Morales, Ivan Reis, Jesús Saíz

Countdown to Infinite Crisis was the prequel to DC’s incredibly successful 2005 event Infinite Crisis, a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths. The story covered several aspects of the DC Universe, yet the chief focus was on the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord. Ted’s investigative work took him to the center of a massive conspiracy, where he learned former Justice League International backer Maxwell Lord aimed to gain control of the world’s superhero population.

Gaining this knowledge cost Ted his life, just as Max’s Checkmate began their OMAC Project plans. Countdown was another comic that focused too heavily on trying to make older, more innocent comics seem darker than they were. It turned Max Lord evil and made a mockery of the Justice League International era, arguably one of the best eras of Justice League comics. These days, they’ve even revived Ted Kord to move past most of this comic’s worst ripple effects.

1

Slade’s Relationship With Terra Was Never Equal

New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract By Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, and Dick Giordano

For decades, The Judas Contract was held up as one of the best comics of the 1980s. The story focused on Deathstroke’s most damaging attack on the Teen Titans. This time, he relied on having someone on the inside to betray the Titans–Terra, the team’s newest member. While this was a surprising reveal on its own, The Judas Contract pushed the shock factor further by revealing Slade had manipulated Terra, who was only 16, by sleeping with her.

At the time, The Judas Contract implied that they were having a genuine affair together. These days, people rightfully acknowledge the manipulation and the relationship for what it was. Though Deathstroke solo comics have tried to rewrite their relationship to make it seem better, other comics have acknowledged his actions as the disgusting crime that they are. While pointing out how gross Slade was is the right move, The Judas Contract still looks bad in retrospect for not pointing out how monstrous Slade’s actions were.

“}]] DC Comics’ best stories, like Heroes in Crisis, Flashpoint and The Killing Joke, are must-read comics, but some of them haven’t aged all that well.  Read More