The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

[draco x]

Here is a list of notable characters that have been subject to inaccurate, poor-piss and blatantly biased writings that show no plausibility whatsoever for their sudden changes in personality:

Superboy Prime-

Once a former hero but turned into an evil and whiney dipshit. Why? Apparently, the loss of his world caused him to go crazy and evil and perform retcon punches( Really, DC?) as well as rip people's arms off and go into temper tantrums when things didn't go his way. I could go into a rant about how stupid this is all over but I will cut this short by saying this was IDIOTIC! While Prime was nothing but an alternate Superman that was never a major character when created, his motivation for being evil and whiney made no sense. Plus, it's hard to take a character seriously who cries like a bitch when he gets his ass kicked, no matter how vicious you make him.

Hal Jordan as Parallax:

In the 90's DC thought it would be a good idea to make Hal Jordan( One of DC's most renowned heroes) into an evil psychopath after the destruction of Coast City before giving us Kyle Rayner as his forced replacement. While I didn't mind Kyle so much, I hated the way Hal got turned into a generic egomaniacal villain. Why DC thought this was a good idea boggles me to this day. Thankfully, Geoff Johns( Love him or hate him) retconned this crap by revealing that Hal was possessed by an evil spirit-Although I don't like retcons for the most part, this was one I defended to the fullest.

Cyclops:

Does anybody note how Cyclops is currently portrayed as Magneto's mini-me as a self-righteous, manipulative and arrogant bastard? I mean Cyclops was always a hardcase from the get-go but at least he was more down to earth than he is now. Currently he is just a prick all over. I won't even get started on the Avengers/ X-Men crossover this year where he believes that the Phoenix can save mutantkind. Really, Scott, did you think that last one through? The Phoenix is a mass-murdering force of nature, not some messianic force of good-bearings.

Geo Force:

This is the end-result of Didio's maligned Outsiders run from last year as Brion is portrayed as what Tony Stark was during the Civil War debacle. The way Geo Force was portrayed as an insane and psycopathic control-freak was awful. I suspect this was one of the main reasons why the book got cancelled. Hopefully some writer will remember Geo Force's correct personality and overlook Didio's clueless portrayal.

Gwen Stacey:

The very idea that Gwen would willingly sleep with Norman is just the worst form of bad characterization ever. I keep wondering how that idea got past the editorial board to this day. Gwen, unless she was brainwashed or raped, would never sleep with a creepy older man who is her dad's age. Those very images of the two of them doing it is a form of torture porn.

Iron Man:

This is in reference to Tony acting like an egomaniac in Civil War with his idiotic registration act. Tony has always done questionable things but turning him into an armored George Bush was wrong. It would have been way more believable if Stark had been revealed as a Skrull all along which would have made the Secret Invasion crapfest more bearable.

Professor X:

Why did the X writers turn Xavier into the parapelegic Lex Luthor a few years ago is beyond me-especially with how they shoe-horned the Vulcan crap into the X-history and revealed that he knew Gabe was Scott's kid brother all along was stupid characterization.

Scrappy Doo:

Ok, let me explain that I am not defending Scrappy Doo in any way as I regard him as an incredibly annoying character but I am just pointing to his portrayal in the first Scooby Doo movie as a villain. While I understand how hated the character is, I think making him a villain was a bit harsh-plus, he was more annoying as an evil dipshit than he was a hero. I am all for Scrappy being killed off or making a very brief cameo( And never mentioned again) but to make him into a villain was so unnecessary.

Scarlet Witch:

I can't even begin to start with how Wanda was turned into the female Hal Jordan during the Dissembled and House Of M storyline. Can someone please explain why they decided to turn Wanda into a psycho mass-murderer for me as it was just awful all over. Maybe they can get Geoff Johns to reveal that she was possessed by Parallax like Hal was to retcon this stupid plotline

Phil Urich:

Why did Marvel let Slott turn Phil Urich into the new Hobgoblin? That was a rhetorical question by the way. His turn from being the good Green Goblin into another Osborn-lite psycho goblin is so pointless and dumb. I won't even get started on how much Phil as the new Hobgoblin reminds me of the 90's Jackal who was one of the most blatant Joker ripoffs ever.

Joseph:

Like Phil Urich, why did Marvel bring back Magneto's good-guy clone from the dead to make him the evil old Magneto is beyond me as well. Did Parallax possess Joseph as well like he obviously did all these other characters I mentioned? That's the only plausible reason I can have for all the crappy characterizations these said characters went through.

Anyways, I welcome all comments and feel free to respond.

[Doozer]

Cyclops is the best he's been in decades, thanks largely to Whedon carrying on Morrison's turn with the character, and going beyond that and having him finally break his psychological dependency on Jean and hangups about being a decisive leader.

He's been a weak character since he ran out on his wife and kid way back when, and he's finally been redeemed.

[DMM]

I really like this post, and I want to respond, but I'm in my phone right now. Hopefully I can respond in the morning.

[GHERU]

Cyclops is finally interesting

The Joseph thing made perfect sense in the context of the book. Joseph was "always" the mirror image of Magneto and when Astra brought him back it was to punish Magneto

[HNutz]

Kingsley's fight with Phil Ulrich.

[Strict31]

I think Johns's retcon of Parallax is one of the shittiest in modern comics.

I grew up reading Hal as the main GL, and I never really did start liking Kyle. So, I'm not a Kyle fanboy, or a guy who hated Hal. But I'll tell you what. Hal's descent into evil was one of the most emotionally genuine moments in comics. Not the part where he flips out and murders the rest of the Corps; the part where he sees the destruction of Coast City combined with the Guardians' refusal to do shit about it; the part where, after all these years of being the tip of the spear, and living for the protection of others, Hal snaps. All that fuckin' anguish...in a world composed of four colors, that was real pain and frustration and anger.

Additionally, it was an object lesson to younger heroes who came up after the old guard heroes: no matter how pure and good you are, this is a power that can always corrupt you. No matter how experienced or how great your control is, there will always be those moments when you crack.

And for all those years he was "dead", it meant something to the other characters. They weren't sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for him to come back to life. When they spoke of him, you got the sense they were speaking in hushed tones. Like they were thinking, "there but for the grace of God..." You got the sense that every time they thought about him, they reminded themselves what happened and how he feel. And it caused them to stand perhaps a little straighter.

It changed heroes who haven't changed in decades (except for when they goddamn get retconed or rebooted).

Let Hal die. Let him redeem himself in death, perhaps. But don't...DON'T explain it all away as a yellow space bug. All that shit he went through, it's not genuine anymore. He's not subject to human flaws and faults, because it was a space bug just waiting for a vulnerable moment.

[Doozer]

Cyclops is finally interesting

The Joseph thing made perfect sense in the context of the book. Joseph was "always" the mirror image of Magneto and when Astra brought him back it was to punish Magneto

Having Joseph act as a Sisyphean character, doomed to continuous resurrection only to push the boulder in the opposite direction Magneto happens to be going at the time would make a pretty interesting and tragic character.

[Grayson]

Superboy Prime-

Once a former hero but turned into an evil and whiney dipshit. Why? Apparently, the loss of his world caused him to go crazy and evil and perform retcon punches( Really, DC?) as well as rip people's arms off and go into temper tantrums when things didn't go his way. I could go into a rant about how stupid this is all over but I will cut this short by saying this was IDIOTIC! While Prime was nothing but an alternate Superman that was never a major character when created, his motivation for being evil and whiney made no sense. Plus, it's hard to take a character seriously who cries like a bitch when he gets his ass kicked, no matter how vicious you make him.

Don't get me wrong, I have little to no love for Superboy Prime but how exactly didn't this make sense. First of all, Superboy Prime had a different upbringing than Earth-1 or Earth-2 Superman. We have no idea what type of morals or values his parents raised him with. Second, he is a teenage boy that lost everything during the Crisis of Infinite Earths. Not just his girlfriend, not just his parents, and not just his home. Everything that was his world was completely gone. Finally, he helps save the universe and then he is trapped in a pocket universe with arguably the most noble and heroic version of himself there is, his elderly wife, and Alexander Luthor. From that pocket universe he is forced to watch the exploits of all of the people that they saved. Those people didn't live up to his expectations and he became disillusioned. The most important part of my argument is the point that Superboy Prime is a teenage boy. Like I said, I have almost no love for Superboy Prime but his evolution into what he eventually became makes sense to me.

Cyclops:

Does anybody note how Cyclops is currently portrayed as Magneto's mini-me as a self-righteous, manipulative and arrogant bastard? I mean Cyclops was always a hardcase from the get-go but at least he was more down to earth than he is now. Currently he is just a prick all over. I won't even get started on the Avengers/ X-Men crossover this year where he believes that the Phoenix can save mutantkind. Really, Scott, did you think that last one through? The Phoenix is a mass-murdering force of nature, not some messianic force of good-bearings.

Avengers vs. X-Men is still a month away and we don't know exactly what will be the last straw between them. Yes, we know it has something to do with the Phoenix, Hope, and possibly the Scarlet Witch but we still don't know how those things tie together. For all we know, Captain America and the Avengers could be coming to the X-Men, demanding that they allow Wanda to erase Hope from existence so that the Phoenix won't have a suitable host when it arrives on Earth. For all we know, the Avengers could be the bad guys in this situation. Plus, out of everyone in the Marvel Universe, Cyclops is arguably one of the best experts when it comes to the Phoenix. Any act of aggression on the Avengers part could be the catalyst that causes the Phoenix to unleash its unholy destruction upon the Earth.

Personality wise, Cyclops has been trained to be a solider and a leader since he was a teenager but he has always had Xavier to fall back on. Suddenly, House of M and Decimation happen and Cyclops is thrust full force into that leadership role. However, the group of people he is leading are on the verge of extinction. They are less than 200 strong, they are frightened, and they are split. People hate and fear them more than ever and there are people out there who would love nothing more than to wipe out the remainder of mutant kind. The decisions that Cyclops has been making are about survival. Unfortunately, he has been unfairly vilified. At the end of the day, Cyclops has always been and still remains my favorite X-Man and I am honestly on the edge of my seat to see what happens next.

Gwen Stacey:

The very idea that Gwen would willingly sleep with Norman is just the worst form of bad characterization ever. I keep wondering how that idea got past the editorial board to this day. Gwen, unless she was brainwashed or raped, would never sleep with a creepy older man who is her dad's age. Those very images of the two of them doing it is a form of torture porn.

...agreed.

[e_galston]

Plus, out of everyone in the Marvel Universe, Cyclops is arguably one of the best experts when it comes to the Phoenix.

No the person who is the expert on the phoenix force because she was the host up until like a year ago, is pretty much sitting out the crossover except for the tie-ins with X-Men Legacy

[Doozer]

Scott Summers is the new Nick Fury.

It is glorious and it is a mockery of all that is held sacred that he is not running SHIELD by now.

[Grayson]

No the person who is the expert on the phoenix force because she was the host up until like a year ago, is pretty much sitting out the crossover except for the tie-ins with X-Men Legacy

That is why I said that he is one of the best.

[Log-Man]

Three stand out for me.

Oliver Queen putting an arrow through Prometheus' skull ... "Justice." Ugh. And now this new guy, I don't even know who he is or who he's supposed to be. He should have stayed dead.

I still can't look at Reed Richards the same way after Civil War. That was so grossly out of character that I can't stand it.

Everybody at Sentry's funeral. I refuse to acknowledge crappy hack writing like that.

[Doozer]

Millar and Jenkins are two of the worst 616 writers ever. Not in the quality of their work, because Civil War and Jenkin's Sentry and Inhumans stuff was pretty exciting if nothing else, but in their complete mis-characterization of the entire MU.

[HNutz]

Peter Parker as a wife beater.

Nah, you know what? Spider-Man during the Clone Saga /Chapter One/Byrne era and then again during Civil War/Back in Black/One More Day error... uh, I mean, "era".

[Miracloman]

Civil War manage to,in my eyes at least,commit character assassination to at least half of the marvel Universe.