I think the Internet is probably much too negative than it should be. But hey, I'm always curious to hear people's thoughts on this.

Have you ever encountered a comic that seems to be universally championed as a masterpiece by the majority of fandom? Than, after you read it, you wonder what the big damn deal was? I'm sure this has happened to all of us once or twice.

Now, before we get into this, I'll remind you all to be nice. Just because somebody doesn't think too much of Watchmen, Sandman, Peanuts, or Zippy doesn't make them bad people. Let's keep the aghast cries of blasphemy to a minimum.

...

Unless, of course, this person slanders Bone. In that case they have a dark, evil heart and no recognizable embers of a soul.

Anyways, here are three of mine...

Cerebus - I read a couple of the early issues after I fished them out of the dollar bin. I thought they were an amusing send-up of roving barbarian comics and I pluncked down some money for a "phone book" edition. This was about four years ago and I still haven't managed to struggle through the damn thing.

Dave Sim is a great artist with a fine sense of linework. And, on some occasions, Cerebus can be pretty damn funny. However, it takes itself really, really seriously at times. The narration can be overbearing in some spots and sometimes Sim himself can seem a little bit smug. I think this series lost its way well before it ended.

Krazy Kat - Yeah, I know. It's a goddamned surrealistic masterpiece. Just about every comics creator I admire has nothing but nice things to say about Krazy Kat. I got a couple of those Fantagraphics reprints of the Sunday strips and I really tried. I wanted to like this comic so much, but I ended up not being able to do it.

A lot of the strips didn't seem to have any jokes or storyline to them other than silly animals talking in dialect. The bizarre love triangle bit was interesting at first but then got old very quickly for me. This strip didn't make me laugh and it didn't make me think. I know I'm supposed to like it but I simply don't have it in me.

90 percent of the cartoons in the New Yorker - In another thread harkovast said that the creator of Doonesbury seems to think that his strip is much more clever than it actually is. 90 percent of the cartoons in the New Yorker pretty much define that notion.

Which comics do I think are overrated?

Oh boy!

If you like any of the comics I am about to mention, please stop reading, I am about to offend you!

Mallard Fillmore!
Who the hell reads this crap?

"Ha Ha! Liberals is stupid! Not smart like what I is! HAH HAH!"

THAT IS NOT FUNNY! THAT IS MORONIC!
Even if you agree with his politics (which are not conservative, unless the only conservative belief is "I hate liberals, they are stupid.") claiming to laugh at these feeble attempts at humour brings shame on you and both your houses!

And here is another news flash- Clinton is not funny! John Kerry is not funny! These people were funny between 4 and 8 years ago! Just because the author hates someone with as much venom as if they ran over his childhood puppy, does not mean he should devote a weekly comic strip in a national newspaper to them! You could start recycling Mallard Fillmore strips from 10 years ago, the jokes would be the same, it would be exactly as topical as it is today!

At one point a newspaper got rid of it but readers wrote in to complain that there were now no conservative political cartoons.
Right wingers take heed, you are better off without this hunk of horse crap representing your movement, unless you WANT people to think you are unfunny, occasionally racist idiots, in which case see if Mallard Fillmore cant start running cartoons daily!


SPAWN!
What the hell was that all about? In the 90's they made a movie of that crap, which only served to highlight that it made no damn sense and was written by a 5 year old.
Here is the plot-

SATAN- Here you go, I will give you ultimate super powers if you promise to destroy heaven for me, because apparantly I am too damn stupid to give MYSELF these freakin powers.

OUR HERO- Well okay, now I have more power then you, I dont want to destroy heaven, I want to hang around in an ally and be a hobo!

SATAN- Ah, damn! I didn't think of that! Curse your devious cunning, you sharp witted cad! Foiled again!

DICK DASTARDLY WAS HARDER TO TRICK THEN THAT!
I wouldn't trust this dark lord to hold scissors, let alone wage war against God!

DOONESBURY
Someone must have screwed with the writers dictionary, because last time I checked, the words "smug" "preachy" "arrogant" and "has its head up its arse" did not mean the same thing as "FUNNY!"
There is no punch line to these things, they just dwindle and die by the third panel while the characters smile knowing, because the author is getting paid so what does he care? He cant even be bothered to draw more then one character design! They all look the same but with different hair, or beards added on! Even the women are exactly the same but with longer hair! It is like it is set on a planet of extremely liberal Mr Potato heads!
Who the hell laughs at Doonesbury? People who want to reaffirm that everything they believe about the world is right and that they are tremendously smart, rather then the vacant, sudo-intellectual morons nodding to themselves like a tofu eating version of the plastic dogs you put in the back window of a car that they really are!

If I think of anymore that I hate I will be sure to let you know!
Peace...out!
(Air Raid Robertson, you make the best forum topics! You really do!)

harkovast

SPAWN!
What the hell was that all about? In the 90's they made a movie of that crap, which only served to highlight that it made no damn sense and was written by a 5 year old.
Here is the plot-

SATAN- Here you go, I will give you ultimate super powers if you promise to destroy heaven for me, because apparantly I am too damn stupid to give MYSELF these freakin powers.

OUR HERO- Well okay, now I have more power then you, I dont want to destroy heaven, I want to hang around in an ally and be a hobo!

SATAN- Ah, damn! I didn't think of that! Curse your devious cunning, you sharp witted cad! Foiled again!

DICK DASTARDLY WAS HARDER TO TRICK THEN THAT!
I wouldn't trust this dark lord to hold scissors, let alone wage war against God!

You forgot the part where he gets the cool costume, and the axe. :P

Anyway...

Death Note

Mmmk. At first, I honestly thought this would be halfway decent, but then I watched as massive hordes of people came rushing in, practically worshipping it.

It's about a guy, who pretty much gets a notebook, and can kill people by writing names in it.
Sure, it's an original concept.
But it's stupid.

If you were in a fight with somebody you didn't know, say, a demon (I wouldn't be surprised if that comic had demons) it's not like your going to want to yell, "Hey, demon! What's your name!?!"

You just kinda want to shoot them, or whatever.
I personally just think it's lame.

And pretty much any Marvel storyline.
Because they're lame.
They make you buy tons of comic books, for a crappy storyline.
Woo.

Isn't "Cerebus" universally lauded as the prime example of "How to screw up a perfectly good comic"?

And as for "Spawn"... I never actually read much past the first ten or so. It seemed like that comic was way over-hyped from the begining- anyone else remember how every other issue was supposed to be super valuable/collectable, before it even came out? What's a Spawn #1 go for these days?

I'll toss in "Dragonball". Sorry. All due respect to Akira Toriyama as bein' mad skilled, but I just don't get why anyone over the age of 10 would like it.

Bleach- As far as i'm concerned this is just dbz with swords and a lamer art style, or maybe i just dislike how he draws everyone with down syndrome eyes. Naruto is better.

Family circus-

Sandman- i could not get into this with the vapid rambling monologues on every page, and i am a hardcore watchmen fan. I may be missing a key piece of the picture so feel free to tell me i misjudged it.

Any Avengers spin-off after civil war- Civil war was epic, we get it, just jesus holy gods stop the projectiles of awful spin-offs that queefed from it :gem:

Skullbie

Sandman- i could not get into this with the vapid rambling monologues on every page, and i am a hardcore watchmen fan. I may be missing a key piece of the picture so feel free to tell me i misjudged it.

What story/book did you start off with? The first couple arcs can be kind of blah, honestly. I'd recommend "Brief Lives". If you don't dig that one, it's probably just not your thing.

I know this might be sacrilege around these parts but, I"ll say it anyways.

Calvin and Hobbes:I just never found it to be as funny and amazing as everyone thought it was. You can hate on me for it all you want, but it still won't change my mind.

Watchmen. It was okay, but I wouldn't call it the epitome of graphic novels. And I didn't much care for the art in it. It was still good, but overrated.

Most manga would also be on my list, though there are certainly lots of exceptions.

I would almost actually say 'Bone', Air Raid. Not strongly, considering I found it a largely good read for the most part... I just hate the ending. It's unsatisfying and felt rushed compared to the rest of it. I can only go by a feeling that some of the characters started feeling irrelevant compared to Thorn and I grew increasingly detached from caring what was happening. But, it doesn't quite make the list for that.


Curtis: I f'ing hate this newspaper comic. The main character is a horrid little idiot who frequently can't learn anything from his mistakes. Even when he does something good natured, it seems out of character for him, or perhaps more like a blind squirrel stumbling across an acorn. When does this kid become funny? And don't get me started on the formulaic bullies that Curtis has to announce every time they get re-introduced to the comic. It annoys me to think the author must imagine his readers having the memory of a goldfish.

The Boondocks: I just don't see anything funny about tossing out one tired stereotype after another.

Superhero comics in general: Aside from a handful of moments or characters, it's too gimmicky and franchised to be interesting. Things get ret-conned over and over, characters come back to life like they've got a handful of quarters in their pockets, and the crossovers are all pretty horrible. Looking back at the array of sheer number world ending plotlines, the whole history is a Gordian's knot of confusion. In my mind, Superman is possibly the worst character design ever made into popularity.

Inuyasha: Kagome and Inuyasha are in love with each other, but they're both too fundamentally anal retentive to admit it or too dim to remember when the other one makes the rare desperate expression stating said affection. The series just goes on and on, Naraku basically becoming a little more godlike every so often while the heroes remain fairly stagnant on all fronts. And surprise! YET another barrier Inuyasha's sword suddenly can't break comes into play. Boring.

Bleach: It's basically Dragonball Z with every one dimensional throw away character announcing their names and ranks first.

BC: I used to enjoy this one as child, but Hart really mucked it up when he got into the heavy Christian themes before his passing. Hart's inability to separate his personal interests from using BC as a preachy soapbox of his own religious smugness changed the comic's atmosphere entirely.

oh man, it's shocking how much I agree with you guys on a lot of these. (Except for Death Note. Death Note is brilliant. Not only is it conceptually strong, but it explores so many nuanced morality issues. My favorite books/movies/comics are ones that make me question my perception of right and wrong, and this is a prime example. The classic question of, 'is killing killers wrong?' is asked, and by humanizing the killer, it really makes you reassess your thought process.
plus what does this mean? (not trying to be mean, I just don't understand.)

ryuthehedgewolf
If you were in a fight with somebody you didn't know, say, a demon (I wouldn't be surprised if that comic had demons) it's not like your going to want to yell, "Hey, demon! What's your name!?!"

Skullbie: lol I like that you didn't even feel the need to explain Family Circus' inclusion. And I agree about the eyes in Bleach; I might have liked it more if they didn't all look like weird, droopy-eyed ducks (those mouths!!).

Sandman, I gave a try, too- read 2 volumes. it wasn't horrible, but the art just makes me cringe.

I also agree about Calvin & Hobbes; some people, like, worship this comic but I think it's on the same level as other newspaper funnies.

Chernobog
Curtis: I f'ing hate this newspaper comic. The main character is a horrid little idiot who frequently can't learn anything from his mistakes. Even when he does something good natured, it seems out of character for him, or perhaps more like a blind squirrel stumbling across an acorn. When does this kid become funny? And don't get me started on the formulaic bullies that Curtis has to announce every time they get re-introduced to the comic. It annoys me to think the author must imagine his readers having the memory of a goldfish.

omg curtis is the bane of my existence.. it's so unfunny it makes me wanna kill myself. and it's full of racial stereotypes about all different ethnic groups- there was this one, it was a little sickening that people find such hackneyed cliches funny-- Curtis has to go to summer school and he's in the math class and the token asian boy is there, and Curtis says something like, "Hey, I thought you were great at math! why are you here?" and the asian kid's like, "I choose to be here cuz I love math." WOW HOW ORIGINAL. And the asian kid was drawn really stereotypically. ew.

I'm wracking my brain for more, but I haven't read too many bad comics (I stop reading if I don't like it.)

Skullbie
Sandman-i could not get into this with the vapid rambling monologues on every page, and i am a hardcore watchmen fan. I may be missing a key piece of the picture so feel free to tell me i misjudged it.

In defence of Sandman, I think its importance lies not in any individual part of the work itself but in the breadth of the whole. I can understand some people not liking it. I think some parts barely fit the description of a comic at all (they're simply prose stories with illustrations) and, despite the claims made for it, it's really an anthology rather than a single unified series. However, Sandman has probably done more than any other series of books to widen the range of subjects and genres considered suitable for comic books. Fantasy, cime drama, historical fiction - these were all virtually unheard of in the comics of the 1970s and 1980s but Sandman popularised them all again and, for that alone, a lot of comics (including webcomics!) owe it a great debt.

Moving on ... Being a great Alan Moore fan, I'm always especially disappointed when I find one of his books doesn't live up to its reputation so, my list of over-rated comic books would have to include:

V for Vendetta
Ugly to look at, and written in the style of a petulant teenager who thinks it's cool to write angry political messages, this is nothing more than a very poorly disguised rant against the Thatcher government of the 1980s. No subtlety. No wit. Just childish anger.

From Hell
Researched to death and back again, and it shows. I found this book a real chore to read. It's like a text book with pictures. Little characterisation and with nothing new to add to the Ripper mythology. Even the main feature of the plot (the occultist connection) was lifted straight from another novel (Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd). Just plain dull.

Promethea
Two volumes of reasonable scifi-cum-superhero shenanigans with a passing observation on the nature of imaginative fiction, and three volumes of interminable coffee-table style froth. Page after page of tiresome explanations of every single card in the tarot deck and every single letter of the ancient Hebrew alphabet - wonderfully illustrated but adding absolutely nothing to the story. An exercise in self-indulgence by an author who knows he's so famous he can get away with it.

I don't like anything by Alan Moore. The only things of his I liked were League of Extraordinary Gentlemen part 1 and 2 (the 3rd book was horrible). Everything else is too long, boring, and I dunno... like the guy loves to hear his own voice or something. Maybe he's a great guy but I just can't stand most of his stuff, it all comes off as really self-important.

I also didn't like Fables. I gave it a try because I heard good things, but I just couldn't get into it.

Walking Dead started out fantastic and just gets dumber the longer it goes on. I think they're running out of things to do because the story has slowed way down and I don't even care about the characters any more (the few still alive anyway).

I also tried reading some of those Batman special series' that got good press like Killing Joke and whatever else, but didn't like any of them. They were basically YEAH let's make Batman hardcore with rough art and RAPE and stuff!

Also most newspaper comics don't hold my interest at all, but I really don't think that many people value them too highly, so it's hard to say they're 'overrated'. They've just somehow done whatever's needed to get into newspaper circulation which supposedly makes them better than a lot of other stuff.

The only current comics I bother reading any more are Hellboy/BPRD stuff, Usagi (out of nostalgia) and I order The Goon when a new TPB comes out. I'm desperate for the next Castle Waiting book but I think that is a long time away, even though she has been putting out regular issues for a few months now (which I can't get here).

I guess we're not talking about webcomics, I think a lot of people would have very long lists about webcomics they think are overrated. :]

Kristen Gudsnuk
oh man, it's shocking how much I agree with you guys on a lot of these. (Except for Death Note. Death Note is brilliant. Not only is it conceptually strong, but it explores so many nuanced morality issues. My favorite books/movies/comics are ones that make me question my perception of right and wrong, and this is a prime example. The classic question of, 'is killing killers wrong?' is asked, and by humanizing the killer, it really makes you reassess your thought process.
plus what does this mean? (not trying to be mean, I just don't understand.)

ryuthehedgewolf
If you were in a fight with somebody you didn't know, say, a demon (I wouldn't be surprised if that comic had demons) it's not like your going to want to yell, "Hey, demon! What's your name!?!"

Isn't the whole point of it, to like, write down the name of the person you want to kill, and imagine them or something?
Don't you HAVE to have the name to kill them?

Let me comment on some of the other crappy comics people have mentioned-

V for vendetta. I really liked the film so I went and read the comic and was REALLY let down!
I thought the bad guys were unsubtle in the film but in the book they LITERALLY nazi salute each other! Thanks, I hadn't realised they weren't the goodies!
It also throws in concepts then abandons them, as if the writer is making it up as he goes along.
Early on V switches masks for a killing, but then never does it again. What was the point of this? Why would he change his iconic mask for one bad guy but not all he others? That is just crappy, like the rest of this over rated tosh.
This stopped being edgy about the time Margaret Thatcher went out of power!

I found Sandman to be pretentious drivel with a main character (Dream) who is just a whiny goth who speaks in bad poetry and things he has something important and meaningful to say, rather then the mindless crap he is really spouting.
There was one story in it where a villain uses a stolen magic rock to make people torture themselves and kill and rape each other for his entertainment, killing a who diner full of people this way as well as numerous random people around the world.
The main character shows up and the bad guy goes all out to kill him but screws up and actually releases the power of the magic rock by mistake, making the main character more powerful.
So how does our hero respond? Does he beat the crap out of this human garbage? Does he make pay back for stealing his magic rock and trying to kill him?
No, he thanks the guy and rewards him with a good nights sleep!
WHAT THE HELL?
What a bunch of crap! I had to sit through 20 pages of freaky torture porn (the only thing keeping me going was "well this is just sick and depressing but at least I know it is building up to the bad guy getting his punishment soon! I home dream really messes him up!"), and then the main character completely illogically helps a guy who is not only a total git but actively tried to KILL him! Earlier Dream he tortured a guy for the guys entire life by never letting him sleep properly for imprisoning him. Apparantly imprisoning our hero bad, but trying to murder him, good!
This was depressing, inconsistantly written and unpleasent.
There is nothing worse then the writer making the characters act like ass holes and somehow expecting us to cheer for it at the end.
Utter crap!

Boondocks- har har! he dropped the N bomb! But it is okay because he is black so he is allowed to be racist about blacks! give him a freakin comedy medal! the cartoon show version was even more depressing, it was like watching a guy forfill his own racial self hate fantasy. Every episode focused on some aspect of black people that pissed the author off. It is like one huge ironic joke, with a black author writing something that has more venom for black people then the KKK does!

League of Extraodinary gentlemen- The film was crap, but I heard the comic was good.
the comic featured a girls school in which the girls were constantly spanked by each other and also raped by the invisible man who they though was the spirit of Jesus...raping them I guess. I guess being constantly spanked makes you gullible?
Great, I am reading Alan Moores underage sex fantasy....nice. I feel like I need to go wash my brain.
Oh but the best part is, the school is shaped like a giant bottom being spanked with an enormous hand!
SUBTLE! SUBTLE! SO FREAKIN SUBTLE! THE BUILDING WAS SHAPED THAT WAY JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN'T GET IT! SEE? THEY LIKE SPANKING YOUNG GIRLS? SO THEY MADE THE BUILDING SHAPED LIKE THAT? ALAN MOORE IS A GENIUS!
Bunch of sexist, racist crap!
It was meant to be mocking victorian attitudes, but in this comic they ALL proved true! The women WAS useless and constantly getting almost raped by fierce dark skinned foriegners (who preiodically ran in on mass and attacked her...I wish I was joking or exaggerating). The Arabs and Chinese were nothing but screaming devils with no fear of death and hugely exaggerated facial features.
The bad guy built a flying machine that there was "No defense against" but the chinese all flew up to it on theiir war kites (dont even ask!) so it wasn't especially dangerous as everyone apparantly already had flying machines but the heroes forgot because the author wrote them as ass back wards stupid and sexually weird as he is!
Crap story, racism, sexism, some parts too bad to laugh at.
And I hear the later books actually get WORSE!!!

DragonBal? I cant even bring myself to comment on that.
If you cant see what is wrong with two muscular men standing in a field for weeks at a time boasting about how big their power levels are getting, you are beyond my ability to help!

See, I like the things Harkovast says are bad, because of all the fucked up shit in them. The characters aren't all "I am a main character! I can do no wrong!" For me, that makes me dislike a book.

(Except DragonBall. "Two muscular men standing in a field for weeks at a time boasting about how big their power levels are getting" is right.)

Alan Moore really seems to be hit-or-miss as far as most of his work goes.

megan_rose
See, I like the things Harkovast says are bad, because of all the fucked up shit in them. The characters aren't all "I am a main character! I can do no wrong!" For me, that makes me dislike a book.

(Except DragonBall. "Two muscular men standing in a field for weeks at a time boasting about how big their power levels are getting" is right.)

Alan Moore really seems to be hit-or-miss as far as most of his work goes.

Heh. Yeah, c'mon Hark- don't go calling 'em crap*! Would you maybe prefer somethin' with- oh, I don't know... furries? >:)

(*except Dragonball)

Yeah, I have to say that the continuous bum spanking stuff sounds pretty good. That was the League of Extraordinary gentlemen right? I'll have to look for that one...

With Hark being English and all, you'd think he'd be into the spanking thing.

Dragonball? are you sers? oh my...*clutches hand to heart* i dont think i can take this!

just to be clear, for the people who keep mentioning the "powering up for days" thing...that only happened in the anime. the manga is brilliant.

*wipes tears away*

I wholeheartedly agree about bleach...id even toss in naruto.

as far as print comics....

anything by grant morrison.

blankets. I get it, but the whole "autobiographical comic" thing just isnt my type.

skoolmunkee
I also didn't like Fables. I gave it a try because I heard good things, but I just couldn't get into it.

*withholds howl of despair*

Fables volume 1 was interesting, but didn't grab me too much... but as the series progressed, it got so much better. (there was like a two month time lapse for me between reading vol. 1 & vol. 2, but after that I went to the bookstore and read one or two volumes a day.) It got addictive. Volume 2 was much better, and I especially remember Volume 6 being so insanely good, and tragic, that I cried. There were parts where I was in complete awe at how amazing the art was... I even have a random fables throwback panel in my comic The Optimist (it's the long rectangle of lilies and violets in a sort of vine on this page , they do that a lot in Fables, it looks a thousand times better than mine does though.)

Classic Rugrats might not count for this discussion, since I've never met anyone who's actually enjoyed it but.... it makes me boil with hate inside.


the jokes are all like, TERRIBLE baby-speak puns. It used to run in the CT Post.

I wasn't a big fan of V for Vendetta either, but I assumed it was because the movie was like the comic word-for-word, and I had seen it first.

Hyena H_ll

megan_rose
See, I like the things Harkovast says are bad, because of all the fucked up shit in them. The characters aren't all "I am a main character! I can do no wrong!" For me, that makes me dislike a book.

(Except DragonBall. "Two muscular men standing in a field for weeks at a time boasting about how big their power levels are getting" is right.)

Alan Moore really seems to be hit-or-miss as far as most of his work goes.

Heh. Yeah, c'mon Hark- don't go calling 'em crap*! Would you maybe prefer somethin' with- oh, I don't know... furries? >:)

(*except Dragonball)

Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Now you've got my attention too ;)

Oh, and to add on to that, Usagi Yojimbo has been going on since the 80's, and it's still brilliant. I try to get it every time I visit my local comic book store. The art style is unique, and the stories in it are just awesome. So take that! :P
The Turtles...on the other hand...well...they aren't as good now.

Youngblood, most definitely.
I've only read one issue, and to be honest? I'm not sure what all the hype was about (well, IMAGE seemed pretty hyped about it, that is)

I have some of IMAGE's old comics (Bloodstrike, which is actually okay, but still very confusing) and it's not really any different than the Avengers. It's just, different people.

I could be wrong.
But honestly, I could live without any more superhero comics.
Let's just stick with Spidey, and a few others, and we should be good.
Originality is key here, folks.

Ryuthehedgewolf

Kristen Gudsnuk
oh man, it's shocking how much I agree with you guys on a lot of these. (Except for Death Note. Death Note is brilliant. Not only is it conceptually strong, but it explores so many nuanced morality issues. My favorite books/movies/comics are ones that make me question my perception of right and wrong, and this is a prime example. The classic question of, 'is killing killers wrong?' is asked, and by humanizing the killer, it really makes you reassess your thought process.
plus what does this mean? (not trying to be mean, I just don't understand.)

ryuthehedgewolf
If you were in a fight with somebody you didn't know, say, a demon (I wouldn't be surprised if that comic had demons) it's not like your going to want to yell, "Hey, demon! What's your name!?!"

Isn't the whole point of it, to like, write down the name of the person you want to kill, and imagine them or something?
Don't you HAVE to have the name to kill them?

You seem tobe thinking of Death Note as though it were an action series. It's really more of a supernatural crime drama. They don't "fight" eachother in the traditional, action-packed sense.

As for the comment on Sandman letting the crazy guy go, I think the important thing is that Dream realized that he was insane and not in control of his actions. He punished the guy who imprisoned him because that guy knew what he was doing and did it anyway; crazy torture porn guy was insane, unable to sleep, and exposure to Dream's stone of power just pushed him over the edge. Not to say that I think you absolutely need to like the book; it's defnitely not the kind of story to have universal appeal.


Myself, I'm a pretty easy to satisfy guy. Most series that are popular are well known I'll enjoy, and I find if I do start drifting away from them it's at the same time that everyone ELSE starts to drift away from them too.

Heh, heh. It's funny how many of my favorite comics have already been up here.
Of course I think the most overrated comic is Ghost in the Shell. Whenever I meet fans of it they just assume that I didn't like it 'cause I didn't get it. No, I got it. I just didn't like it.
For the touted "amazing story," the basic plot points were garbled and thrown in with a good deal of tangents that made it hard to read. Of course like all Shirow comics there's the cheesecake. I never really liked that either, mostly because all of his women look exactly alike apart from their hairdo. That's a pretty common fault with manga in general I know, but I tend to expect a little more from a supposed "master."

patrickdevine
Of course I think the most overrated comic is Ghost in the Shell. "

I was gonna throw that one in, but it's been about ten years since I've read it, and I figure I might think differently now.

A lot of my favorites are poppin' up too; but remember a comic has to be highly esteemed in the first place to be considered "over-rated". ;)

NickGuy
just to be clear, for the people who keep mentioning the "powering up for days" thing...that only happened in the anime. the manga is brilliant.

I was gonna say the exact same thing.

This thread is proof of that different strokes saying.
Also in Death Note's defense, I hate the second half of the comic, both it and Hikaru no Go have some of the worst endings, but it shouldn't be hated for the reasons stated before by others.

I still read Bleach but its gotta be one of the worst out there. Whether its a rehash of dragonball or whatever I don't know but it's a rehash of itself.

Inkmonkey

Ryuthehedgewolf

Kristen Gudsnuk
oh man, it's shocking how much I agree with you guys on a lot of these. (Except for Death Note. Death Note is brilliant. Not only is it conceptually strong, but it explores so many nuanced morality issues. My favorite books/movies/comics are ones that make me question my perception of right and wrong, and this is a prime example. The classic question of, 'is killing killers wrong?' is asked, and by humanizing the killer, it really makes you reassess your thought process.
plus what does this mean? (not trying to be mean, I just don't understand.)

ryuthehedgewolf
If you were in a fight with somebody you didn't know, say, a demon (I wouldn't be surprised if that comic had demons) it's not like your going to want to yell, "Hey, demon! What's your name!?!"

Isn't the whole point of it, to like, write down the name of the person you want to kill, and imagine them or something?
Don't you HAVE to have the name to kill them?

You seem tobe thinking of Death Note as though it were an action series. It's really more of a supernatural crime drama. They don't "fight" eachother in the traditional, action-packed sense.

Oh, really?
Well dang.
I might have to check it out then.

I mean, if it was your regular action-packed manga, then I'd be skeptical. Because if you had to run around and write people's names in a notebook trying to kill them, I think that'd be lame. But this...intrigues me.

If we're bringing cartoons into the mix:

Rocko's modern life: I watched and liked this show, but it really was not that funny for the praise it was given at the time.

Flapjack: It's a spoungebob rip-off with a shitload of textures dumped on it and half the charm, i will never for the life of me get why some grown adults think this is worthy of being called 'art' or 'funny'.

I'd have to disagree on boondock's on account of it being hilarious and charming at the same time, but i'm pretty convinced only white people like that show so meh.

I thought hark was dead-on about league, it's basically One flew over the cuckoo's nest with the level of sexism and racism but not sugercoating itself as 'righteous'.
(god i fucking hate that book i wish kesey were alive today and castrated :gem:)

Ok, I disagree with the opinions on
Cerebus (I read the entire thing in a week and only skimmed bits of the controversial essay and the bible reading stuff),
Spawn (for a 90s superhero book it's not bad and it had some really good bits later in the run), Death Note (the concept is that the main "hero" can kill nearly anyone but has to do that so hes out of suspicion),
Sandman (it has its ups and downs but it's a pretty good book in the end),
Calvin and Hobbes (it's actually different from the other newspaperstrips... it was drawn way better AND it ended when the author wanted rather than go on into eternity like Garfield does for example),
Watchmen (with each reading the book gets better the more layers in it you uncover),
Bone (ending was planned from the beginning),
V for Vendetta (the art is good, the coloring is a bit strange though as it was meant as purely b&w book originally),
From Hell (possibly my fav Alan Moore book, read it in two days with food breaks only),
Promethea (the intent of the comic was to teach about magic basically),
Walking Dead (the series are still going strong even if they were stuck for a bit in a prison),
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (were we reading the same story?),
Dragonball (have you actually read the manga or just saw the anime? Cause I remember in the manga action was pretty fast, at least in the first 10 volumes that I could afford back in the day),
Ghost in the Shell (I don't know how's the english translation but the polish translation was checked with various professors to check up on the scientific stuff and as a result was a perfect read)...

the rest I don't know or haven't read yet... or am not going to defend (like Youngblood, haha).

Things that I... perhaps don't find overrated, more likely can't understand WHY ANYONE WOULD SPEND MONEY ON THAT... would be...

Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum. Ugh. Ultimates 3 are sooo bad... the story makes no sense, character designs make no sense (Loeb complaining about how ultimate line is too much like regular marvel and then he does a book where characters are redesigned to look EVEN MORE like their regular versions), and the art makes no sense either (there are places where it's impossible to tell what's going on, people running out of panels in a way that makes them look like they're running behind the people they're attacking)... oh hell, just read this (it's a review of all five issues, one per each post with an introductory post at the bottom which is actually fun, unlike the comic itself) http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/search/label/ultimates%203%20week .

Ultimatum on the other hand is borderline hilarious while at the same time it makes you wanna cry. "Hey, wouldn't it be fun if we flooded new york and thus kill 20 or so heroes off panel and then have the remaining heroes drop like flies while they go after magneto?"
...and I think the "borderline hilarious" bit is what makes me read. Good thing I'm not buying these issues (a friend does as he basically subscribes to the entire Ultimate line). There's NO WAY I could pay ANY money for that crap...

Aurora I can't agree with you more about Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum. Loeb has pretty much lost his mind, read Red Hulk just to confirm.

I think the first Marvels book is overrated. I think the reason that it got so much praise was because it was the first major work from Alex Ross. Which I'm not going to criticize, because I love Alex Ross's work. But I just thought that the story itself was just so-so.

If you want the definitive Alex Ross book, it's Kingdom Come IMHO. Some people will claim that this book is overrated (and they may be right) but I absolutely love it. I've read it so many times. It's probably my favorite graphic novel of all time.

NickGuy
Dragonball? are you sers? oh my...*clutches hand to heart* i dont think i can take this!

just to be clear, for the people who keep mentioning the "powering up for days" thing...that only happened in the anime. the manga is brilliant.

*wipes tears away*

I wholeheartedly agree about bleach...id even toss in naruto.

as far as print comics....

anything by grant morrison.

blankets. I get it, but the whole "autobiographical comic" thing just isnt my type.

you're totally right, and besides dragonball is not just about the "Z" anime, the beginning of the series was pretty fun, and then the story development is something worth reading, i guess people that hate dragonball just watched z and thought it was lame, People !!!, if you watched dragonball z remember, there's character and plot development before that !!!

I think that most of the animes mentioned (Bleach, DBZ, etc) where not really overrated as overhyped.

I really don't think that DBZ or Bleach where taked more than pretty cool action shows. I mean, I loved the action on the Soul Society Arc and the Vegeta vs Goku fight in the Boo Saga is one of my Top 10 Anime Fights of all time...But I didn't picked either Bleach nor DBZ because of their complex character development or compeling plot...I just wanted a badass fight...

Honestly, one comic that I founded REALLY overrated is Marvel's Civil War. I admit in the first place that I like DC more, but War was just one character derrailment behind other...The comic was cool, but compared with the other big event that year (DC's Infinite Crisis), is not that good...

Flapjack: It's a spoungebob rip-off with a shitload of textures dumped on it and half the charm, i will never for the life of me get why some grown adults think this is worthy of being called 'art' or 'funny'.

I'd have to disagree on boondock's on account of it being hilarious and charming at the same time, but i'm pretty convinced only white people like that show so meh.

I'm Latin and I like Flapjack very much...Could it be that Im an adult, but not a grown one...