We focused on positivity first. Check out our Best In Comics Awards and our Top Ten Indie Comics lists for a lot of that. This, however, is where we trash other people's hard work with irrational anger and pretentions to taste, letting the inner fanboy rage run free. You've got to do that once in a while, just to get it all out of your system. So if you're in the mood to hate on some of the more annoying aspects of the superhero comics of 2011 one more time, let's take one final steaming dump on 'em and let it all go.
So since this was the year of the New 52, and we've already given you examples of what it's done right, we'll start off with what it's done wrong... and sad to say, the wrong has outweighed the right so far.
WORST REBOOT OF A CHARACTER
HAL JORDAN
Iann Robinson: I’ve always dug Hal Jordan; he’s always been a favorite of mine. So I find it hard to understand why DC comics decided to reboot him as sniveling loser who has nothing without his Lantern ring. Jordan was a top fighter pilot, he has friends in the JLA, and he’s a hot guy with chicks all over him. This guy has always been able to make lemonade out of lemons; he always rises above the odds, that’s what makes him such a powerful Green Lantern. However, if you take away his Lantern Ring, Hal Jordan can’t even pay rent. He tries to hit Carol Ferris up for money to buy a car and he whines a lot. That’s not Hal Jordan at all. The Jordan we know would have ran to Batman and asked for cash, or gotten his old job or something to make it work. He would have fought to get his ring back instead of becoming Sinestro’s bitch. Nothing in the rebooted version of Hal Jordan works at all, it’s a complete misfire.
EVERY CLASSIC BAT-VILLAIN WHO ISN'T PENGUIN
Andy Hunsaker: Sentimentally, I was inclined to choose Deadshot, who went from a fantastic, instantly identifiable and fairly slick character to a nondescript stache-less clown-banging nothing with an overly-busy cyborg look that cluttered him up... and that led to thinking 'wait, shrinking down Amanda Waller was even worse.' But the most surprisingly lame redux was the complete lack of it for the best of the Bat-villains. They're all just sort of lumped into Arkham with an "oh, yeah, it's still business as usual" kind of shrug-off. The thing to do with Harvey Dent would've been to retire the nonsensical no-skin-grafts-please thing and get him back into the Gotham CIty government, not roid him out, lose an eye and call him One-Face. How depressingly boring. Then there's the Riddler. Question marks drawn on his head... with a green question mark mohawk. That seems like such a sad "oh, maybe we should do something different" afterthought, stripping away his dapper and cunning operator traits and make him just seem pathetic. The wasted potential with this lot just makes a fella somber. Every one of these guys deserved their own Penguin: Pain and Prejudice style miniseries to re-establish them.
