Top 20 DC Moments That Made Fans Rage Quit
These DC comic book moments made fans rage quit! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for DC’s most controversial, mind-boggling, and frustrating moments that ticked off the fans upon release.
Transcript
00:00 If I fail, I fail.
00:01 - Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down
00:06 our picks for DC's most controversial, mind-boggling,
00:10 and frustrating moments that ticked off the fans
00:13 upon release.
00:15 We'll be looking specifically at moments from the comics.
00:18 This list will also contain spoilers for many key stories,
00:22 so consider this your warning.
00:24 Number 20, When Hulk Became Monarch.
00:28 If you were reading Armageddon 2001,
00:31 an event featuring the devious monarch,
00:33 his identity seemed to be a given.
00:36 Monarch was originally a character who snapped,
00:38 seemingly killed all the Earth heroes,
00:41 and took over the world, all in the year 2001.
00:44 The signs were all pointing to Monarch being Captain Atom,
00:48 and in fact, that was exactly the case, at least originally.
00:52 When the word of the reveal got spoiled beforehand,
00:55 DC scrambled and changed it.
00:58 Now, Monarch was Hank Hall.
01:00 Sure, DC was in a tough spot,
01:03 but it would've been far better
01:04 if they had stuck to their guns.
01:06 The change created a giant headache
01:08 that contradicted continuity.
01:10 Monarch's reveal also fell flat with fans,
01:13 and knocked Hank's stock down a bit.
01:17 Number 19, All of Guy Gardner Warrior.
01:20 Guy Gardner may be loud-mouthed, abrasive, hot-headed,
01:24 sometimes a jerk, you get the picture,
01:27 but despite that, deep down he's a courageous hero
01:30 who's deserving of his Green Lantern ring.
01:33 So when Guy ditched it
01:34 and started calling himself the Warrior,
01:36 fans were a little more than ticked off.
01:39 In a surprising but ultimately disappointing story,
01:42 Guy Gardner was revealed to be half-human and half-Vardarian,
01:46 making him now part alien.
01:48 This also revealed that Guy could now
01:50 morph parts of his body into weapons.
01:52 Guy's Warrior identity was pretty definitively met
01:56 with a lackluster response from fans.
01:58 You could just tell the whole thing reeked of '90s edge.
02:02 Stick to a Latin ring, Guy, stick to it.
02:06 Number 18, Jason Todd Loves Barbara Gordon.
02:09 Robin's got a crush on Batgirl,
02:11 but it might not be the Robin you'd expect.
02:14 During Geoff Johns' Three Jokers comic,
02:16 the Jokers, yup, there's multiple,
02:19 tormented Batman, Batgirl, and Red Hood.
02:23 After a particularly harrowing experience with the Jokers,
02:26 Jason later recovers and recollects with Barbara.
02:29 In a surprising moment, the two share a kiss.
02:32 Barbara quickly admitted she considered it a mistake, though.
02:36 Just the mere kiss was enough to incite
02:38 major uproar from the fandom.
02:40 The page near the end of the book
02:42 where Jason wrote a letter confessing his love to her,
02:44 which comedically failed to be delivered,
02:47 didn't exactly ease things either.
02:50 This romantic pairing was bound to fail.
02:53 Number 17, The Alexandra DeWitt Fridging.
02:57 When Cal Rayner's girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt,
02:59 was unceremoniously murdered by the villain, Major Force,
03:03 her death sent shockwaves
03:05 through the entire comic book industry.
03:07 The trend of women being killed
03:08 to give the hero extra emotional baggage
03:11 wasn't anything new.
03:12 But when Alexandra was stuffed into a fridge,
03:15 her death finally brought real awareness to the issue.
03:18 The problem would become fittingly known as fridging.
03:22 DC was criticized by readers and critics alike
03:25 for their treatment of their female characters,
03:27 and rightfully so.
03:29 There are plenty of ways to advance a character's story
03:33 without having to kill off their love interest
03:35 for shock value.
03:37 Number 16, Wonder Woman Loses Her Title.
03:40 Nobody was safe from getting a terrible 90s revamp,
03:44 not even one of the most famous superheroines ever.
03:48 After George Perez's character-defining
03:50 Wonder Woman run drew to a close,
03:52 the character was eventually taken into a new direction.
03:56 We never said it was a very well-received direction, though.
04:00 William Mezner-Loeb's take on Wonder Woman
04:02 saw her go by just Diana,
04:05 after she lost the Wonder Woman title
04:06 to the warrior, Artemis.
04:08 To complete the change,
04:10 she adopted a whole new biker look.
04:12 The change was clearly forced by DC
04:15 in an attempt to make their heroes
04:16 all reflect the gritty 90s.
04:18 Fans weren't having any of it, though,
04:21 and Diana was thankfully restored to Wonder Woman
04:23 by the end of the run.
04:25 Number 15, Nightwing Gets Taken Advantage By Tarantula.
04:29 When Nightwing squared off against the powerful Blockbuster,
04:32 he surprisingly gained help
04:34 in the form of a new femme fatale, Tarantula.
04:37 All things considered,
04:38 this was a pretty standard Nightwing story,
04:41 right up until the disgusting end.
04:43 After Tarantula saved Nightwing by killing Blockbuster,
04:47 she took advantage of the physically-drained superhero.
04:50 Nightwing very clearly told Tarantula to stop,
04:53 but she instead ignored his pleas
04:55 and assaulted him anyways.
04:57 Fans were horrified by this reckless creative decision.
05:00 Writer Devin Grayson eventually apologized,
05:03 but the moment has gone down in history
05:05 as one of the bleakest times in Nightwing's story tenure.
05:09 A reference to Tarantula even had to be altered
05:11 from the animated Harley Quinn show.
05:13 - But I let Vigilante kill Blockbuster!
05:16 It was big news in Bloodhaven!
05:18 - Number 14, Rick Grayson Is Born.
05:21 Dan Duttio's disdain for Dick Grayson
05:23 led to a very interesting,
05:26 and by interesting we mean critically panned,
05:29 time for Nightwing.
05:30 When Nightwing is shot in the head by KGBeast,
05:33 he loses his memory.
05:34 He then is no longer Nightwing,
05:37 becomes a taxi driver,
05:39 and starts calling himself Rick.
05:41 This major change to a fan favorite character
05:43 went about as well as anyone would expect,
05:46 with Rick Grayson ultimately becoming
05:48 a shell of his former self.
05:50 Eventually, Nightwing regained his memories
05:52 and everything went back to normal.
05:54 But the damage was already done.
05:57 This bizarre stunt went on for an uncomfortably long time.
06:00 Sure, everything might be normal now,
06:03 but Rick Grayson unfortunately will always
06:05 have been a thing that happened.
06:07 Number 13, Wally West Is The Sanctuary Killer.
06:11 Make no mistake, Tom King is an amazing
06:14 Eisner award winning writer.
06:16 And while divisive, Heroes in Crisis
06:18 still offered an intricate look
06:20 into the mental health of superheroes.
06:23 But yeah, with all that being said,
06:25 this was still undeniably a complete
06:28 character assassination of Wally West.
06:30 Sorry Tom.
06:31 In a disappointing ending,
06:33 Wally was revealed to be the cause of the sanctuary murders
06:36 after suffering a severe mental breakdown.
06:39 The villain is turned for the character
06:40 who was supposed to be the hope for DC's universe
06:43 didn't bode well at all.
06:45 Wally West fans rose up to express
06:48 their hatred for this choice.
06:49 Wally's actions during the controversial comic
06:52 had since been retconned multiple times
06:55 in order to restore his reputation.
06:58 Number 12, The Bat-Cat Wedding Catastrophe.
07:01 Tom King's Batman run divided the fan base
07:04 with many loving it and many not.
07:07 And there's probably no greater example
07:09 of why people don't like it
07:10 than the infamous wedding issue.
07:12 In Batman number 50,
07:14 Batman and Catwoman were finally going to get married.
07:17 Except that didn't actually happen.
07:20 Catwoman called the wedding off
07:22 and the whole thing ended up being a mess.
07:25 To say fans hated the decision is really putting it lightly.
07:28 The reveal that the wedding was all a sham
07:31 had made serious headlines.
07:33 For many fans, they stopped reading DC altogether
07:36 because of this.
07:37 It was so controversial
07:39 that Tom King got death threats over it.
07:42 You can dislike the comic all you want,
07:45 but threatening the writer's life is never okay.
07:49 Number 11, The New 52 Reboot.
07:51 The very idea of taking something
07:53 with an established lore and passionate fan base
07:56 and saying, "Hey, we're going to scrap all of that,"
07:59 is immediately going to ruffle feathers.
08:02 While The New 52 ultimately was a success in many regards,
08:06 it also had its fair share of baggage.
08:08 It did pretty well in sales
08:10 and served as the launching pad
08:11 for an entire new generation of readers.
08:13 But it also made many unpopular creative decisions.
08:17 Many of the most iconic heroes were aged down
08:20 and turned into jerks.
08:22 Longtime fan favorite relationships were scrapped,
08:24 unappealing origin stories were told,
08:27 and many characters was just left
08:28 out of the shuffle entirely.
08:30 Even if you were pro New 52,
08:33 you couldn't deny that this reboot's execution
08:36 was a mess.
08:37 Number 10, Twilight Lobo.
08:40 When DC Comics decided to go full relaunch,
08:43 it was a bold move.
08:45 Unfortunately, there were many missteps,
08:47 and it was not the successful revelation of the brand
08:51 that the company had hoped for.
08:52 Fans had no shortage of complaints,
08:54 from Pandora's role in the universe
08:57 to the multitude of disappointing crossovers.
08:59 But one of the biggest gripes was the character redesigns.
09:02 Some redesigns were divisive,
09:04 others were universally panned.
09:06 Lobo fits squarely into the latter category,
09:09 a poster boy for everything wrong
09:11 with the company's new aesthetic choices.
09:13 Lobo the giant space biker
09:16 might not have been for everybody,
09:18 but nobody wanted slim, surly, teenage, emo Twilight Lobo.
09:23 Rebirth thankfully brought the old Lobo back
09:26 and added this guy to Brainiac's collection.
09:29 Number nine, the death of Leon Harper.
09:32 When well executed and given appropriate weight
09:35 and consideration, death can be a painful,
09:37 but effective tool that helps characters grow
09:40 and highlights the themes of loss, sacrifice, and suffering.
09:44 Unfortunately, the industry has identified it
09:47 as a shortcut to selling issues,
09:50 and so it tends to get used for shock and awe.
09:52 Such is the case with Justice League Cry for Justice.
09:55 In it, Star City is partially destroyed by a bomb,
09:59 and one of the victims is Red Arrow's young daughter,
10:02 Leon Harper.
10:03 It feels cheap, manipulative, cruel, and out of nowhere.
10:07 But then again, this is a comic
10:10 in which heroes torture villains for information.
10:13 So maybe rage quit worthy moments
10:15 is what they were going for.
10:17 Number eight, Arsenal gets high and saves a dead cat.
10:21 Roy Harper really can't catch a break, can he?
10:24 Back in the 70s, when he was still Green Arrow's sidekick,
10:27 he ended up misusing heroin.
10:29 Retrospectively, the story might feel cheesy
10:32 and melodramatic, but it won awards and made a huge impact.
10:36 Important and influential though it may have been,
10:39 Roy Harper had paid dearly.
10:42 He's a tragic figure, doomed to relapse time and time again.
10:47 After the death of his daughter
10:48 and struggling with impotency issues,
10:51 the now one-armed hero gets high on heroin
10:54 and then beats up goons to protect a rotting cat corpse
10:57 he's mistaken for his daughter.
10:59 Fans didn't think DC could stoop lower than Cry for Justice,
11:03 but this sequel proved them wrong.
11:06 Number seven, Superman and Wonder Woman's catastrophic sex.
11:10 It's shocking just how drastically
11:12 an iconic character's personality, demeanor,
11:15 and values can change depending on the writer.
11:18 More shocking still is the fact that editors
11:20 would even publish content that shows heroes
11:22 like Wonder Woman and Superman
11:24 acting so ridiculously out of character.
11:27 But here you have it.
11:29 In The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller took some liberties
11:32 in depicting the Trinity, and it worked.
11:34 In his sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again,
11:37 he again takes liberties,
11:39 but with much worse and sillier results.
11:42 Superman and Wonder Woman get it on,
11:44 engaging in sex that takes them into the sky
11:47 before crashing back to Earth so hard
11:50 they trigger a volcanic eruption and cause tsunamis,
11:53 surely killing many people.
11:55 It's absurd and embarrassing.
11:58 Number six, the execution of Countdown to Final Crisis.
12:02 Final Crisis could be called one big rage-quit moment.
12:05 Though some people love it,
12:07 the overly convoluted storytelling of Grant Morrison
12:10 turned off a sizable portion of readers.
12:12 However, the worst of it had arguably already come and gone
12:16 with the 51-issue Countdown to Final Crisis.
12:19 Critically panned at the time of its release,
12:21 Countdown was lambasted by industry experts
12:24 and readers alike for both its ridiculous scope
12:27 and the arguably cheap use of the multiverse
12:30 as an opportunity to kill tons of characters.
12:33 Perhaps most damning, however,
12:35 was that its lack of clear editorial vision
12:38 made it so that Countdown didn't even do its job
12:41 of leading into Final Crisis.
12:43 Unsurprisingly, much of it has since been retconned.
12:47 Number five, Superman renounces his American citizenship.
12:50 This moment is a controversial one.
12:53 Even its inclusion on our list
12:55 is likely to stir up controversy in the comments,
12:58 given that there are many readers who love the moment.
13:01 So what's the big deal with this political statement?
13:04 Well, just that.
13:06 It's a strong political statement
13:08 from the world's most iconic hero,
13:10 a hero that has always been tied immediately with America.
13:13 Heck, his catchphrase has literally often been
13:16 truth, justice, and the American way.
13:19 So when a story in the Action Comics 900
13:21 saw Superman renounce his American citizenship,
13:24 some American readers were outraged
13:26 by what they felt was a personal attack on American identity.
13:30 Number four, all of Amazon's attack.
13:33 This is one of those storylines
13:35 that really makes you stop and ask yourself,
13:37 what were they thinking?
13:38 A 2007 limited series,
13:41 Amazon's attack promised to be an epic Wonder Woman event.
13:44 Unfortunately, it was neither epic
13:47 nor much of a Wonder Woman story.
13:49 From the first issue, it became almost immediately clear
13:53 that this plot made no sense
13:55 and could only hurt Wonder Woman's reputation,
13:57 along with that of her people.
13:59 It begins with the Amazons attacking Washington,
14:02 killing an unarmed father and son.
14:04 There's your first rage quit.
14:06 Soon, they're taking down fighter jets with arrows.
14:09 Violent, illogical, and lacking anything worthwhile to say,
14:14 Amazon's attack inspired vocal criticism.
14:17 Number three, the goddamn Batman.
14:20 Frank Miller's work on "The Dark Knight Strikes Again"
14:23 may have left much to be desired,
14:25 but it looks far more passable
14:27 when compared to his contributions to the Batman mythos
14:30 in "All-Star Batman and Robin," "The Boy Wonder."
14:33 We get that all-star comics are stories
14:36 that take place out of continuity,
14:38 but who in the hell did DC think
14:40 would want to read this take on Batman?
14:42 Like in "The Dark Knight Strikes Again,"
14:44 Miller fumbles with a sex scene
14:46 by having Black Canary and Batman have sex
14:49 as henchmen burned to death in the background.
14:52 But the real kicker is
14:54 when he basically kidnaps Dick Grayson,
14:56 calls him all manner of slurs,
14:59 and then introduce himself as the goddamn Batman.
15:03 Number two, "How Jordan Goes Crazy."
15:06 It's a tired trope
15:06 and one that feels like it's been done to death.
15:09 Rarely does it stick, however,
15:11 and never before had a hero been so savagely
15:13 taken down the path of villainy.
15:15 In the '90s, the powers that be at DC decided
15:18 that it was time to pass along the torch
15:20 to a new Green Lantern.
15:22 Rather than have How Jordan retire
15:24 or become a mentor figure, however,
15:26 they destroyed his home city and many people he loved,
15:30 had him dragged to the depths of despair,
15:32 and then made him go mad
15:34 and proceed to kill fellow Lanterns,
15:36 completing his transformation into the villainous Parallax.
15:39 Understandably, many fans were not pleased.
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15:58 - Number one, "Sue Dibney's Assault."
16:01 Sexual assault is a very difficult topic,
16:04 but that's not to say that it has no place
16:06 in the works of fiction.
16:07 There are numerous stories across various media
16:10 that have handled the incredibly difficult subject
16:12 with sensitivity.
16:13 DC's 2004 event, "Identity Crisis,"
16:16 was unfortunately not one of them.
16:18 When supporting character Sue Dibney,
16:20 the wife of Elongated Man,
16:22 was revealed to have been attacked by Dr. Light,
16:24 many felt that it was a cheap plot device,
16:27 another female character from comics victimized
16:30 to advance the story.
16:31 Worse, the Justice League covered it up.
16:34 The whole thing showed terrible judgment
16:35 on the part of the creative team,
16:37 and many readers refused to accept
16:39 that the heroes of the Justice League
16:41 would act in such a way.
16:42 What's a comic book moment from DC that made you rage quit?
16:46 Vent your frustrations out in the comments down below.
16:49 - Checkmate.
16:50 - Did you enjoy this video?
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