The Top Ten Worst DC Comics of 2023

Well, it turns out that this year wasn't as bad as previous ones thankfully, at least from a comics perspective.

I don't know if it is because I have been reading less comics lately or because I have just been following the ones that I'm actually interested into (meaning less negativity which means I'm getting better) but I've found quite a few titles that I'm really digging lately and I'm really invested into.

However, that also means this makes this list a bit harder to do because nothing really stands out in terms of pure awfulness and that's a bit sad coming from me since I do like doing this as a sort of catharsis for the end of the year.

And so, you are going to see a lot of what you would simply consider "mediocre". Yes, they're not noteworthy particularly as bad books but at the same time, there's very little that you would consider "good" about them.

That is, of course, until we start reaching the top spots of the list because I have a lot to say about those.

This year has been all over the place and you will see that theme starting with:

10. Tom Taylor's Titans.

Yes, yes, Tom Taylor is here, what a surprise coming from me.

And really you might think this is not as bad of a title and in fact, compared to similar entries in previous lists is definitely not as bad.

However, there are still things to criticize about it because sadly this book is so bland that is hard to find something positive about it.

Taylor was not an odd choice for this book since his run on Nightwing was a huge success (success that I mostly attribute to Bruno Redondo's magnificent artwork and storytelling but I digress). Nonetheless, on a team book this is not reflected so well since Taylor barely has anything interesting to tell about the characters dynamic. In fact, there's nothing really new or compelling about the relationships between the cast and at times it seems like Taylor is skipping a lot of continuity (not a big surprise being Taylor) to go to the very basic of their personalities or simply going for what is more commonly known for the audience who don't even read comics (see the pandering to the Beast Boy and Raven shippers from the Teen Titans cartoons).

The story itself is nothing to write about since this is Tom Taylor, Prince of Decompression (because the King will always be Brian Bendis) we're talking about and so the plot moves at a snail pace with very few gripping directions or even antagonists (You just have to look at how little that "twist" of Wally West dying lasted due that it was quickly pushed aside in the second issue). You could say that the fact that Taylor decided to dedicate an event to Beast Boy in the recent Beast World comic is inventive enough but I have read the first issue and let's just say that I had more hope for a writer that at least seemed to have the skills to create a decent enough event comic (Seriously, Beast World is full of action scene after action scene without any room left to anything else).

Okay, this book might be by the numbers but we're just getting started here.

9. Jossie Campbell's The New Champion of Shazam.

Yep, just with a single issue this year this is still present here somehow but there's an understandable reason why.

Last year in this same list I mentioned how Jossie Campbell was a bit fixated on the idea of "Mary Marvel is The New Champion of Shazam and if you don't like it is because you are a misogynist!" without even being challenged about it, preemptively creating a whole problem as a theme of her book and barely telling a story beyond that.

And that actually was the subtle part of the book since the last issue just went far beyond anything conceivable.

Funnily enough, there was an actual positive thing in this poor excuse of a plot. The villain turned out to be Georgia Sivana, the often forgotten daughter of Doctor Sivana, which is the most appropriate direction that Campbell made for the title since she was a logical antagonist for Mary from an intellectual perspective.

Sadly, all the negatives drop like a rock from there.

Campbell became even more heavyhanded than anything we have seen so far. Presenting a lot of the villains as complete stereotypical online misogynists who simply can't accept the fact that there's a woman using the Shazam name is just cringey by itself but what makes it even cringiest is the stuff those caricatures say ("She-Zam" might be one of the laziest insults ever invented and since Campbell is the one who came up with it, is incredibly hilarious how she doesn't realize that doesn't speak well of her writing). Speaking of writing, the narration is still overwritten as hell, especially when Georgia starts explaining her whole plan to Mary with every little detail she can think of and there's absolutely no self-awareness about how clunky the exposition is. Finally, the conflict finishes just as quickly as it started and in a pretty unsatisfying way to boot which makes me feel like all of this was a waste of time and, considering the Shazam Mary series ends with this, it makes it even worse.

So, what do we get from this "era"? Apparently absolutely nothing since Mark Waid eventually took over the franchise with a greater range of success and Mary doesn't even play a relevant role there. This actually makes The New Champion of Shazam even worse in my book since this was the opportunity to give Mary a modern interpretation that could make her a more complex character and bring a brand new audience into the series, but of course that couldn't happen because Jossie Campbell was too busy trying to sell a message.

Well, the Shazam series was a big mess for this little period of time but that actually reminded me who started that mess:

8. Tim Sheridan's Alan Scott: The Green Lantern.

This might probably be one of the biggest hints that this year is not so bad overall. Tim Sheridan, Tim Frikking Sheridan, one of the worst writers in recent years didn't have one of the top spots this time.

Then again, Tim Sheridan is still Tim Sheridan so of course there was going to be something bad about anything he puts his name on.

Sure, this is not as godawful as his work on Teen Titans or Shazam but it still suffers from a lot of stuff that seems extremely amateurish for anyone who is actually hired to write comics.

Let's start from the basic problem from a crafting perspective, the pacing is atrocious in this book. The story jumps from different points in time and not in a natural way at all, not even in a creative way due that there's very little reason for the plot to keep changing scenarios and time periods aside from trying to be superficially more complex. Then again, pretending to be more complex than it actually is shouldn't be too much of a surprise coming from Sheridan, the guy who made the bright decision to create 3 different Red X to make the "mystery" of the character's identity more intriguing in Teen Titans Academy (and I don't believe that actually was ever solved now that I think about it, not that I'm losing any sleep about it).

However, I think the biggest flaw from this book is that it actually leaves the character of Alan Scott rather badly. For those who are not aware, Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, was retconned in recent years to have been a closeted Gay man for all these years and to be honest, I was kinda ambivalent about this change because I don't think it served any purpose aside from creating a connection to the modern reinvention Alan got in the now forgotten New 52 Earth 2 universe (which I actually liked and miss everyday) and making the bad fanfic writer James Tynion IV happy. 

However, I was willing to give it a chance since it kinda makes sense that a few characters that were created in the 1940s to be actually closeted Gay people considering the era and there was actually some potential for stories to explore. Of course that potential was thrown out of the window when Tim Sheridan enter the book because he had the wonderful idea of Alan having multiple male partners over the years and just decided to get married to women because "it was the right thing", okay, first of all, this wouldn't have been so bad if we were talking about any other character that wasn't Alan Scott, a man known for his great moral compass and responsibility, Alan Scott simply wouldn't lie to the women he married about who he really is, it would be one thing if Alan was just confused because of the time he was born and just later in life figured out who he was, but this? This stupid premise and direction portrays Alan in a terrible light and obviously makes me wish that another creator was handling it.

So yeah, Sheridan ruined it, but everyone knew that at the time of this book's announcement so at least is not a disappointment.

And speaking of things that are not really a disappointment...

7. Mark Waid's Lazarus Planet.

I like Mark Waid, most of the time at least.

As I've mentioned before, he has a great skill at creating comic stories that feel both classic and modern at the same time and I'm going to be discussing that in an upcoming list.

However, there are some weak points that he hasn't polished yet and this has been obvious since the beginning of his career.

Waid's crossover events have never been that great to put it mildly, in fact they have been extremely forgettable at best and the only ones worth remembering are the ones with other very talented creators helping him (Like in the acclaimed weekly series 52).

Lazarus Planet didn't start the best way either since it was based on the very derivative and off-point Batman Vs. Robin book that Waid created, a miniseries that regressed both Bruce and Damian Wayne to basically the beginning of their relationship were they barely trusted each other, practically ignoring all the development they got for their dynamic under Peter Tomasi and Joshua Williamson (and the more I think about it, the more I believe Batman Vs, Robin should have gotten a spot in this list last year).

And so Lazarus Planet build-up from some of the ideas Waid created for that title and suddenly starts turning a lot of people in Metahumans and awakening new powers from already superpowered people. So yeah, this is basically the same premise as the 90s crossover Bloodlines and just as forgettable as that one.

Basically nothing really interesting happens here, not in terms of world changing events or even character development due that is based on a simple gimmick, a gimmick that seems extremely editorially mandated and thus it almost seems forced in a way so with that in mind you could say that Waid is not completely at fault for this. However, what he actually handled like the erratic story pacing, bad character dynamics and underwhelming plot is still necessary to mention and thus, makes it responsible.

But hey, Lazarus Planet might be creatively bankrupt and forgettable but is not like we get that every frikking year right?

6. Chip Zdarsky/Tini Howard/Matthew Rosenberg's Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War.

Ah, dammit!

I'm pretty sure I'm talking for everyone when I say: I'm so damn tired of wars in Gotham City.

Robin War, The War of Jokes and Riddles, Joker War, Shadow War and now The Gotham War, and while I still think that Joker War is the most uninspired and desperate of all of them (Once again, thanks to James Tynion IV's lack of originality), The Gotham War might one of the biggest offenses in terms of Batman crossovers because at one point someone at editorial should have said enough is enough.

And really, I can't help but put the blame on Batman editorial for all of this since this idea doesn't seem like a logical direction for any of the writers involved here. I have enjoyed a lot of what Chip Zdarsky has written in Batman and while I'm not that familiar with Tini Howard's work, I know that neither of them would write something as derivative as a new conflict between Batman and Catwoman. For God's sake, as much as I criticized Tom King's Batman run, at least he knew it was time to go beyond that.

Another reason why I think nobody really wanted to work on this is because there's barely any effort in the plot. All of the characters just go through the motions and is all for nothing because we all know that this will only end with Bruce and Selina making peace and so this is all a waste of time and talent.

Oh, but I think there was someone putting what you somehow could call "effort", a writer called Matthew Rosenberg who probably made one of the worst portrayals of Jason Todd/Red Hood which almost destroys the character, regressing him to his early days by making him both obsessed and terrified of the Joker and writing something so badly does take some work. You can call Scott Lobdell whatever you want but you have to admit that at least he did everything in his power to turn Jason into his own person and move forward, Rosenberg simply decided to go backwards for God knows what reason (and you can bet that I'm planning to write more about Rosenberg later).

Derivative, dull and ultimately worthless makes The Gotham War easily one of the most unmemorable Batman events in recent years and sadly "unmemorable" is a word that is plaguing the Batman books later as seen in:

5. Ed Brisson's Batman Incorporated.

Ghost-Maker and The Clownhunter were chosen to be the protagonists of this.

That premise alone should have tell you this was going to be a disaster.

And I honestly think this is also part of Batman editorial because unfortunately James Tynion IV's run sold rather well due that he used every predictable trick in the book to catch the unreliable attention of the audience and so that resulted in the creation of Clownhunter (Robin rip-off #100) and Ghost-Maker (Batman rip-off #150) which I guess made editorial believe they were "popular" so they picked them for this new incarnation of Batman Incorporated (and you can't tell me that this was not their intention since for some godforsaken reason they are still planning to make Punchline a thing despite of being Harley Quinn rip-off #whatever). 

This obviously ultimately puts the characters who make Batman Inc. Batman Inc. on the frikking sidelines which if you know me you should know that is one of my most hated directions that a book can take, the classic cast shouldn't ever, EVER become the supporting cast in what used to be their book, they're are the whole reason why we are here in the first place! (It doesn't help that all of the Tynion's creations are as bland as a cardboard of course).

That being said, that is not the main reason why this book is here, the main reason why this is here is because this book ultimately accomplished nothing.

The story just quickly went nowhere because it devolved around Ghost-Maker's terrible leadership and you know what? That was apparently the point all along! Ed Brisson seemingly wanted to demonstrate that Ghost-Maker was poorly fitted for the team and so he eventually dissolved his version of Batman Incorporated. If that was the real reason then I guess I need to give some credit to the writer due that he went against what editorial forced on him and I believe that Brisson is still a solid author due that the scenes in which he wrote the other characters were decent enough. However, this doesn't change the fact that the title was a big waste of time and the only positive thing we got here is that both Ghost-Maker and Clownhunter apparently vanished from DC Comics (and hopefully Punchline follows suit despite that some mad people at editorial don't want to let her go).

So yeah, this didn't have much potential since the beginning but it wasn't the only book about lesser-known characters that failed to turn them popular.

4. Matthew Rosenberg's WildC.A.T.s.

This is a big letdown, if anything because of principle.

Let's just say that most of the Wildstorm creations didn't have the best of lucks since the line ended in 2010. There have been multiple attempts at revivals over the years including during the New 52 and more notoriously in 2017 in The Wild Storm series written by Warren Ellis, who was responsible for what the original line was eventually known for.

Sadly, Warren Ellis was eventually accused of sexual misconduct and of course many of his projects were dropped by basically everyone in existence and so, The Wild Storm universe never continued, leaving the line once again without direction.

But then came Matthew Rosenberg wanting to tell a story about the flagship team book from the line created by Jim Lee, making fans excited that this could be an actual worthwhile rebirth considering such book didn't have a relaunch for many years.

How did it go? Well, you should get a clue considering the article I'm writing but I will explain even further than that by saying that I wasn't really familiar with Matthew Rosenberg's work before this year and I miss those days now.

Seriously, if there's something pretty common I have found in Rosenberg's title is the lack of a goddamn point. For example, you would think that this revival of Wild.C.A.T.s would at the very least try to explore the characters and concepts that made the Wildstorm universe popular in the first place but nope! Rosenberg instead creates a story that is all over the place, forcing elements from the main DCU like the Court of Owls and basically turning them into the main focus of the book and almost forgetting the true intention of it (I mean, when a frikking new Outsiders title implements and understands the themes of Wildstorm better then we have a big problem).

Another common problem in this writer's books is that the pacing is so erratic that makes me believe Rosenberg is not really made to write comics. There's barely any room to breathe among the constant and forgettable action scenes that ultimately lead to nothing since the plot is almost non-existent and ends in an extremely anticlimactic way.

And my God, of course that leads to...

3. Matthew Rosenberg's Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing.

Yes, this is the comic that gave us that precious image of pregnant Joker.

But bizarrely enough, that is far from the worst thing this comic does and yet still represents everything wrong with it at the same time.

What do I mean by that? Well, our newcomer Matthew Rosenberg has this believe that he's some sort of creative mind that can create really engaging ideas and stories that are very appropriate for the characters he's writing about and what better way to demonstrate that than putting the Clown Prince of Crime in many different crazy situations in which his madness is explored in inventive manners?

Except that obviously doesn't happen because this comic is the worst kind of pretentious you can get. The Joker simply jumps from awkward scenario to awkward scenario without any sense of direction or even motivation whatsoever, apparently Rosenberg just thought that this being the Joker he could go for every absurd event he could think of despite of how little sense it makes. It just weird for the sake of being weird, trying very hard to seem unique and ultimately turning rather embarrassing.

Another thing that makes this incredibly pompous is that fact that, once again, Rosenberg doesn't seem to have a point here. The story is worthless, there's absolutely no reason for the Joker to be doing all of this, his actions don't change anything at all and this is perfectly shown at the final issue since everything comes at an abrupt ending while the writer tries to say garbage that reads a lot like: "If you didn't like this is because you didn't understand it" which is something that only a talent-less douche would write.

Oh, but let's not forget the many other problems like the fact that Rosenberg still thinks he can write Jason Todd despite of almost ruining him in Gotham War and still doing a terrible job at it. The pacing is even more chaotic than in Wild.C.A.T.s making an already mess of a plot even worse. However, I think one of the most insulting aspects here is that the Joker is not even funny, I mean, Rosenberg tries to be funny but just like all his other attempts at everything else, he totally fails at it turning this into a very cringey read.

So yeah, it seems like Matthew Rosenberg is the Tim Sheridan of this year, just an awful writer who somehow got to write many books. Mind you, I don't think Rosenberg is as bad as Sheridan at his worst but the fact that he gets compared to him is far from a good look.

Now that I think about it, the only reason why this Rosenberg is not higher in the list is because ultimately I couldn't care less about the overused Joker so if someone writes a bad story about him then I say with relief: "So what?"

No, the problem is when this happens to characters I care about.

2. Leah Williams' Power Girl.

You have no idea how sad this makes me.

I have been claiming for a new Power Girl series for ages now. I have been a fan of the character basically since the Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner work that pretty much defined her modern personality (Yes, she had appearances before but to be honest I never found any of those portrayals as likable as in that version) and I have been supporting all of her appearances since then so you might believe that I was ready to jump straight into this.

And what do I think about this? Well, let's just say that this is the worst portrayal of Power Girl that I have seen since Paul Levitz handled her in the New 52 reboot in Worlds' Finest (which was at the top of this same list just when I started writing about comics).

Leah Williams started a brand new direction for the character in the backup stories of Action Comics but whatever she wanted to make apparently didn't have anything to do with what people liked about Power Girl

Williams clearly wanted to redefine who the character was for a modern audience so we no longer see the friendship she built over the years with Atlee/Terra or even Harley Quinn (the latter is kinda surprising considering her appearance would boost sales) and instead forced the character of Omen/Lilith as PG's new best friend while also including the new powers the heroine developed in Lazarus Planet (already not a good sign).

And you know what? This wouldn't have been so bad if only I would still recognize the character of Power Girl as Power Girl. Let's start with the name itself, the protagonist is no longer Karen Starr because apparently Williams pays too much attention to what other people would think and since "Karen" now has a negative connotation she decided to gave her the new name of "Paige" because it sounds like "PeeGee" as Jon Kent proposed (and oh God, I'm going to talk about him in a bit) and this is this is pretty stupid in and of itself because if you know something about Power Girl is that she wouldn't give a damn about what other people think about her name and actually would wear it as a badge of honor. 

That leads me to my second point, the character is simply not the same. PG was an extremely endearing superheroine who could be pretty tough when needed and very competent but didn't take herself seriously at the same time. The character Williams writes about is just an insecure girl who somehow regressed a lot in her development, is almost like she just arrived to Earth basically ignoring all the years she spent there (and of course you better forget she ever had a company because the writer did as well) and needs the constant help of her new BFF Omen to do the stuff the most basic of human beings should do (and I could say that Lilith is out of character as well because she shouldn't be as social).

Finally and most importantly, that summary might make you realize something, Leah Williams is not writing about Power Girl, she's writing about Supergirl. Except this is somehow an even more immature version of Supergirl and this is especially obvious because Williams had the bright idea to put them together and making PG show a weird jealousy towards her because she's the "true" Supergirl, making the regression even more blatant.

So, what can DC do next? I guess they can completely forget that this ever happened and simply call this character "Paige" and eventually ignore it (since they have done that quite a few times over the years anyway) because that's the only solution I can see. This is basically the "Ric Grayson" era for Power Girl except that at least you can guarantee that Dick Grayson/Nightwing will always have a new book being released to correct previous mistakes, Peegee doesn't have such luck.

Well, that was depressing but funnily enough is not the most deplorable book this year.

I'm going to be perfectly honest here, right from the beginning of this year I knew this book was going to be here just because of a single issue.

Is about a character I really love, from a writer that continues to disappoint and yet believes he can still do a good job at handling him somehow while DC still allows him to.

Except that this time such writer surprises me because of how badly he can get.

Say hello to the usual suspect:

1. Tom Taylor's Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent.

Tom Taylor being both at the bottom and at the top among the worst, is almost poetic.

I think I've expressed my love for the character of Jon Kent over the years and constantly lamented his treatment since Brian Bendis enter the scene and basically regressed and ruined his development by ironically aging him up.

Things didn't go well even after Bendis left since other writers were forced to follow the direction that Bendis created but my God, why did it have to be Tom Taylor the one who did the most of it?

As you might remember, last year Taylor's Superman: Son of Kal-El also appeared in this list because of its terrible treatment of Jon due that Taylor had the belief that to write a character like Jon he needed to make him as dull as possible. I don't know if this was to make the basic political speeches that Taylor was injecting into the series go easier or  maybe because the revelation of Jon's Bisexuality meant that we couldn't have him even remotely unlikable (or portrayed as a human being) but at the end, bland as a cardboard is what we got and a story as interesting as that to make things even better.

So, who in the right mind thought it was the right move to give another chance to the man who did that?

Probably the same who thought it was okay for Bendis to keep writing Jon after he ruined him during his first Superman miniseries all right but still why did even Taylor agreed to do this?

And I actually know the answer for that and is as Tom Taylor as it gets.

You see, just like many, many of the other books that Taylor has written since his arrival at DC Comics, this is not really a story about the supposed protagonist. Oh no, this is a story pretty much about every pet character that Taylor has.

This should have been obvious right from the first issues due to the arrival of characters from Taylor's infamous New 52 Earth 2 run and what? You thought that would mean that we would see the New 52 versions of Alan Scott, Jay Garrick or Kendra Saunders? Characters who Taylor couldn't even bother to write about the first time? Hah! Please, this of course means that we would see the return of Taylor's odd-fitting creations like Red Tornado Lois Lane and (to make things more insufferable to me), Captain Cardboard himself, Val-Zod (but hey, if there's something positive here is that with his arrival Jon wouldn't be the blandest character).

However, there was still some hope here. It seemed like Taylor was going to explore important aspects that Bendis simply ignored like the traumatic years Jon spent alongside Ultraman and obviously the key word is "seemed" because that promise ended as abruptly as it started with Jon not really solving anything and *sigh* the Superman from the Injustice universe appearing, quickly killing Ultraman and the story suddenly and entirely centering around him, basically betraying what could have made people interested in this book in the first place.

As you can figure out by now, this is nothing but a Trojan Horse for the Injustice characters to appear once again. Taylor is very familiar with them, after all, such universe was what gave him some sort of popularity but really, was this the right place to do that? If people wanted to read a goddamn Injustice comic they would read a goddamn Injustice comic! They were already enough of them and is not like DC was going to stop releasing them.

And the latter is especially true because this poor excuse of a plot is nothing but a set-up for a new Injustice comic that is going to happen in the future (or is currently happening, I don't know because I couldn't care less about it). Jon was just included into this story because I guess Taylor thought it could be interesting to see him interacting with his corrupted Superman but ultimately is just an underwhelming product due that Jon is still as bland as ever and Taylor has the Brian Bendis belief that hugs solve everything and automatically make a story more charming (Seriously, stop overusing that, save it for just a few moments).

Are you asking about what happened to Jon too? Well, at the end he is, repeat once again, forced into Taylor's Beast World event because he just needs to connect all of his bad stories together and can't let characters alone.

If there's another thing that this series made me realize is that Taylor can be very, VERY bad at writing dialogue. Sure, we all know that he forces internet language and memes along with shallow political commentary into his narration up to cringe levels but good God, that "I remove her wings making Hawkgirl, just... girl, I guess" will forever haunt me as one of the worst lines that I've read and that doesn't have anything to do with his usual faults, he's just inventing new ones now.

Surely you can understand by now why this is my least favorite comic this year right? Is the one that made me the angriest. Once again, I fell for Taylor's promises and he even abused his own classic flaws to the point that this almost feels like a parody of Taylor's works.

But worst of all, this showed me that Taylor is not getting better, he's not even being consistent, he's just getting worse.

If at one point I thought he had potential, that he could be a very good writer if he only actually tried, this demonstrated me that there's no hope on him. He's going to keep going for the laziest way possible and do whatever he can to get away with it.

And isn't that one of the worst things you can hear in a year?

Well folks, that was my Top Ten Worst DC Comics of 2023 list and you better expect the Top Ten Best DC Comics of 2023 list very soon and trust me, there's a lot of love there to compensate.

See you then.