Category Archives: What Were They Thinking

So, last week here on What Were They Thinking? (the place where we look at all the stupidest, most ill-advised things in comic book history) we took a look at Marvel's 2006 Event, Civil War. We looked at it as an example of a storyline that had all the ingrediants to be a classic but was heavily let down by the execution, to such an extent that it is still considered one of Marvel's most divisive comics ever. So what do we think happened when they decided to do a sequel?

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There are some storylines that are good despite having some really stupid things in, we covered that last week. And we've covered on numerous occassions storylines that are just bad here on What Were They Thinking, because we tend to look at the stupidest, most ill-advised things in comic book history. But what about storylines that could have actually been good, but the stupid things dragged it down too much? Well, let's take a look at the big one shall we...

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Usually, here on What Were They Thinking? we look at some really bad or misguided storylines, hence why I always say it's the place where we look at the stupidest and most ill-advised things in comic book history. But this week, we're going to look at a storyline that actually is a certified classic, or at least a hugely important storyline with many excellent qualities, that has one of the oddest story tangents when you consider why it is so famous. That story would be this:

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When it comes to great comic book characters, their creation is invariably a team effort. None of Stan Lee's Marvellous menagerie would be as popular as they are today without the contributions of Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko and there would be no Superman without both Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. But why exactly are we bringing the creation of classic characters up on What Were They Thinking?, the place where we look at all of the stupidest and most ill-advised things in comic book history. Well, there is one comic book character with a dark side to their creation and it is less ill-adivsed and stupid as it is confusing and downright deceitful in places. I am, of course, talking about na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na this guy:

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We've covered a lot of bad storylines here on What Were They Thinking?. That's only natural, seen as this is the place where we look at all of the stupidest and most ill-advised things in comics history. But we've never covered a storyline that has been refered to as "the comic that ruined comics". Now what storyline could have recieved such a negative accolade? Perhaps it was something from the 90's, like The Death Of Superman, which ironicly killed off the concept of death in comics. Or maybe it could be refering to One More Day, the Spider-Man storyline that more closely resembles excrement than Fearful Symmetry. Or maybe it is refering to something like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns or Crisis On Infinite Earths, which are absolute classic storylines but had a negative impact on the direction the industry would take as a result. Well, actually it's none of those. We are in fact taking a look at this:

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You know, it's surprising that Superman doesn't turn up more often here on What Were They Thinking (the place where we take a look at all of the stupidest, most ill-advised things in comic book history). Maybe it's just because he's been in publication the longest of any character in the medium, or maybe it is simply because the writers and editors who create the book a required to be madder than that Batman villain who likes hats when they apply for the job, but the guy has been involved in some of the strangest/ stupidest storylines ever put to paper. The Man of Steel has been involved in porn, he started the whole "kill off a character for a few weeks" craze and he was turned into a centaur, then a woman and then had a polygomous relationship all in the same comic. But we've talked about all of that before. This week I want to focus on this stuff here:

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Need I say anymore?

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You know, a few months back I did a What Were They Thinking? (the place where we take a look at all of the stupidest, most ill-advised things in all of comic book history) we covered the introduction of one of DC's earliest black superheroes, Black Lightning, and how he managed to dodge a bullet in his first few issues by not having a terribly racist origin story. At the time I thought DC had gone mad, especially considering that Black Lightning was to be only their second black superhero. But, turns out I was wrong on two counts. Firstly, Black Lightning wasn't DC's second black superhero and in fact, DC didn't go mad. They were always mad. They just managed to get away with it on the low down the first time and only got caught when they really tried to push the boat out.

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Back in the early 2000's, Marvel were looking to cash in on the anime boom that was going on in America at the time after the success of Japanese imports such as Dragonball, Sailor Moon and Pokemon. So, what they decided to do was to take some of their most beloved characters and give them the manga treatment, creating what was basically a manga-Ultimates line. Now, this is a great idea in theory. Take some of the most recognisable characters in western comics and apply eastern manga tropes, for example Iron Man became a giant mecha along the lines of a Gundam or an Eva, whilst Hulk became a kaiju. But, of course, this being Marvel, they can have the best idea in the world and still screw it up. There's plenty to talk about when it comes to the mangaverse here on What Were They Thinking? (the place where we look at all of the stupidest, most ill-advised things in comic book history). We could talk about the stereotypes, the fact that they took characters and tropes and mashed them together regardless of how well they fit or we could talk about just the general randomness of it all. But instead, let's take a look at one specific character in this whole thing. A character who came so out of left field that it's weird even for an alterniverse style story. I am of course talking about the mangaverse version of this guy:

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It's summer, even here on What Were They Thinking? (the place where we look at all of the stupidest, most ill-advised things in all of comics history), so I thought we'd take a break from all of the racism, drugs and rape that we usually cover to chill out for a bit and hang out with some superheroes down at the beach, or by the pool, or even on an alien holiday planet. Yup, we're going back to the 90's and taking a look at the Marvel Swimsuit Specials (because they made 5 of the damn things).

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