We tend not to question the good things in life, and that includes good comics. We may be distinctly aware of how amazing the art is, or what lines of dialogue are funny, but we tend not to pore over the details. Is it necessary to figure out exactly why the plot makes sense and the conclusion works as long as they do? Oftentimes, not really. Good thing is good! 'Nuff said!
The truly awful comics, it's not hard to point to their immediate failings. A death was cheap, or a plot was contrived, or characterization was off, or the art is so unappealing that it cripples what potential the story had. Here too, we don't give these books much thought. Our gut reaction was justification enough to stay away in the future.
But what about the mediocre books? The bland, the uninspired, the merely competent, the boring, or worst of all, the somewhat disappointing. Why do we continue to read them in spite of their failings? Why do we carry vaguely fond memories of them, which are mildly shattered upon revisiting such works? Why do they suck yet don't suck hard enough to drive us to disgust?
I intend to use this blog to revisit comics that have had a few years at least to settle in, to view more clearly with hindsight why they never really worked and what they could have done differently. These are books I wanted to love but never could. They're the peach-flavored ice tea of comics.
Buckle up, because things are about to get spectacularly mediocre.
