My issues with errum..issues:
-Overpricing on everything, even minis
-Death in comics. Now ok, we always had the "if there's no body, s/he's not dead" thing and the returns, but lately death being handled in comics is TERRIBLE. It's a cheap overused gimmick and it's being used as a plot device instead of a piece of an emotional arc and a heartfelt-gripping event. It's often gratuitous, disgusting, and needlessly crass; "okay, __ is a badguy, but did we need to see him murder ___child on panel?!" It's all becoming very shockvalue oriented and that's a terrible way to go about things. It's all about one upping the shock factor rather than nurturing the character development and story. It's now (at least in my opinion) handled like "hmm, ok, so we need to make a sappy emotional moment because this arc is getting terrible reviews...okay! What would disgust our readers? Prometheus killing a bunch of people and have a tragic shot of someone cradling a dead child's body! Genius!"
It's my belief that death in fiction can be handled beautifully and with some real depth, but that's not the only way to challenge a hero or to tug at heart strings. I'm not saying that bad guys should be little rascals, but at the same time
-The uncomfortable addition of rape in certain stories;
I remember around the time Spider-man and Black Cat: Evil That Men Do (by Kevin Smith) came out, but I never read it. Fast forward to this year and I'm reading about comic articles; this title comes up and has some rather odd revelations about Felicia. Pretty much the book says she was sexually assaulted and that's why she became tough. The article also touched upon how some tough female characters have their strength and determination come from a past assault. I just found Smith adding that to Felicia's background to be wholly unnecessary. Oh and.....Identity Crisis.
-Crossovers/Events constantly throughout the year;
I like when these things are spaced out over time. When you have something new every couple of months, you can't effectively build up something great. Plus it's annoying and claustrophobic. Sometimes, I just want a couple nice self contained stories instead of an exhaustive multi-title branching smorgasbord.
