Line #6 AudienceAlienatingPremise/ComicBooks


1	{{Audience Alienating Premise}}s in comic books.
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3	* ''ComicBook/AmethystPrincessOfGemworld'':
4	** A MagicalGirl maxiseries created during the early '80s didn't stand a chance, so Creator/DCComics [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun killed the series by making the main character evil and blowing up her homeworld]]. If they had the foresight to allow the property to live until [[Anime/SailorMoon the '90s]], they could have had a hot product on their hands.
5	** Relaunched in 2012 as the lead feature of ''ComicBook/SwordOfSorcery'', written by Creator/ChristyMarx, the woman behind ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}''. The comic again failed to find an audience and was cancelled with Issue #8 in early 2013. While the relaunch had some potential going for it, it also ran into a number of the same roadblocks -- for a comic that was being promoted with kid-friendly shorts on Creator/CartoonNetwork's WesternAnimation/DCNation, it went for more of a "''Series/GameOfThrones'' with magical gem powers" vibe and featured an [[http://comicsalliance.com/so-theres-an-attempted-gang-rape-in-the-first-issue-of-amethys/ attempted gang rape]] in its first issue.
6	** ''Amethyst'' had a sort of crossover in the second series. Cue very surprised looks from readers wondering why a character from a "[[GirlShowGhetto comic for little girls]]" was in the pages of ''Dr. Fate''. (Turns out Amy is [[spoiler:a Lord of Order]]. Yes, you read that right.)
7	** The 2020 miniseries, after two prior failed runs, decided the approach to sell the character was... a complex and often boring political thriller. Cue low sales as readership asks if it's the fault of the writers, or editors who simply don't know how to market and present a MagicalGirlWarrior.
8	* ''ComicBook/AngelLove'' series folded after eight issues and a special. Its cute cartoonish artwork and style of writing clashed with the subjects it was dealing with: drug use, abortion, critical illnesses, and incest.
9	* ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'': Taking cult favorite teenage heroes (including members of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' and ''ComicBook/AvengersAcademy'') and putting them in a ''Literature/TheHungerGames''[=/=]''Literature/BattleRoyale'' scenario played completely straight, so as to prop up SmugSnake gimmick villain [[CreatorsPet Arcade]] as a legitimate threat (twenty years too late), by having a lot of teenagers die. The amount of vitriol it generated before and during its release is rather amazing. [[ComicBook/AvengersUndercover The sequel]], by the same writer, had the surviving kids infiltrating the Masters of Evil with the book's premise being that one of them will turn evil. It sold so poorly that it was cancelled after 10 issues (the story was planned for at least 12).
10	* Despite coming out in a period where Marvel was going from strength to strength, ''ComicBook/Champions1975'' was an infamously poor performer. Starting life as a pitch for a book starring Iceman and Angel in the aftermath of the newfound popularity of ''ComicBook/XMen'', ExecutiveMeddling demanded the addition of ComicBook/BlackWidow, ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules, and ComicBook/GhostRider to beef up the lineup. As it turned out, none of those characters have anything to do with each other, nor did they have enough star power or strong villains to support a team book. It didn't so much have an Audience-Alienating Premise as an Audience-Alienating ''Lack'' of Premise, as even at the time, readers noticed that the book seemed to have no purpose other than featuring characters Marvel wasn't using. What premises the book did try out came off as incredibly artificial--the team was supposed to be the heroes of Los Angeles, yet none of them were actually from there, they were supposed to be the heroes of the common man, but mostly just fought regular supervillains--and the characters struggled to build any kind of rapport. Even within the pages of the book, the characters were acknowledging that they had no reason to continue being together, and when their book was cancelled after only seventeen issues, their headquarters collapsed and they separated for good, with any future acknowledgement of the book's events being [[OldShame generally rueful]]. The name resurfaced for [[ComicBook/ChampionsMarvelComics later books in the 2010s]], but [[InNameOnly that was all that did.]]
11	* ''ComicBook/TheCrossing'' was hated right out of the gate for what it did to ComicBook/IronMan: retconning that Tony was made into a BrainwashedAndCrazy ManchurianAgent for Kang the Conqueror since the Avengers first fought him. That, along with showing Mantis undergoing a FaceHeelTurn and joining Kang as well, the Wasp being muated into a wasp-like creature, and finally Tony dying and a teenaged version of him from an alternate universe taking over as Iron Man. Naturally, fans didn't like what it didn't to beloved characters, especially given Iron Man and the Wasp were founding members of the Avengers. This status quo only lasted months before ''ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}'' and ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn'' undid most of it by bringing back the classic Tony Stark and normal Wasp, and it carried over to the Avengers' return to the normal universe ''ComicBook/HeroesReturn'' with ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'' and ''Avengers Annual 2001'' do further damage control.[[note]]The former by retconning that it was Immortus who did all this, that his brainwashing of Tony only went as far back as ''ComicBook/OperationGalacticStorm'' (with the further reveal that Tony's murderous reaction to the Supreme Intelligence's actions having been an attempt to get the Avengers to stay out of the Kree/Shi'ar conflict by trying to give Tony xenophobia that backfired horribly), that the events of ''The Crossing'' were themselves an attempt to stall the Avengers so they couldn't prepare for Onslaught, and that several players, including "Mantis" were Space Phantoms, thus returning the real Mantis to be a heroine; the latter by explaining the resurrection of the adult Tony and the undoing the Wasp's mutation as the result of Franklin Richard's RealityWarper powers[[/note]]
12	* The ComicBook/HasbroComicUniverse largely ended up as a StillbornFranchise for this reason. Though [[SharedUniverse some level of interconnectivity]] between various Hasbro properties had been going on since the mid-80s, it was one thing to simply acknowledge that ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Franchise/GIJoe'' existed in the same universe, and another entirely to have them actively teaming up on a regular basis. What was more, the staff quickly discovered that the list of popular Hasbro properties that could easily exist in their shared universe was a lot shorter than they imagined, and so things ended up clogged with second-tier properties like ''WesternAnimation/{{MASK}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Visionaries}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Micronauts\|MarvelComics}}'', and ''ComicBook/ROMSpaceKnight''. ''Transformers'' was the franchise from which all this sprouted, and therefore its fans saw all these other properties as attempts to piggyback off something more popular. ''G.I. Joe'' fans, the second largest faction, were against the Joes existing in the resulting FantasyKitchenSink and going on wacky adventures with giant robots, especially when a much more traditional run by Larry Hama was happening at the same time. Meanwhile, the smaller fanbases were irritated at the fact that the first new material featuring their characters in years was essentially a ''Transformers'' spinoff, not to mention this new material being a major ContinuityReboot from the original stories.
13	** Their ''[[ComicBook/RomIDW Rom]]'' series especially had this problem. The main reason Rom has fans is because of the Creator/MarvelComics ''ComicBook/RomSpaceKnight'' series. However, Marvel's contract stated Marvel got to keep the rights to anything they invented. As such, the vast majority of Rom's lore and concepts [[ScrewedByTheLawyers couldn't be used for the new series]], forcing the creator to make up new lore, which caused [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks many people to dismiss the series out of hand]].
14	* Keith Giffen and Creator/JeffLemire's 2019 ''Inferior Five'' mini. Named after the [[ComicBook/InferiorFive obscure superhero parody team]] from the Silver Age, and being a sequel to ''[[ComicBook/InvasionDCComics Invasion!]]'', a fairly unknown crisis event from ''1988''. Unsurprisingly, it failed to sell well and was shortened to 6 issues from its intended 12.
15	* Creator/RobertKirkman's ''[[ComicBook/AntMan The Irredeemable Ant-Man]]'': according to Kirkman, the idea was to have the protagonist start out as a cowardly jerk and evolve into a real hero over time. Unfortunately, the comic put extremely heavy emphasis on how much of a jerk the new ComicBook/AntMan was while failing to play up his HiddenHeartOfGold; Marvel's advertising didn't help, selling the comic with the tagline "The World's Most ''Unlikable'' Superhero". Non-fans of Ant-Man were driven away, while Ant-Man fans left out of disgust at the thought of such a douche taking over the title. Consequently, despite doing fairly well critically, it was a ''terrible'' sales performer and didn't make it long. Creator/EvangelineLilly read the series as research for the ''Film/AntMan1'' movie and publicly dismissed it as "crap".
16	* In the 2000s, there was a manga adaptation of ''ComicBook/JosieAndThePussycats'', but it didn't last very long. It was not popular among readers due to the Pussycats' backstory being completely retconned, and some of them preferred the traditional art style and didn't find the new one very appealing. Not to mention that some of the new characters introduced in the series (such as Alan's little sister Alison and the Pussycats' rival group The Vixens) didn't appear in any of the original comics. Needless to say, complaints from the fans caused the manga adaptation to be canceled and the story ended on a cliffhanger.
17	* This may have been part of the reason Creator/GailSimone's ''ComicBook/TheMovement'' didn't last very long despite good reviews. A comic series about a group of [[NominalHero morally dodgy protagonists]] becoming vigilantes, who are also completely new characters [[note]]The only member of the team to have appeared in previous DC comics was Katharsis, a secondary villain in Simone's Batgirl run [[/note]] and thus don't have previously built audience love to carry them. It was also very politicized which is a frequent turn-off for some comic readers. Simone herself has commented that, in hindsight, the book was a very difficult concept to sell and was lucky to get as far as it did.
18	* The first arc of the Creator/TerryMoore-led reboot of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' [[UncertainAudience didn't seem to know who to aim for]]. The extremely cartoonish art by Humberto Ramos suggested that it was aimed at younger teens, which repelled longtime fans, but the not-so-kid-friendly storyline -- involving Karolina being accused of complicity in the destruction of Majesdane, and ending with [[spoiler:Xavin impersonating her and handing themselves over to her accusers]] -- didn't really bring in many younger readers, and may have helped lead to the series' cancellation a year later.
19	* ''ComicBook/TheSagaOfWhiteWill'' is an [[UndergroundComics underground comic]] created by a Neo-Nazi, with some explicit white nationalist, pro-segregation and anti-Semitic messages. This trope is probably a large part of the reason [[ShortRunners it only had one issue]].
20	* The second volume of ''ComicBook/SecretAvengers'' ended up as something like this. The premise is that SHIELD forms its own team of Avengers, but to keep them from revealing their secrets, they undergo a mindwipe after their missions, which was off-putting due to the grey morality of such a tactic and apparent attempts to amp the feel of the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] with the book's promotional material. Still, the series found a small audience thanks to the fact it explored the moral implications of the concept, had a quirky sense of humor, used underused-though-well liked characters ComicBook/WarMachine, [[ComicBook/DaisyJohnson Quake]], ComicBook/{{Mockingbird}}, and ComicBook/{{Taskmaster}}, and had generally good writing. The series ended after 16 issues so the writer could move onto ''Avengers World''. The third volume dropped these characters, with the art and tone of the comic shifting to what seemed to be a lazy ripoff of Matt Fraction's ''ComicBook/Hawkeye2012''. Many fans dropped the book, and it was cancelled after 15 issues.
21	* ''Telos'' was a six-issue miniseries that spun out of the event ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}'', already a story that underperformed significantly, and promised to tell the story of the character of Telos, a moderately important character in the book who hadn't exactly developed a great following (being seen as a walking plot device with a convoluted backstory and a pretty ugly design). On top of that, rather than coming out in the immediate aftermath of the event, it came out six months later, by which point most people had forgotten about him--and what was more, it came out in a period where several popular or important characters, such as ComicBook/{{Shazam}}, lacked books of their own, causing many to accuse DC of SkewedPriorities. And the book also revealed that Telos was in fact Arak, Son of Thunder, an obscure DC character who hadn't been seen since the original Crisis in 1985, which pissed off the few remaining Arak fans and just confused the heck out of everyone else (since no Arak comics have ever been reprinted and there was no way to learn who the character was supposed to be). The book sold abysmally, debuting at #115 on sales charts and dropping all the way to #231 by its final issue, and it's the last time Telos would ever make a significant appearance.
22	* Once ''Comicbook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' was finished, Marvel decided to {{retool}} the title akin to ''ComicBook/XStatix''. Only without both the cast (took four issues to bring a character back, and it was a very secondary one) and the premise, replacing the "villainous team doing heroic things" with underground superhuman FightClubbing. Tellingly, it only lasted six issues and one year later the real Thunderbolts returned. [[https://imatlasarrestmeplease.tumblr.com/post/31479453955/fightbolts-aka-thunderbolts-76-81 As one fan]] [[Film/FightClub breaking the first two rules]] ([[FanonDiscontinuity "We don't talk about Fightbolts]]") summed up:
23	-->Everything about the book was a bait-and-switch. Thunderbolts fans hated it because it didn’t have Thunderbolts. Sexy lady fans hated it because [[LadyNotAppearingInThisGame it couldn’t follow through on the sexy lady promise of the cover.]] ''Film/FightClub'' fans probably never heard of it, but if they did they probably hated it because it had nothing to do with ''Fight Club''. Spider-Man [[WolverinePublicity was in a couple of issues]], but so what? He’s already in like five other comics where the story is actually about Spider-Man. In trying to make Fightbolts appeal to everyone, Marvel only succeeded in pleasing no one.
24	* ''ComicBook/{{Trouble\|MarvelComics}}'' got off on a tepid start due to being advertised as Marvel's stab at reviving the long-dormant romance comic genre, but quiet ambivalence rapidly turned into BileFascination with the first issue, revealing that 1) it's actually more of a raunchy teen sex comedy, and 2) [[FirstEpisodeTwist it's actually a stealth prequel]] to the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comics, following the early sexual antics of a teenage Aunt May, Uncle Ben, and Richard and Mary Parker. Audiences were unreceptive and bewildered as to why Marvel thought this was a story they wanted to see, especially as [[spoiler:it went on to introduce a {{retcon}} that "Aunt" May was actually Peter Parker's biological mother]], and the massive backlash towards the comic was a major contributing factor which led to the newly-revived Creator/EpicComics [[CreatorKiller folding once again]], and putting a kibosh on further attempts at romance comics.
25	* Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''ComicBook/UltimateIronMan'' was an attempt to reinvent the origins of ComicBook/IronMan for the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel line, but alienated audiences big time by just how extreme and bizarre of an approach it took: instead of Tony Stark being a rich genius who outwits his enemies, Card's run recharacterizes him as [[InNameOnly a mutant brain baby with regenerative powers who wears the suit for health purposes]], [[OutOfFocus and isn't even a central character until partway through the run]], instead focusing on his father and a war between two feuding corporations. This story [[ContinuitySnarl didn't even make sense as an origin for the Ultimates version of Tony Stark]] (previous stories ''never'' hinted at him being a literal humanoid brain with a HealingFactor), and [[CanonDiscontinuity it was eventually written out of Ultimate Marvel's canon]], which turned this story into that of [[ShowWithinAShow an in-universe anime series]] and its loose interpretation of Tony's origins.
26	* ''ComicBook/WackyRaceland'', the DarkerAndEdgier reimagining of Hanna-Barbera's ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces''. Take a classic light-hearted cartoon about racers with their distinctive motifs running through different rallies around America and turn it into a ''Film/MadMax''-inspired [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic setting]] where every type of calamity happened and littered with mutants and {{eldritch abomination}}s. Despite the title trying to ride on RuleOfCool, the concept was never going to be easy to sell and predictably the comic went under after just six issues.
27	* ''Yeah!'' by Peter Bagge and [[ComicBook/LoveAndRockets Gilbert Hernandez]] is a girls' comic about three girls in a rock band who are trying to make it big but can only get fans in outer space, and was [[GenreThrowback intended to resemble the girls' comics of the sixties.]] It is also to comic book fans what a disco album by Music/IronMaiden would be to a music fan: it doesn't contain any of the stuff that they like, and it belongs to a genre that's been [[CondemnedByHistory dead for decades.]] Despite some good writing and nice artwork, the comic was cancelled after only nine poorly-selling issues.
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Context AudienceAlienatingPremise / ComicBooks