How would Kryptonite Nevermore factor into Dork Age? According to that, "The story's goal was scaling Superman's off the charts Silver Age power levels way back to much more manageable levels, returning him to his Golden Age roots and turning him into a weaker but wiser and more human character. However, readers didn't take to this revision and Julius Schwartz was forced to backtrack."
Some examples in this page, like Brian Azzarello's Wonder Woman run might be controversial and divisive but they are rarely hatred with such vitriol that can be considered Dork Ages on their own right. In fact, just because they are controversial and divisive doesn't mean they can have devote fandoms and vocal haters in equal measure. I have trouble deciding which examples have legitimate criticisms or just feature salty opinions. Maybe this page could use a cleanup.
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I agree. My understanding of a "Dork Age" is an a comic book era which is fits these criteria:
- A financial flop.note
- Quickly reversed, and then largely ignored by continuity.
- Sometimes, in place of the other two, the story is treated as a case of Never Live It Down in-universe, as with the page quote and Onslaught.
The only genuine Dork Ages I can think of are the Energy Supermen era and Superman: Truth.
Regarding Peter David's Supergirl being "poorly selling", I haven't done a full analysis, but I checked the figures for 1999 (#s 30-41). While it definitely trends towards dropping down the chart as the year goes on, it only briefly leaves the top 100 in September (then bounces back), and consistently outsells some other DC books that I don't believe are considered failures, like Starman, Birds of Prey, and Superboy. And it's pretty well established by then, so falling sales can't be because people are alienated by the premise.