Caveat Emptor!

Doug: Last week in our discussion of creative runs we'd liked to have seen continue, the conversation turned to great runs suddenly interrupted, or even replaced, by comic production ranging from less-than-stellar all the way to gawdawful! Perhaps the "poster child" for this is the four-year period that followed the Shooter/Perez run on Avengers. Beginning with a mish-mash of creators and finally settling in with the artwork of Al Milgrom, this era is for many fans the most forgettable in that magazine's history -- that is, until one Brian Michael Bendis got hold of it and destroyed a lovely history.

Doug: Also of note is the second Vision and Scarlet Witch maxi-series, penned by Steve Englehart with artwork by Richard Howell and various inkers (though mostly Frank Springer). Although I was not in general fond of Englehart's storylines in this series, I'm telling you that he could have written the second coming of "Secret Empire" or the "Celestial Madonna" and I'd have found fault with the book on it's (lack of) art merits alone!

So what are other great runs that had an egg laid squarely in their wake? Our regular-commenter-friend Richard mentioned that a good extension of this topic could be killer covers with rubbish underneath -- got any suggestions there? As always, have some fun dusting off those memories!