10 Comics That Mocked The Reader

Having a comic make any reference to the person reading it (i.e: you) is likely to earn most fan's undying love. Combine this with a tasty spot of comedy, and you have a combo with the potential to turn casual readers into die hard fans.

...Or you could completely alienate them. That's probably a thing to bear in mind as well.

Even the most temperamental of comic fans can agree that the occasional well-intentioned ribbing is always funny, because after all, if there's one person who's allowed to call you a dork, it's definitely the person who wrote the comic you're reading. Vitally, it also helps spice things up amongst comics as a whole, as it ensures that edgy, grimdark stories aren't the only thing that the industry is known for - and that every superhero isn't just an angst-riddled bag of daddy issues and cool weaponry.

This meta-mocking isn't limited to comics like Deadpool or Ambush Bug, either, as even more 'well-respected' comics like Watchmen and Judge Dredd manage to slide in a sneaky couple goofs on us readers every now and then.

For the most part, Animal Man is not a series that mocks the reader at all, instead focusing on showing us the life and struggles of its protagonist Bernhard 'Buddy' Baker, and his rise to becoming a legitimate superhero. This is subverted in a single issue of the series - that of issue #26, Grant Morrison's last hurrah on the comic.

And because of this, Grant decides to appear in person, speaking to Buddy and discussing his retiring from the series in detail. While this is all well and meta, the conversation is peppered with Morrison's references to the reader, and how he needs to keep them entertained with inane moments of action and fight scenes.

For almost any other creator, it could seem in bad taste - but for a writer as accomplished as Morrison was (and continues to be), it's clear that this is a mixture of some affectionate ribbing to his audience, and a spot of self-deprecation at the way he constructs comics.