10 Comics You Loved As A Teen (But Should Never Return To)

5. Batman: Hush

Batman Hush
DC Comics

It's not exactly difficult to see why Batman fans LOVE Hush. Its story was written by Long Halloween and Dark Victory scribe Jeph Loeb, while superstar artist Jim Lee handled pencils. It looks phenomenal (even if I personally don't default to Lee's style), but when you look past the art, it becomes clear the story just can't match it.

Loeb will never not be a comics legend, but Hush typifies his biggest shortcomings as a writer. The actual mystery isn't all that well crafted - certainly not, when compared to classics like TLH and DV - and it almost feels like a compilation of moments designed to please Bat-fans rather than the mystery-thriller it's touted to be. Batman fights Superman, there's an obligatory 'will they, won't they' romance with Catwoman, and the comic's positively littered with supporting characters for no other reason than to lend a sense of scale to the proceedings.

Hush also has an abundance of Bat-villains at play, but they almost feel tacked-on. Of course they're integral to Hush's revenge, but their appearances feel just 'ok' at best and contrived at worst, which is a huge problem, given they overshadow the book's mystery at every turn.

And that's the main issue with the comic. It has all the trappings of an epic Batman story, but it's so overstuffed with heroes and villains that it forgets to seed a compelling plot. As a series of vignettes it's technically stunning, but as a story? It just doesn't come together.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.